Dana Blankenhorn of Moore’s Law lays out seven easy to follow tips for corporate blogs. I’ve been reading more of Dana’s blog and am more often than not in line with what he has to say. The same goes for this post.

Corporate blogs are most definitely a different thing than personal blogs. They have rules they must follow, sorry to say. Corporations can’t just go spilling out all their secrets. Nor can they assign blogging blindly to just anyone in the company (and here I refer to the blog which represents the corporate opinions and news, not those created by employees and supported by corporations). Your PR guy will usually give it the wrong voice and your marketing associate will use it too often to sell. Lastly, corporations don’t automatically get that trust we are so willing to afford to most bloggers. So, there is a fine line to tread in how to write your corporate blog, and what to write about.

So, what do you do? You must create a blog that gives out the information you want to share in a fun and inviting way. It is not just any press release or e-newsletter. It is a conversation. And that gives it a whole other voice.

Well, Dana has 7 great tips that I’m going to share with you:

1. Have an outsider do it. An insider has better things to do and they’re too close to the story.
2. Make the blog about your space, the lifestyle or industry you’re a part of, and not about the company.
3. Think of the blogger as a reporter. Encourage insiders with something to say to run their stuff by him (or her), but to understand it’s going to be dressed to go out before it goes out.
4. Lay down the “thou shalt nots” beforehand, but don’t pre-screen. Nothing takes the life out of a blog more than editing.
5. Put the blog in a unique, corporate name, so if you fire the blogger you lose no equity in the blog.
6. Encourage feedback, and let the blogger pass it along through the chain of command. The blogger’s supervisor can be a gatekeeper for this communication.
[7.] Most of all, know what the blog’s going to be about, its purpose and goals, before you start out. Have measureable goals, evaluate progress based on the goals. And pay enough to make this worth a blogger’s while — think of it as corporate outreach, which is different than corporate communication because it’s pro-active.

Bolding is my effect.

What Dana puts forth is a strong argument for professional bloggers. We are experts in our field. We write well, we write often, and we know how to maneuver in the blogosphere. We are dedicated to fostering communication and to achieving corporate goals. And, more than anything, we fill a need. We offer an outside, less biased perspective which can lend credibility to your blogging. We are able to gather news, digest it in an unbiased way, and create a discussion around it.

Great work Dana in outlining the market for professional bloggers!

I have taken the leap and have decided to turn ProBlogger.

What does this mean? That I will be officially working for myself as a professional blogger and consultant on a full-time basis. After much debate with myself, I decided to take the leap and see what I could make of the opportunities presented to me. I will be “officially” ProBlogger starting on Wednesday.

I’m really excited to be joining the force of professional bloggers along with others such as Darren Rowse and Tris Hussey. I also feel proud to be one of the first few women to take the leap into professional blogging.

So, here is a wrap up of some of what I’ll be doing. I’ll continue to write on all of our blogs, and maybe add a few more to the “Blogaholics Network.” I’m going to ramp up the services offered by our ‘official’ company name: Blogaholics Consulting. Our consulting site will continue to be Blogging Help. Some of the services that I’ll be offering include:

• blog writing on pretty much any topic
• blog setup
• SEO with blogs
• training sessions (blog intro, blogging basics, listening to the blogosphere)
• public speaking
• event blogging
• media purchases for blogs (read below)

At the same time that I’ll be monetizing our own blogs, I will be helping other bloggers out there achieve high yield sponsorship. Putting my marketing hat on to ensure that both the advertisers and the bloggers get the optimal deal. Right now I’m working with Darren Rowse for sponsorship on his Digital Photography Blog. It’s been great so far.

Ok, if that list is not long enough, I’m also going to be working with Qumana and Qumana Services. The latter is a bit of a duplication of the above services, but I’ll have the chance to work more closely with Tris Hussey to really tag team the effort. I’ll be working with Qumana on a blogging/marketing type role. Tris & I came up with the lovely title of Senior Blog Marketing Specialist. Very cool. I’m really looking forward to contributing to Qumana.

For the next couple of weeks I’ll be blogging for the Collaborative Technology Conference - I’m running a series of interviews with Stowe on the speakers and moderators who will be at the conference. The list is just packed with really interesting people. All the interviews are cross-posted to the CTC Blog and to Get Real. Hopefully I’ll be able to event blog the conference as well.

This is my current list of blogs:

Our blogs:

Blogaholics

Blogging Help

Vancouver Coffee

Baking Low Fat

Cooking Made Simple (with Tris Hussey)

Microbrewblog (coming soon with Tris Hussey)

Blogs I write on (or am soon to start writing on):

Get Real

Wireless Jobs

DVD Skills

Qumana

Qumana Investor Blog

So, it’s a pretty exciting time. I am just ready to load up my plate with more stuff that I am seriously passionate about. Want to reach me? Email arieanna AT blogaholics DOT ca

Will Pate looks at the paid blogging model on the Raincity Studios Blog. My opinion has been floating around here and there. Especially since Blogging Help is one of the referenced professional blogger sites by Common Sense Journalism.

