Blogging for your business is one of the most beneficial social media activities you can do, but only if its done the right way. A properly executed corporate blog will increase SEO by having so much great targeted content, promote thought leadership across your organization, and most importantly bring in more leads by proving value to prospects. What can you do to guarantee success in corporate blogging?
- Get on a schedule and stick with it
While it may be tough, getting on a schedule and sticking with it is one of the most important aspects of corporate blogging. Days and weeks can go by pretty easily if there’s no schedule in place. Take advantage of down-time by stock-piling posts. Use any available tools and resources to assist in creating content and roll it out in a timely fashion. Just stick to a schedule, it will pay off. - Get social everywhere
An important part of developing a blog following is going beyond just posting. If you want to get readers, you need to be a reader. Comment on other blog posts, tweet other articles and don’t be afraid to share links on your own blog. Just because you direct someone off of your blog doesn’t mean they’ll never come back. If there is value in linking out, do it. - Offer something to readers (ie: Free information, white papers, etc.)
Sure there are a handful of readers who are very interested in what you do and how well you do it, but that’s a small fraction of the online population. Most are interested in finding out ways to help themselves or their business. By proving to be a valuable resource you are more likely to gain readers and consequently more inbound leads. Offer a free white paper in exchange for contact information or provide articles that give real suggestions that can impact a readers business. It’s simple: You need to give a little, to get a lot. - Corporate doesn’t mean “Corporate”
Just because your business is serious doesn’t mean your blog can’t have personality. The best advice is to save the cold hard copy for your website, and inject a little bit of fun into your blog. Use a more playful and editorial tone in your postings and show the character of your employees that keeps you in business. Having an office party? Take some flicks and post them on the blog, link your Twitter account to your blog and show your tweets in a fun way. Get creative, it doesn’t need to be so cold. - Incorporate video any way you can
The web is still video crazy, so incorporate videos into your blogging mix as much as possible. If that means interviews with experts in your industry, product demonstrations, how-to videos, or even fun office vids, incorporate video into the mix as much as possible. Not only does it provide a nice break in all the text, but it also provides a new avenue for promotions spanning new social media channels like YouTube and Vimeo. - Be a “Guest”
Guest blogging can be a great way to expose your content and blog to additional readers. Leverage the social connections you make through commenting on other blogs and linkedin to seek out guest blogging opportunities. Target blogs that have a readership you can provide value to and don’t be afraid to submit content for guest blogging consideration. - Lists are essential
If you’re reading this, point proven. Lists are a great way to attract readers. The web is full of content, so bulletpoint style and lists help readers digest information a lot easier. While in-depth newspaper-like articles may be great reads, lists can be just what readers are looking for and also make content creation a breeze. Top 10, 5 Best, 20 Worst, they all work.
Just remember that it’s always about quality, usable content. If a person doesn’t want to read it, neither will a robot, so don’t write for SEO only.
Now that you have some tips on execution, learn how to manage social media more efficiently as well as how a robust corporate blog equals more leads.
