Blogging to Drive Business

Use Blogging to Supercharge Sales, Customer Loyalty, Innovation, and Profits http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

“To connect with today’s buyer, you need to stop pushing your message out and start pulling your customers in. And there is no better tool for this than the blog! Blogging to Drive Business is an essential guide for any business wishing to use a blog to attract a steady stream of inbound opportunities.” http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

—Paul Dunay, Global Managing Director of Services and Social Marketing, Avaya Inc. http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

Blogging can help you deepen customer loyalty, reach new customers, gain indispensable feedback, and drive more sales. This no-nonsense guide shows how to craft a business blog that does all that, and more—building your business and increasing your profits. Top e-marketers and business bloggers Eric Butow and Rebecca Bollwitt help you define clear goals, generate the right content with the right tools, attract visitors, build communities, and avoid costly mistakes. They draw on their own extensive experience, as well as the work of innovators from companies such as Intel, Wal-Mart, Google, HP, and BusinessWeek. Whatever your role in the business, you’ll learn how to: http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Launch a blog that truly represents the best of your business http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Create a comprehensive, long-term blogging strategy http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Staff your blogging initiative http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Integrate blogs with other offline and online marketing programs http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Use your blog to drive customers and prospects to the business http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Push up-to-the-minute information to customers via RSS http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Build a thriving online community—and learn from what it tells you http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Manage comments (and decide whether to have them) http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Utilize podcasts, vlogs, microblogging, and other new techniques http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

• Gain business value from hot new Web 3.0 technologies, including widgets, mashups, personal agents, and the Semantic Web http://www.dropshippers.co.za/

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

• How This Book Is Organized 2
• Conventions Used in This Book 3
• Web Pages 3
• Special Elements 3
• There’s More Online 4
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1 Why Are Blogs So Important? 5

• Media Growth Is in One Area: Online 6
• Get the Message Out 6
• Blog Popularity 8
• Hello,World! 8
• Promote Products and Services 10
• Reach People 12
• Keep Pushing Content 13
• Drive People to the Blog 13
• Crowdsourcing 13
• Case Studies: Intel and Adidas 15
• Intel Inside Scoop Blog 15
• Adidas Soccer MySpace Blog 17
• Summary 21
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2 Leveraging Your Blog with Marketing Tools 23

• Online Marketing 24
• Web Site 24
• E-Mail Marketing 24
• More Work… and Potential Solutions 25
• Offline Marketing 29
• Pushing Information via RSS 31
• Getting Customers to Subscribe 33
• Taking Care of Your Readers 33
• Case Studies 34
• City of Arvada 34
• The Sacramento Bee 36
• Summary 38
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3 Creating a Blogging Strategy 39

• Blogging Platforms 40
• WordPress.com 40
• TypePad 42
• Vox 44
• Blogger 44
• LiveJournal 45
• Blog Software 46
• Finding the Blog Best for Your Business 49
• Vlogs 49
• Photoblogs 50
• Podcast Blogs 51
• Tumblelogs 52
• Microblogs 53
• Moblogs 55
• Combining Blogs with Other Networking Sites 56
• MySpace 56
• Facebook 57
• LinkedIn 58
• Twitter 59
• Case Studies 60
• BusinessWeek 60
• KCBS Radio, San Francisco 62
• Summary 64
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4 Blogging Responsibly 65

• Listen to Your Audience 66
• Two-Way Discussions 66
• Listening by Sharing 67
• Tools to Help You Listen 69
• Comments and Responding to Them 74
• Comment Forms 74
• When to Moderate Comments 74
• Negative Feedback Can Help You Grow 76
• Dealing with Negative Feedback 77
• Case Study: Molson Coors Brewing Company 78
• Summary 81
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5 Finding Topics to Write About 83

• Writing Blogs for the Wider World 84
• Creating an Industry Resource Blog 84
• Create an Online Community 86
• Case Study: Canucks Fan Zone 88
• Creating an Internal Blog (or Blogs) for Your Company 90
• Keep People Informed 90
• Internal Blogs for Project Management 91
• Product Blog (External) 92
• Summary 94
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6 Who Will Write the Blog? 95

• Writing from Within a Company 96
• Identifying Authors 96
• Client Services and Tech Support 99
• Authentic Content 101
• Hiring a Blogger 102
• Tips for Hiring a Blogger 102
• Hiring a Blogger from Your Industry 103
• Create a Blogging Position 104
• Case Study: Linda Bustos: An Elastic Blog from Elastic Path 107
• Summary 110
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7 Getting Eyeballs to Your Blog 111

• Writing Effectively 112
• Editing for Word Count and Brevity 112
• Be Human 114
• Be Readable 115
• Design 116
• Reading Blogs Helps You Write Blogs 117
• Commenting: More than Leaving a Calling Card 117
• Blogger Outreach 118
• Linking Out to Get Incoming Links 119
• Search Engine Optimization 120
• Blogrolls 120
• Linking to Other Blog Posts 121
• Write Interesting Content 122
• Highlight Industry Players 122
• Company Profiles 124
• Case Study: Vancouver Opera 125
• Being Searchable 126
• Check Your Current Rank 127
• Clean URLs 128
• Keywords and Tags 128
• Promotion 129
• Social Media Networks 129
• Announcing Your Blog Launch to Other
• Communities 129
• Target Your Newsletter Members 130
• Press Releases 130
• Summary 131
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8 Getting Interactive with Multimedia Blogging 133

• Offering Multiple Forms of Content 134
• Content for All 134
• Private or Members-Only Content 141
• Podcasting 142
• Screencasts 146
• Case Study: Blendtec 147
• Summary 150
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9 Taking Advantage of Web 3.0 Blogs 151

• An Overview of Web 3.0 Technologies 153
• Wikipedia 154
• APIs and Widgets 155
• Mash It Up! 156
• Integrating Semantic Technologies 158
• Make Agents Work for Your Blog 159
• Case Study: UrbanSpoon.com 160
• Summary 162
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A Important Blogging Sites 163

• Technorati 164
• News Aggregators 164
• Podcatchers 166
• Ping Search Engines 167
• Want to Advertise on Blogs? 167
• Getting More Blog Traffic 169
• Software as a Service Product 171
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Index 175