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Beginner’s Guide
to
Business
Blogging

Presented by
Kim Beatty
thebuz@creativebuz.com
24February2012 to CARAHS.org

Introduction
�į This workshop is for business people who
would like to integrate business blogging
into their marketing arsenal.
We will BRIEFLY be covering:
�į Why you should have a blog
�į How to come up with content
�į How to optimize your blog posts
�į How to post your blog
�į Best Practices

Objectives
�į Showyou the tools you need to get
started, and how to come up with
content

#1: Why you should have a blog for
your business
�į 70% of Canadians say they use social

media

�į Companies that blog have 55% more

website visitors.

�į B2C companies that blog get 88%

more leads/month than those that

don’t.

�į B2B companies that blog get 67% more

leads/month than those that don’t.

�į 61% of businesses said they track what
people are saying about their brand

online.
Source: www.techvibes.com, Hubspot – The State of Inbound Marketing 2011

One of the best ways to generate interest and market your business is by publishing a business blog.
Companies that integrate blogging into their marketing arsenal generate more visitors, more inbound links and more
indexed pages on search engines than companies that don’t.

Blogging does many things for you and your company:

�į It is a long-term marketing strategy so it helps communicate with your customers and prospects as your

company lives, grows and evolves.

�į It helps to drive traffic to your main marketing vehicle, your website.

�į It introduces you as a leader in your profession and gives you another means to earn people’s trust.

�į It helps you stay on top of trends and innovations in your industry by forcing you to research for content

�į It improves your communications skills by writing in a digital medium.

�į It provides you with information about what people are saying about you and what they’re interests are.

�į It gives an opportunity to engage your audience through feedback and comments.

�į A blog that is well optimized and promoted and content-rich will help, over time, increase your business.

Do you remember back in school when you had to write a essay on a topic and didn’t
know where to start? Welcome to blogging for business!
First rule – breathe!
Second rule – don’t panic
Third rule – breathe!
Luckily, starting is the hardest part and it’s best to take the time to make a plan.

By planning your Blog first, you will remove most of the challenges that come with starting a business blog.

Decide on:

�į Blog title

�į Blog Platform (whether it’s on a blogging platform such as Blogger, WordPress or a subdomain on your website)

�į Design of the blog

�į How often you will post

�į Who will be responsible for the Blog

�į Who will write the blog

�į Company policy as to content, comment moderation

�į What will be the content – topic suggestions, ideas, photos/graphics

Creating a roadmap will help you stay on track and less spinning your wheels.

# 2: How to come up with content
�į Ask! Your clients, suppliers, co-workers,

colleagues, friends and family for

suggestions, questions to answer

�į Keep up with trends/issues in your

industry and write about them and your

opinions

�į Let your fingers do the walking – check

out blogs/articles from others in your

industry or trade or speak to experts you

know

�į Have guest bloggers

�į Curation or Aggregation, but don’t Hoard!

Do your research first! Start by answering some of your customers’ most popular questions. Whoever is
your business’ primary source(s) of communication with your customers, suppliers, community – should, for
a couple of days, write down every single question somebody asks them. Ultimately, this will give you a really
rich list to help you generate blogging ideas.
•  Review industry trends
•  Compare prices of products or services in your industry
•  Conduct brief interviews with experts you know
•  Sometimes, you can take something that may have been published or printed, remove some proprietary
information and with a bit of rewording, transform it into a great blog post. Ideally, you’re showcasing the
inside of the brand and your company.
•  Having other industry bloggers to write articles for you. The benefits to you is more rich content, and the
benefits to them is increasing of audience beyond their normal readership and the inbound links, (links
directed to their own blog) will help them rank better on the search engines.
Curation or Aggregation is simply gathering pieces and archiving them on your blog. Don’t hoard, make sure
the articles provide some type of value to your own readers. Ask yourself these questions:
�į Are you saving the reader time by putting all of these resources in one place?
�į Are you offering your own opinion and insight against what somebody else has said?
�į Most people are going to be flattered if you want to share their content. It’s also a great opportunity to
build a relationship with them. The simplest guideline is to “do unto others as you would have done to
yourself”. Make sure you’re following other bloggers’ content usage guidelines, and make sure you
appropriately attribute whatever you post to the original author. When linking to others’ content, it’s
also a good idea to create links that open in a new tab or window.

So you have a plan, ideas for content, the next thing on the list is where to put your
blog.

Besides having your blog on your own website, you should consider also posting on
other sites as well such as CARAHS. Like a spider-web, the more links you have drawing
to your site, the higher you go in the search rankings and the larger the audience you
reach.

Also, if you are not ready with your website, posting in community portals like
CARAHS will get you started in preparation for your own blog.

�į There are several ways you can write your blog and lot will have to do with how
your website is set up.

�į If you don’t have a website, you can integrate your website with your blog, in other
words, build your website in the same platform as your blog.

