The business of blogging

pwcom.co.uk

March 2014

The business of blogging

Paul WilkinsonBA PhD DipPR(CAM) FCIPR

(pwcom.co.uk Ltd)

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• Who am I?

• What is a blog?

• Why blog?

• Choosing your blog platform

• Common features of a blog

• Growing your blog readership

• Ethical blogging

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Who am I?• Author and technology consultant• B2B PR professional since 1987

– in-house: Halcrow, Tarmac, BIW– consultancy clients include:

ACA, AEngD, 4Projects, Conject– B2B: a Wikipedian (2003),

a blogger (2005) and tweeter (2008)

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What is a blog?

• short for “web log”

• a personal journal published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order so the most recent post appears first From: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

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c. 51BC - a long tradition...

• Marcus Tullius Cicero

• Correspondence copied,shared, quoted,comments added...

• Two-way conversationspassed via social networks

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What is a blog?

• Personal blogs

• Corporate or organisational blogs

• by genre (eg: political, health, travel, etc)

• by media type (eg: vlog, photoblog)

• by device (eg: moblog)

From: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

How big is the blogosphere?

• Worldwide:250m blogs on Tumblr and Wordpress alone

• Blogger “most popular” (but no public stats)

• Guess-timate: 400m??

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Influence(most used)

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/truthdefender/technorati-2013-digital-influence-report

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Influence

(most trusted)


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Influence

(shared most)


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Influence

(purchase decision)


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Who blogs?

Influencers


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Which platform?

• Free (advtg) or paid-for?

• Self-hosted?

• Highly configurable?

• Simple to set-up?

• Micro-blogging?

• Own domain URL?

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Example blog features

• Wordpress.org

• Theme: Twenty Ten

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Blog features

• Who are you (solo or team)?

• What will you write about?–real (not anonymous)–show credentials–set expectations

• Link to main website

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Blog features

• Tag cloud–key topics–visual index–big = frequent

• Search

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Blog features

• Archive–search by date

• Categories–Search by theme

• (Search by author)

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Blog features

• RSS subscription–Really simple syndication–Enable feed-reader access

• Email subscription

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Blog features

• Blog roll– links to

other blogs–often

reciprocated

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Blog features

• Social places–where else people

can follow/interact–Twitter feed

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Anatomy of a blog post

title

Share this

Date

Author

Link to past post

External links

Categories

Photo

Tags

Leave acomment

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Google author rank

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Wordpress.org dashboardComments (spam)

Menu Genuine comments, pingbacks

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Wordpress.org plug-ins

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Driving traffic to your blog

• Link blog to website(s) (and vice versa; RSS)

• Share posts

– Twitter

– LinkedIn

– Facebook, Google+, etc

• Publicise blog URL

– on email signature, business card

– on social profiles

– in notes on news releases, etc

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• Blogger outreach

– Cultivate blog-roll links to related blogs, people sharing similar interests

– guest posts

– comment, ask questions

• Re-post versions to other relevant blogs, online communities, etc

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• Re-post via website, e-newsletters

• Offline: magazines, posters, events, etc

• Content-sharing, eg:

– share photos from Flickr account

– embed YouTube videos, SlideShare presentations, etc

• invite people to comment, or to write blog responses

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• Monitor feedback

– What type of posts or content stimulate most comments or links (ping-backs)?

• Monitor traffic (eg: via Google Analytics):

– Which posts get most traffic?

– Which dissemination strategies deliver most traffic?

– Which promotion strategies deliver most traffic?

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Good blogging

• Stay on-topic

• Keep it personal, not corporate

• Post regularly

• Be responsive to comments

• Think long-term

– what outcomes/reactions do you want?

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Good blogging

• Beware:

– 'Flogging' (+ 'splogging')

(fake blogging)

– 'Astro-turfing'

• Take care 'ghost-writing'or re-using others' content

• Have terms of reference,policies regarding subjectmatter, approval processes, etc

• Correct any errors quickly

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Good blogging

• Beware:

– company and/or clientconfidentiality

– copyright issues

– defamation

• Avoid conflicts of interest

– disclosure

• Consider disclaimers

• Above all: honesty and integrity

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Business of blogging - take-aways

What should organisations blog about?

• Not just you/the organisation itself - blowing your own trumpet can be a big turn-off

• Write about what matters to your desired target readers

• Write about topics where your people can offer ideas and analysis readers couldn't get anywhere else (differentiate!)

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Q&AThank you

Contact: Paul WilkinsonWebsite: www.pwcom.co.uk

Tech blog: www.extranetevolution.comPR blog: www.blog.pwcom.co.uk

Email: [email protected]: +44 (0)20 8858 1104

mob: 07788 445920Twitter: @EEPaul

http://www.google.com/profiles/paul.wilkinson19

The business of blogging