Topics for a Talk on Business Blogging

August 27, 2007 11:14 AM

I've been asked to give a talk on business blogging for a local group. What kinds of topics should I address?

I've got the basics and technical aspects handled. I'm familiar with WordPress, Blogger, et al. I've got a couple of my own blogs and I've set blogs up for small businesses and organizations before. But the scope of those blogs have been the fairly limited to "latest news" and "link whore" type blogs.

I'm looking for more ROI-focused information, strategies, marketing ideas, etc. I would appreciate any advice or links to articles I can use to beef up my knowledge of the business aspects. I'm not looking to sell them snake oil (*cough*SEO*cough*); I want to give them some real information.

posted by friarjohn to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Liability. I know jack about it myself, but I'm prepared to guarantee that the audience will be interested.
posted by aramaic at 11:21 AM on August 27, 2007

I've just searched for "business blogs" "best practices" and came up with some interesting links -- just stay away from the ones that are clearly trying to sell you something.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 12:41 PM on August 27, 2007

A few random tips I've picked up - just my opinions as I am no blogging expert (though I did attend a blog conference a while ago):

- Update the damn thing regularly. This one is a lot harder than you'd think.
- Blog about topics that are interesting to your audience, don't just talk about yourself/your company all day long. Work at it to position yourself as a thought leader/subject matter expert in your area.
- Don't start a blog because it's cool and you think you should be doing it. Start it for a reason or strategy and outline your objectives, target audience, types of content, production schedule, etc.
- Invite conversation. Don't censor comments, respond thoughtfully and politely to criticism (or anything really).
- Develop a steady stream of posts before beginning to publicize. Don't just be all, "here I am, read me!" when you don't really have anything worthwhile.
- If you're letting employees do the blogging, decide how you will monitor it. Do they give you the copy and you edit (for clarity) and post? Or are they totally on their own? What is off-limits to discuss?
- While it's a marketing tool, it should not be completely a selling tool, I hate it when company blogs only have posts like, "We launched product XYZ" and "We are opening a new office." Yes, it's good to hear, but doesn't really give me a reason to read.
- When you're asking clients how they heard about you, you can ask if they're familiar with the blog. For example, a company in my industry has a blog and I am extremely impressed with the content, and by extension, the company. Though I've not needed the services they offer yet, when I do, I will probably go with them and tell them it's because of their blog.
- Install a stats counter to track how the blog is doing. If it's not already on your website, put it there too for the same reason. You can also check to see if the blog is sending people to your site or vice versa. Or you can use it to determine if the majority of your readers are local or from somewhere else. Maybe they're finding you via specific google searches, etc.

There's lots of reading via google as the overlord points out. Including this.
posted by ml98tu at 5:00 PM on August 27, 2007