Interested in becoming a guest contributor for the Desk.com blog? With more than 30,000 page views per month, the Desk.com blog is a great platform for engaging conversation around the future of customer service and business trends for fast-growing companies. Check out our program overview and start sending your blog ideas over today!

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

2. 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

3. Program Overview

4. • 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

5. Guest Author Criteria
We’re 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

6. What’s 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

7. 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?

8. 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
author’s 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

9. Blog Guidelines

10. Do’s and Don’t 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 it’s
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 DON’T

11. 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 don’t count!
• All images should be 300x200 pixels and 3rd party images should
be credited in the caption

12. 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

13. 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