Widgets, RSS, Wikis, and Blogging: What are they and why your company should care?

Charlene LiAltimeter GroupJune 16, 2009

If you would like a copy of the slides, please leave a business card with me.

Agenda• Case studies, followed by hands-on lab

▫ Wikis▫ Blogging▫ RSS▫ Widgets

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Discovery uses wikis to engage fans

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T-mobile provides customer support

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CA.gov shares best practices

Some wiki ideas• FAQ• Troubleshooting• Examples• Best practices• Cheat sheets• Lists

Wiki best practices• Focus on a clear, specific goal• Start with a structure• Plant the seeds• Garden your wiki – water the good stuff, pull out

the weeds• Promote in other channels• Require sign-in

Hands on wiki• Edit the WITI Wiki on Wetpaint• Go to witiwiki.wetpaint.com• Add your name to the list of attendees(Not great with Google Chrome)

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Blogging examples• Great list of examples from Peter Kim

▫ http://bit.ly/OGCT3• Patagonia, The Cleanest Line

▫ http://www.thecleanestline.com/• Graco, Heart to Heart blog

▫ http://blog.gracobaby.com/• HomeGoods, Open House

▫ http://openhouse.homegoods.com/• Best Buy, Barry Judge’s Blog (CMO)

▫ http://openhouse.homegoods.com/

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Blogging best practices• Determine a clear goal for a specific audience• Figure out who is best able to talk• Make a list of 20 blog post titles

▫ Describe what is a priority, what is off-limits• Create a schedule for posting• Have a plan for comments• Keep the design simple

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Hands-on• Go to typepad.com• Sign in

▫ Username: witi@charleneli.com▫ Password: witi2009

• Add a blog post▫ Detailed instructions on in the first post

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What is RSS?• http://commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english• An easy way to move data between sites/services

▫ Pushes content to a reader or another site▫ E.g. Yahoo News

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RSS best practices• Make sure the feed you create is user-friendly• Use Feedburner

▫ Make a “movable” feed and to get aggregated▫ Get statistics▫ Publicize easily (email subscribers, widgets)▫ If you ever move your blog, you don’t want to lose

your RSS subscribers• Add the new Feedburner feed to your Typepad

blog (how to at http://bit.ly/Bs1Co)• Publicize it with chicklets and widgets

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Widgets• RSS-based graphical “pods” that you can easily

insert into your blog or Website▫ Easily updates content▫ Maintains design integrity

• Go to Typepad>Weblog>Design>Content>Widgets▫ Add RSS feed from another blog ▫ Add Twitter feed

• Go to www.sixapart.com/typepad/widgets/ for even more widgets

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Thank You

Charlene LiAltimeter Group

charlene@altimetergroup.comblog.altimetergroup.com

Twitter: @charleneli

If you would like a copy of the slides, please leave a business card with me.

Copyright © 2009 Altimeter Group29