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2) HOW TO BLOG LIKE AN INFLUENCER

What is a Blog?

Do you know what a blog is?

Well, it is a website that includes frequently updated entries (posts) appearing in a reverse

chronological order and typically offering a comment feature where visitors can publish their

opinions about the content that they read on the blog.

Unlike other web content, a blog is usually updated fairly frequently – minimally once or twice a

week.

Contrary to popular belief, blogs are far from dead. In fact, blog posts (or articles) form the pillar of

the social web and often act as the content “hub” which is shared through the “spokes” provided

through social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others.

These days, most company websites have a blog page incorporated into them. By doing so, they help

to increase the levels of interactivity on the website while improving their ability to be searched by

the spiders and bots deployed by Google and other search engines.

What can Blogs be used for?

There are six key benefits to a blog, and they are:

1) Brand Building

A business blog is a great place to help tell your brand story and relate your brand messages and

brand promise. By creating content that accurately portrays your brand, you can help to raise brand

awareness, deepen brand affinity, and strengthen brand loyalty.

2) Marketing

By providing useful, educational and entertaining content, a business blog helps to boost word-of-

mouth (WOM) marketing for your business. It also helps to trigger conversations related to your

industry or trade which can travel both online and offline.

3) Sales

You can promote your business and brands either directly or indirectly through content written on

your business blog. You can also use your blog as a traffic and lead magnet to attract traffic and

leads before directing them to an e-commerce store or opt-in mechanism.

Bear in mind though that this should not be too frequent. This will prevent your blog from being

perceived as spammy.

4) Customer Service

Blogs are excellent tools for you to address customer feedback and concerns. With its interactive

features, your blog can be used to share information, answer questions, acquire feedback and more.

Doing so helps you to strengthen customer relationships and enhance your customer experience.

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5) Relationship Building

When you provide useful information and communicate with customers on your business blog, you

help to deepen their emotional connection to your business. Over time, they become more loyal to

your brand and may even become your brand advocates.

6) Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Blogs are extremely powerful in delivering a boost to your SEO efforts due to the frequency in which

they are updated, and their ability to generate backlinks to your website.

Blogging Tools for Businesses

There is a wide variety of blogging tools available to help you to create a business blog. Many of

them can even be used to create a business website.

For business websites and blogs, the best version available would be the self-hosted version of

Wordpress available from WordPress.org. While this is free for anyone to use, you need to get a

Web host so that you have space to store your blog and content. You also need a blog designer to

help you create and customise your blog.

Here is a comparison of the different blogging tools available, and their advantages and

disadvantages:

WORDPRESS.ORG (SELF-HOSTED) (www.wordpress.org)

WORDPRESS.COM (WORDPRESS-HOSTED) (www.wordpress.com)

BLOGGER (www.blogger.com)

TYPEPAD (www.typepad.com)

TUMBLR (www.tumblr.com)

Ease of use

Easy once the blog is set up. However, setting up and adding new features may require the help of a blog designer or developer.

Easy Easy Easy Easy

Functionality

Advanced (including SEO and other plug-ins)

Limited Moderate Moderate Highly Limited

Cost Free (unless you use a template). However, you have to pay for design, development and a web host.

Free with limited functionality. Additional functionality is available with additional costs.

Free Monthly fee Free

Domain Name

Pay for your own domain.

Free with .wordpress.com extension, or you can pay for your own.

Free with .blogspot.com extension, or you can pay for your own.

Free with .typepad.com extension, or you can pay for your own.

Free with .tumblr.com extension, or you can pay for your own.

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To find freelance designers and developers to help you with your website, you can visit platforms

like Upwork.com, elance.com, or freelancer.com.

Potential Blog Topics

Here are 17 topics that you can consider in writing a blog article, taken from Paul Gillin’s “Create

Stuff They’ve Just Gotta Read: How to Write for #SocialNetworks” presentation at MarketingProfs

Digital Marketing World, December 13, 2013. You may find the topics useful even as you begin your

blogging journey.

Topic

Example

Quiz

Test Your Online Writing IQ

Sceptic You Don’t Control the Impact of Your Online Words Anymore

Explainer The Online Writing Debate in Plain English

Case Study How Mary Lim managed to become a money spinning copywriter in three months

Contrarian Why Online Writing Skills Are Over Hyped

How-to 21 Ways to Become an Online Writing Superstar

How NOT to The Greatest Mistakes Made by Copywriters in Singapore

First Person What I Did to Overcome My Fear of Social Media

Comparison

Social Media Marketing vs Search Engine Optimisation: Which Is Better?

