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Results-oriented blogging
Alison Bolen (@alisonbolen)SAS
Presentation overview
• SAS Background • Growing a corporate blogging
program with a content strategy in mind
• Content planning for multiple blogs• Balancing content strategies across
a large number of blogs• Coaching bloggers about content
strategy• Measurement and results
Background: SAS social history
• 1976: First SAS Global Forum
• 1996: SAS-L launches• 2004: Internal blog
program started• 2006: SAS communities
launch• 2007: First external blog
launched• 2011: Transitioned to
WordPress platform
Background: Marketing Editorial Team
• Part of the larger External Communications team, which includes PR
• 8 full-time “brand journalists” edit & manage: Blog network with 28 blogs Two quarterly magazines 3 Knowledge Exchange microsites ~ 200 customer success stories (annually) 2 monthly e-newsletters 12 quarterly e-newsletters Social media program management
Strategy: Map goals to corporate goals
• Become primary source for SAS news & info
• Establish SAS employees as trusted advisors
• Facilitate an ongoing dialogue with customers
Translated: PR, Marketing & customer support
Strategy: Understand content ecosystem
support.sas.comwww.sascommunity.org
Customer support blogs
Soc
ial M
edia
Research solutions
Evaluatevendor offerings
Knowledge Exchanges and blogs
Implement and assess
www.sas.com
Primary goalsProperty
Non-SAS domains
Identify the problem/opportunity(Priority SAS topics)
Negotiate and purchase
* Increase awareness & credibility of SAS thru thought leadership* Limited lead gen
* Surface relevant solutions to CBOs* Exploration, “stickiness”* Lead nurturing
* SAS awareness* Engage prospects* Establish credibility
* Lead capture
* Customer support resources* Provide content to support cross/up sell
Strategy: Align with broader content strategy
For content to be relevant and valuable, it must be:
• Persona-based: developers vs. business end users• Aligned with the steps in the buying process:
remember your funnel• Business problem-focused: align with marketing
business objectives Metadata is the enabler:
Target audience Topic Industry Offering Stage of the buying cycle
Strategy: Find the right content
• Where do stories live? Word documents Power points Videos Live events In the minds of employees
• Where does knowledge live? Sharepoint White papers Wikis Internal blogs In the minds of employees
Strategy: Find the right people
Gary Cokins, Closing the Intelligence Gap
Chris Hemedinger, The SAS Dummy
Planning: Monthly assignment
• All posts due on 15th of month
• Publish most timely posts first
• Publish breaking news items and fillers throughout
Planning: Quarterly focus on one topic
• Quarter 1: risk in insurance
• Quarter 2: customer intelligence for insurance
• Quarter 3: combat fraud in insurance
• Quarter 4: business intelligence for insurance
Planning: Three themes every week
Mondays: Getting started articles. “Topics that I know that I know.” Exploit this knowledge to publish a quick post that requires minimal effort.
Wednesdays: Topics that I am trying to learn, such as sampling and simulation and efficient SAS programming. Share what you learn motivates you to get it right.
Fridays: Posts about data analysis. Often inspired by reading other blogs or by having a robust curiosity.
Planning: Divide by areas of specialization
16 Think Tank team members for healthcare
Authors specialize in specific areas
Assignment to blog on your topic area at least once every other month.
Balancing: Display commitment
• SAS Voices blog acts as a testing ground for new bloggers
• Internal blog network of 700+ bloggers also act as testing ground
Balancing: Group blogs REQUIRE editors
No assignments and nobody in charge = NO CONTENT
Rethink your idea of editor. Does not have to have “communicator” in job title
Job responsibilities: content chaser, people wrangler, idea generator, post polisher, etc
Balancing: Plan across blogs as needed World Statistics Day:
12 posts SAS 9.3 Launch:
10+ posts Conference editorial
calendars: plan ahead to avoid overlap
Consider event assignments by theme
Blog home page shows posts from all bloggers
Balancing: Combine or retire as needed Combine when unable to
blog often: Executive blogs
Combine when topics too similar: Social media and Customer intelligence
Retire when not being updated consistently
Retire or transition when employee leaves role
Coaching: Workshops & training
• Monthly blogger meetings to teach SEO, WordPress tips, writer workshops, etc
• Quarterly blogger engagement training• Social value workshops to introduce benefits of
blogging and other social content strategies to new users
• Storytelling workshops being developed• Resources on intranet include blog FAQ site, blog
discussion group, video tutorials, a blog about blogging, social media guidelines
Coaching: Advise; don’t micromanage
• Be patient with different learning styles• Don’t pre-judge• Don’t expect too much: Not all 200 bloggers will
follow every piece of advice• Don’t take it personally when others ask, “Why
don’t the bloggers do _____?” Photo guidelines SEO Individual tips about titles, paragraph lengths, etc
Results: Customer support
• “Sorry for the confusion, and thanks for the details, I could not have done it without you.”
• “Great post. I might have to steal this line of thinking next time I walk into such a project.”
• “Before you ever code a function or statistical procedure, look and see if SAS already has a pre-written one. It is almost certain they do.”
Results: Marketing success examples
• Bloggers invited to speak at customer and industry conferences.
• Blog posts picked up by industry journalists and magazines.
• Blog posts lead to a sales engagements.
Results: The new PRSocial media monitoring finds an MIT Tech Review article that mentions the use of SAS for social media analytics.
I arrange for an interview & blog post
IT World Canada – and others – interview same customer after reading SAS blog post.
Results: Top news source on sas.com
Results: Next steps for measurement
• Use of SAS Social Media Analytics to better understand sentiment and influence to increase by end of 2011.
• New CMS system will be integrated with WordPress blog system in 2012
• SAS Customer Experience Analytics will analyze traffic run on CMS and WP sites by 2013
Questions?
Alison Bolen • @alisonbolen• blogs.sas.com • [email protected]• 919-531-9057
Copyright © 2009, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.