This deck is meant to be an overview on how to get started with blogging.

1. Social Media Brownbag:
Blogging Best Practices
June 20, 2013
Alison Yu

2. Agenda
• What is a blog?
• Blogging platforms
• Informatica Perspectives
overview
• How to set up a blog
• Writing a blog post
• How to promote your blog
post

3. What is a blog?
• An online
platform that
consists of short
entries or “posts”
• All entries or
posts revolve
around one key
topic
• Can be the work
of a single
person, or many
people

4. Blogging Platforms
Blogger
• Powered by Google
• Advantages:
• Use free blogger templates or easily customize your blog
themes using CSS or HTML code
• Can use a custom domain
• Search engine friendly and a high ranking for your content
• Limitless themes
• Disadvantages:
• Chance of your blogs being shut down any time by Google
without prior notification
• Can’t integrate social media channels

5. Blogging Platforms
WordPress
• Advantages:
•
•
•
•
•
Wide variety of plugins and widgets*
Reliable hosting
High level of security
Social media integration
• Can share posts through a widget
Disadvantages
• Limits storage space and design
• Can’t host videos on the site, must embed them into your post

6. Blogging Platforms
LiveJournal!
• Advantages:
• Large volume of readers and users [10M-100M/month]
• Offers many blog templates
•
• Drag and drop, no coding
• Can customize with HTML if desired
Disadvantages:
• Doesn’t allow you to integrate social channels
• Can be slow and cumbersome

7. Setting up a blog
• Choose a theme that interests you
• Make sure that you have a constant stream of new content
• EX. A culinary blog where you teach people how to make certain
dishes
• EX. A blog on your industry (big data, cloud, MDM, etc.)
Select a blogging platform to use
•
• Customize your domain (if possible)
• Create the look and feel of your blog
• Start posting!

8. Writing a blog post
• Ground rules
• 500-700 words
• Include multimedia when possible
• Experts predict by 2015, the majority of SEO results will be
video*
• Catchy, on topic title
• Compelling content

9. Write Your Blog
• Write about a trending topic or something that is
noteworthy
• Add value to your readers
• Share your point of view about a topic, remember what is
obvious to you might not be obvious to someone else
• Write in an authentic tone
• Remember this is a blog post, not a press release – let your
personality show through in your writing!

10. Optimize Your Blog for Search
• Have keywords in mind
• Include keywords in:
•
• Title
• Heading
• Body
• Metadescription
• URL
Hyperlink within your blog
• Make sure the text matches the link
•
• EX. PowerCenter links to the PowerCenter product page
Categorize your blog post – make it easier to find within
your blog
• Tag your blog with keywords

11. Posting Your Blog
• Timing is everything
• Think about where your core audience is
• What is your content about?
• More technical or business related posts do better in the
morning – this is when journalists are looking for compelling
content to write about
• More personal interest related posts do better in the
afternoon/evening when people get off of work and are looking
for a leisurely read
• If you are posting on Perspectives make sure to reserve a time
and date

12. Promote Your Blog
• Promote via other social channels
• Leverage your social channels to spread the word widely –
LinkedIn Groups for technical/business blog posts are a
great way to generate more readership
• If you blog for Perspectives, the blog automatically will be
distributed from Informatica’s twitter and facebook profiles
• Add your blog to the Informatica Conversation Calendar
• Provide a set of tweets to promote and send to Alison by EOD
Thursday the week prior
• Comment on other relevant blogs
• Add value to them, do NOT just spam!
• Comment on something that they wrote and
follow up with a teaser and link to your blog

13. Questions?