Q&A Seven Most Common Questions on Online Writing with Walter Lim

Data Digital Content is Taking the World by Storm says Study

Man on the Street Three Digital Marketing Experts Offer Tips on Viral Content

Outrageous Why Failing to Write Well Can Make You Lose Money

BuzzFeed Style Outrageous Read How This Woman Transformed Her Writing From Ugly to Beautiful in Just Three Weeks OR You Won’t Believe What This Man Did To Become The “Shakespeare” of Social Media

Insider Secrets The One Thing You Need To Know About Writing Like a Champion (Never Before Revealed)

Literary Treatment The Online Writing Haiku, epic narrative poem, comic book for online writing, or anything else you can imagine.

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HOW TO BE A BRILLIANT BRAND JOURNALIST1

The best business bloggers function as brand journalists or corporate reporters.

Just like their traditional media namesakes, these content professionals write and produce stuff like

videos, articles, photos, webinars, charts, graphs, podcasts, e-Books and other information. They

also focus on what their target audiences are keen to read, view or listen.

Unlike mainstream journalists though, a brand journalist needs to balance between being biased and

balanced in the way they write. While doing so, they help to narrate stories in a human and

accessible way, and hopefully spark conversations about the company, customers or employees.

Here are some rules that will help you to take on this role in your organisation:

1) Always Tell the Truth

This is so important in the Internet age, where anybody can be a cyber-vigilante and unearth the

truth. Let’s not forget that the Internet NEVER forgets.

2) News jack for Content Moments

Coined by David Meerman Scott in his book Newsjacking, the term is used to describe the idea of

injecting your story intoa breaking news story. This has to be done early in the news cycle just as a

story is developing, and not when it has already reached its peak or become old news. You can see

the chart below to appreciate how this works:

1 From Ann Handley’s Everybody Writes

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3) Adopt the Following Interview Tips

Like a journalist, you need to get interesting sound bites from your executives, customers, partners,

and even influencers in your business. Doing so helps to make your story more interesting, with a

human angle that captivates your readers.

Follow these guidelines:

• Conduct extensive background research BEFORE you go into the interview. Use Google to

find out more about the person or the issue.

• Adopt a mixture of both preparation and free-wheeling when you conduct your interview.

Having a list of questions is key. However, you should also be prepared to follow various

tangents if they are relevant to your story.

• Be an advocate for your audience. Whenever you are doing the interview, try to imagine

yourself as your reader or viewer. Would this information be useful to him or her? Is there

something missing?

• Do not worry about showing your ignorance. On occasions where you have to deal with a

very technical or complex issue, your interviewee may cite information that flies way over

your head. Just inform them that the additional clarification will be beneficial for your

readers, and smile sweetly when you ask.

• Opt for one-on-one conversations. Doing so allows you to get better sound bites from your

interviewee as he or she is less likely to feel constrained or unnatural (eg when under the

watchful eyes of other executives or PR folks).

• Converse rather than interview. Remember that you are not asking a job prospect to show

you why he should be hired! Practice what is called laser listening – listen for threads of the

response to naturally pick up in a subsequent question.

• Superlatives are great to generate interview fodder. These are questions like

“What’s the most interesting/best/worst/most controversial/greatest…”

• Focus on the human journey of your interviewee. Questions such as the following are great:

“What led you to becoming _____”

“How were you inspired to do ______”

• Listen more and talk less. Remember that your job as an interviewer is to tease out the gems

from the grit.

4) Fact-Check

Mistakes of any kind will undermine your brand’s credibility in the eyes of any reader. Thus, it is

important for you to do a thorough fact check for all things. Key areas include:

• Company names and titles

• People’s names and titles

• Addresses and other contact information

• Statistics

• Numbers

• Bold facts

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5) Seek Inspiration from the Mundane

Unlike traditional journalists, an inhouse storyteller like you may not be on the scene for a murder,

or be at a court hearing for a sensational corporate scandal.

Never fear! There are still ways to make your story sizzle.

Adopt the following practices:

• Ask yourself what you think as ordinary which can possibly be interesting to an outsider.

• Are there events or activities outside your industry or in the larger world that could serve as

points of inspiration?

• Attend events like trade shows or marketplaces to see if you can draw out content

opportunities.

• Speak to a few people like clients and partners to draw out stories.

• Use analogies or metaphors from popular culture. For example, Jason Miller – a content

strategist from LinkedIn – wrote a piece linking his love for metal music to content

marketing. The title? “5 Rock and Roll Quotes to Inspire Content Marketing Greatness”

• Reflect on your own life, and see if there is something from your childhood or teenage years

which could be relevant and interesting.

