how to make your blog the next hot property

PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL

How to Make Your Blog the Next

Hot Media Property CRITICAL MENTION WEBINAR

January 9, 2013

Sandra Fathi

President, Affect

[email protected]

@sfathi

PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL March 4, 2010 Affect Strategies


AGENDA

YOUR BLOG: THE NEXT HOT MEDIA PROPERTY

•  Blog best practices

•  Case study: Sophos Naked Security

•  Q&A

© Affect January 9, 2013


BLOG BEST PRACTICES: FOUNDATIONS FOR SUCCESS



Goals & Objectives

•  Set clear goals and objectives for success

•  Understand your agreed upon Key Performance Metrics (KPIs)

•  Dedicate human, and financial resources

•  Secure executive support





All the Right Stuff

•  Choose a reliable, easy to use platform

•  Create an editorial profile (topics of focus and topics to avoid)

•  Assemble team of bloggers and/or third party contributors

•  Develop a calendar to plan blog content and assign topics accordingly





Looks Do Maer

•  Professional design = credible on the web

•  Images, video and other multimedia grab and retain aention

•  Make it personal – if it’s an opinion, I want to know who’s talking





Content Really is King

•  Make News

•  Break News

•  Aggregate News

•  20-80% Rule

•  Trend Intervention

•  Story Hijacking

•  Analysis: What does this mean to me? What does this mean to your business?





If You Build It, No One Will Come – You Must Promote the Hell Out of It!

•  Public Relations/Media Relations

•  Social Media

•  Good ‘Old Fashioned Marketing

•  Syndication





Share the Love

•  Blog Roll

•  Blog Commenting Campaign

•  Linkbacks/Trackbacks

•  Guest Bloggers





Engage Your Audience

•  Create a community – don’t just sell subscriptions

•  Ask questions, polls, surveys

•  Accept user generated content (UGC)***

•  Allow readers to steer content/suggest topics

•  Invite others to weight in on your ideas/opinions/share experiences

•  Give back to your audience (exclusive access, freebies, information etc.)





•  Measure

•  Tweak

•  Measure

•  Tweak

•  Measure

Is there a paern here?


CASE STUDY: SOPHOS NAKED SECURITY GOALS



•  Make Naked Security the most influential and trusted security resource available online

•  Drive traffic to Naked Security through strategic media relations

•  Position Naked Security bloggers as leading experts in the field

•  Create ongoing opportunities for thought leadership through an aggressive news reaction campaign


GLOBAL BLOGGERS



Naked Security bloggers were stationed across the globe to react to breaking security news. Affect utilized these experts to establish a 24/7 news cycle.

Chester Wisniewski Senior Security Advisor Vancouver

Graham Cluley Senior Technology Consultant UK

Paul Ducklin Head of Technology Australia


GLOBAL BLOGGERS



Naked Security also tapped into notable industry experts to provide guest commentary on the blog. These individuals regularly shared insight on breaking security news in addition to the main bloggers.

Lisa Vaas Boston

Paul Roberts Boston

Bob Burls UK


HOT FOR SCANDAL



Aside from bread and buer IT and consumer-related security issues, Naked Security bloggers wrote stories that appealed to the masses. Regular topics include:

Celebrities Social Network Fails Hacking Gangs


SPECIALIZED CONTENT



In addition to regular blog posts, Naked Security also offered its readers a variety of custom content on all things B2B and consumer security.

Podcasts Instructional Videos Reports


AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT



Audience engagement was another critical success factor in driving traffic to the blog and increasing repeat visits. Naked Security created a “cult community” through:

Polls Giveaways Feedback/Ratings


MEDIA RELATIONS



Media relations was critical for establishing Naked Security as the leading online source for security news and driving traffic to the blog. Media coverage was achieved in three ways:

•  Story Hijacking: Jumping on breaking news to provide expert commentary, seing the stage for day two stories

•  Trend Intervention: Using industry trends to create longer-term thought leadership opportunities

•  Branded Reports: Producing data or information unique to Sophos


MEDIA RELATIONS



Example: Story Hijacking Resulting Coverage (Sample)


MEDIA RELATIONS



Example: Trend Intervention Resulting Coverage (Sample)


MEDIA RELATIONS



Example: Branded Reports Resulting Coverage (Sample)


SOCIAL MEDIA



Naked Security also uses its popular social media presences to promote content on the blog and drive traffic to the site.

203K+ likes

10K+ followers

5,300K+ subscribers

2,300K+ follows 1,600K+ members


TRAFFIC RESULTS



Today, Naked Security is by far the top go-to source for security news and insights online.

Website UV/Month*

hp://nakedsecurity.sophos.com 800,000

hp://csoonline.com 531,000

hp://darkreading.com 312,000

hp://scmagazineus.com 92,000 *Average per month

1.8 Million Page Views!


MEDIA RESULTS



Additionally, media coverage consistently surpassed 75 hits per month, totaling more than 2,200 hits over a 21-month period.

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Q&A


How to Make Your Blog the Next

Hot Media Property

Slides Available on Slideshare.net/sfathi

Sandra Fathi

President, Affect

[email protected]

@sfathi

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