Posts tagged blogging best practices
How a Blog Went From Zero to AdAge 100 in Nine Months
Jan 25th
The success of {grow} has been stranger than science fiction and a wonderful surprise. In less than nine months, it’s rocketed up the charts from being unranked to as high as 65 on the Ad Age list of global marketing blogs.
My friend Adam Vincenzini recently asked me to describe the keys to this success. I’m not sure I can — which I understand is a wholly unacceptable answer! But I can certainly describe what I have LEARNED.
First you should understand that the Ad Age list is not necessarily a reflection on the quality or even the popularity of a blog, including mine.
Blog alchemy
The list is comprised of five individual scores which together create a somewhat controversial alchemy of algorithms. Only one of these five scores is tangentially associated with reader engagement as expressed by number of tweets, comments, etc. If rated only on engagement, my blog would be in the top 25 of all marketing blogs … thanks to YOU!
The Power 150 ranking is also highly dependent on historical back links, directory submissions and other SEO blogging devices. That puts a new blogger at a permanent disadvantage. Older blogs will probably always be at the top of the list no matter how hard anybody works on their blog in the future.
A very real example of this — there is one blog in the Top 100 that has not been updated for two years! Based on this strange scoring system, I would guess top guns like Chris Brogan or Copyblogger could never write a post again and still not drop out of the Top 10! I think it would be more fair to have some sort of running average based on the last 12 months.
But however flawed the system may be, it is the most noteworthy and prestigious system around. And I also think it passes the “sniff” test — if you look at the blogs at the top, I think most professionals would concur that yes, they reflect some of the best blogs out there. So, I’m honored to be part of it.
A different path for {grow}
I have not followed a typical path to success that you might read about on Problogger or TopRank because I simply don’t have the time and energy to pay attention to keywords, backlinks, and self-promotion. I have literally spent ZERO time worrying about SEO. For better or worse, I just write.
This attention to content and personal respect for my readers may be the thing that has helped power the blog. In fact, I have evidence to suggest that traffic from search engines only results in “tourists,” not really anybody who becomes a contributor to the community. I find that authentically engaging on Facebook, Twitter, and the comment section is a much more effective way to build a real audience instead of just blog traffic. There is no SEO short-cut to success. You have to create value one reader at a time.
I can offer four core values I try to demonstrate with every post:
1) Content that is “RITE” — Relevant, Interesting, Timely and Entertaining. I try to write a blog post that only I could write. In the end that’s the only competitive advantage each of us has.
2) I honor my audience. Anybody who spends their time reading and commenting on my blog deserves my care and attention. I try to reply to each comment and if I can’t answer something succinctly, I invite the commenter to call me. I have provided employment, recommendations, guest posts, personal advice and much more to my readers because they have become my friends.
3) Humility. On most blogs the comments are far better than the original post because the world is filled with people smarter than me — people who are amazing in their own way. I love that. I respect that. I thrive on that diversity. So many bloggers write with this air of self-righteousness or a trumped-up voice of indignation. Who am I? A conversation starter, nothing more.
4) Consistency. I don’t consider blogging an after-thought. It’s difficult to be consistent but it has to be a priority. I have a family, a career and charitable projects. To make a blog achieve its full potential, you have to work like hell.
Where does it go from here?
I question whether {grow} can sustain its place in the Top 100, let alone move up any further. The primary reason — there is only a handful of blogs at that level written by one person instead of an organization. As the blogosphere gets more crowded, it will be tougher to compete as a solo artist when everybody else is playing with a back-up band! But who knows? I’ve been wrong plenty of times — as you well know!
This would be a good time to say THANK YOU. Blogging is the best part of my job thanks to your comments, tweets, and amazing support! I think this is the best blog community on the social web! Thank you for being so very generous to me and loyal to the community.
Any way, that’s the best I can do as far as what drives the success of {grow}. It’s an unorthodox approach, but maybe it can work for you too? What do you think?
Note: After I published this post, Debra Andrews of Marketri pointed out that some people might infer that I have only been blogging for nine months. I began blogging in April, 2009 and was unranked for a year (until April, 2010). So from the time I was a “zero” on the list of more than 1,000 blogs until the time I was in the Top 100, it was nine months. I wanted to clarify this point and thank Debra for pointing this out! Sorry if I was unclear.
A PR 2.0 Success Story: How I Became a Mommy Blogger
Jan 13th
This is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. Wait, no they haven’t.
