Creating a company blog is an important step toward online branding and marketing. Blogs are a great tool for interacting with your audience, introducing your company, and making your website more search engine friendly.
There are tips, tricks, and etiquette one must follow when blogging. The most important secret to a successful blog is passion and expertise. Readers respond to content that is inspired; if the author is excited about his or her industry, the reader will pick up on it. Also, position the authors of your blog as experts because people want to read expert opinions in order to learn something new.
The first thing you must do when starting a blog is determine the focus. A focused, well-planned blog will be successful. Business blogs generally break down into three categories: marketing, public relations and customer service.
A Marketing focused blog is designed to bring in traffic to the website, increase sales, and create brand awareness.
A Public Relations focused blog is used to enhance the image of a corporate brand and to influence public perception.
A Customer Service focused blog is a tool to assist current and future customers.
Once you determine a focus you can start creating content. Each post has important elements and styles to follow. The following list is everything you need to get started blogging for your corporation or local business.
Anatomy of the Perfect Post
Headline
-Needs to grab the reader’s attention
-Use a keyword if it makes sense
Category
-Useful way for old posts to be accessed by reader, author, and search engines
-Use 1-3 categories for each post
Author
-Blog readers are more likely to consistently read a blog if they can form a relationship with author
-Write an “about” paragraph for each contributor
-Include a photo for each contributor
Content
300-600 words per post
-The first sentence, the lead, needs to grab reader’s attention
-Use short paragraphs
-Break up information with bullets and lists
Tags
-Tags (topical) more specific than categories
-Add 3-4 relevant tags per post
-Don’t stuff keywords in the tags – it will turn readers away
Comments
-Comments are the social aspect of blogs
-Create a genuine conversation with comments
-Comment on related blogs if it adds to the conversation
Other Considerations
Syndication
Email subscription: delivered to reader via email
Feed program: delivered to reader via feed reader
Social Sharing
Add share links at the bottom or top of every post
Make it easy for readers to share your post on social media networks:
- Delicious T
- witter (retweet option)
- Digg
- Email to a friend
- Stumble Upon
- Buzz
- Yahoo
Schedule
Create an editorial calendar with topics
Post regularly and consistently (time, day of week)
Recommended Blog Directories:
- Best of the Web Blogs (http:/blogs.botw.org)
- Blog Catalog (https://www.blogcatalog.com)
- Blog Hub (https://www.bloghub.com)
- Google Blog Directory (https://www.google.com/dirhp)
SEO for Your Blog
Add a title that is consistent with the style of the website:Â Keyword | Post Title | Business Name
Titles should be less than 65 characters
Include a keyword in the first words of the title
Link naturally, no more than 3 words in anchor text
Images
Use images wisely, 1/2 column size.
Use images to break up long strings of text
Only use an image if it adds to the post content
Add alternative text to every image
Next month I will the focus my corporate blogging series on promotion. Where and how to promote your content.
