Is timing all that important in the world of online marketing where information flows freely twenty four hours a day, seven days a week?

Some bloggers and users of social media are satisfied to hammer out a post or send a tweet whenever they can. Others stay up late editing the next day’s blog post and setting it to auto-post at 4 AM. Is there really any advantage?

In a word, yes. In two words: definitely maybe.

Online marketers and community managers want to know one simple thing: when can they put their information, products, and special offers in front of the greatest number of people at one time. By learning about the timing of blog posts and social media updates, they’ll be able to maximize their exposure relative to the time they invest and even capture audiences that online marketers have neglected.

When to Use Social Media

Many businesses focus their blog posts and social media efforts on the work week, assuming that their audiences are most attentive during week days. However, consider this statistic from a 2009 Wired Magazine survey: 54% of companies block Facebook and Twitter. That means a ton of readers will be looking for something to read in the evenings and on the weekend. With that in mind, let’s look at some advice on when to use social media and to post blog content.

Two years of research by Dan Zarella of the marketing firm Hubspot found that the morning isn’t necessarily the best time to use social media.

• All Social Media: Interaction levels remain fairly steady on the weekends in comparison to the week.
• Twitter: Click-through rates for links shared are highest between 11 am and 5 pm EST.
• Twitter: The most retweets occur between 2 pm and 5 pm. In order to monitor the effectiveness of your retweets, check out the website Tweet When.
• Facebook: Linking to your blog or website more than once a day will not bring significant benefits. In fact, posting too frequently on Facebook will back-fire.
• Facebook: Weekends and off-peak times are also effective for click-throughs since there are fewer links shared and many readers are still looking for good content in their off hours.
• E-mail Campaigns:  The highest open and click-through rates happen on Saturday mornings. If you send an e-mail newsletter or a digest of your blog posts, schedule it for 4 or 5 am on Saturday. Publishing professionals Jane Friedman and Michael Hyatt send their newsletters at that time and offer many tips valuable tips to her readers.

Whatever you do, you need to test the response of readers to your blog posts and social media updates. Different industries and users may respond in their own ways. For example, if you’re blogging in order to receive links from experts, Zarella recommends aiming for early in the morning.

One of the most important things to keep in mind for blogs targeting readers in the United States, the majority of the population is located on the East Coast.

If you want to dramatically increase your page views, you need to also focus on your post frequency. However, if you can’t keep up with one, two, or three posts a day, post timing will become far more important. In addition, entrepreneur and blogger Tim Ferris suggests that a lousy blog post can be far more harmful to your influence than no blog post.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger wrote back in 2008 that his weekend posts are typically lost in the shuffle compared to weekday posts.  When he hosted Daniel Zarella to share his findings about blog viewing trends, his findings continued to hold true.  Weekday mornings EST are when blogs have the most readers.

This means that marketers can still reach a lot of readers on social networks on the weekends and in the afternoons. However, when it comes to attracting links and more blog readers, the majority of readers are looking for content on week day mornings. Though the audience on weekends may be smaller for a blog post, social media tools and a lack of competition and a companion e-mail campaign may make weekends a highly effective time to find readers and customers.

About the Author

This guest post is written by Lior Levine, a marketing consultant for a web hosting company that lists the best web hosting companies online. Lior also consults for the MA in political science international program at the Tel Aviv University.

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Choosing a blog topic is the most important factor in having a successful, well-read blog post that attracts comments and attention. Here is how to choose a topic for your blog post.

The most basic way to choose a blog topic is to look for an attention-grabbing story in the news. This can then be used as part of the blog post and title. The title is the first thing that people read, and it’s the most important factor. As long as you grab their attention you will convince them to continue reading. Choosing a topic that is controversial will also help you to create a good blog post, as people love to read about controversy.

Create an angle on a popular blog topic. In order to do this, look for those topics in your marketplace that always get lots of comments and attract the attention of many blog owners in your market. You should then use the same broad theme but create an angle, in order to make it original. This is a very simple way to choose a blog topic and will ensure you have a market for your blog post.