The Mommy Blogger Genre is generally not a pool I would splash around in, but I was doing research for a class and I was blown away by the facts and figures about this subculture. Check it out:
- There are 42 million women involved in social media weekly — and about half of them are moms with children at home. Of those, about 11.5 million moms are actively taking part in the blogosphere.
- According to the Consumer Electronics Association report, U.S. moms are more active on social networks than any adult demographic. Moms spend an average of 111 hours online, and one in three moms regularly post product reviews.
- Cision noted that “Mom bloggers are extremely vital to the new media landscape,” and that they “use new media like nobody’s business.”
- Nielsen compiled a list of the 50 most influential mommy bloggers and further dissected the genre into six sub-categories: Queen Bees, Savvy Spenders, Mom-Approved Reviewers, Mamastes, Tech Moms and CEO Moms.
During my research I discovered that General Mills has set up a blog network specifically to serve this group called MyBlogSpark. Mommy Bloggers in the program have insider access to General Mills product freebies.
Wait a minute. FREEBIES? You mean I could get my hands on some limited edition Cheerios or something? Maybe some Chipotle Hamburger Helper? Baby SIGN ME UP!
And that’s how I officially became a Mommy Blogger. You had me at Häagen-Dazs.
I LOVE the idea behind this blogger outreach program. This is a classic case of PR 2.0 and General Mills seems to be doing it right:
- They’re not depending on tired product pitches to get their news out. Influencers are right in the middle of the product introductions. They’re involved with the company and the products.
- They are running an upfront and ethical shop, encouraging bloggers to be transparent about how they receive samples.
- The company asks to be contacted directly for feedback if bloggers don’t feel they can write a positive review. This seems like enlightened brand management.
- General Mills is creating loyalty and community by highlighting and rewarding outstanding bloggers.
There’s been just one little problem so far. I’ve been in the program for more than a month and have yet to receive a single product sample. In fact the only thing I have received was a link to a lame Jolly Green Giant Holiday video.
C’mon. I want some crackers. Throw me some beans or something guys. This Mommy Blogger is ready to rock.
What’s your take on this new blogger outreach program?
The 10 Best Corporate Blogs in the World
Jan 5th
My reaction to most company blogs: “Blah, Blah and Double Blah!”
I recently taught a class on corporate blogging at the amazing social media marketing graduate program at Rutgers University. In my research for the class, I pored through hundreds of websites looking for examples of the best company blogs in the world.
Amid the coal pile that is the state of corporate blogging today, I did manage to find a few diamonds that don’t bore to tears with pronouncements, promotions and product announcements (the Killer P’s).
Before I provide my view of the best of the best, here are a few general observations about the state of corporate blogging:
1) The best blogs are dominated by the tech sector. In fact, they are so far ahead of the rest of the corporate world that I found it unfair to rank the professionals with the amateurs! IBM, SAP and Oracleare examples of innovative and remarkable blogs. Nearly every hardware, software and services company “gets it.” I thought it would be more interesting here to focus only on the non-tech sector. I also excluded any reference to Zappos simply because I am sick of Zappos and it’s my blog dammit.
2) Corporate blogging has evolvedfar beyond the idea of personal journaling. Think of any company goal and there is likely to be an example of a company blog supporting it. You may be surprised at the diversity of blogs in these examples.
3) There is a chasm between the adoption of blogs at large companies versus the rest of the world. The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts showed in a study that just 22% of the Fortune 500’s blog compared to 45% of the Inc 500′s and about 80% of non-profits. And even when some companies claimed to have a blog, I couldn’t find it. Corporate blogging is still a wide-open area for marketing channel development since there are so many proven benefits of blogging! And many of these blogs are U.S.-based because the adoption of corporate blogging is even lower in the rest of the world.
In no particular order, here are ten examples of exceptional non-high-tech blogs:
Goals: Problem-solving, community-building, loyalty
So you don’t think blogs have a place in the B2B world? Can’t imagine somebody from a road construction crew logging in to read a blog? Think again.
Caterpillar established separate blogs based on industry (construction, electrical, marine) with sub-categories under each industry (products, safety, problem-solving). This company does a wonderful job engaging customers, using the community to solve problems, and rewarding customer ideas.
