book

Corporate Blogging For Dummies®

Name: Corporate Blogging For Dummies®
ISBN: 9780470604571

by Douglas Karr, Chantelle Flannery

August 2010

Beginner

432 pages

9h 55m

English

For Dummies

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Copyright
About the Authors
Authors' Acknowledgments
Publisher's Acknowledgments
Introduction
About This BookConventions Used in This BookWhat You Don't Have to ReadFoolish AssumptionsHow the Book is OrganizedPart I: Getting Started with Corporate BloggingPart II: Mapping Out and Implementing Your Corporate BlogPart III: Engaging Your Search Engine Optimization StrategyPart IV: Expanding Blog Posts and Promoting ContentPart V: Measuring SuccessPart VI: The Part of TensIcons Used in This BookWhere to Go from Here
I. Getting Started with Corporate Blogging
1. Corporate Blogging from Soup to Nuts
1.1. Why Blogging Is Different than Your Web Site1.1.1. Understanding blogging as a communication tool1.1.2. Using blogging as a search engine marketing platform1.1.3. Recognizing blogging as an inbound lead strategy1.2. Differentiating Corporate Blogging from Personal Blogging1.2.1. Putting a human voice on your marketing communications1.2.2. Speaking to your audiences1.2.3. Writing with a purpose to a blog that sells1.3. Defining Key Features of a Blog1.3.1. Basic user interface features of a blog1.3.2. Basic back-end features of a blog1.3.3. Expanding your blog's functionality1.4. Recognizing the Benefits of Corporate Blogging1.4.1. Booking public speaking engagements1.4.2. Publishing opportunities online and offline1.4.3. Attracting leads through your blog1.4.4. Driving conversions online through blogging1.5. Blogging: From Concept to Content to Conversion1.5.1. Establishing your strategy and goals1.5.2. Picking and training the blogging team1.5.3. Identifying platforms and resources1.5.4. Compiling search-engine-optimized content1.5.5. Monitoring, measuring, and analyzing1.5.6. Adjusting strategy or messaging
2. Laying the Foundation for Blogging
2.1. Understanding What a Blog Can Do for Your Company2.2. Defining a Blogging Strategy2.2.1. Assemble your blogging team (and have backups)2.2.2. Create a publication schedule2.3. Determining Your Blog's Content2.3.1. Putting your customers and employees first2.3.2. Understanding industry expectations of corporate bloggers2.3.2.1. Don't spam2.3.2.2. Support other bloggers2.3.2.3. Give credit where it's due2.3.3. Writing your company's blogging manifesto2.4. Determining Who Owns Blogging2.4.1. Letting leadership define the voice of your blog2.4.2. Letting marketing define the voice of your blog2.5. Understanding What to Publish on Your Corporate Blog
3. Deciding On Your Blogging Goals
3.1. Setting Goals for Your Blogging Strategy3.1.1. Defining the target audience for your blog3.1.2. Estimating Your Return on Blogging Investment3.1.2.1. Evaluating cost per blogging lead3.1.2.2. Measuring the value of search traffic3.1.3. Measuring conversions to improve your content3.1.3.1. Segmenting your traffic by source3.1.3.2. Tracking visitors with analytics and Google Webmasters3.1.3.3. Adjusting your strategy to increase conversions3.1.4. Reviewing objectives and measuring results3.2. Identifying Marketing and Promotion Goals3.2.1. Building authority in your industry3.2.2. Search engine goals for keyword ranking3.3. Setting Goals for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)3.3.1. Using blogs to communicate with customers3.3.2. Leveraging blogs for your organization's knowledge base3.3.3. Sharing customer testimonials
II. Mapping Out and Implementing Your Corporate Blog

