The New Social Norm: How to Make the Most of Your Corporate Bloggers

By Lou HoffmanBy Lou HoffmanCEOCEO

The Hoffman AgencyThe Hoffman Agency

February 5, 2011February 5, 2011

The New Social Norm:The New Social Norm:How to Make the Most How to Make the Most Of Corporate BloggingOf Corporate Blogging

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If you build it,If you build it,generally they won’t come.generally they won’t come.

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Why?

No time “Muscle memory” Difficult to differentiate from

thousands of information sources

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Humbling Personal Experience

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Content is Not King.

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It Takes a Village (+ SEO)To Build a Blog’s Readership.

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Today’s Discussion Flow

Fundamentals What Makes for Compelling Content The Quest for Readers Loose Ends Questions

Fundamentals: Who’s the Audience?Fundamentals: Who’s the Audience?

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Fundamentals: Defining Success

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Fundamentals: Length

Fundamentals: Frequency

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Fundamentals: Timing

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Fundamentals: Timing

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Fundamentals: Looks Count

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Fundamentals: Looks Count

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Fundamentals: Looks Count

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Fundamentals: Looks Count

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Fundamentals: Looks Count

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Fundamentals: Looks Count

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Fundamentals: Looks Count

Typography Break up text

– Photographs (post on 25 free stock photo sites)

– Subheads

Readability

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What Makes for Compelling Content?

Me vs. You

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Me vs. You

You70%

Me30%

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Show Your Humanity

Story Tip #6 from Kurt Vonnegut

Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them – in order that the reader may see what they are made of.

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Offer a Point of View

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjS4XpFZBqU

Distinct Voice

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Be the Media

Play journalist– Interview individuals with fresh takes

(ideally, “connectors”)– Interview customers

Structure interview in Q&A format Talk to attendees at industry events

– Arm yourself with a flip cam and videotape interviews

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Be the Media

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Be the Media

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Compelling Content

“I try to write a blog post that only I could write.”

Mark SchaeferMarketing ConsultantBlog: Grow

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The Quest for Readers

Work backwards– How do you want people to find your blog?– Establish primary phrase– Establish secondary phrase(s)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

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The Quest for Readers: SEO

Google AdWords Keyword Tool:https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

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The Quest for Readers: SEO

Google Insights Tool:www.google.com/insights/research

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The Quest for Readers: SEO

URL Title tag <title> Post title Description tag Post content Post tags

Applying Your Keyword Phrase(s)

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The Quest for Readers: SEO

Applying Your Keyword Phrase(s): Back to the Dairy Queen blog

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The Quest for Readers: SEO

Applying Your Keyword Phrase(s): Ishmael’s Corner

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The Quest for Readers: SEO

Applying Your Keyword Phrase(s): Ishmael’s Corner

1 ishmael’s corner 1 ishmaels corner

2 ishmaels corner 2 steve jobs son

3 toyota crisis pr 3 storytelling techniques

4 “lou hoffman” 4 ishmael’s corner

5 toyota letter to customers 5 lou hoffman

6 lou hoffman blog 6 david and goliath

7 toyota crisis 7 dolly freed

8 #storytelling 8 best pr campaigns

9 lou hoffman 9 effective business communications

10 toyota customer letter 10 #storytelling

Top Keywords(Jan. 1 – Jun. 30, 2010)

Top Keywords(Oct. 1 – Dec. 31, 2010)

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The Quest for Readers

Leverage High-profile News

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The Quest for Readers:Leveraging High-profile News

Online Properties That Showcase Backlinks

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The Quest for Readers:Leverage High-profile News

Guest Posts (and the Power of Backlinks)

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The Quest for Readers:Leverage High-profile News

Search on “Google CEO PR”

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The Quest for Readers

Post comments on relevant blogs Respond to posted comments Don’t be stingy with backlinks

Engagement

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The Quest for Readers: Engagement

The #444PR Series Questions

– Is Ghost Blogging Ethical?– To Stay Relevant, How Do Communications

Professionals Need to Evolve?– What Role Should a Communications

Agency Plan in a Client’s Social Media?– The Top 5 Smart Communications Practices

Companies Need to Implement Right Now

Experiment

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The Quest for Readers: Engagement

Experiment

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The Quest for Readers: Engagement

“Marry Up”

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The Quest for Readers: Engagement

Same “me vs. you” rule on content Serve your community

– And tweets become another channel to bring readers to your blog

What about Twitter?

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The Quest for Readers: Twitter

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The Quest for Readers: Twitter

@McCallSmith Will you permit me one adjective? http.l7/g1OJVG

26 Jan

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The Quest for Readers: Twitter

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Not Everything is Going to Work

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Loose Ends

LinkedIn

Blog post pulled into LinkedIn will look like this.

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Loose Ends

E-mail: Another Analog Touch Point for Your Blog

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Loose Ends

Top Rank Maintains Comprehensive List Of Blog Directories

http://www.toprankblog.com/rss-blog-directories/

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Loose Ends

Google Analytics

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Loose Ends

Weekly conversation on a different blogging topic starting at 9 p.m. Eastern Time– Facilitated by

@MackCollier

#Blogchat

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Be yourself.

Everyone else is already taken.

Oscar Wilde

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Lou HoffmanLHoffman@Hoffman.com@LouHoffmanwww.Hoffman.comwww.IshmaelsCorner.com