Goals: New product development, engagement
Well-managed companies usually excel at many things and Starbucks is no exception. They are leading the way in social media marketing but the unexpected aspect of their blog is that it only tangentially has anything to do with coffee. Instead, Starbucks employs its blog as a global brainstorming platform. Customers submit ideas for new drinks, food items, packages, even store designs. The company blogs about the ideas (about 100,000 so far!) and readers build on the ideas through comments and ratings. The idea is brilliant.
Goals: Customer satisfaction, sales, crisis management
Bill Marriott is one of the most famous corporate bloggers in the world. Yes, the company chairman actually does his own posts, dictating them on a weekly basis. This personal involvement has won the site loyal fans since they know they are getting the word from a real executive — a powerful point of differentiation. The company has reported generating millions in direct sales from this blog and has also used this as a platform to set the record straight in the event of a bombing or hostage situation involving one of their properties. Another “personal journal” blog I’ll submit as a runner-up in this category is Randy’s Journal from Boeing.
Goals: Direct sales, loyalty
In a hotly-competitive, low-margin business, this regional grocery chain is trying to stand out with a fun, easy-to-navigate site. The blog design changes every few weeks to reflect colorful seasonal themes. The company has managed to attract a loyal and engaged audience through posts from president Danny Wegman and other store employees on ideas for entertaining at home, recipes and nutrition. I saw one post where the deli chef was responding to questions by telling customers which aisle to find ingredients for some tasty muffins. I love the fun, down-home and authentic engagement on this site!
Goal: Thought leadership
Here’s how blogger Mark Toth describes the mission of the blog: “When we asked visitors to the Manpower US website what information they wanted most, the answer was employment law. This bLAWg is an attempt to meet that demand and engaging and educational content.” You mean they actually listened to customers and created a blog around their information needs? Seems like such a simple idea but unfortunately ignored by most companies.
Goal: Brand Awareness
When I use the GE blog as an example in my classes there is usually a comment like “Oh … I thought they were only lightbulbs.”
This blog is aimed squarely at breaking this image through wonderful story-telling. If you want to see a blog that is doing a good job spinning some entertaining stories, look no further. It’s not uncommon to see wonderful photography, video, and even art and music used in a blog post to illustrate a point. The one area that needs to be improved — I think they are trying to hit too many diverse customers with one blog. It’s time to segment with multiple blogs.
Goal: Customer engagement, brand awareness
How in the world do you create passion for scissors? Fiskars has done it in one of the most creative blogs in the corporate world. The company solicited help from four scrapbook fanatics who demonstrate their love of crafting — and the tools they use — with this customer-generated content. One of the greatest marketing applications for blogging I have seen.
Goal: Enhance corporate image and integrate with traditional media
This is one of the world’s best-known corporate blogs but I would be remiss if I didn’t include it here. People generally hate airlines but somehow Southwest has risen above this with a quirky, honest blog about travel and the people who make it happen. This is the anti-corporate-press-release blog. They also wisely use this as a way to connect with employees. Smart business.
Goal: Complement brand image, engage community
Patagonia is a company that sells high-end adventure gear and this no-frills site does a marvelous job featuring reader stories of what else … high-end adventure! You have to love a corporate blog that features a post called “Waking up puking.”
The magic of social media is finding a way to enable your customers to carry your brand promise through to their stories and this site is a best practice.
Goal: Complement brand image, direct sales
Like Starbucks and Zappos, Whole Foods is a social media darling, and for good reason. They do great work! This popular blog is full of how-to’s, best practices and exciting product ideas.
Of course it would be impossible for me — or anybody for that matter — to do a comprehensive evaluation of every corporate blog in the world but these are some that demonstrate the use of compelling content to align with tangible business objectives.
I would value your comments on these wonderfully diverse blogs. What company blogs should I consider for my next class? I’m especially interested in any small businesses that are effectively working the blogging channel.
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Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
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Six ideas to get your blog out of the fog
Mar 6th
65 comments
We have an extraordinary opportunity today! Thanks to Christina Pappas, a blogger with Zmags.com, we’re going to dissect her blog as a case study! Christina came to me with this familiar question:
I joined my company in September of 2010 and one of my “missions” was to start and maintain a consistent blogging schedule. I am posting regularly (at least 1x per day) and am sticking to themes that my audience would relate to. But I cannot reach two goals: getting subscribers and getting comments. We have 2,500 customers and only 170 blog subscribers. Why such a big disconnect? Why am I creating great content for no results?
