PowerPoint Presentation

Blogging 101: First steps to stardomBill Sheridan, CAEBusiness Learning InstituteHi, everyone Im Bill Sheridan with the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute.

Im here today to give you a really brief crash-course on blogs.

In the interest of full disclosure, I love blogs. I co-write the MACPAs blog, CPA Success, and nothing has been as important to my career and as personally satisfying as blogging. It has really changed the way in which I do my job, and I think it has changed the way in which the MACPA connects to its members in a really positive way.

Peoples views on blogs have evolved over the years. Early on, I think a lot of folks looked at blogs as these narcissistic outlets for people with inflated senses of self worth. Today, blogs have really gone mainstream and are considered entertaining and important sources of content and information. Bloggers themselves are now often afforded the same rights and privileges as mainstream journalists.

And businesses are using blogs to great affect as a ways of informing and connecting with their audiences.

Were going to start at the beginning. Lets take a look at our agenda..1

Introduction to blogs

Why should you blog?

Benefits of blogging

Examples of great business blogs

First steps

Resources for beginners

The bottom lineTodays agendaBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

Were going to start by defining our terms what is a blog? Well give a brief introduction to blogs and what they do.

Next, well look at some of the reasons by you should consider blogging whats in it for you? What are some of the benefits of blogging? And there are a lot of them.

Next, Im going to take a quick look at some examples of great business blogs. Whos doing it right, and what are they trying to accomplish?

Then its on to the nuts and bolts of getting started: What are the first steps you need to take to get started down the blogging path?

Ill take a look at some valuable resources that will help you as you get started.

And then well sum everything up as neatly as we can.2Video: Blogs in Plain English, from CommonCraft.com: bit.ly/ft5NMJ

Bill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

But lets get started with a really easy-to-understand, simple explanation of blogs and blogging.3Whats a blog?A Web site of news and commentary that allows readers to comment on what they are reading.

Bill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

4So, lets start defining our terms.

First of all, what is a blog?

As the video explained, blog is short for Web log. They are Web sites of news and commentary that allow readers to give feedback about what they are reading.

Now, I love this video because it explains things in well, in plain English. The problem is that its 5 years old now, and some of the numbers have changed.

Most important, the number cited in the video 70 million blogs has more than doubled in the past 5 years. There are now more than 164 million blogs out there, read by more than 123 million people.

So many people still consider blogs a new trend. But believe it or not, blogs have been around for more 13 years. They are an accepted form of communication and more and more often, they are an expected form of communication. Ignore them at your own peril, because they are here to stay.

So if youre looking for reasons why you should be blogging, theres one your audience expects its.Why blog? Establish your company as a thought leader Reinvent your marketing strategy Build communities and improve customer relations Control Expand your brand

Bill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

5Establish your company as a thought leader. Were all experts in something. Blogs give you the opportunity to share that expertise with large audiences and communicate directly with that audience. We can use blogs to create niche content that promotes our expertise and, at the same time, our businesses. Informative, thought-provoking blog posts about issues that your audiences care about tend to spread quickly throughout the blogosphere. And, because of the great search engine results blogs receive, you will drive traffic to your company.

Reinvent your marketing and communications strategy. With blogs, you can:-- Bypass the media and take your message directly to the public -- and get feedback in the process. It provides real-time communication with your audiences and that includes not only current and potential customers, but their clients, investors, and dont forget employees. A lot of blogs are being used very effectively as internal communications tools.

-- Great way to quickly publish company news in real time, and to get that news out to the world quickly. Blogs are known as search engine darlings. Search results are dominated by blogs. Its amazing the kind of traffic you can push to your site through search engines. And because of that, you can bypass normal channels to get the word out. You no longer have to write a press release and hope the media run it. You can publish it yourself.

-- Blogs can be great marketing tools as long as the content is not blatant marketing. Blog readers are a finicky bunch and, as a rule, they dont like to read sales pitches.

Build communities and improve customer relations. The readerships of successful corporate blogs include engaged customers or potential customers who are passionate about your company and its products and services. Blogs often turn readers in champions for your company especially if youre giving them content that they care about and that they cant get anywhere else.

Next is the notion of control. Right now, you have none. People are talking about your company RIGHT NOW, and you don't even know it. But with blogs, and specifically with the Comments feature, you can join the conversation and get your messaging out. It gives you an element of control over the conversation that you didnt have before.

-- Ability to quickly address positive and negative feedback.

-- Market research: Gather feedback from customers, other key constituencies. Posting questions to your blog and gauging reactions by seeing how your readers are answering those questions. And it doesnt cost anything. Market research is notoriously expensive, so this might be a way to get actionable results at a fraction of the cost.