�į If you have a website, you can set your blog up as a subdomain of your site, or use a
blogging platform and link it to your website.

�į This would be a good time to consult with a web professional such as CreativeBuz,
to help you find a solution that will work best for you.

There are several blogging platforms out there. Platforms are web-based applications that

provide you the tools to add written, video, or add photo content to your own page or

website and archive it on the internet, either on the platform portal or your own domain.

Most are free, though some themes, plugins and widgets can be premium and fee based.

Most commonly used are: Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr. Others: Moveable Type, Expression

Engine, Squarespace, Typepad, Posterous Spaces, Compendium Blogware, Drupal, Joomla,

Weebly, Webnode, Ning

Some of these platforms can be self hosted (you can put them on your own webservers),

while others are hosted on there servers only.

Which one you choose is up to you, they all have benefits and drawbacks, but I suggest that

you stick with the most popular as they are the most supported and highly searchable such as

Wordpress, Blogger, or Tumblr.

Wordpress.com
Wordpress

�į WordPress is a free, open-source
blogging platform that has grown into
a full-fledged content management
system

�į It does have an upgrade option of
$99/yr US

Wordpress.org
�į Or you can host your own
Wordpress site on your own web
server. CARAHS and Benefits for
Women are examples of Wordpress
sites.

Blogger.com
Blogger
�į Google owns Blogger
and has it integrated
with Google
Accounts. The
platform has been
around a while and is
still an excellent
choice.

Tumblr.com
Tumblr
�į Tumblr is one of the
fastest growing
blogging platforms in
2011. It is an
excellent choice for
ecommerce.

Once you have set up your
blogging account, you can
start setting up your
template, keeping in mind
these elements of your blog.

So now you have your blog
planned out, a schedule set,
the platform and the
content. Now it’s time to
add the spices to finish it
off.

# 3: How to optimize your blog
posts
�į Add Social Media Sharing Buttons
�į A picture is worth a thousand words
�į Give it a Handle: Titles need to
Be Clear & Direct – 12 tips on blogging
Create Urgency – Get the Latest Trends
Give advice - How-To’s or How Not To’s
�į Please Format!
�į Use Call to Actions
�į Take advantage of the real estate
�į Entertain
�į Be the Expert

You need to optimize your content to grab people’s attention and rank well in search engines.
�į Give your blog content more reach by including social media sharing buttons (e.g. “Like,” “Share
on LinkedIn,” “Tweet,” etc.) on each post. This will encourage readers to share your content with
their personal networks and expand your reach beyond your own connections.
�į Use Images - Include an image that conveys what the blog post is about. This makes your
content visually appealing to readers and breaks up blocks of text content. A blog post that has
some type of visual element—a photograph, a graphic, or some type of infographic—typically
performs a little better than a post that’s purely text.
�į Eye-Catching & Optimized Titles - Headlines are the most important element of your blog
posts. One of the best things you can do to capture readers’ attention and entice them to view
your post is to give Your blog an awesome title.
�į Formatting – It’s important to break up blocks of text into chunks. Online reading is not like
reading a physical book. The online reader wants to be able to immediately scroll through
content and scan subheaders, bold text, and even bullet points.
�į Call to Action - To maximize lead generation potential, point these links to landing pages for
downloadable offers such as an upcoming or archived webinar, demo requests, free trials, etc.?
�į In the sidebars of the homepage - In addition to the individual blog articles you publish, the
homepage for your blog can help generate leads in itself. The top of your blog as well as its
sidebar are both prime real estate for CTA (call to action) banners and buttons. Feel free to test
and rotate different offers to make sure you’re using this space for maximum lead generation
power.

# 4: How to post your blog

Use Wordpad or Word then paste into this area. Note
the tabs,Visual and HTML.Visual lets you write/see the
way the post would look like; use HTML when you want
to add code. Don’t forget to click the publish button
when you are finished and want it to go onto the site, or
“save draft” if you want to make changes first before it
goes onto the site.

# 5: Best Practices
1.  Think like a Publisher
2.  Build Incoming Traffic from Non-
Branded Keywords
3.  Ask Your Readers What They Want
4.  Connect Blog With Your Website

Summary
�į Start a Business Blog as a long-term promotional tool in your marketing
arsenal.

�į First, take time to make a plan, a roadmap to creating your Business Blog.

�į Research, Learn and Ask your way to finding rich content

�į Decide what blog platform will work best for you and your company

�į Keep in mind the elements of design

�į Optimize your blog for great reading and to increase traffic

�į Write about your core competency, what you know and are good at.

�į Enjoy the experience and share what gives you pleasure in your field of
work!

�į If you need help, ask a marketing professional such as myself.

Example of a successful Blogger

Happy Blogging!
I hope you found this information session
useful. If you have any questions or would
like more help with your website or
business marketing, I would be happy to
assist you.
Thanks!
Kim Beatty
CreativeBuz
thebuz@creativebuz.com

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Beginning A Business Blog

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