WordPress - our blog platform of choice

A blog is simply a way of publishing pages and articles on your own website. It comes from “web log”, which was the name for an online diary of cool sites that you had visited that day.

For some people, the word ‘blog’ still carries connotations of eccentric nerds who are always getting in trouble for posting defamatory content and breaking court-imposed name suppression orders.

But the reality is that blogs have been around for about ten years and have become an important part of most organisations’ digital marketing strategies.

• Your blog software automatically archives your articles – you can arrange them by categories and use tags to organise them and make them easy for your readers to find.
• You can ask readers to comment on your articles (only if you want to – read about the best way to moderate comments here).
• The magic of RSS allows you to broadcast your blog articles to your readers across different channels, including email, Twitter, and Facebook.

The benefits of a blog are huge:

• Google loves blog articles and tends to promote them ahead of normal website pages in the search rankings, so you’ll attract much more traffic to your website.
• a steady stream of new content makes your website look up-to-date.
• you come across as an expert in your field.
• it gives your website a human voice – a valuable differentiator in a sea of bland copy and stock photography.
• you get to make connections with people. If you have a good blog, a community can develop around it.
• you increase your own knowledge when people submit comments. Quite often, a comment might be “I loved your article. But have you thought of this? Or visited this site…?”
• it can be a good way to keep your stakeholders and employees informed of what’s happening within your organisation, without the need to send group emails. Discussion can then occur on the blog itself.

That’s great, but what would I write about?
- the best blog articles are usually answers to specific questions, e.g. “How do I compress a PNG?”, or “What happened on the world gold market today?”, or “Who was the best-dressed person at the Oscars?”, or “What houses sold in my suburb in the last week and what were the prices paid for them?”. If you can answer questions like these, you will attract people.

I could just do all this on Facebook, couldn’t I?
Facebook is a great way to keep your current Facebook friends and fans up-to-date with what you’re doing, but compared to a blog, it’s not very good for attracting new business.
Here’s why…

• Search engines like Google and Facebook are not the best of friends. – Facebook status updates tend not to be indexed in Google, so no-one will find your updates by searching in Google.
• You control your own blog. You are not in control of Facebook. Facebook changes the rules with alarming regularity.

What are some good blogs to follow?
One of the best ways to find a good blog is to simply think of a question that you really need to know the answer to and type it into Google. Chances are, there will be a blog article that answers your question. If it’s a good article and it’s on the front page of Google, then it’s probably a good blog. e.g. if i want to know the anwser to this question “How do I compress a PNG?”, I type it into Google, and I find this article “Clever PNG Optimization Techniques” and i see that it’s had 149 comments. So it must be awesome. Right, I better subscribe to that blog, and great, I see that they have 4 ways to subscribe: Facebook, Twitter, email, and RSS. Brilliant.

Now, isn’t it time you started blogging?

We know that content is king and you need to be publishing new content regularly, otherwise you will sink down the Google rankings and your competitors with their fresh content will rise above you.

It’s never been easier to create your own content online. Nearly all of our clients have a content-managed website or a blog, and a large number have Facebook pages too, but most people get very nervous about publishing content online because they don’t know the ‘rules’.

So how do you write content that…

• people want to read?
• people want to share with their friends?
• makes people take action?
• is easy to find in search engines?

Read on and I’ll give you some advice we’ve learned over the last ten years.

You need to tailor your content to your audience and the action you want your reader to take, but some things apply to any type of content you publish.

• You should always have social media sharing buttons. These increase your readership by making it really easy for your readers to share your article with their friends. The most common and effective buttons are:
  • Like this on Facebook
  • Share this on Facebook
  • Tweet this
• Use short paragraphs – no-one likes huge blocks of text
• Make use of graphics – but avoid stock photos if possible. They always look contrived.
• Narrow columns are easier to scan – just like a newspaper or magazine
• Bullet points
• Numbered lists
• The headline is vital, so make it good. As David Ogilvy said “On average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 80 per cent of your money.” People seem to like headlines like ’7 social media tips I learned from Elvis’
• Always finish the article with a call to action, e.g. Buy now , sign up here, fill in your details, place a comment.

If the purpose of the article is to sell something:

• Use questions just like you would if you were selling to the reader in person.
• Demonstrate the benefits of your product or service using facts and figures. You will improve your results by 60% if you do this (sorry, I just made that up, but you see what I mean).
• Make sure you include testimonials from satisfied users, a money-back guarantee, and if possible, the offer of a free trial.
• Don’t bore the reader. Don’t give them a reason to click the ‘Back’ button.
• Don’t distract the reader with links to other websites (they might not come back!).
• Give the reader a clear call to action: e.g. “Buy now” or “Start your free trial”.