Expand your brand. If people like your blog, theyre going to tell others about it. More people are going to know your and what you do.Companies that blog have 55 percent more visitors to their official Web sites.

97 percent more links to their Web sites.

434 percent more indexed pages. Source: HubSpot

Bill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

6And then theres this: Because the search engines love blogs so much, companies that blog have:

-- 55 percent more visitors to their Web sites.-- 97 percent more links to their Web sites, which is a primary factor in where your Web site shows up in search results. (Want a higher ranking, get quality links to your site).-- 434 percent more indexed pages. this is the number of pages that show up in search engines.

Bottom line: Having a effective, well-written blog with fresh, relevant content will help your company get found. Many, many more people will know who you are.

Video: Seth Godin and Tom Peters on Blogging, from Innerpreneur: bit.ly/fK1gUv Bill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

And if you dont believe, listen to what Seth Godin and Tom Peters have to say.7SethGodinsBlogSource: HubSpotBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

SethGodin.Typepad.com8So whos doing it right? Who can you turn to for inspiration?

It depends on what you want to accomplish with your blog.

Do you want something thats short, sweet, concise, to the point? Something that delivers big ideas in little posts? Then check out Seth Godins blog. Hes a master at making you think without wasting your time.Southwest AirlinesSource: HubSpotBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

BlogSouthwest.com9Do you have an exceptional company culture and want to tell the world about it?

Check out how Southwest Airlines does it. This is a great blog that tells really interesting stories and ties them all back into the companys culture and values. Really good stuff here.

MyStarbucksIdea.force.comStarbucksBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

Want to try your hand at a little crowdsourcing? Getting ideas from your customers for how you can better serve them?

Take a look at My Starbucks Idea. Starbucks customers can submit ideas for new coffee and drinks, new beverages and teas, new food, new merchandise, new music, new technology you name it. And Starbucks actually puts some of the best ideas into action.

This is a great example of using a blog to make your customers feel like they have ownership in your company.

10Direct2Dell.comDellBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

Looking to improve your customer service? Dell is the poster child for better customer service through blogging.

In 2004, Dell faced a huge Internet backlash when it tried to force a former employee to remove a blog post that exposed some of the inner workings of Dell pricing models.

In response, the company not only backed down, it reversed course and embraced the social web as a way of addressing customer issues.

Its blog, Direct2Dell, is the result. It gives customers a voice and lets the company address complaints in a very public way. Its corporate transparency at its best. Best of all, it turned raving complainers into loyal fans.

Its amazing what can happen when you actually listen to your customers, isnt it?

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www.blogs.marriott.comMarriottBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

Do you have a CEO who is dying to start blogging?

Thats fantastic! Encourage it! Some of the most successful corporate blogs are ones that are actually written by CEOs. It gives a very real human voice to what could otherwise be construed as yet another corporate megaphone. The more personal you can make your blog, the better and who better to make it completely personal than your CEO?

Marriott is a great example.

Schaefer: Bill Marriott is one of the most famous corporate bloggers in the world. Yes, the company chairman actually does his own posts, dictating them on a weekly basis. This personal involvement has won the site loyal fans since they know they are getting the word from a real executive a powerful point of differentiation. The company has reported generating millions in direct sales from this blog and has also used this as a platform to set the record straight in the event of a bombing or hostage situation involving one of their properties.12

Manpower: www.manpowerblogs.comGoal: Thought leadership

Schaefer: Heres how blogger Mark Toth describes the mission of the blog: When we asked visitors to the Manpower US website what information they wanted most, the answer was employment law. This bLAWg is an attempt to meet that demand and engaging and educational content. You mean they actually listened to customers and created a blog around their information needs? Seems like such a simple idea but unfortunately ignored by most companies.

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This is according to the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts:

One hundred-fifteen (23%) of the Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing blog. This is up from 16% in 2008.Blogging varied by industry type. As might be expected, companies in the computer industry like H-P, Dell and Oracle have the most blogs (11).The larger the Fortune 500 company, the more likely to blog.About 35% of the top 100 companies blog.The Fortune 500 companies are blogging at a lower rate (23%) than the fast-growing Inc. 500 companies (37%).

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And CPAs are right there in the thick of things, too. There are hundreds of really good accounting-related blogs out there.15Blogging: First stepsBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

1. Decide:

What are your goals?What will you write about?Who are your bloggers?Are you committed?

