This is an introductory presentation on blogging for business. Learn what blogging is and how it can help grow your business. Discover what to blog about, how to craft a good blog post, and how to measure your success. Presented by Drew Becker of Convey Media Group and Stephen Peacock of Peacock Creative Services to the Fuquay-Varina Chamber of Commerce June, 2012.

1. Blogging for Business
Presented by Drew Becker and Stephen Peacock

2. What is a Blog?
• A blog is a combination of the two words
“web” and “log”
• A site on the web with entries or posts to
give information and/or hold a discussion
• A post is followed by comments by others
and replies by author
• Originally created by individuals in 1990s
• Appeared as business strategy in 2009

3. Blog Example

4. Blog Stats
• There are 70 million WordPress
blogs worldwide
• There are 39 million Tumblr blogs
worldwide
• Four out of 5 internet users visit
social networks and blogs
• 34% of bloggers post opinions
about products & brands
• By the end of 2011 over 181
million blogs around the world,
up from 36 million only five years
earlier in 2006.

5. Why Blog?
Reasons Advantages
Inform about your product Easier than newsletters
Inform about your services Update at any time
Increase your expert status Long lasting shelf life
Bring others to your site(s) Easy to syndicate
Keep in touch with prospects Share your expertise and
and clients knowledge

6. How much time?
• Short posts may take only a few minutes (Twitter)
• Longer posts may take 45 minutes to a couple hours
• Remember, this is a reflection of your knowledge and
experience and should be well crafted

7. Do it Yourself Blogging
Advantages Disadvantages
– Save $ – Discipline required to
– Complete control continue regularly
– Determine when to write – Can be difficult if you do
blog not like to write
– Satisfaction of – Time to write
accomplishment – Time to research
– No need to coordinate – Time for SEO

8. Hire a Blogger
• Advantages • Disadvantages
– Save time – Outlay Cost
– Professionals to write – Time to educate
– Professionals to research – Teach your “voice”
– Experts with SEO – Finding a competent
– Coordinate with website blogger

9. Blogging Tools
• WordPress.com or Self Hosted
WordPress
• Tumblr and/or Posterous
• Blogger – formerly Blogspot
• Inside919 – no longer free
• ActiveRain – Real Estate
• Any number of niche directories allow
you to blog

10. OMG – What Do I Blog About?
1. Lists – people love list. Top 10 8. Recommendations – favorite
almost anything…Top 10 books, website etc
Questions our customers ask 9. Company News, awards, events
2. How-to and Tutorials 10. New staff
3. Strategy to complete a task or 11. Crowd sourced posts
project 12. Controversial topics in your
4. Reviews of Products, industry
Websites, Books, software… 13. Agree/Disagree with a top
5. Tips and Tricks professional in your field
6. Link Roundup – curated list of 14. Pose questions to your audience
excellent resources 15. New theory you are developing
7. Current Events in your field 16. Compliment another business
and say what they’ve done right

11. Blogging Best Practices
Research
– Develop a list of blog ideas that are relevant to your products,
services, or profession. Prioritize your list putting those most
related to your key products/services first.
– Review what your competitors are blogging about
• Take a look at local or regional competitors
• What are they blogging about? What keywords are they
targeting?
• If they are local – consider agreeing or disagreeing with
something they wrote
– Create your editorial list of blog post topics
– Start with number one – do research to find most used keywords
• Visit and use Google Insights for Search
• Visit and use Google External Keywords Tool

12. Keyword Tools
• http://google.com/insights/search
• https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

13. More keyword insights

14. Even more insights

15. Best Practices
Write an awesome blog post
• Start by writing a KILLER headline and a
160 character first sentence
– Include your keyword(s) in both
• Make sure they are compelling
• Would your headline work well as
a question?
• Is it attention grabbing?

16. Format of Blog Post
Break your blog post into 3 or more sections – give each a sub-
header (sub-title) that includes your keywords
• Introduction
– Briefly outline the topic of your post or the problem you
will solve
– ask questions and/or identify problem/benefits
• Discussion
– Give details
– include links to other resources
• Conclusion
– Summarize above
– Include a call to action

17. • Headline less than 70
characters
• Description less than 160
characters
• Content is conversational
• Sub-headers include keywords
• Attractive image
• Links to external and internal
pages
• Keywords in body text are
bolded

18. Planning and research pays off!
You can be found
for multiple
keyword searches if
you plan and
execute well!

19. • Link to valuable resources
• Recognize good content by
others
• Use video when available
• Close with call to action

20. Add Images
• Select an appropriate image(s) – be
creative
• When adding image fill out the section
for ‘Alt Image” tag and put the main
keyword in the tag
• Consider adding a caption – use your
keyword!
• Multiple images are okay too – learn
how to float them right or left in your
blogging software
• You may need image editing software:
Lunapic.com, pixlr.com, fotoflexer.com

21. Why a Page and a Post?

22. Meta Data and Tags
• Title – include article title and
geographic area (when relevant)
• Meta Description: Up to 160
characters – ideally will be the first
sentence of your post
• Keywords: No more than 10
keywords/terms
• Tags – like keywords, they help with
discovery of related content by
people and search engines on your
blog

23. Check Your Work
• Proof the entire post
– Check spelling
– Check Grammar
– Re-read it at least twice

24. PUBLISH!
• Publish Your Blog Post
– Share your blog post with others
• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Inside919
• Provide easy tools for people to subscribe for updates via
RSS
• Respond to comments when/if they come
• Retweet every day for a few days and post on Facebook
page again in a week or two
• Rinse and repeat with the next topic on your list.
• Establish a regular schedule for blogging
– Assign topics to people in your business
• Helps spread the work around
• Helps promote other staff as knowledgeable/experts

25. Measure Results
• Install analytics!
• Google analytics is free, easy to integrate and most powerful.
• There are other choices: Get Clicky, Piwik, AWStats, and
Webalizer to name a few.

26. What You Should Track
Core Analtyics Other measure of success
• Number of visitors • Number of comments
• Visitor location • Number of social shares
• How they find you • Number of new business
• Length of time inquiries
• Bounce Rate • Number of people who
• Goal Completion subscribe to your
updates

28. Blogging for Business
Presented by:
Drew Becker, Convey Media Group
(919) 264-9868 or drewbecker11@gmail.com
Stephen Peacock, Peacock Creative Services
(919) 386-2296 or stephen@peacockcreative.net