Out of the Fog Marketing

One of the areas our clients often struggle with is frequently updating their blogs. More and more we are seeing the influence of frequent blogging on Google rankings--blogs are no longer just communication tools but important parts of search ranking efforts. Plus recent analysts studies have found that web visitors view a company's site more favorably if there's a blog.

You can turn to an agency to help write corporate blog posts or do-it-yourselfers can check out Mashable's 40+ Top Topics for Corporate Blogs.

Here are more topic suggestions:
1) Repackage content from a newsletter or ezine.
2) Summarize or comment on a technology or product changing the way your company does business.
3) Summarize a customer success story.
4) Summarize a customer failure with lessons learned.
5) Check out what your friends or peers are writing about in Facebook groups or Linked In. That's how I found the topic for this post!

Labels: blog ideas, blog topics, blogging, company blogs, corporate blogs, Google ranking, mashable

According to Forrester, 11.2% of online adults in the U.S. publish a blog at least once a month. Of the same group, 24.8% read a blog and 13.7% comment on a blog at least once a month. The numbers are higher for youths. Of online youths, 20.8% publish a blog, 36.6% read a blog, and 26.4% comment on a blog at least once a month.

However the complete Business Week article details why some businesses are shifting from blogs to social media sites. It's an interesting idea now that Twitter posts are being indexed by Google and only takes seconds to write compared to the longer time commitment for a well-written blog post.

Labels: ann arbor business, ann arbor google, blogs, businessweek, corporate blogs, forrester, number of blogs, social media, twitter, young bloggers, youth

Keys to Starting a Business Blog

Mario Sundar, the person who started the corporate blog at LinkedIn, recently posted a great article entitled Corporate Blogging 101: 10 Easy Steps to Get a Corporate Blog Up & Running.

Mario's Top 10 List

1. Define your vision

2. Designate an editor or chief blogger

3. Earn the approval of your internal teams

4. Define your categories

5. Enlist contributors and plan posts

6. Create a blog calendar:

7. Define your template/layout

8. Stick to the categories

9. Veer towards content that provides value

10. Measure progress

Labels: business blogs, corporate blogs, mario sundar