Another solid approach to choosing a blog topic is to make it personal. People love to read about the lives of others, and are always interested if you reveal something about yourself. However, ensure that the blog topic is also related to the market and gives them information that can be put to use. You could offer a story of how you used a certain technique in order to improve your skills in something. Make it personal, reveal an unknown truth and then provide a solution.

If your market is one that enjoys humor then you can reveal a joke as part of the blog post. This will not work in all markets, but it is an effective method to choose a blog topic. The idea is to link something that your readers are interested in to a joke that they will enjoy. This has been done with great success and can be used to connect to your subscribers and readers.

One of the most popular blog topics is to make a list of seven secrets or tips. This is done every day and still works to generate attention and attract a lot of readers. When you create a blog post around seven tips, you will almost be guaranteed to have readers, comments and increased traffic.

Using the methods above to choose the topic for your blog post will make the process much easier and will ensure more readers to click and read your content.

About the Author

Pat Lindle is an avid writer and blogger for his metal deck / steel deck company in Phoenix AZ. When not writing and blogging about his passions, Pat enjoys scuba diving, mountain climbing, and vacationing with his family.

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Writing for the web often requires a great deal of self publishing, especially if you run your own blog or news/feature website. Because of this, there is a good chance that at some point, you will be required to find images, resize them, and add them to your articles.

Nothing can fully replace having your own photographer at your side, but there are many photographers who use the web as their digital portfolios and allow writers and website owners to use their images royalty-free. Just because an image is on the web does not mean it’s a free image and you have the right to use it, and if you start making money off your blog while illegally using copyrighted images, you could be in for a world of hurt.

There are several types of royalty-free photo sites out there. Some have their own licenses, and others use copyleft licenses like Creative Commons or GNU Free Documentation License. Still others allow the users to specify the terms such as notification and crediting. The following are several sites you can use to find free images for your writing.

Where to Find Free Images?

stock.xchng – One of the most well-established free stock photo sites, stock.xchng showcases an amazingly large number of photographers. Licenses include the standard restrictions, which do not require attribution, as well as an attribution, permission, and/or notification requirement. All of the images are high-quality, and all are free of charge.

Flickr – Since Flickr itself is a photo sharing site, there are plenty photos with “all rights reserved” that are off-limits to you unless you gain the photographer’s permission. With the “advanced search” feature, however, you can locate usable photos by scrolling to the bottom of the page and checking: “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content”. If you need to use the images for commercial promotion, also be sure to check “Find to use commercially”.

A word of caution: Flickr uses the Creative Commons feature trusting that the person who uploads it will honor its terms. Unfortunately, some are prone to later change the license or upload images that they do not have permission to license in the first place. Therefore, always use your best judgment.

Wikimedia Commons – Created by the same non-profit organization that runs Wikipedia, this free image site has a plethora of usable photos and art. Because of stricter requirements for submission, Wikimedia Commons photos are all reusable under Creative Commons. Most require attribution, so be sure to credit your sources.

OpenClipArt – Although clipart may be the last type of image you want to include in your writing, OpenClipArt has some quality vector SVG artwork that may cause you to reconsider. All of the images on this site are released to the Public Domain and do not require attribution.

Google Advanced Search – Rather than an image hosting site, Google image search is a meta search tool that you can use to find reusable images. Simply click on “Advanced Search” and for “Usage rights” select “free to use or share”. Most of the images will come from Flickr, but it may also find additional ones, and best of all, it relies on Google’s speedy search interface.

everystockphoto – Another meta search tool, everystockphoto searches many of the sites mentioned above, such as Flickr and stock.xchng. Each entries clearly defines the license type, resolution, image source, and more.

morgueFile – An interesting concept, morgueFile is designed specifically for creative people looking for free images to use. The site license does not require attribution, and the collection of photos is quite impressive and high quality.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog – The Library of Congress has tons of digital images, and it would make this article unduly long to list all of the categories. If you are looking for art, historical photos, or things you might not be able to find elsewhere, LOC probably has it. Most of the old photos and art are in the public domain, but be sure to check the restrictions for each collection you use.

Now you have no excuse not to include beautiful free photos and art in your writing. Like you, a writer who shares your creations with the world, there are plenty of photographers and artists who do the same. Enjoy their work, and be sure to give them credit when they request it.