OK, let’s start digging into the problem! What do you do when your blog is in the fog?
I’m a data guy so first let’s look at the some numbers. Here are the page views of the blog B.C. (Before Christina) and A.C. (After Christina):
There are two obvious trends we can observe. Christina has had a dramatic impact on this blog, and something really weird happened in December to cause a big drop.
What happened over the holidays? The company has no idea. I have seen that kind of crazy data from Feedburner before but usually Google Analytics is pretty solid. Any opinions?
Let’s look at the blog itself.
The blog design is clean, attractive, and easy to navigate. The content is relevant, timely and well-written. The headlines are strong and Christina generally punctuates her text with sub-headings and graphics to capture attention and add visual appeal. Overall, this is a strong blog.
How is Christina promoting the blog? In a conversation with me she reported that she is:
The company has also retained an outside company to try to advise her on ideas to drive more readership and comments. The consultant recommends she take two steps:
1) Cut the number of posts she is writing from five to two and spend the extra time promoting the blog.
2) Create specific industry-specific customer “personas” and tailor posts to each persona over a period of time.
OK, the blog doctor is IN DA HOUSE! (Where is my theme music?) What should Christina do?
1) Exercise patience — First, let’s put this in perspective. Christina has increased page views on the blog by more than 100 percent and subscriptions by 28 percent in four months. Take a bow, young lady! Building a company blog is painstaking work. Be patient and tell your management not to panic. It will be OK. You’re on the right track. If you’re still stalled six months from now we can review, but for now, let’s stay the course … with a few tweaks!
2) Goals and strategy — Everything starts with strategy. All we know is that the goal is to increase comments and readership … but why? Goals should reflect the target behavior you are trying to change or influence. So I have to ask — why is getting a comment a goal? How does that move the needle for your company?
Getting comments on a company blog is extremely difficult. For example, GE has one of the best B2B blogs in the world, with dozens of people contributing to it. They get about two comments a month. So I think you need to seriously re-evaluate whether “comments” is a realistic and desirable goal. The engagement may be taking place outside of the blog.
Remember that there are many important business benefits of blogging even if you have very few comments. Don’t overlook SEO benefits, PR opportunities and other valuable benefits of your content.
3) Where are your customers? As I look at your blog, there is very little that has to do with direct customers here. Where are the articles about your customers? Case studies? Successes? Best practices? Pictures?
When I was a young PR guy, my boss made me work the midnight shift at our plant for two weeks. Why? Because I was writing a newsletter, those were my “customers,” and I had to understand them. I think Christina should follow some sales people around on calls for a week, maybe two. If that’s not practical, talk to them on the phone. Find out what the customers love, what they hate. What do the WANT to read about? What questions do they have? Answer them in blog posts. Just asking your customers about the blog will make them INTERESTED in your blog!
One of the best way to get customers to engaged is to feature them IN your blog. Make your blog a customer celebration.
4) Where are your employees? Don’t overlook the opportunity to get employees engaged and excited about your blog. Feature them too. Also, it’s time for Christina to ask for their help. There is this issue called social validation that I discuss at length in a post called Building Social Media Momentum. In short, customers are more likely to join in on engagement and comments if they see they’re not all alone on your blog. Ask your fellow employees to support you and “prime the pump” with tweets and comments.
5) Where are you? There are two conditions that usually drive comments on corporate blogs 1) involving customers and 2) having a single, strong personality write the blog. Christina is doing a good job with the content but is not putting much of her personality into it. I recommend putting Christina’s picture out there on the blog some place. Let people know who is behind the blog. That should make a difference with engagement!
6) Where’s the sizzle? The blog has the beef but it needs a little sizzle. What can Zmags do to shake it up and grab attention? How about a contest? A blog-only special? Video? Humor? A celebrity guest blogger that your customers would recognize?
Now, about those consultants. The quality of the company blog is solid. Christina seems to be handling the 4-5 posts a week easily but dropping back to 3-4 would not hurt much. Personally I would scrap the persona idea at this stage. Just talk to your customers. Get to know them. That’s a lot more fun and effective than following a script.
Well, that’s my take on it. What does the community think? What would you do if you were Christina? What did I miss?
Many thanks to Christina Pappas and the management of Zmags for allowing me to dissect their blog with no strings attached. Christina submitted this question through MLT Creative’s blogging seminar.