Who am I? socialmediapearls.com

The session will address the following

questions:

1.  What is a blog?

2.  What is the business value of blogging?

3.  How to blog.

4.  What should you blog about?

5.  How to drive employee engagement in the

blogging effort.

1

What is a blog?

A blog is an

Brand History

1800-60s

1860-20s

1920-80s

1980-90s

2000

Today

Something we buy

Something we trust

Something we want

Something we prefer

Something we love

Something we participate

Trademark

Brandmark

Mass Market

Post Mass Market

Lovebrand

Wikibrand

Brand ownership

Brand Quality

Brand Association

Brand Superiority

Brand Inspiration

Brand Interaction

Wikibrands, Sean Moffit

“I just don’t like the way they carry themselves”

1994

Logging on the web [Justin Hall]

The term “weblog’ created

1997

Weblog shortened to blog

1998

First weblog [news site]

Blogger rolls out blogging platform

2001

Wordpress blogging platform created

Political blogs

emerge

How To Blogs

emerge

2003

Google introduces Adsense [matching ads to blog

content]

2004

“Blog’ becomes the word of the year

First Vlog [Video

blogging]

First Podcast [Audio

blogging]

2005

The Huffington Post is

launched

32 million North

Americans are reading

blogs

YouTube created

2006

The Huffington

post becomes the 4th most linked blog

50 million blogs on the web

Twitter is created and

introduces mircrb-logging

2007

Tumblr is launched

and augments micro-

blogging

2013

160+ million blogs

3+ million blog posts per day

Blogging Timeline

weblog ~ free platforms ~ ecommerce ~ diversification ~ social sharing

BLOGS

Softer sale

Insight focus

Personality driven

RSS distribution

Conversation

Editorial

WEBSITES

Hard sale

Sales oriented

Company driven

Requires visits

No conversation

Static

10

Sites with blogs generate

more leads, more visitors

Purpose

2

What is the value?

•  81% consumers trust advice and information from blogs.

•  70% of consumers learn about a company through articles

Interesting content is one of the top 3 reasons people follow brands on social media.

Feel more positive about a company ~ a blog makes

B2B & B2C companies who blog, generate 67-88% more leads than those who do not.

61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.

57% of companies with a blog have acquired

a customer from their blog.

17

Observer Customer/supporter

endorser

Evangelist

Build Relationships that Moves People Externally

18

Doing time supporter

endorser

Evangelist

Build Relationships that Moves People Internally

3

How do you blog?

From Debunking Corporate Blogging. How Corporations

Should Blog A-Z

WilliamPearl on

Slideshare.net

The importance storytelling

juststoryit: Karen Dietz Built strong brand online presence via curation on Scoopit. Top influencer storytelling for business

4

What should you blog about?

Blogging Topics: A to Z

§  Annual objectives

§  Bars [Genius, People, Enablers}

§  Birthdays

§  Conference reviews

§  Did you know

§  Expertise showcase

§  Fundraising cause

§  Global cultural experiences

§  Holidays

§  Ideas, In the news

§  Jobs

§  Knowledge share

§  Learnings

§  Mentorship

§  New launches

§  Open Mic

§  Projects

§  Questions

§  Recognition

§  Social, Suggestions

§  Thought-leadership

§  Utilities- new productivity apps

§  Videos

§  Wins, Watercooler

§  Xfunctional achievements

§  Yesteryear

§  Zen and balance

5

How to drive employee engagement?

The importance of questions

thesaleslion: Marcus Sheridan Turned business around in 2009 blogging Top influencer blogging, content marketing, content creation, speaker

Engagement

your audience is responsive and showing a lot of participation to your content

How can we make it

engaging?

Online Engagement Indicators include:

•  The number of comments

•  The number of shares

•  Increased subscriptions

•  Increased "favorites

•  Increased links

•  Endorsements and mentions

•  The number of views

Tips for Engagement

1.  Have Engaging Values

2.  Have Quality Content

3.  Consider a Call to Action

4.  Ask Questions

5.  Be Human

6.  Be Responsive

7.  Be Courteous

8.  Don’t forget to Monitor.

9.  Use Pictures

10.  Be Succinct

11.  Have Fun

12.  Have great headlines

13.  Success Stories

14.  How To Tips

15.  Polls

16.  Gaming

17.  Giveaways

18.  Consider Ambassadors

19.  Integrate activity

20.  “Controversial items”

Blog Examples

Topic Focus

-  Life at the organization -  Career tips

-  University relations

A portfolio of blogs

•  Many departments involved

•  Global

Build An

Our World

Questions?

Thank you shirley@socialmediapearls.com

Image credits: Flickr Mike McKay

Jes Vic

Cambodia4kids Tim Parkinson

Darren Tunnicliff