4. Using a Domain That Matters for Your Corporate Blog
4.1. Integrating Your Corporate Identity into Your Blog4.1.1. Bringing your brand and corporate identity to your blog theme4.1.2. Ensuring that your customers recognize your blog as authentic4.1.3. Personalizing your corporate blog with portraits and biographies4.2. Using Your Existing Search Engine Authority with Your Company Domain4.2.1. Controlling how a domain affects search engine authority4.2.2. Using your existing authority to your advantage4.2.3. Working to establish authority as fast as possible4.2.4. Moving your blog and retaining authority4.3. Selecting the Best Domain Structure for Your Organization4.3.1. Understanding the pros and cons of subdomains4.3.2. Understanding the pros and cons of putting your blog in a subfolder
5. Choosing a Blogging Platform
5.1. Determining Your Blogging Platform5.2. Budget Considerations When Selecting Your Platform5.2.1. Building your blog on a solid infrastructure5.2.2. Hiring a blog consultant to assist with your strategy5.3. Choosing a Hosted, Self-Hosted, or SaaS Solution5.3.1. Advantages and disadvantages of hosted solutions5.3.2. Advantages and disadvantages of self-hosted solutions5.3.3. Advantages and disadvantages of SaaS solutions5.4. Flexibility in Blog Templating Engines5.4.1. Balancing SEO and optimal design5.4.2. Developing an attractive and readable blog theme5.5. Enhancing Your Platform with Plug-Ins, Widgets, and Gadgets5.5.1. Installing WordPress plug-ins and widgets on your Hosted WordPress Blog5.5.2. Selecting components that drive traffic to you, not away from you5.5.3. Testing components to measure performance5.6. Expanding Blogging Platforms Capabilities through Integration5.6.1. Using a blogging platform's API5.6.2. Automating and routing content through integration5.6.3. Differentiating your feed from your blog with integration tools
6. Regarding Time, Resources, and Content
6.1. Using External Content Resources6.1.1. Winning back time with ghostbloggers and professional content writers6.1.2. Purchasing topical content to enhance your blog content6.1.3. Hiring industry bloggers to write for your blog6.2. Owning Your Content6.3. Exporting Content to Import It to Your Next Platform6.4. Protecting Your Content6.4.1. Securing your corporate blog from hackers6.4.2. Backing up your content regularly6.4.3. Monitoring your blog to ensure it's up and running6.5. Providing Legal Protection for Your Blog6.5.1. What to do when your content is stolen6.5.2. Including all the required legal components6.5.2.1. Writing your blog's disclaimer6.5.2.2. What you need to know about privacy6.5.2.3. Understanding Creative Commons and Copyrights6.5.2.4. Writing your blog's Terms of Service
7. Working with Your Blogging Team
7.1. Deciding Who Should Blog in Your Organization7.1.1. Choosing the best bloggers7.1.2. Recruiting bloggers: You'll be surprised at who gets the results7.1.3. Marketing with your bloggers7.1.4. Setting expectations with your blogging team7.2. Planning Your Content Strategy7.2.1. Planning topics, owners, and timelines7.2.2. Developing backup content strategies7.2.3. Planning content for weekends and vacations7.3. Developing an Education Program for Your Bloggers7.3.1. Informing your bloggers of their responsibilities7.3.1.1. Developing blogging policies for your team7.3.1.2. Writing employee guidelines for social media7.3.1.3. Providing transparency while protecting intellectual property7.3.2. Setting the vision for your bloggers7.3.3. Balancing autonomy, individualism, and expectations7.4. Monitoring Your Bloggers' Performance7.4.1. Balancing content versus traffic and conversions7.4.2. Using analytics to monitor specific bloggers7.4.3. Dealing with poor blogging performance7.5. Motivating and Rewarding Your Bloggers7.5.1. Moving a blogger from behind the keyboard to in front of the podium7.5.2. Developing a performance-based rewards program for your blog7.5.3. Recognizing bloggers without breaking the bank
III. Engaging Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy
8. Making the Most of Search Engines
8.1. Understanding How Search Engines Find Your Content8.1.1. Building your robots file to allow search engines permission8.1.2. Publishing a sitemap that directs search engines properly8.1.3. Setting content priorities in your sitemap8.1.4. Implementing canonical URLs in your post pages8.2. Using Keywords Correctly8.2.1. Using page components to emphasize important keywords8.2.2. Evaluating keyword competitiveness8.2.3. Finding long-tail keywords that drive relevant traffic8.2.4. Researching keywords8.3. Improving Your Blog's Keyword Content8.3.1. Adding keywords to meta descriptions8.3.2. Modifying existing posts to increase their search engine ranking8.3.3. Optimizing your content for local searches8.4. Registering Your Blog with Search Engines8.4.1. Verifying your blog is located and indexed by search engines8.4.2. Identifying problems in Webmasters and how to correct them8.4.3. Monitoring your ranking and how you are being found8.5. Putting Your Business on Map Results for Regional Searches8.5.1. Registering your business with local search on Google, Bing, and Yahoo!8.5.2. Adjusting your location on the map to ensure customers can find you8.5.3. Promoting your entry with customer reviews8.5.4. Using your entry to publish and offers
