Social Media Brownbag: Blogging Best PracticesJune 20, 2013Alison Yu

Agenda

• What is a blog?

• Blogging platforms

• Informatica Perspectives

overview

• How to set up a blog

• Writing a blog post

• How to promote your blog

post

What is a blog?

• An online platform that consists of short entries or “posts”

• All entries or posts revolve around one key topic

• Can be the work of a single person, or many people

• Powered by Google

• Advantages:

• Use free blogger templates or easily customize your blog themes using CSS or HTML code

• Can use a custom domain

• Search engine friendly and a high ranking for your content

• Limitless themes

• Disadvantages:

• Chance of your blogs being shut down any time by Google without prior notification

• Can’t integrate social media channels

BloggerBlogging Platforms

• Advantages:

• Wide variety of plugins and widgets*

• Reliable hosting

• High level of security

• Social media integration

• Can share posts through a widget

• Disadvantages

• Limits storage space and design

• Can’t host videos on the site, must embed them into your post

WordPressBlogging Platforms

• Advantages:

• Large volume of readers and users [10M-100M/month]

• Offers many blog templates

• Drag and drop, no coding

• Can customize with HTML if desired

• Disadvantages:

• Doesn’t allow you to integrate social channels

• Can be slow and cumbersome

LiveJournal!Blogging Platforms

Setting up a blog

• Choose a theme that interests you

• Make sure that you have a constant stream of new content

• EX. A culinary blog where you teach people how to make certain dishes

• EX. A blog on your industry (big data, cloud, MDM, etc.)

• Select a blogging platform to use

• Customize your domain (if possible)

• Create the look and feel of your blog

• Start posting!

Writing a blog post

• Ground rules

• 500-700 words

• Include multimedia when possible

• Experts predict by 2015, the majority of SEO results will be video*

• Catchy, on topic title

• Compelling content

Write Your Blog

• Write about a trending topic or something that is noteworthy

• Add value to your readers

• Share your point of view about a topic, remember what is obvious to you might not be obvious to someone else

• Write in an authentic tone

• Remember this is a blog post, not a press release – let your personality show through in your writing!

Optimize Your Blog for Search• Have keywords in mind

• Include keywords in:

• Title

• Heading

• Body

• Metadescription

• URL

• Hyperlink within your blog

• Make sure the text matches the link

• EX. PowerCenter links to the PowerCenter product page

• Categorize your blog post – make it easier to find within your blog

• Tag your blog with keywords

Posting Your Blog

• Timing is everything

• Think about where your core audience is

• What is your content about?

• More technical or business related posts do better in the morning – this is when journalists are looking for compelling content to write about

• More personal interest related posts do better in the afternoon/evening when people get off of work and are looking for a leisurely read

• If you are posting on Perspectives make sure to reserve a time and date

Promote Your Blog

• Promote via other social channels

• Leverage your social channels to spread the word widely – LinkedIn Groups for technical/business blog posts are a great way to generate more readership

• If you blog for Perspectives, the blog automatically will be distributed from Informatica’s twitter and facebook profiles

• Add your blog to the Informatica Conversation Calendar

• Provide a set of tweets to promote and send to Alison by EOD Thursday the week prior

• Comment on other relevant blogs

• Add value to them, do NOT just spam!

• Comment on something that they wrote and

follow up with a teaser and link to your blog

Questions?