6) Get Authentic and Seek Permission

Like a good journalist worth your salt, a brand journalist should seek the permission of people that

you feature. You would also practice the following ethical practices:

• Seek out the best sources for your story, and get as close to the original source as possible.

• Cite the sources of your information, and provide a quote or link to them if possible. This

applies to written content, slides, and online content.

• Curate ethically by crediting the original source, attributing authors prominently in your

article, adding context that is relevant to your readers, and give them a link.

• Be mindful of copyright issues and respect them.

7) Use Data

Ann Handley has a neat way of stating this: “data before declaration”. Use facts like research and

statistics to strengthen your article and give it greater authority and trust.

Here are some good examples of authoritative sources of information:

• Government agencies

• Research reports

• Journals

• Inputs from experts in the field

• Major media sources (eg The Straits Times, Channel News Asia, etc)

• Authoritative NGOs (eg Pew Research)

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HOW TO WRITE POWERFUL HEADLINES2

By now, you ought to know that the headline is the most important piece of writing in a blog. Earlier,

we have seen some examples of headlines and blog topics that you can focus on.

What’s the best way to write a headline? How do you inspire connection and sharing, without being

seen to be duping or letting down your audiences?

Marketing Profs writer extraordinaire Ann Handley advises us to “spend as much time on the

headline as you do on the writing itself”. You should respect the headline as it’s a key element of

your post, article, or other piece of content, which tells your audience what you are going to deliver,

how you are going to deliver it, and why they should keep reading.

Here are some guidelines to consider:

• Create a curiosity gap, but with moderation

Done right, the curiosity-gap approach can inspire and inform and help readers by making it

clear what the piece is about. Buzzfeed and Upworthy are masters of this, although they may be

a little overbearing at times.

• Promise what you are going to deliver

Your headline should promise the reader what you are going to deliver as specifically as possible.

• Place your reader directly into the headline

“15 Ways to Write a Headline” is a boring title because it is not specific enough.

But “7 Ways to Write Headlines that Doctors Would Respond To” will be spot on if you are in the

business of marketing to healthcare practitioners.

• Be economical, and test

Ideally, your headline should not exceed 70 characters. Doing so may get it truncated by the

search engines. However, there are some CMS (eg Wordpress) which allows you to create a

shortened headline for search engines and a different one for the piece itself.

• Use numbers

Ever wonder why list articles work? It is the numbers that grab people’s attention.

PS – using oddball numbers (23 or 19, or 7.5) works better.

• Use lively words

Like all other forms of writing, use adjectives that paint a picture in the minds of your readers.

Include adjectives (where relevant) such as ultimate, brilliant, awesome, intense, hilarious,

smart, critical, surprising. Once again, don’t get too carried away.

2 Source: “Everybody Writes” by Ann Handley

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BLOGGING DO’S AND DON’TS

Unlike writing for an offline audience, blogging requires you to understand some of the unwritten

rules of blogging. Often, these behavioural guidelines are not prescribed by the laws of the land.

Rather, they are more like conventions that you should stick by.

Let us go through each in turn.

Attribute Your Sources

One of the best ways to ensure success in building relationships through social media marketing is to

attribute your sources. Doing so not only sends traffic their way, but is also the right thing to do.

Remember to give credit where credit is due in any written online content – blog posts, eBooks,

slideshares, LinkedIn posts, Facebook posts, and so on. Often, this can be done by incorporating a

simple link within your post to the originating source.

Obtain Relevant Permissions

Wherever possible, try to get permission from your customer or client before you cite them in your

blog post. Also, make sure that the photographs, images, videos, and charts that you use in your

blog do not violate copyright laws.

In other words, make sure that the images you use are offered with appropriate Creative Commons

licenses or royalty-free copyrights

Don’t Discuss Confidential Information

The Internet never forgets. Remember that whatever you publish online can spread (sometimes like

wildlife). Thus, be very careful that you do not publish private and confidential company or personal

information about your employees, customers, competitors or business partners without

permission.

Don’t Attack Others or Air Your Grievances

You would imagine that this should be common sense. However, the truth is that many have taken

to social media with an axe to grind.

While inciting arguments or publishing inflammatory information may work for a celebrity blogger, a

professional like you should refrain from doing so. Besides, you need to be mindful that your online

image will influence how people perceive your company’s brand – and we do want to keep that

spotless don’t we?