9. Writing Content That Drives Search Engine Traffic
9.1. Writing Post Titles That Make Searchers Click9.1.1. Avoiding link baiting9.1.2. Getting traffic from the search engine results page9.1.3. Formatting page titles with post titles9.1.4. Using keywords effectively in page and post titles9.1.5. Repeating yourself and reusing material9.2. Using Keywords in Content to Get Indexed Properly in Search Results9.2.1. Using the correct balance of keywords and content9.2.2. Finding synonymous keywords and phrases9.3. Driving Home the Message with Images and Diagrams9.3.1. Using alt tags effectively for image searches and keyword placement9.3.2. Using representative images for improved comprehension9.3.3. Effectively sizing and formatting images for your page9.4. Formatting Your Posts for Better Comprehension9.4.1. Considering the importance of whitespace9.4.2. Using bulleted and ordered lists9.4.3. Sizing paragraphs for easy scanning9.5. Writing High Converting Content
IV. Expanding Blog Posts and Promoting Content
10. How to Blog without Writing
10.1. Spotlighting Other Experts with a Guest Blogging Program10.1.1. Finding industry bloggers to guest write on your blog10.1.2. Trading posts with other blogs and requesting permission to guest blog10.1.3. Soliciting industry experts to reach their audience10.2. Promoting Your Customer's Voice for Maximum Impact10.2.1. Writing effective customer testimonial blog posts10.2.2. Automating customer testimonials directly into blog posts10.2.3. Promoting vendors and partners to build your authority10.3. Keeping Your Content Alive with Comments10.3.1. Using comments as a measure of engagement10.3.2. Moderating comments to add value and avoid spam10.3.3. Deciding whether a third-party comment service is right for your blog10.3.4. Encouraging employees to comment10.4. Incorporating a Multimedia Strategy to Add Personality10.4.1. Leveraging audio technologies for audible learners10.4.2. Incorporating video for increased engagement10.4.3. Hosting options for audio and video
11. Marketing and Promoting Your Blog
11.1. Using RSS to Syndicate Content11.1.1. Syndicating content to your corporate home page11.1.2. Keeping static pages fresh with syndicated excerpts11.1.3. Aggregating RSS into server-side pages11.2. Getting Engaged in the Blogosphere to Attract Attention11.2.1. Using a feed reader to organize and follow industry blogs11.2.2. Interacting with other blogs through guest posting and comments11.2.3. Respectful dissent to attract and build readership11.2.4. Responding effectively to negative criticism11.3. Integrating Your Blog into Other Social Media to Expand Your Readership11.3.1. Using URL shorteners11.3.2. Syndicating your blog in Twitter11.3.3. Syndicating your blog in LinkedIn and Plaxo11.3.4. Integrating your blog into Facebook profiles and Fan Pages11.4. Promoting Your Posts through Social Bookmarking11.4.1. Understanding social bookmarking and its impact on search and traffic11.4.2. Automated posting to social bookmarking11.4.3. Guerilla marketing and social bookmarking11.5. Combining E-Mail and Blogging for Better Marketing11.5.1. Using advanced e-mail service features to automate content to e-mail11.5.2. How to automate RSS to e-mail with MailChimp11.5.3. How to automate RSS to e-mail with ExactTarget11.5.4. Driving e-mail readers to your blog11.5.5. Promoting e-mail subscriptions on your blog11.5.6. How to automate RSS to e-mail with FeedBurner
V. Measuring Success
12. Imagining Your Blog as a Sales Funnel
12.1. Using Your Blog as a Sales Funnel12.1.1. Optimizing conversions from the search engine results page12.1.2. Understanding rank and its effect on traffic12.1.3. Using Google Webmasters to identify search engine placement for keywords12.2. Measuring Engagement and Conversions on Your Blog12.2.1. Understanding bounce rate and its effect on your blog12.2.2. Measuring trends versus instances12.2.3. Comparing your analytics to industry results12.2.4. Differentiating traffic sources and business benefits12.2.4.1. Optimizing sales and retention strategies for direct traffic12.2.4.2. Optimizing acquisition strategies for search engine traffic12.2.4.3. Optimizing strategies for social media traffic
13. Directing Your Readers through Calls-to-Action
