February 4th, 2009 http://www.crayonville.com

getting started with corporate blogging

11.19.09 | gregverdino.com | @gregverdino | www.crayonville.com

Chief Strategy Officer @ crayon

www.gregverdino.com

www.verdinobytes.com

www.gregverdino.net

www.crayonville.com

microMARKETING (2010)

defining your blog dna

Voice

Texture

Immediacy

ConversationConnectivity

Accessibility

Visibility

http://bit.ly/blogdna

the 7 strands of blog dna

• Determine who (writes what…)

• Corporate voice vs blog voice? Consistent but not the same? More personal? More contemporary? More tech savvy? More human?

• Allow unique authors to have distinctive identities, rather than just promote a “brand voice.”

• Blog about topics of interest to your consumer, not just topics of interest to you.

• Tell the truth…

It’s what you say and how you say it -- a unique, distinctive

narrative style that readers will identify with and return for.

voice

crayon-final-web.mov

• Accompany post with visuals to break up the text, draw the eye, illustrate the story.

• Make full use of embeddable media to illustrate stories wherever possible -YouTube clips, audio files, flash objects.

• Consider occasional stories in multimedia formats - a video diary, a podcast, a story in illustrated or cartoon format.

Texture

Make full use of the palette from which you can paint.

Using just written text will cause fatigue.

texture

crayon-final-web.mov

• Make sure you post frequently, and try to post before “morning coffee.”

• Reference current events and the weather/season/things that are happening around you. Make sure your posts feel immediate and contemporary.

• Get your writers into the habit of hitting post as soon as they have finished writing, this will help preserve the “fresh, daily” feel of their writing. Ensure quick editorial turnaround.

Fresh and frequent (but not too frequent), an urgent ‘need to read’ and a contemporary tone.

immediacy

• Create posts that open up a

debate, invite commentary or

provoke participation.

• Enable comments, and if

moderated, ensure you approve

within 24 hours.

• Continue the dialog with your

readers by answering their

comments with comments of

your own.

Conversation

Open a dialog with your readers, and provide the

means for them to join the conversation.

conversation

• “Share This” and Tweetmeme are

your connectivity baseline.

• Don‟t assume “If I write, they will

come” - get in the habit of pitching

stories to relevant bloggers for

them to feature.

• Create a blogroll on your site that

links to your own favorite blogs, in

the hope that they will

reciprocate.

Make other bloggers a key target for readership, and

empower them to cross promote.

Conversationconnectivity

connectivity goes beyond your blog

• A blog isn’t a soapbox, it’s a conversation – and a widely

distributed conversation at that…

• Monitor other blogs, comment

when you have value to add.

• Thank bloggers that reference

your content.

• Give “link love” to other

bloggers, point to related

materials and give credit where

credit is due.

• Notify known „friendlies‟ when

you publish content that may be

of interest to them.

• Allow readers to subscribe to specific categories,topics and authors in addition to the complete feed - via RSS, email, bloglines.

• Enable full RSS feeds - don‟t MAKE readers comes to your site if they don‟t want to.

• Device neutrality is becoming key: iPhone, Kindle, etc.

• Create widgets and modules that allow readers to embed your content on their blogs and social media profiles.

• Consider syndication to industry-specific content aggregators.

Allow your readers to access your content when, where

and how they want it - make IT fit into THEIR lives

Conversationaccessibility

• Make sure the blog is

optimized for search engines

by creating relevant, keyword-

friendly post titles.

• Adding “tags” to every post

will allow multiple blog search

engines to more easily

categorize your posts.

• Set the system to “ping” all

major search engines every

time a post is published.

Ensuring the blog can easily be found no matter

where people are looking

Conversationvisibility

crayon-final-web.mov

measuring success

Key Success Metrics

Participation

Traffic

Comments

Distribution

Subscriptions

Time Spent

Conversation

Press

Comments

Tags & Bookmarks

Search Optimization

Social Media

Participation (outside in) + Conversation (inside out)

http://bit.ly/blogframe

the one year rule

February 4th, 2009 http://www.crayonville.com11.19.09 | gregverdino.com | @gregverdino | www.crayonville.com

greg verdino 631.747.1451

chief strategy officer greg@crayonville.com

Let’s Continue This Conversation