So, what’s my opinion. Well, I don’t really agree with the pricing model or its grounding. I think that professional bloggers offer something more than just copywriting - we offer not just journalistic expertise, but also knowledge of business, SEO, and the blogosphere in general. I don’t think this is a negative thing - I think businesses can, and should, hire professional bloggers who can help them create an online voice that represents who they are, to help them understand blogging, and to support their own staff to produce content for the blog.

I think it perfectly acceptible for a business to want to go into blogging because it is a good marketing tool. However, I wouldn’t set up a blog or start blogging without also talking about how important it is to use blogs as a communication tool and a listening tool. I think by showing companies how they can be involved with their customers and be a voice in their industry, in addition to raising their ranking, profile and sales, we can be of great benefit.

So, for the above reasons, I do quite disagree with the pricing model. If I thought myself a mere copywriter, I would not be where I am today. I think almost anybody can write copy. It just takes some creativity. But I’ve voiced before how I think that being a blogger is akin to a new type of journalism - or syndicated writing, as Tris notes.

So, to tie it all up, I’ll be doing more of this ProBlogger stuff with Tris for Qumana Services. We’ll be offering:

* Blog strategy
* Blog consultation/training/coaching/mentoring
* Blog setup and customization (using the blogging platforms Blogware, Bryght, and others)
* Professional blog writing services on virtually any topic

We can be reached at Tris (tris AT qumana DOT com) or Arieanna (arieanna AT qumana DOT com).

Technorati Tags: professional blogger

Darren Barefoot and Jeremy Wright of Inside Blogging just gave a presentation to the BCAMA here in Vancouver. Ianiv & I met with Jeremy Monday night for dinner and then went to The Whip to listen to a band managed by Kris Krug called The Black Torries. Absolutely fabulous band. Looking forward to hearing their CD release when it gets done professionally.

Here’s a link to the slides. Just filled with little nuggets of advice. If you missed the presentation (as I did), it might help to go look up some of the sites referenced in the presentation.

The level of blog knowledge is evidently spreading. Jeremy noted that there were a ton of people who knew the blogging “lingo” and everything. I’m glad to hear that marketing professionals are more than just curious about blogging - that they are willing, and maybe even eager, to take the step forward.

This just came up on gapingvoid:

His answer? Make the customer integral to the process, make the customer the central player in “The Flow”.

Make your customers the marketing department.

It’s a good point - if your customers are the entire reason you exist, then why don’t they exist within your organizational chart? They are not just that end part of a chain of selling, but are clearly integral to the entire development of the product/service. They are your product development department, your marketing department, your PR department, etc. So put them on your chart!

Cross posted from Blogaholics.

Transparency is a key point in getting that all-important authenticity that I’ve talked about before.

If, as noted on gapingvoid, trust is the cornerstone of companies (for customers and investors alike) and transparency equals trust, how do you intend to achieve transparency?

It’s not easy. It relies on both the company policy and the example of its leaders, but also on the actions of individuals. Are you ok with being wrong? With openly talking to those who may say bad things about you? If you are, then you can achieve a transparency in your writing and your content that will shine through.

Whenever possible, if afraid of those two answers, ask yourself why. If you know that there is a problem with your product, fix it. Customers are no longer interested in ok products or even good ones. They expect you to give them a solution and a relationship - your package must deliver.

Tim Yang’s Geek Blog shos us 15 things to do with RSS:

1. Get the news as it happens from multiple news sources
2. Collect your email from all your email accounts in your RSS reader
3. Track Fedex packages
4. Get notified of bargains at Ebay
5. Get stock updates
6. Get the weather reports
7. Find out what people are saying about you, your company or your product online
8. Get music, radio programs and TV clips
9. Stay updated on someone’s schedule
10. Get cinema schedule updates
11. Read your favourite comics
12. Find out what other people surfing
13. Automatically backup your weblog posts
14. Get software updates
15. Get the latest bittorrent files

The 1st and 7th tips would be the standard ones that everyone spouts out, but I think the others point to some niche areas of companies and people who have found great ways to capitalize on the benefits of RSS. Clearly, RSS is not going away - it will mearly be integrated into our daily lives in more complex and useful ways. Especially for businesses.

Small businesses can benefit from blogging in more subtle ways than large businesses. As Harold Jarche points out, blogging is a low cost high-yield tools that small businesses can use to communicate with their customers - especially when its apparent that millions of dollars are not in the bank for traditional marketing campaigns.

