Inevitably if you hold a corporate marketing or comms position, you’ll be asked to ramp up or supervise the company blogs. These tips are what I’ve actually used and ended up being pretty effective when I was put in charge of ramping up and maintaining a team of 10+ technology related bloggers and their respective blogs.
1. If they’re apprehensive about the commitment, suggest a blogging buddy to split the duties.
2. Before you decide on a topic and title, research it on Google Adwords and tweak it so it falls into a highly searchable term. Sometimes a slight keyword tweak makes the difference between one hundred and one hundred thousand searches. The best combination is words that are highly searched, and have low competition.
3. Highlight the fact that your blogger has been chosen to blog for their value to the company, as an elite team member and that it elevates their professional status.
4. Ensure them that they don’t always have to come up with original content. They can comment on industry happenings, or reference expert stories and comment on them, interview customers or even invite guest co-bloggers.
5. Start a blog yourself, so that you understand the finer points of blogging and can coach more effectively.
6. Provide feedback to your bloggers on blog success in the form of metrics: how many hits in one week, syndication, comments.
7. Incent with contests and prizes: who gets the most comments, who gets the most reads, etc.
8. Provide best practice training with concrete examples of good blogs.
9. Coach them to give valuable insight that is unique. For example if they write a post about the benefits of desktop virtualization, make sure they talk about a specific instance where they experienced these benefits.
10. Design an editorial calendar to plan not only what’s to come, but also provide timing and cadence, in order to keep the bloggers on task and on time.
And here’s a little bonus for you to send to your bloggers when they are starting out…
Tips on Topic Selection for Bloggers
Select a topic…
1. you know very well and with which you are very comfortable
2. into which you can show insight, experience and have anecdotal references
3. in which you are passionate about learning more
4. that you think your prospects and customers would find valuable
5. framework that will supply multiple blog opportunities
6. that someone else has written about that you can spin a slightly different way or add additional practical insight
7. in Google Adwords that is low on competition and high on search
8. for which there is no struggle for material to write