posted by Savage @ 12:35 PM
Savage is proud to announce that one of our B2B clients, Jet-Lube, Inc., launched their industrial lubricants blog today. Here you’ll read about their latest news, events, product uses and applications. From time to time they’ll offer insight and opinion too.
We designed the custom template on WordPress and will be marketing the blog through a variety of online channels to help drive customers to their main website and product pages.
You can also follow them on Twitter @jetlube (www.twitter.com/jetlube).
Related Posts:
3.19.2010
posted by Nicolette Beard @ 4:09 PM
According to Econsultancy, IBM recently published research showing that about 80% of those who begin a corporate blog never post more than five entries. Herewith are the keys to creating a happy home for your blog readers and steps you can take that will prevent you from ever becoming a blog orphan.
1) Take a practice run. This first step is so obvious I can’t believe I just figured it out. No one says you have to publish your first written entry. Based on the above statistic, I’d recommend writing five entries before publishing at all. You need to find your voice and rhythm before going public.
If after that time, you think you might like the life of a content producer (sounds fancier than blogger, doesn’t it?), then you can space these out over two weeks and continue writing 2-3 posts a week. The pressure’s off, and you can begin to enjoy the experience.
2) Enjoy writing. This also may seem obvious, but I’ve read many a blog where it was clear someone had told a company that sells industrial pipe to “start a business blog.” Take it from me — I author three blogs and post here frequently. If I didn’t like to write, no amount of money or coercion could get me to write. That said, one of my blogs is on its way to becoming a blog orphan. (Hey, there’s only so much time in the day.)
3) Have something to say. Most people who enjoy writing believe they have something worthwhile to say. The best blogs are written from a unique point of view. Presumably, you have a certain expertise you want to share with a target audience. It doesn’t matter how niche the market may be, the Internet is so vast that people are searching for solutions on every conceivable topic.
Google estimates that, 33+% of daily searches are UNIQUE. This means that you can carve out your own search space based on what you know and establish a beachhead before your competitors figure out this “corporate blogging” thing.
After you’ve been blogging a while, you’ll be consistently amazed at the variety of search terms people use to find your site. They have a business problem, and your business blog now provides the solution. You will become viewed as a trusted resource; a resource they’ll share with others.
4) Want to help others. Blogging is a lonely pursuit. When you press the “publish” button, the black hole of cyberspace takes over. If your intention is to help others, answer questions, guide visitors to quality resources, you will be rewarded in surprising ways.
There are excellent write-ups on creating a blogging content strategy, but after five years of blogging, I think that following this blogging advice, borne from hard won experience, will serve you over the long haul.
Related Posts:
8.18.2009
posted by Robin Tooms @ 8:22 PM
We started this blog a little over a year ago, and while it has provided an outlet to share what we see and find interesting, it’s also given us some real hands-on challenges that we’ve learned to address and can pass along as advice for you.
- Seek motivated bloggers.
It’s easier to teach a motivated blogger how to use the tools than convince someone to blog who isn’t committed to the task. Here, having a personal blog (on the side, not part of the company) helps develop the processes and behaviors needed to blog. - If you’re an employee and don’t feel quite up to the task of joining a company blog yet, start with your own personal Twitter or blog.
- If you’re a company looking for corporate bloggers, seek vocal employees who blog now, or those who frequently read and comment on other blogs.
- Integrate blogging as a behavior.
Often we hear companies say that they have nothing to blog about, but we are all experts in something (so share your knowledge)! The real issue is not content, but time. You can overcome the time challenge by sharing the load with more bloggers, or by better integrating blogging as part of what you do. Read an article? Tweet it! Had an interesting thought or attended a cool event? Blog it! There is so much knowledge that you may already be sharing with select contacts, so just think of blogging as sharing more broadly
- Get your voice out, directly.
Our list of bloggers has grown from when we started, some from necessity and some from wanting to bring more of our overall expertise onto the site. Remember, a good company blog shouldn’t just be seen as a function of the marketing department – you need to find the subject matter experts in your company and get them to participate (keeping the first lesson in mind).
As an interesting side note, I took some snapshots of how our blogging conversations changed over the year, depending on what’s topical.
This is just the first six months:
And this is the first year completely:
You will also want to read this article from Smashing Magazine 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Blogging (or better yet, tape it up beside your monitor). It is a good companion to points mentioned here as look deeper into the reality behind blogging, and why only a few corporate blogs are succeeding now.