A study by HP shows that 10% of small businesses are using blogs as a part of their marketing strategy. You may think this is a small number, but I’d be surprised to find it anywhere near as high for larger businesses. The study found that customer acquisition and retention were large concerns for nearly half of the respondents; this could be a key area where blogs can play a strong role.

When you look into the data more, you find that only about half of respondents have websites, the blogging figure looks pretty strong. There is indication, as well, that blogging in small businesses is not male-dominated, as it has anecdotally been remarked elsewhere. More women small business owners are blogging. And I’m one of them.

Small businesses will benefit quite a lot from SEO strategies and blog design, and that’s where people like me come in as consultants. It is an affordable and large impact solution to making that connection with customers.

No only do we see results in blogging for small business owners in the area of customer acquisition. You have the opportunity to refine and share your ideas about your industry, to get feedback, to archive your ideas in an easy way, to share your ideas with likeminded people, to raise your profile in the industry, to get news faster than the paper (I always find it crazy how true this is), and so much more. There is a lot of power to a blog.

Minimal set up, some configuration and optimization, low maintenance cost, and only your time. But you will find the tool a most powerful one, and one you’ll wonder why you didn’t start earlier.

ottergroup.com :: Why RSS is better than Email

Simple argument: RSS does not give you SPAM. You get everything that comes down the feed - no getting lost in SPAM filters. And no unwanted SPAM coming down the RSS feed either.

From metacool is a good argument in favor of using blogs as a part of the marketing strategy:

any marketing website without a RSS feed should be flushed down the toilet

He’s right, and here’s why: synthetic fables created by ad firms simply can’t compete with honest, soulful stories told direct to you and me from another human being…

RSS combined with authentic, human content signals a new paradigm of marketing communications. The brands and people who will succeed in this new paradigm are the ones with real stories and the guts to tell them without the mediocrity-inducing filter of marketing “professionals”.

I agree very strongly: you must have the guts to stand up for your company and say “we need a blog” and then daily stand up and fight about the voice and content you need to deliver - at least, until the results become obvious and the “ah ha” moment arrives.

Blogs are the new wave for marketing and communication professionals. You might be thinking “well, what if it’s only a fad” or “what if it crashes,” well, think of it this way. People thought fax machines, email, and the Internet would never fly. In some ways, they may have been right - however, it is abundantly clear that each of these mediums have become successful long-term communication options. Blogs are the next phase, and the most powerful to date.

The bandwagon is moving along - jump on or be left behind.

Doc Searls’ keynote at Les Blogs 2005

Great powerpoint slides explaining what a blog is vs what it is not. Think of yourself as a journalist - as one out there to inform, to give opinion. Not to simply spew out information.

Great slide on authority as well. Need some convincing as to why you need to blog or about what a blog is? Look no further.

5 ways to promote your company with a blog:

1. Enhance the conversation.
2. Link to and comment on others.
3. Include topic-related keywords in titles.
4. Unearth interesting things to share.
5. Let your personality out.

Link via Building a Better Blog; Original by Gary Stein.

Other ways to use with caution:

6. Showcase promotions
7. Link back to yourself
8. Showcase your achievements
9. Showcase customer service by being open on issues

Should I be surprised that “Big Marketers” choose to ignore the power of RSS and thereby the power of blogs? In most respects, I’m not. It’s a sad fact that the most innovative, and most effective, “marketing” (I would prefer the term communication) is done by the smaller marketing firms and companies. We are the early adopters. The ones who lead. The ones whose results will eventually force the “Big Guys” to wake up, smell the coffee, and jump in so fast they end up really messing things up. Trust me, it will happen.

We’ve seen it with the McBlog - the blog set up by the McD’s guys, complete with fake posts and commentary. So sad. And so bashed by the online community. Why did they do it? Someone probably said “we need a blog” and then it was passed off to the guys in marketing. Guys who have never done anything but expensive tv campaigns. So we get an online campaign. No knowledge of what a blog is. Nor what a true blog could have done for the McBusiness. Their loss.

Anyway, back to the point at hand. A report from JupiterResearch found that “RSS will not have a significant effect as a supplemental alternative to e-mail marketing.” Great study. Since when did we believe that RSS was only a supplement to email campaigns? When phrased like that, I wouldn’t be surprised that most people disagreed. Although it is a great complement to online marketing in general, the point of RSS and blogs is not nearly as narrow as that question would phrase it. Blogs are a new communication tool for creating relationships with customers. The study was talking to a group of businesses who likely haven’t used the word relationship in quite some time.

