Businesses and nonprofit organizations would all benefit from having a blog but often either don’t realize how important it is, or how to go about starting a blog. Jamie explains the value of a blog and how to get a business blog started. Topics will include the reasons to have a blog, choosing topics, writing the blog, and choosing who writes the blog.

1. Why and How Businesses and
Organizations Should Blog

2. Your Presenter
Jamie Smith
Jamie’s Notebook
Jamiesnotebook.com
@JamiesNotebook
jamie@jamiesnotebook.co
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3. What exactly is a blog?
 "Blog" is an abbreviated version of "weblog," which
is a term used to describe websites that maintain an
ongoing chronicle of information.
 Used to provide ongoing updates to the company
website and to share information, insights
Examples of blogs:
http://lindarichardsphotography.com/blog/
http://ontimelogistics.wordpress.com/
http://arvestblog.com/

4. Why Should Businesses Blog?
Search Engine Optimization
(SEO)
Industry leadership
Community building
Brand accessibility
Marketing standard

5. SEO: Spider Food
 Search engine optimization is how people find
your website. People who find your website
are more likely to buy from you.
 Good SEO practices include using keywords
effectively and producing frequent, fresh
content that your audience would want to read
and might be searching for online.
 No way to optimize or keyword for everything
 Focus on long-tail keywords as people use
them more. Think of short phrases people
would search, not just individual words.

6. Industry Leadership
 Posts don’t have to be profound to be
thoughtful.
 Reflect and share, don’t flaunt.
 Post content related to industry news,
which shows your credibility and
knowledge.

7. Community Building
 The comments section invites people to
contribute their thoughts, and comments
beget comments.
 People have a tendency to “congregate”
digitally around blogs or social media
platforms that they mutually enjoy. Build
that meeting place for your audience
with fresh, interesting content.

8. Brand Accessibility
 Your company is made up of human
beings, show it!
 Highlight employees, provide personal
insights, and other glimpses into your
company culture.
 Blogs help take away the “antiseptic
feel” of a faceless corporation and helps
show the humans behind the brand.
 People do business with people,
especially in small business.

9. Marketing Standard
 Blogging is a current content marketing
standard and for good reason. B2B
marketers that use blogs receive 67%
more leads than those that do not.
Marketers who have prioritized blogging
are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI.
 People have come to expect companies to
engage them using blogs and social media.
If you don’t keep up, it will give the
perception that you don’t care.

10. Where Do I Start?
Using WordPress? You’re ahead of
the game. WordPress makes it easy
to add a blog to an existing (or new)
website.
Make sure your site/blog is mobile
friendly so Google doesn’t punish
you in the search rankings.

11. In-house or Outsource?
In-house Outsource
 Pro: Someone within your
company is going to know
more intimately about
your culture and
processes (requiring less
research)
 Con: Current employees
already have duties or are
not experienced in
business blogging
 Pro: Outsourcing lets
someone who is
experienced, efficient, and
professional manage the
blog aspect of your branding
 Con: Someone who is not
within the business/industry
will need more research time
including potential
interviews, etc.

12. What Do I Say?
 Topics can cover many areas of your
business:
Internal news – sales, new products,
company philosophy
External, industry news – what’s new
or in the news in your industry? Reflect
on the trends and offer insights.

13. What do I say (continued)
Community news and events,
especially if a particular cause closely
relates to your business.
Personal/personnel news – announce
the birth of a new baby or an
employee’s son’s graduation. (This will
depend on the nature of the business
and employees must give permission.)

14. Three popular post types
 Michael Hyatt
(www.michaelhyatt.com) offers
great advice on structuring three
different kinds of blog posts:
The “how to” post
The “list” post
The “review” post

15. How Do I Say It?
 Key components of a blog post:
 350 – 700 words
 Attention-getting, keyworded title
 Open paragraph has to go immediately to the point
 Relevant image(s)
 Personal experience (when appropriate)
 Main body – make it easy to skim using
subheadings, bullet points, etc.
 Close with a discussion question (when
appropriate)

16. Promoting the Blog
 Integrate blog with appropriate social
media
 Make sure the blog link is visible from
your website’s homepage and also listed
on pertinent websites
 Integrate with company/organization
newsletter
 Use blog to generate subscribers and
build email lists

17. Resources
Reputable sources for finding ideas, help and other
resources:
 Hubspot.com
 Mashable.com
 Grammarist.com
 Socialmediaexaminer.com
 Blog.CollectiveBias.com
 MichaelHyatt.com
 Zemanta (pictures)
 Commons.wikimedia.org (pictures)

18. Online is forever
and what you say on
your business blog
affects your brand!