Blogging lecture3

transcript

Engagement Part 1: Blogging29 January

www.directdigitalresponse.com

What are we going to do?

• Insight:– What are blogs and Blogosphere – Some does and donts– Blogging Styles

• Practical:– Think about a blog, strategy and content

Why use blogs?

Why use Blogs?

• Keep an audience informed• Mobilise and energise a community• Reach out to stakeholders• Forum for debate• Resources of information• Hubs to connect to other social media

What Are Blogs?

What are blogs?

• Name comes from ‘web log’• Wordpress, Blogger, Moveable Type• Squidoo, Hubpages (self publishing)• ‘Blogosphere’

What features do blogs have?What is good?What is bad?

Key Features About Blogs• Turnkey publishing platform

– Text, video, photos, sound• ‘Push’ concept:

– Content automatically is syndicated to readers and the web e.g. search engines

• Conversation and Participation:– Comments and trackbacks (links to blog)– Polls, interactivity– feedburner

• SEO friendly:– Keywords, regularly changing content, search engine spiders like them

• Metrics:– Provide lots of interesting data

Do and Don’ts Of Blogging

• DO:– Know your strategy– Know your audience– Engage with appropriate blogging style– Post regularly and split posts up aka the “arabian

night method”– Use plugins .. Twitter feed, latest comments,

bookmarking etc– Use keywords and tags– Have a RSS feed and optin box

Do and Donts Of Blogging

• DON’T:– Leave spam or random negative posts online– Break character or be anonymous– stop

How Can You Use A Blog?

How Can You Use A Blog

• Events• Features• Polls• Facts• Press releases• Stories .. Human interest etc• Opinions, feedback, responses < important

Who has written a blog?

Is it easy or hard?

‘Old’ rules apply:

AwarenessInterestDesireAction

Blogging Styles

• Different styles require different periods of update

• Styles will also influence comments and trackbacks

• Some styles are easy, others are quite hard• 5 suggested styles ….

Expert Insights….

• Topic … PR, cats, football, nightlife• Writer shares insight, original ideas,

commentary, trends• Quite difficult– Mashable– Problogger

• Daily blog posts• Generates good buzz

Breaking News …

• Announcement and news not found anywhere else

• Being first matters• Frequent daily posting• Generates lots of buzz• Hard to maintain– Engadget.com

Me Too Blogging …

• Select a topic that’s already being talked about• News item that’s currently popular• 2 or 3 days a week• Regular readers may share comments• Not too hard– Mark Borkowski

Evangelist Blogging

• Passionate postings showing affinity, support for a cause, organization, product, individual etc

• Inspire and inform• Daily• Can create buzz, have viral power• Medium difficulty

Top Ten Favourite Lists Blogging

• Popular and effective method• Top ten things• Best, favourite etc etc• Good for bookmarking and reading later• Viral• Need to be done daily• Create good buzz• Not too difficult

Tell your story…

…. People will listen

Tell Your Story

• The before and after• The discovery story• The telling secrets story• The third person testimonial• The Us vs Them Saga

Summary

• Tell stories• Listen• Understand who your audience is• Communicate and build a relationship• Measure

Workshop Activity

Blogging lecture3

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