The first steps involve making some important decisions:

What are your goals? What do you want to accomplish? Do you want to address customer service issues? Do you want to inform? Be very clear about what you want your blog to do.Be clear on the type of content youll give your readers. Choose something you know about and are passionate about and are excited about and stick to that. Dont vear off into a million different directions. It will only confuse your reader.Who will be your bloggers? Make sure its someone who wants to do it? If you try to bolt this task onto someone elses job description, you are doomed to fail. It wont get done.Are you committed to making it work? Because theres a lot of work involved. Some experts claim that it takes up to three years of consistent blogging to gain the attention of your audience. Are you willing to put that kind of time in? Because that means making blogging part of your life.

If the answer is no, dont bother. The Internet is littered with the corpses of deserted, outdated blogs and they will do your brand more harm than good.

16Blogging: First stepsBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

2. Decide:

What platform should you use?

TypepadWordpressBloggerTumblrCreate a unique URL.

Its all a matter of personal preference, really.17Blogging: First stepsBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

3. Understand:

Blogging takes time and hard work.

Update frequently, consistently.Become a blogger.Be human.Be clear.Edit.Promote everywhere.These things arent easy even for the most gifted bloggers. The answer is practice, repetition, just doing it, making it part of your DNA.

Some tips from successful bloggers:

-- Update your blog frequently and consistently. More people will read it, more search engines will find it, and if they like what they see, people will keep coming back looking for more.

-- Become a blogger. By that, I mean make blogging part of your day. Constantly scan and think about how you can turn everyday experiences into a good blog post. And write all the time the more you write, the better a writer you become.

-- Be human. Write conversationally. Write the way you talk. Avoid corporate-speak. Nobody wants to come to your blog to read a press release. They want to think, to be entertained, to be informed, and to hear what YOU think. Dont be afraid to give your opinion. Thats how you become a thought leader.

-- Be clear. Dont confuse your readers. When they come to your blog, they should know instantly what theyre getting who you are, who your company is, what youre writing about. Use a clean, uncluttered design. Dont clutter up the blog with a lot of bells and whistles. Keep it simple.

-- Edit. Good grammar and spelling wont win you legions of new fans, but bad grammar and typos will drive readers away FAST. Use spell check and have someone else read what youve written before you post it.

-- Promote everywhere. Share your posts on Facebook and Twitter. Put your blog URL on business cards. Link to it on your home page. Leave comments on other related blogs. Put links to your blog posts in your e-newsletters. Remember, no one knows you have a blog until you tell them about it.

18Advice for beginners

Blogging tips for beginners, from ProBlogger: cpa.tc/beginners How to start a blog, from WikiHow: WikiHow.com/Start-a-BlogTop 10 blogging tips for beginners, from BlogHer: cpa.tc/top10tips 9 tips to start blogging successfully, from ProBlogger: cpa.tc/9tipsThe Corporate Blogging Book, by Debbie Weil: www.debbieweil.com/bookSocial Media Strategies for Professionals, by Michelle Golden: amzn.to/e1N6VJ

Blogging platforms

Typepad: TypePad.comWordPress: WordPress.orgBlogger: Blogger.comTumblr: Tumblr.com

Blog readers

Google Reader: Google.com/Reader Bloglines: BlogLines.com FeedReader: FeedReader.com

ResourcesBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

Advice for beginners:

That first couple Blogging Tips for Beginners, from ProBlogger, and How To Start A Blog, from WikiHow are great. They include links to resources about designing your blogging, finding ideas to write about, choosing a domain name and a blogging platform. Just a ton of great stuff there.19Keys to blogging success

Content

and commitmentBill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

20Keys to blogging success.

Content. It starts and ends here. If you dont write something worth reading, nothing else matters.Commitment. Creating a blog is easy it literally takes about 5 minutes. The hard part is maintaining it and making it succeed. Technorati estimates there are nearly 113 million blogs in existence today. That sounds impressive, but what it really means to me, anyway is that theres a lot of garbage out there in the blogosphere. The great blogs are rare, because they take a lot of hard work. But the payoffs can be substantial.Download these slides:Slideshare.net/BillSheridan

Bill Sheridan, CAEThe Business Learning Institute

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Flickr.com/photos/Sheridan21Keys to blogging success.

Content. It starts and ends here. If you dont write something worth reading, nothing else matters.Commitment. Creating a blog is easy it literally takes about 5 minutes. The hard part is maintaining it and making it succeed. Technorati estimates there are nearly 113 million blogs in existence today. That sounds impressive, but what it really means to me, anyway is that theres a lot of garbage out there in the blogosphere. The great blogs are rare, because they take a lot of hard work. But the payoffs can be substantial.