Back to the survey. 17% of those who use RSS for marketing (this is 17% of the 5% who do), use it to publish newsletter content. Still one way. Still carefully crafted prose. More problems. Unlike the claim of JupiterResearch, RSS is not an “alternative for newsletter content distribution” - that is not the type of content that cuts it on a blog. Very interesting.

RSS is not well suited to promotional-offer-oriented content because it does not offer the targeting and personalization capabilities of e-mail, the report said.

Can we think of more reasons why blogs are not good for promotional content? :)

And check out this lovely tidbit:

Marketers publishing newsletter content through RSS should treat it not just as a low-cost delivery mechanism, but also as a revenue opportunity. Only 19 percent of marketers told JupiterResearch they were exploring RSS for extra ad unit revenue opportunities.

I’m not the only one happy that the Big Guys don’t get it (see Seth’s post and this post on threadwatch). Let’s just wait until the Big Guys understand what a relationship is and why customers want two-way communication. Then, maybe, they will understand the full value that blogging offers.

News via Threadwatch.org

So, someone finds your blog from another blog or via a search engine. They read what you have to say on the topic at hand - but will they ever come back? This is the most important question we need to ask. We all know acquisition can be expensive - but retention, well, that should be the easiest thing for blogs! I mean, you update often and interact more closely. Right? What else do you need to know?

Here are great tips from the Blog Herald here and here:

1. implement Recent Post features - make sure people who land on one of your permalinks can see a) articles you have recently written and, I would add, b) the last and next article after the one landed on
2. Have a good number of posts on your index - 10 to 20
3. Use layout effectively - take less important features such as search out of the hot area (that area seen without scrolling)
4. Use simple features to make the eye read the important text - try making the headline font/colour different. Easier to scan for good material.

What I also do:

1. have a good design. One that is easy on the eye but also highlights all your sections appropriately.
2. Use a font that works well
3. Make sure your blog looks great on many browsers
4. Insert images into posts whenever possible
5. Break up lengthy text with text effects (bold, underline, headings, etc)

Don’t forget, while you may want your readers to stay, it would also be nice if they found your ads relevant and well placed to catch their attention… more on generating revenue with your blog in later posts.

Thanks to Darren of ProBlogger for the tip and for his commentary.

The world of business is intertwined with conversations - the industry is talking, your customers are talking, your competitors are talking - you need to be a part of those conversations. If you don’t, your market will pass you by. If you stay silent, people will begin to look at you as uninventive, arrogant, or secretive. I will argue for the importance of these conversations and how you can enter in a positive way.

A conversation is authentic communication with the aim to build a relationship over time. The relationship involves give and take (shared linking and comments, for example), but also much more.

You need to be a part of the conversation

Your customers are asking to be a part of your company. They are actually demanding it. Your customers are no longer satisfied with seeing your brand - they want to see the people behind your brand.

If you cannot foster dialogue with your customers, how do you expect to retain them? You need a relationship now to both sell your product/service and to retain your customers.

In gratitude for you taking a genuine interest in them, your customers are more likely to be loyal to you, to spread positive word of mouth, and to give you insight on how to improve your product.

How do you enter the conversation?

The blog is your conversation. Here are some great tips on how to make your blog your most effective communication tool.

Be authentic

You need to care about the customer enough to take down some walls. Be clear, be honest, be real. Blogs are real time - if a post takes you an hour, it’s taking too long. You are crafting far beyond your authenticity. Customers value transparency. This means that you should admit when you make mistakes, be open if there are problems, talk about your successes, and make an effort to post regularly and with some passion.

Invite interaction

Your customers are knocking on your door to talk to you. And this does not mean they want to phone you up or complain. They might just want to know what’s new, what you think, why you are the leader in what you do, and that you care.

Blogs are a very easy tool. You have your comment box. Your customers will use it. And the media will also get involved here too. If you show them you know your stuff, it will pay off. Make sure to watch your comments - interact back online so others can see. At the same time, take it to the next level by sending off an email. Say thanks for the comment - get that conversation going to the next level. You never know when it will pay off for a big sale or a great article about you.

Trackbacks are your conversations too. It’s your way to jump into a conversation - you link to others in your topic, they link to you. Suddenly you have a web of knowledge.

How can you post to invite conversation?

- post relevant information, fairly often (it’s best to start posting a lot at first to attract the spiders and your biggest readers)
- offer some insight and opinion
- ask questions
- link to people who’ve talked on the same topic - supplement their arguments or go against them, either is fine
*linking out attracts linking in
- weigh your posts as a mix of short timely posts and longer more authoritative posts
- use your strongest key phrases in the titles of your articles
- although your content may revolve around your industry, leave self promotion to less than 25% of your posts

The best tip - write with energy and a passion for what you do.

Blogging for business overview
Part 1 - Why blog?
Part 2 - How to start blogging on the right foot
iimaiimabloggersiimablogging