This presentation is from WordCamp Fayetteville 2015 and talks about why and how businesses should have a company blog.

1. Why and How
Businesses Should Blog

2. Your Presenter
Jamie Smith
Jamie’s Notebook
Jamiesnotebook.com
@JamiesNotebook
jamie@jamiesnotebook.co
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3. Don’t worry about writing this all
down word for word. I will tweet out a
copy of my presentation later or I can
email it to you. I make them wordy so
you can understand the notes later.

4. What exactly is a blog?
 "Blog" is an abbreviated version of "weblog," which
is a term used to describe websites that maintain an
ongoing chronicle of information.
 Used to provide ongoing updates to the company
website and to share information, insights
Examples of blogs:
http://lindarichardsphotography.com/blog/
http://ontimelogistics.wordpress.com/
http://arvestblog.com/

5. Why Should Businesses Blog?
Search Engine Optimization
(SEO)
Industry leadership
Community building
Brand accessibility
Marketing standard

6. SEO: Spider Food
 Search engine optimization is how people find
your website. People who find your website
are more likely to buy from you.
 Good SEO practices include using keywords
effectively and producing frequent, fresh
content that your audience would want to read
and might be searching for online.
 No way to optimize or keyword for everything
 Focus on long-tail keywords as people use
them more. Think of short phrases people
would search, not just individual words.

7. Industry Leadership
 Posts don’t have to be profound to be
thoughtful.
 Reflect and share, don’t flaunt.
 Post content related to industry news,
which shows your credibility and
knowledge.

8. Community Building
 The comments section invites people to
contribute their thoughts, and comments
beget comments.
 People have a tendency to “congregate”
digitally around blogs or social media
platforms that they mutually enjoy. Build
that meeting place for your audience
with fresh, interesting content.

9. Brand Accessibility
 Your company is made up of human
beings, show it!
 Highlight employees, provide personal
insights, and other glimpses into your
company culture.
 Blogs help take away the “antiseptic
feel” of a faceless corporation and helps
show the humans behind the brand.
 People do business with people,
especially in small business.

10. Marketing Standard
 Blogging is a current content marketing
standard and for good reason. B2B
marketers that use blogs receive 67%
more leads than those that do not.
 Marketers who have prioritized blogging
are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI.
 People have come to expect companies to
engage them using blogs and social media.
If you don’t keep up, it will give the
perception that you don’t care.

11. Where Do I Start?
Using WordPress? You’re ahead of
the game. WordPress makes it easy
to add a blog to an existing (or new)
website.
Make sure your site/blog is mobile
friendly so Google doesn’t punish
you in the search rankings.

12. In-house or Outsource?
In-house Outsource
 Pro: Someone within your
company is going to know
more intimately about
your culture and
processes (requiring less
research)
 Con: Current employees
already have duties or are
not experienced in
business blogging
 Pro: Outsourcing lets
someone who is
experienced, efficient, and
professional manage the
blog aspect of your branding
 Con: Someone who is not
within the business/industry
will need more research time
including potential
interviews, etc.

13. How do I decide?
 How much time am I or my employees spending on
the blog (and how does that translate to potential
billable hours they could be doing instead)?
 Am I getting the returns I want on the blog that make
the investment I’m making so far worth it? If not, why?
 Are other alternatives available besides outsourcing
that would help me accomplish my goals? These
include paying a one-time consultation for the
employee who write the blog, changing which
employee write the blog?
 Are there qualified freelance business bloggers
available in my area? What about a full-service
marketing agency that might offer the same service?

14. All about that voice
 Voice is part of branding and includes tone, word
choice
 Voice can and should evolve as the company evolves
 Business owner must be involved even for outsourced
blogs
 Voice should reflect the company as an entity not the
owner, even in a family business
 When you have multiple writers, determine if they
write in their individual (but related) voices or a
“corporate” voice. In other words, are the blogs from
individuals or always from the brand no matter who
writes?

15. Establishing voice
 Character/Persona (is the voice: friendly,
warm, inspiring, playful, authoritative,
professional?)
 Tone (is the voice: personal, humble, clinical,
honest, direct, scientific?)
 Language (is the voice: complex, savvy,
insider, serious, simple, filled with jargon, fun,
whimsical?)
 Purpose (is it to engage, educate, inform,
enable, entertain, delight, sell or amplify?)

16. What Do I Say?
 Topics can cover many areas of your
business:
Internal news – sales, new products,
company philosophy
External, industry news – what’s new
or in the news in your industry? Reflect
on the trends and offer insights.

17. What do I say (continued)
Community news and events,
especially if a particular cause closely
relates to your business.
Personal/personnel news – announce
the birth of a new baby or an
employee’s son’s graduation. (This will
depend on the nature of the business
and employees must give permission.)

18. Three popular post types
 Michael Hyatt
(www.michaelhyatt.com) offers
great advice on structuring three
different kinds of blog posts:
The “how to” post
The “list” post
The “review” post

19. How Do I Say It?
 Key components of a blog post:
 350 – 700 words
 Attention-getting, keyworded title
 Open paragraph has to go immediately to the point
 Relevant image(s)
 Personal experience (when appropriate)
 Main body – make it easy to skim using
subheadings, bullet points, etc.
 Close with a discussion question (when
appropriate)

20. Promoting the Blog
 Integrate blog with appropriate social
media
 Make sure the blog link is visible from
your website’s homepage and also listed
on pertinent websites
 Integrate with company/organization
newsletter
 Use blog to generate subscribers and
build email lists

21. Resources
Reputable sources for finding ideas, help and other
resources:
 Hubspot.com
 Grammarist.com
 Socialmediaexaminer.com
 Blog.CollectiveBias.com
 MichaelHyatt.com
 Zemanta (insertable pictures)
 Commons.wikimedia.org (pictures)
 Picmonkey.com (Editing photos, adding text)
 Canva.com (creating graphics)

22. Online is forever
and what you say on
your business blog
affects your brand!