If the purpose of the article is to inform

• think of the article as answering a specific question, and stick to answering that question
• use sub-headings to break up your article
• provide links to further reading
• at the end of the article, use a poll that asks ‘Did you find this article helpful? Yes or no’

If the purpose of the article is to entertain

• make it entertaining! If you’re lucky it might go viral on the social networks (yeah right!)

And lastly, a word about search engines. You might think that you can fool Google and leapfrog your competitors in the rankings by stuffing your site full of keywords. But wait a minute… Do you really think that you can pull the wool over the eyes of a company worth US$200 billion that makes its living from delivering accurate search engine results? Dream on…

Just sprinkle keywords throughout the article like you normally would. and make sure the headline of the article is in the HTML title of the page, and then go out and tell the world about it. The more people that link to the article, the more Google will like it.

Simple.

Like most fears around new technology, this is mostly unfounded and I believe it’s driven by a media desperate for headlines to sell newspapers and get you to watch “current affairs” tabloid TV.

It’s 2011 and let’s face it, in this age of social media, it’s expected that you or your organisation will have some way for people to give you public feedback, either by

• posting comments on your blog articles
• commenting on your Facebook page
• commenting on your LinkedIn updates
• mentioning you on Twitter

Negative, defamatory, or misguided comments on your blog, Facebook page, or LinkedIn profile are actually really easy to handle if things go pear-shaped. You get notified by email every time someone posts a comments and you can just delete them if you don’t like them.

Comment spam is another well-known problem but it’s also easily solved. Just like email spam, comment spam is when you get comments on your blog trying to advertise weight-loss drugs or porn. WordPress has an excellent free plugin called Akismet that filters comments automatically and it’s amazingly accurate. I just checked the Akismet website and it has detected 38 million spam comments on WordPress sites around the world today alone!

Twitter is a different story. There are no actual ‘comments’ and there’s nothing you can do about other people’s tweets. I’ve seen a few ‘fights’ escalate on Twitter and I think the best thing you can do is correct the facts if they are factually wrong, and otherwise just ignore your adversary. Twitter updates have such a blindingly short shelf-life that the damage a tweet can do is incredibly small (unless it goes viral – then you definitely shouldn’t rise to the bait. People like nothing more than drawing attention to a catfight).

Our usual policy for blog comments is to let anybody comment. If they abuse the privilege, then we can blacklist them by name, email address, and IP address. There are also profanity filters so you can automatically block comments with naughty words.

There are some extreme examples where it gets a bit weird, especially around third-party defamation (where you publish defamatory content that someone else has written). In New Zealand, the publisher of defamatory material is liable. So if someone posts a defamatory comment on a blog, it’s the blogger that is at risk of getting taken to court, not the commenter (weird, I know).

If you think a comment that someone has placed on your website is defamatory, just take it down and you should be OK.

If you get so many comments every day that you really don’t know if there’s defamatory stuff in the comments and you haven’t got time to go through them all anyway, then you should be OK too, because it’s obvious that you’re not exercising editorial control over the comments.

Hopefully that’s made things a bit clearer around reducing the risks of allowing people to comment on your blog or social network pages.

And if you’re worried about the legal stuff, this is a really good article about avoiding defamation for third party web content.

Your blog is your own PR machine, TV channel, talkback radio station and printing press all rolled into one. A blog is a great tool:

• To build brand awareness
• To boost your search engine rankings
• To improve customer relations
• To show knowledge & earn credibility
• To get new clients/make sales

Fact: small businesses with corporate blogs receive 55 percent more search traffic than small businesses that don’t blog.