About the Author

Tavis J. Hampton is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience in writing, information services, and Linux system administration, relying on only quality web hosts like server hosting company 34SP.com.

You may also want to read: Where To Find Free Images For Your Blog
Photo credits to Miguel Ugalde

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Article writing is more than just sitting down and writing out your thoughts. In order to get people to keep on reading you have to almost instantly capture their interest. You must get your reader interested enough and curious enough to be able to get your message across to them.

The most important ingredient in putting together an article is creativity. Some people are just naturally very creative, while others go crazy while suffering from a seemingly endless bout of writer’s block. It can be extremely frustrating and aggravating when the words that you are looking for just don’t seem to want to come. But you must learn to relax and let them come.

Writing words that magically transform themselves into an image in the mind of the reader is an art form in and of itself. Your words need to be crisp, clear, and concise. You can use metaphors to help yourself out, but the way an article is woven together word by word and sentence by sentence is how it develops its essence and personality.

You are sitting there and you just can’t seem to get any words to come to mind, what do you do now? Since the beginning of the written word, all writers have faced this situation. There is no perfect or guaranteed answer to the problem of writers block. One secret that I use, as well as a lot of other writers, is to keep a notebook near you at all times and write down any ideas as they come to you. Write down everything you think of, everything you see, and everything you hear that might prove useful. You can use this notebook for future reference when you are in need of an idea.

Another thing that you can try is to simply relax and empty your mind. We all from time to time end up with a head full of life’s little worries. If you are having some sort of problem or difficulty in your life it will make it very hard for you to concentrate and keep focused on what you are trying to do. Every time you sit down to write, take a moment to relax and clear those troubling thoughts from your mind.

The area in which you work is very important and can have a direct effect on the quality of your work. A cluttered workspace can be a distraction and hinder your productivity. This doesn’t mean however that you have to have a sterile and drab work area. Put up some pictures that inspire you. Place some small objects on your desk the bring back those kinds of memories that you just can’t help but smile when you think of them. A peaceful work area will greatly increase your output.

Figure out how you work best

A good place to start is the speed with which you write. Some writers once they get going, the words just fly across the paper. Other writers are much slower and more methodical. You need to find your own pace. Some writers having a never-ending cup of coffee always on the desk, while some have been known to sip on a glass of wine or put away a few beers while they write. There is no right or wrong way, there is only you finding your own way.

And if it all gets to be too much, and no matter how hard you should try the words just won’t come, get up and walk away from it. Take a break, go for a walk, do something that is unusual and will break up your normal routine. Once you have let go of all those little things that are bothering you, the writing process will flow effortlessly.

About the Author

Thomas Alling runs a blog where he writes about how you can make money from blogging. He also writes articles in the internet marketing niche. To read more from Mr. Alling, visit his blog MakeMoneyHelper.com

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In most industrialized nations, literacy is well over 98%. This means that nearly everyone is capable of reading and writing and, as such, are capable of being writers.

However, only a very small fraction of people who can write ever attempt to actually become serious writers and, of those who do, only a fraction ever become successful at it.

There are many reasons for this, some of which include natural talent, time and other issues over which there is little control.  However, there are several habits that separate those who become successful writers from those who never go anywhere with their writing.

In short, while taking on these habits may not guarantee that you’ll become a successful writer, not having them will virtually guarantee that you won’t. As such, they are crucial for any writer to have if they want to make a career or even a reputation out of their writing.

1. Writing

Successful writers write almost constantly. It’s important to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) at least once a day to keep your mind in the writing mindset.

Try to set a word count goal for yourself every day, even if it is a low one at first, and try to hit it. Not only is this a great way to tackle longer projects, such as a novel, but it forces you to write even if you don’t have a deadline looming, letting you work on projects along and along rather than rushing to completion.

2. Editing

Most great writers are also avid editors. While it’s important to have others read your work and to take their suggestions humbly, you have to be your own best editor.

Learn how to edit your work carefully, reading the words aloud as you go back over it or even reading it backwards to ensure you take your time and look at what was said. Very few great works come out as diamonds in the first draft and most need a lot of polish to make them shine.