13.1. Understanding Why You Need Calls-to-Action13.2. Designing Calls-to-Action That Readers Will Click13.2.1. Finding images that draw attention to your call-to-action13.2.2. Keeping it simple; writing call-to-action content13.3. Measuring Click-Through Rates on Calls-to-Action13.3.1. Implementing onclick events and campaign codes for tracking13.3.2. Building goals in analytics13.3.3. Tracking and reporting calls-to-actions13.4. Testing and Improving Your Calls-to-Action Click-Through Rate13.4.1. Understanding A/B testing versus multivariate testing13.4.2. Implementing simple A/B tests with your calls-to-action13.4.3. Analyzing results and optimizing calls-to-action13.4.4. Targeting calls-to-action13.5. Dynamically Displaying Calls-to-Action to Increase Click-Through Rates13.5.1. Increasing click-through rates with relevant calls-to-action13.5.2. Integrating third-party ad serving systems for your e-commerce blog13.6. Understanding Where Readers Click on a Web Page13.6.1. Laying out your blog's content to impact retention and conversion13.6.2. Implementing heat-maps to monitor where readers click13.6.3. Figuring out what elements are important
14. Leading Your Readers through Landing Pages
14.1. Designing a Landing Page That Closes the Conversion14.1.1. Designing the path from a call-to-action to a landing page14.1.2. Checking out the elements of an effective landing page strategy14.1.3. Knowing your landing page goals and tactics14.1.4. Laying out your landing page14.2. Narrowing the Focus with Your Landing Page's Content14.2.1. Understanding how much information is enough14.2.2. Trading information for benefits to capture inbound marketing leads14.2.2.1. Providing downloads for registration14.2.2.2. Providing whitepapers for registration14.2.2.3. Providing case studies for registration14.2.2.4. Providing Webinars14.3. Capturing the Right Amount of Info on Your Landing Page14.3.1. Requesting the right amount of information14.3.2. Integrating your landing pages with your CRM14.3.3. Using third-party form solutions to capture information
15. Measuring Success with Analytics
15.1. Implementing an Analytics Solution That Works15.2. Translating Statistics to Improve Your Strategy15.2.1. Tracking visits and visitors15.2.2. Tracing site references and visitor traffic15.2.3. Measuring pageviews and bounce rates15.2.4. Evaluating overall performance15.2.5. Assessing visitors' language and platform needs15.3. Translating Traffic Sources to Opportunities15.3.1. Viewing traffic sources15.3.2. Calculating social media as a referral source15.4. Observing Trends and Opportunities in Reporting Data15.5. Setting Goals in Analytics to Measure Conversions15.5.1. Capturing click events in Google Analytics15.5.2. Developing custom reports for conversion tracking15.6. Determining the Value of a Blog Post for Your Company15.6.1. Measuring lead-to-close ratios with sales15.6.2. Measuring leads coming from your blog15.6.3. Measuring conversions from blog to landing pages15.6.4. Tying it all together — estimating the sales value of your blog and each post15.7. Monitoring Shortened Links with Third-Party Applications15.7.1. Setting up backtweets to alert your company of mentions15.7.2. Monitoring shortened links more effectively with bit.ly15.8. Measuring Your Feed's Consumption and Number of RSS Subscribers15.8.1. Setting up your blog and its feeds on FeedBurner15.8.2. Modifying your blog's theme to integrate FeedBurner
VI. The Part of Tens
16. Ten Ways to Promote Your Blog
16.1. Publishing Posts on Your Home Page16.2. Publishing Your Blog's Link in E-Mail Signatures16.3. Promoting Your Blog in Business Cards16.4. Publishing Posts to Twitter16.5. Publishing Your Blog in Facebook16.6. Publishing Your Blog in LinkedIn16.7. Publishing Posts in Company Publications16.8. Promoting Your Blog in Other Blogs' Comments16.9. Publishing and Distributing Your Corporate Blog in Print16.10. Submitting Your Blog for Awards and Recognition
17. Ten Ways to Grow Your Audience
17.1. Buying Visitors with Pay-Per-Click17.2. Paying for Blog Reviews17.3. Commenting on Other Industry Blogs17.4. Trading Posts and Guest-Blogging17.5. Promoting Other Blogs17.6. Driving Traffic from Social Media17.7. Link Baiting Traffic to Your Blog17.8. Holding Promotions and Giveaways17.9. Offering E-books, Whitepapers, and Case Studies17.10. Syndicating Your Blog Everywhere17.11. Integrating Word-of-Mouth Widgets in Your Blog
18. Ten Ways to Reignite Old Content
18.1. Promoting Old Content in New Blog Posts18.2. Promoting Old Content in Other Blogs' Comments18.3. Reviving Old Content with New Comments18.4. Modifying Post Titles18.5. Modifying Meta Descriptions18.6. Modifying Content with Keyword Enhancements18.7. Removing Dates from Blog Posts18.8. Submitting Excerpts to Social Networks18.9. Tagging Content and Building Tag Clouds18.10. Promoting Internal Search on Your Blog