Matt’s blogging tips

• Provide useful and well-written content that is relevant to your readers – and Google will reward you with good rankings.
• Write blog article titles with relevant keywords for search engine optimisation.
• You must have a plan to update it regularly. Find a happy medium of blogging frequency (weekly, monthly, or more?).
• Establish a content strategy and editorial calendar so you have lots of ideas for articles up your sleeve.
• Read the top blogs in your industry to see what your competitors are doing.
• Stay on top of industry news and track the comments to see what your customers and potential customers are interested in and talking about.
• Find bloggers/reporters in your industry and develop relationships to cross-pollinate content.
• Create an open dialogue to get visitors to respond to your content – always invite people to comment.
• Write ”How to” articles, they are very popular and tend to draw a lot of attention.
• Always answer comments and questions.
• Add video, photos and images.
• Consider the types of things that spread virally across the internet. They are usually funny, outrageous, shocking, and unique.
• Add a poll to your blog. This is a great way to get your readers involved.
• A recent study found that only 16% of people read word for word online – this should remind us that we need to write our blogs so they are scan-friendly. Think short paragraphs and bullet points.
• Be controversial. Be bold. Have an opinion. Have a personality. Don’t be afraid to make a controversial statement.
• Write your blog as if you were talking to people. Don’t just report news – people can get news from a million places online. Share your opinion and insights instead. Make sure your blog shares insights that they can’t get anywhere else.
• Make it easy for readers to share your articles with their friends by using Twitter and Facebook sharing buttons.
• Measure – look at your stats and determine which posts get the most traffic and the most comments. From here you can get a feel for the topics and length of your most popular posts and then use that as a guideline going forward.

This weekend in Auckland it’s WordCamp NZ 2010. Wordcamp is an international event which brings together people who work with and love WordPress.

In case you didn’t know, WordPress is the blog platform on which Fruitbowl is built.

Three of us from Mogul are heading up to Auckland tomorrow to attend Wordcamp. I’ve got a speaking slot at the conference – and I thought it would be a great chance to showcase our little community blog so I’m going to speak about Fruitbowl.

You can find out more about Wordcamp here: http://wordcamp.org.nz/mogul-time/

I’ll post photos and feedback from the conference when we get back.

In the past, it was enough to have a brochure website, ensure it was visible in Google, and send out the occasional email newsletter to your customers to tell them about a special promotion you were running.

But this approach isn’t really working any more, especially if your target audience is under the age of 30.

For most web users under the age of 30, the first thing they log into each day isn’t their email, it’s Facebook. The first website they visit isn’t Google or Yahoo or even Trademe, it’s Facebook. When they get up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, they check Facebook – maybe on their phone. You get the picture…

If this sounds far-fetched, here are some numbers:

There are now more than 400 million active Facebook users. ‘Active’ means they use it regularly.

50% of active users log in every day.

OK, so how do you get your website into the social networks so it’s visible to all of these people? They don’t check their email much, and tend to change their email address all the time anyway.

• You could start by creating a Facebook page for your business. But what are you going to put on it? who’s going to keep updating it? And why would people want to visit it?
• You could also create a Twitter account. But how are you going to get followers? And what are you going to tweet about?
• You could put links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts on your website. But why would someone want to visit those if they’re already browsing your website?

We seem to be missing the point of social networks here… if you think pushing out a one-way stream of content is an effective use of social media, you’re wasting your time.

Social networks exist because people like to interact with each other.

If you want to penetrate the social networks with your messages, you need to give people a reason to follow you, share your content for you, and interact with you.

So how do we do this?

• Offer your followers and fans an incentive – e.g. a prize draw, exclusive offers, a free e-book, whatever you think will work for your target audience and get them on board.
• Enable your website content to be shared by placing Facebook and Twitter sharing links on every page and article on your website, so when someone shares or tweets your page, all of their friends or followers will be notified with a link to your website.
• And make it easy for people to interact with your content by asking questions in your social media updates, e.g. ‘Do you like our new website?’ is quite a hard question to answer but ‘Do you like our new website more than our old one?’ is easy to answer. It just takes a Yes or No.

If you want to see some of these social media techniques in action, check out the following sites we’ve worked on lately:

• Need a Nerd
• Lumsden Kindergarten
• Smart
• Fruitbowl
• Rockmybaby (and Rockmybaby Australia)

If you’re keen to find out more about how a well-planned social media strategy can increase the effectiveness of your online marketing, make sure you come along to one of our workshops. We hold them every second Friday at 7.15am and places are limited.

Contact us today to register your interest.

US$100 billion is such a big number that it defies our imagination. To put it in perspective, that’s about 200 times what TradeMe was sold for!

So it’s official. Social media is definitely the big story of 2010. In case, you’ve been living on another planet, here are some facts.

• 4 of the top 7 highest-traffic websites (Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Blogger) are social media websites
• With over 425 million users, if Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd largest country in the world
• Twitter now has 110 million users and is adding 300,000 a day

This means that if you want to communicate effectively with your audience, you need to have a social media strategy.

That might mean making regular updates to your organisation’s Facebook page, tweeting regularly on Twitter, publishing regular blog posts, or uploading videos regularly to YouTube.

Notice my use of the word ‘regular’ in that last sentence? Once you create your social media presence, you need to maintain it and not let it lose momentum. No-one wants to read a blog that hasn’t been updated for weeks or months.