Don’t Ignore Your Readers

Hell hath no fury like a reader ignored. Remember that the biggest benefit of social media is to build

relationships. Hence, it makes a lot of sense for you to make an effort to engage our readers and

respond to them in a timely manner. This is important not only because you want to respect and

acknowledge them, but because doing so helps you to build a strong online community.

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ANATOMY OF A PERFECT BLOG POST3

Ever wonder what goes into a hardworking yet hardhitting blog post? Here’s a breakdown of what it

looks like.

Headlines, Feature Image and Social Sharing Buttons

Craft a powerful headline, include the date of your post, embed social sharing buttons, and always

include a feature image. Studies have shown that posts that include images produce 650 per cent

higher engagement than text-only posts4.

3 Source of infographic: http://blog.ispionage.com/anatomy-of-a-perfect-blog-post.html 4 Source: Inc Magazine http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/visual-content-marketing-16-eye-popping-statistics-you-need-to-know.html

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Text Details, Hooks, and Facts

As we go into the text of the blog article itself, do note that readability of your blog post is important

especially since many of your readers will peruse it using their mobiles. Ensure that your first few

sentences are interesting as a lead in to convince people to keep reading.

Do take a stand in your blog post so that people will know where you stand – even if you are wrong.

Strengthen your arguments by citing real facts, data, and examples. This gives your credibility a

boost.

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Formatting with Subheaders, Bullet Points et al

Remember what we learned about skimming and scanning behaviours? Use sub headers to break up

your text, and see if you can weave some SEO magic into them. ☺

Use bullet points and numbered lists to break up long chunks of text and paragraphs. Write in a

conversational manner, like talking to a friend.

More Images and Sub Headers to Break It Up

Yes, we are quite adamant about breaking up those big chunks of text. If you are writing a long blog

post (1,000 words and above), remember to include more images or videos to break up your text.

Adding additional sub headers also help.

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Conclusion and Comments

Make sure that your blog posts have sufficient details for your readers to act on it.

Finally, remember to end your blog post on a high. This will be a good way to wrap up, with a strong

call to action.

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EXERCISE: CREATE A NEW WORDPRESS BLOG AND PUBLISH YOUR FIRST BLOG POST! (STEP-BY-

STEP)

Ok, now that we have learned all we need about blogging, we should put this into practice. Let’s go

through this step-by-step as a class.

1) Visit Wordpress.com

Click on the box to create your new website or blog for free.

2) Select Your Preferred Topic

From the interface below, select from the most suitable topic that you can use for your business

blog. In this case, I chose “Writing and Books”, followed by “Book Reviews & Clubs”.

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Remember that you should consider what your blog will be used for.

3) Choose How You Would Like Your Home Page to Look

There are various grid patterns that you can consider here. I chose the middle option.

4) Choose Your Favourite Theme

In this case, my choice was “Edin”.

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5) Pick a Domain Name

Note that you can choose from either free domains (those with a Mydomain.wordpress.com

appended to it), or you can pay a little bit more for your own domain name (eg Mydomain.com).

In this case, I picked a domain “geekmarketingbooks” and fortunately it is available for FREE with

wordpress.com:

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6) Pick Pricing Plan

Once you’ve gone through that stage, you are asked to consider different options for pricing and

hosting as highlighted below:

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7) Create Account Details

I picked the “Free Plan” and was carried to the next page, where you’re asked to provide your

account log in details.

8) Your Blog/ Website is Created!

Click on the “My Site” tab to get access to all the important bits of your website.

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At this stage, there are a couple of things you need to do:

a) Customise your website or blog with information about your company, the topics covered

and other areas.

b) Include your contact particulars and a map of your business location.

c) Write your first blog post!

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9) Your First Blog Post

Go to “Publish” and click on “Add”, and a blog post box will appear like magic before your very eyes.

Now go ahead and apply what you learn to blog! This section is pretty intuitive for most of us raised

on the “Word” application by Microsoft.

Using Wordpress, write a short 200-to-250-word blog post (about 2 paragraphs or so) from one of

your following topics:

• How to solve your customer’s biggest pain point

• The latest findings in your industry

• A testimonial by a fictitious customer

PS- When you create the blog post, remember the following areas which we’ve discussed above:

1) Pick one of the 17 different blog topics covered

2) Adopt best practices in brand journalism

3) Use the tactics taught to write a powerful headline

4) Structure your blog post according to the best practices, with the following sections:

a. Headlines, feature image, and social sharing buttons

b. Text details, hooks, and facts

c. Subheaders and bullet points

d. Conclusion and comments

PPS – If you wish, you can delete your blog after the workshop. However, my advice is to use this as

much as possible.