Desk.com Blog Guest Author Program Hana Mandapat Senior Marketing Manager, Desk.com deskcontent@salesforce.com

Contents 1. Program Overview

Program Description Program Participant Criteria Benefits of Participation Submission Process

2. How to Get Started Blog Guidelines SEO Tips FY15 Topic Suggestions

Program Overview

With 30K page views/month, the Desk.com blog is a platform for engaging dialogue around the future of customer service and business trends for fast-growing companies

Top thought leaders are invited to contribute to the blog to spark social conversations and share their vision of how small and mid-sized businesses can drive successful customer service teams

Thought Leadership Platform for Customer Service and SMB Success

Guest Author Criteria Were looking for contributors with an eye towards the future and who can drive an impactful discussion around the future of customer service and helping fast-growing companies succeed. We recommend participants blog at least monthly to develop a following.

Regular Media Contributors Entrepreneurs

Customer Service Experts C-Level Executives

Small Business Authorities

Whats In It For You?

Humanize your brand through thought leadership positions with a personal touch

Link backs to your website, blog or content Entry point to new marketing opportunities with Desk.com (i.e. PR, webinars, newsletter, events)

Social promotion by the Desk and/or Salesforce channels

Blogging can lead to more search results and higher search rankings

By the Numbers: Companies that blog have

55% more website visitors B2B companies that blog

generate 67% more leads

Tips for Writing Engaging, Actionable Blog Posts

Who is your target audience? Customer?

Prospect? C-Level exec?

Before putting pen to paper, ask yourself these questions

Why is this topic important and why should

readers care?

What actionable tips will you offer? What is the call

to action? How do you draw

on your experience to form a unique

perspective?

Ready to Start Blogging?

Email deskcontent@salesforce.com with blog topic suggestions Topic suggestions should be no more than 100 words Include proposed author and 2-3 sentence bio If applicable, include samples of the authors previous published writing If your post is chosen the blog team will work directly with you on feedback and iterations before publishing to the blog; All blog posts are chosen at the discretion of the blog editor

mailto:deskcontent@salesforce.com

Blog Guidelines

Dos and Dont of Guest Blogging

Be honest and transparent All blog posts must be factually

accurate and all stats/numbers should be cited and supported by 3rd party sources

Include a catchy title make sure its clear and enticing enough to click on

Tie your content into key trends and topics to make it relevant and timely

Conclude the post with a call to action

Be afraid to show your personality! Use first person when writing or draw examples from personal stories

Pitch yourself, a product, anything! The blog is all about thought leadership

Lift content from another article or post stay original

Forget to spell check before submitting

DO DONT

General Guidelines

Keep your post between 300-600 words We ask that all content submitted is original and not syndicated in

multiple article directories as this is against Google Webmaster Guidelines

Title should be 10-12 words and every word should be capitalized

Keep your paragraphs to 4-5 sentences The more your break out your content into paragraphs or bullets,

the easier it is to read

Always include a picture with your post that will capture the audiences attention logos and screenshots dont count! All images should be 300x200 pixels and 3rd party images should

be credited in the caption

SEO and Linking Guidelines Keyword selection: Align your blog content with 1-2 keywords and sprinkle these keywords into your blog post, making sure they appear in the first 3 sentences of your 1st paragraph. Keep the keyword density (percentage of total word count) to 5-8%

Keywords in titles: Think of what readers might enter into a search engine to find your content and include those keyword in the title of your blog post

Link love: Consider linking to outside resources that are helpful to your and not just a promotional tool for your brand. Promote the post on your social channels using your keywords

Key Topics and Themes for FY15 Customer service and helping SMBs succeed will always be our main theme for the Desk.com blog, but tying your posts to the below topics will help keep content fresh and relevant with the latest trends.

MOBILE

WEARABLES

Desk.com BlogGuest Author ProgramContentsProgram OverviewThought Leadership Platform for Customer Service and SMB SuccessGuest Author CriteriaWhats In It For You?Tips for Writing Engaging, Actionable Blog PostsReady to Start Blogging?Blog GuidelinesDos and Dont of Guest BloggingGeneral GuidelinesSEO and Linking GuidelinesKey Topics and Themes for FY15Slide Number 14