If you’re struggling to understand a word of this, don’t worry!! At Mogul, we’ve been running a series of Friday morning workshops on:
‘Social Media And Its Place In Your Online Marketing Strategy’
The feedback so far has been amazing. Places are limited to 10 per workshop so if you would like to attend, please let me know.

WordPress has recently released an update – as always we encourage our clients running WordPress-based sites to update their version as soon as possible. Newer versions are more secure, more user-friendly, and have better features. If you need help doing this we can do it for you. Just let us know.

Blogs have swept the business community and now play a fundamental part of a company’s marketing strategy.

A what?

A blog (web log) is a site that is updated regularly and features:

• News
• Commentary
• Articles
• Advice

The content takes the form of articles, usually arranged in reverse chronological order and may have the option for readers to leave comments.

Why have a Blog?

A business blog is a simple, cost-effective way to create a professional online presence. Having a business blog that provides good information for your customers while being timely and fun can add a new dimension to your website.

You can quickly and easily create a place on the web where people can find you, learn about you, and interact with you. You don’t need an IT staff or a degree in computer science to do it; if you can send an email or use a word processor, you can start using a blog.

It also creates an open conversation between you and your customers, colleagues, partners, prospects, and the media, about topics that are important to you. You might want to exchange ideas with other independent professionals in your area of expertise, or introduce people to the latest happenings in your industry. No matter what your purpose, a blog allows you to start the conversation and keep it going.

Boost your search rankings

Every time you create a post, your blog feeds your content directly to the search engines; the more often you post, the higher your search engine ranking will be, and the more likely it will be that people will discover your blog. If you want more credibility, more customers, or a larger audience, creating a blog is an ideal way to make it happen.

Develop trust

A blog is a content platform that allows you to fashion a consistent message over time to demonstrate that you are an expert in a particular field. This is tremendously valuable for independent professionals and businesses that are focusing on a particular market. A blog sends an implicit message of transparency and accountability, and builds trust in your customers, partners, and potential clients.

What do your customers think of you?

Blogs are increasingly important for businesses, because they create a forum in which customers can offer feedback, interact with each other, and obtain access to timely information. Consistent blog posts can be an indispensable tool for public relations, and can foster loyalty in clients, media and partners alike.

A blog is vital for a modern business

In summary, blogs are a powerful business tool for professionals and knowledge workers because they give you a chance to:

• Share your company’s expertise and knowledge
• Share company news
• Promote new products and services
• Promote future products and services
• Build additional web traffic
• Connect with potential customers
• Obtain feedback from the public

If you were to write your first blog post today, what would it be?

The report goes on to say that over 70% stick strictly to business topics, or publish only press releases or public news. With this approach, it’s no surprise that they attract few repeat readers and fewer comments.

But don’t despair. There are ways you can improve your blog’s performance, and create an attractive, reader-friendly web site that has a significant impact on your business.

Post often

One of the biggest issues with writing articles for your web site is creating fresh content regularly. Schedule time on a regular basis to write something – anything – that may be of interest to your visitors. This may seem silly at first but when you get into the habit of writing regularly, it becomes easier and you get better at identifying what sort of information your visitors will like.

A friendly voice

Don’t be afraid to let a little personality slip into your writing. Press releases and product updates may be of use to some, but a toneless, business-only blog will do little to incite interest.

An idea might be to try to blog on a slightly wider range of topics, and look for ways to offer an opinion too. This may take the form of a product review, or a commentary on an event within your niche. It’s possible to stay within your business niche while offering a little of your own view, and such an approach can encourage people to share theirs too.

Offer value

Rather than talking about what everyone else is talking about, try to find out something that people could use, and share the information. A good example is the Sales Impact Group web site, which offers a “knowledge centre” of articles on a wide range of topics.

Another approach may be to interview someone of interest to your industry, and publish a transcript or video. By giving something to the community, it again will encourage others to give back in the form of comments and links, and you may well find that you get back more than you give.

Share the love

Many web sites try to exist in a vacuum, and their blogs are written in the same way. This is not the way the web works. In a similar way to offering value, linking to other relevant sources of information can build reader trust and establish your site as an authority.

When people are able to view your site as an authority within your niche, they will return to your site as a source of interesting and useful information. By being open to linking elsewhere, your site benefits from the value this gives your readers. For example, if your site about sports shoes gave a link to an interesting article about running, a visitor would remember your shoe site as a good source of information and be more inclined to return.

So remember, if you want to maintain a site that encourages readers to return, post often and be willing to offer something of interest and value to your readers.