3. Reading

To be a successful writer, one has to read as much, if not more, than they write. Reading not only lets you see what works and what doesn’t but also lets you feel the natural cadence of the written language and bring that into your work.

It’s important, however, to read a variety of content. Newspapers, books, blog posts, etc. all have different styles and different elements that you can incorporate into your work. Exposing yourself to all of the content you can is crucial to having a broad understanding of writing and being able to bring in the best of all worlds.

4. Focus

Writing is hard work and there are many distractions that can cause you to lose your focus. Finding ways to keep on target and keep putting words on the page is crucial to completing projects, which, in turn is essential for being a successful writer.

Whether you use a full screen word processor or just sheer willpower, finding a way to stay focused on your words will help you immensely as you try to hone and improve your writing.

5. Self Promotion

This one is a problem for many writers as marketing is not a skill that comes naturally with writing talents. However, in order to go from being a talented writer to a successful one, one has to be prepared to tastefully trumpet themselves.

Marketing and promotion is far from easy, but the quicker one masters it, the faster their career will grow.

6. Delivery

Finally, all of the above habits mean nothing if the writer isn’t capable of delivering what they promise on time every time.

A writer who hasn’t submitted a completed work hasn’t written anything at all. So getting into the habit of meeting deadlines and constantly turning out excellent work when you do is the habit that will build your reputation and help you climb the ladder of success.

Conclusions

All in all, there’s no real magic to becoming a great writer. It’s all about working hard at your craft and constantly churning out high quality work in a timely fashion.

However, these are not skills that one develops so much as they are habits, habits that become ingrained by making an effort to do them over and over again.

Once that happens, there’s almost nothing that can stop you from finding success as a writer. At that point it is only a matter of time and patience.

About the Author

This was a guest post by Lior who works for an applicant tracking software and who also advises to a neon signs store.

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The niche of blogging tips is a crowded one and no wonder it’s that way. Blogging is so “the new black”. It gives you freedom, the perspective of making a few (or more) bucks and why not, for some might be just a way to vent. So, what better way to reach a constantly growing and renewing audience than by providing tips on how they should blog. The problem is that sometimes bloggers in this niche forget to be original and get stuck in the same circle of clichés.

Let me take you through my personal top 5 list of the most annoying blogging clichés.

5. Content is king

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that reads this almost daily on some blog or Twitter. It gives me the feeling that people keep on discovering the wheel over and over again. We all know that content is king, but there’s so much more beyond that. How many or the articles you read on this topic go further into exploring the ways to give your content the deserved spotlight? My take is that without due promotion, aesthetics and a good network, your content is nothing but a king without a kingdom!

4. How to overcome a writer’s block

Are there any more ways to overcome a writer’s block? I’ve read so much advice on this, but fact is you only need to know/do 3 things:

• Step aside from what you’re trying to write.
• Get out of the house, do something different. There’s life outside blogging too!
• Ask other people for their opinion. You might consider it or not, but a fresh perspective is always welcome.

Other than this it’s all a matter of personal habits, of things we love to do and things that relax us.

3. Top X lists

He he, I know I’m guilty, but can you blame me? We all love lists! The trick is to know how and when to do another list post. Lists are such an easy way to get some new content published without worrying too much about creative writing, but please don’t overdo it. Have a good balance between in depth articles that will encourage your readers to think and react and list posts. Consider them a way to give your readers a moment to breathe.

Also, make sure you don’t copy other people’s lists, which is hard because lists are about mass-appeal, and if you chose a topic, chances are other bloggers have already been there and already done that, most probably in just the same way.

2. (How to) Make money blogging

Hype. Everyone wants to be the next 6 figure blogger (hate the term) and so many people state they can help you. Fact is, even if they could, they rarely do. I mean, have a look around at most of the crowned kings in the make money blogging niche and answer me this: how factual are their tips. Or better yet, how many tips, other than generic stuff they share? It’s all about “I’m affiliate to this, I’m affiliate to that, try it too.” Of course, through their affiliate links. I’m not saying you cannot make money online (God, please don’t smite me!). I’m just saying that there are only a few things you need to consider and not expect someone else to do it for you:

• Put great content out there. Nobody gives a poop (stop smiling, I’m just using decent language!) about how much you make if you don’t help them make that too.
• Try out different services. Some will prove to be money makers, some won’t, but there’s no generic recipe that will fit every blogger and his unique blogging style and topics, and most importantly their particular audience.
• Network like crazy! It’s the one big secret you rarely read, but if you watch closely, networking it’s all there is to it. Call it affiliate marketing, call it promotion, call it whatever you want. In the end it’s still multi-level marketing and it cannot be done without strong partners and happy followers!