Content preview from Corporate Blogging For Dummies®

Chapter 15. Measuring Success with Analytics

In This Chapter

Understanding standard analytics metrics
Setting analytics goals
Setting the value of a blog post
Monitoring shortened links
Monitoring feeds and RSS subscribers

Aside from your blogging platform, your analytics application is important when building a successful corporate blogging strategy. Analytics provide you insight into your visitors; specifically, how they are getting to your blog, what they are reading on your blog, and what actions they are taking while they visit your blog.

There are several analytics platforms on the market to choose from, including the following:

Alterian Webjourney (www.alterian.com/products/webanalytics): Enterprise-level analytics application
Clicky (www.getclicky.com): Optimized for small blogs with real-time statistics
CoreMetrics (www.coremetrics.com): Enterprise-level analytics application
Google Analytics (www.google.com/analytics): Free analytics application from Google
Omniture (www.omniture.com): Enterprise-level analytics application
Webtrends (www.webtrends.com): Enterprise-level analytics application
Yahoo (http://web.analytics.yahoo.com): Small business-level analytics application

By recording and observing your blogs' visitors, you will have insight into how to improve your blog to increase overall visitor volume and conversions.

It's important to note that the majority of companies never fully leverage analytics. Most companies keep an eye on statistics but never actually take action based ...

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by Douglas Karr, Chantelle Flannery

Chapter 15. Measuring Success with Analytics

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