Presentation given at Workplace Trends "Social Media for business" event, held at Hermann Miller, Aldwych, London on 20 March 2014

1. pwcom.co.uk
March 2014
The business of blogging
Paul Wilkinson
BA PhD DipPR(CAM) FCIPR
(pwcom.co.uk Ltd)

2. 2
• Who am I?
• What is a blog?
• Why blog?
• Choosing your blog platform
• Common features of a blog
• Growing your blog readership
• Ethical blogging

3. 3
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)

4. 4
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

5. 5
c. 51BC - a long tradition...
• Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Correspondence copied,
shared, quoted,
comments added...
• Two-way conversations
passed via social networks

6. 6
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

7. How big is the blogosphere?
• Worldwide:
250m blogs on Tumblr and
Wordpress alone
• Blogger “most popular” (but no public stats)
• Guess-timate: 400m??

8. 8
Influence
(most used)
Source:
http://www.slideshare.net/truthdefender/t
echnorati-2013-digital-influence-report

9. 9
Influence
(most trusted)
Source:
http://www.slideshare.net/truthdefender/t
echnorati-2013-digital-influence-report

10. 10
Influence
(shared most)
Source:
http://www.slideshare.net/truthdefender/t
echnorati-2013-digital-influence-report

11. 11
Influence
(purchase decision)
Source:
http://www.slideshare.net/truthdefender/t
echnorati-2013-digital-influence-report

12. 12
Who blogs?
Influencers
Source:
http://www.slideshare.net/truthdefender/t
echnorati-2013-digital-influence-report

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Which platform?
• Free (advtg) or paid-for?
• Self-hosted?
• Highly configurable?
• Simple to set-up?
• Micro-blogging?
• Own domain URL?

14. 14
Example blog features
• Wordpress.org
• Theme: Twenty Ten

15. 15
Blog features
• Who are you (solo or team)?
• What will you write about?
–real (not anonymous)
–show credentials
–set expectations
• Link to main website

16. 16
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

20. 20
Blog features
• Social places
–where else people
can follow/interact
–Twitter feed

21. 21
Anatomy of a blog post
title
Share this
Date
Author
Link to
past post
External links
Categories
Photo
Tags
Leave a
comment

22. 22
Google author rank

23. 23
Wordpress.org dashboard
Comments
(spam)
Menu Genuine comments, pingbacks

24. 24
Wordpress.org plug-ins

25. 25
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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Driving traffic to your blog
• 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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Driving traffic to your blog
• 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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Driving traffic to your blog
• 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?

31. 31
Good blogging
• Beware:
– 'Flogging' (+ 'splogging')
(fake blogging)
– 'Astro-turfing'
• Take care 'ghost-writing'
or re-using others' content
• Have terms of reference,
policies regarding subject
matter, approval processes, etc
• Correct any errors quickly

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Good blogging
• Beware:
– company and/or client
confidentiality
– 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!)

34. 34
Q&A
Thank you
Contact: Paul Wilkinson
Website: www.pwcom.co.uk
Tech blog: www.extranetevolution.com
PR blog: www.blog.pwcom.co.uk
Email: paul.wilkinson@pwcom.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 8858 1104
mob: 07788 445920
Twitter: @EEPaul
http://www.google.com/profiles/paul.wilkinson19
The business of
blogging