A Blog As A Hot Media Property

How to Make Your Blog the Next
Hot Media Property
CRITICAL MENTION WEBINAR
January 9, 2013

Sandra Fathi
President, Aﬀect
sfathi@aﬀect.com
@sfathi
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL

Aﬀect Strategies PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL March 4, 2010

YOUR BLOG: THE NEXT HOT MEDIA PROPERTY

AGENDA

•  Blog best practices
•  Case study: Sophos Naked Security
•  Q&A

© Aﬀect PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL January 9, 2013


BLOG BEST PRACTICES:
FOUNDATIONS FOR SUCCESS

Goals & Objectives
•  Set clear goals and objectives for success
•  Understand your agreed upon Key Performance Metrics (KPIs)
•  Dedicate human, and ﬁnancial resources
•  Secure executive support




All the Right Stuﬀ
•  Choose a reliable, easy to use platform
•  Create an editorial proﬁle (topics of focus and topics to avoid)
•  Assemble team of bloggers and/or third party contributors
•  Develop a calendar to plan blog content and assign topics
accordingly




Looks Do Maer
•  Professional design = credible on the web
•  Images, video and other multimedia grab and retain aention
•  Make it personal – if it’s an opinion, I want to know who’s talking




Content Really is King
•  Make News
•  Break News
•  Aggregate News
•  20-80% Rule
•  Trend Intervention
•  Story Hijacking
•  Analysis: What does this mean to me? What does this mean to
your business?




If You Build It, No One Will Come – You Must Promote the Hell Out of It!
•  Public Relations/Media Relations
•  Social Media
•  Good ‘Old Fashioned Marketing
•  Syndication




Share the Love
•  Blog Roll
•  Blog Commenting Campaign
•  Linkbacks/Trackbacks
•  Guest Bloggers




Engage Your Audience
•  Create a community – don’t just sell subscriptions
•  Ask questions, polls, surveys
•  Accept user generated content (UGC)***
•  Allow readers to steer content/suggest topics
•  Invite others to weight in on your ideas/opinions/share experiences
•  Give back to your audience (exclusive access, freebies, information
etc.)




•  Measure
•  Tweak
•  Measure
•  Tweak
•  Measure
Is there a paern here?



CASE STUDY: SOPHOS NAKED
SECURITY
GOALS

•  Make Naked Security the most influential and trusted security
resource available online
•  Drive traffic to Naked Security through strategic media relations
•  Position Naked Security bloggers as leading experts in the field
•  Create ongoing opportunities for thought leadership through an
aggressive news reaction campaign



GLOBAL BLOGGERS

Naked Security bloggers were stationed across the globe to react to
breaking security news. Aﬀect utilized these experts to establish a 24/7
news cycle.
Graham Cluley
Senior Technology Consultant
UK

Chester Wisniewski
Senior Security Advisor Paul Ducklin
Vancouver Head of Technology
Australia



GLOBAL BLOGGERS

Naked Security also tapped into notable industry experts to provide
guest commentary on the blog. These individuals regularly shared insight
on breaking security news in addition to the main bloggers.

Bob Burls
UK

Lisa Vaas
Boston

Paul Roberts
Boston


HOT FOR SCANDAL

Aside from bread and buer IT and consumer-related security issues,
Naked Security bloggers wrote stories that appealed to the masses.
Regular topics include:
Celebrities Social Network Fails Hacking Gangs



SPECIALIZED CONTENT

In addition to regular blog posts, Naked Security also oﬀered its readers
a variety of custom content on all things B2B and consumer security.

Podcasts Instructional Videos Reports



AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

Audience engagement was another critical success factor in driving
traﬃc to the blog and increasing repeat visits. Naked Security created a
“cult community” through:
Polls Giveaways Feedback/Ratings



MEDIA RELATIONS

Media relations was critical for establishing Naked Security as the
leading online source for security news and driving traﬃc to the blog.
Media coverage was achieved in three ways:
•  Story Hijacking: Jumping on breaking news to provide expert
commentary, seing the stage for day two stories
•  Trend Intervention: Using industry trends to create longer-term
thought leadership opportunities
•  Branded Reports: Producing data or information unique to Sophos



MEDIA RELATIONS

Example: Story Hijacking Resulting Coverage (Sample)



MEDIA RELATIONS

Example: Trend Intervention Resulting Coverage (Sample)



MEDIA RELATIONS

Example: Branded Reports Resulting Coverage (Sample)



SOCIAL MEDIA

Naked Security also uses its popular social media presences to promote
content on the blog and drive traﬃc to the site.
203K+ likes

5,300K+ subscribers
10K+ followers

2,300K+ follows
1,600K+ members


TRAFFIC RESULTS

Today, Naked Security is by far the top go-to source for security news
and insights online.

Website UV/Month*
hp://nakedsecurity.sophos.com 800,000
hp://csoonline.com 531,000
hp://darkreading.com 312,000
hp://scmagazineus.com 92,000
*Average per month

1.8 Million Page
Views!


MEDIA RESULTS

Additionally, media coverage consistently surpassed 75 hits per month,
totaling more than 2,200 hits over a 21-month period.
Total Hits Hits in Target Pubs
250

200

150

100

50

0
Mar-11
Apr-11
May-11
Jun-11
Jul-11
Aug-11
Sep-11
Oct-11
Nov-11
Dec-11

Feb-12

Jul-12
Jun-12
Apr-12

Aug-12

Nov-12
Jan-12

Mar-12

May-12

Oct-12
Sep-12

Q&A


How to Make Your Blog the Next
Hot Media Property
Slides Available on Slideshare.net/sfathi

Sandra Fathi
President, Aﬀect
sfathi@aﬀect.com
@sfathi

A Blog As A Hot Media Property

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