Or, you might just want to create a brand for yourself that you can leverage to promote and distribute your own products, but that’s a path that requires work and where the fun in that when we could just expect money to fall from the sky.

And now for my all time favorite…

1. Stand out from the crowd!

I’m guessing I should be in perfect health right now from all the standing gymnastics I’ve done. No really, how many times a week do you read this? I know it sound nice, it even rhymes, but seriously, ain’t that the reason you blog about blogging, to help your readers achieve uniqueness and greatness? Should you add another generic “stand out from the crowd” post just to catch a damn long-tail keyword in search engine rankings?

Every time you use a blogging cliché…

You’ll make Mr. Newman sad, and seriously, see for yourself how sad he already is!

Jokes aside, consider this post as an advice to keep away from the blogging clichés. I know it’s hard since the niche is crowded and topics tend to come back into spotlight regularly, but if you must write about it, please try and get a fresh perspective or at least add some depth to your perspective. People rarely get down and dirty dissecting topics because using a cliché is just that: an easy way to get something out there. Why would you want to complicate your life? Really? Then I’d ask you: Why would you want to waste my time making me read the same over-recycled content?

Over to you

Tell me which are the most annoying blogging clichés you’ve come across in your blogging adventures? Drop me a comment, or better yet, write a post about it and give it a nice twist. Link it back here and if it’s really interesting I’ll include it in this post as a sample of “what others think”.

The cute sad pup in this photo is Bob aka Mr. Newman, which unfortunately passed away (one more reason not to upset him) and the shot was taken by Christopher Michel

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Nothing helps set a blog and its author apart and give them the visibility they need more effectively than a unique blogging voice, one that’s easily recognizable in each post you publish. Both general and niche blogs need their style to help them stand out. It’s an easy way to gain loyal fans, authority and reputation.

How exactly can you find your blogging voice and make sure it is recognizable in everything you publish? Here are a few tips:

1. Identify your blogging voice

Each person has their preferences for certain phrases, expressions, ways of building phrases or of presenting arguments. This personal style needs to be inserted into your blog writing and maintained throughout each post. You need to experiment to first come to understand which is your blogging voice, otherwise you’ll just stumble around blindly, picking up influences from who ever you might think is hot and popular at a certain point. It has to be your inner voice, not a fabricated one, as its being genuine will make it easier to maintain. It will be something that comes naturally when you write, not a forced tactic meant at setting you apart that you might overlook when getting into a topic you’re passionate about.

2. Use catchphrases

Everyone recognizes Midnight Caller’s “Good night, America… Wherever you are”. And if you don’t know this one, who on Earth does not immediately associate Bugs Bunny with “What’s up, dock?” or Porky Pig with “That’s all folks!”? They are used in movies, by writers, by radio show hosts. A certain turn and twist of a famous phrase, a typical start to to your posts’ conclusions, a personally developed way of inviting others to comment, an interjection that’s all you, supporting your blogging structure with such catchphrases will make your unique voice and style recognizable to your blog readers. It will become part of your brand.

The secret to a good catchphrase is to choose one that actually fits all and any post you might think of publishing and stay away for overused, cheesy catchphrases. For example, the overused, Pantene invented “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful” might not make you seem unique and have the exactly opposite effect, resulting in a rolling-eyes gesture from readers that’s actually bad for your blog. Though that might be good for Kanye West!

3. Get your readers accustomed to receiving something extra from your post

If a catchphrase that fits all your articles is harder to pin down, you can create other writing habits that will later define your unique blogging voice to your audience. Start or end your post with famous quotes or lyrics, book recommendations or a quick roundup of other blogs debating the subject that are relevant to the topic you’re debating.

4. Using themes or blog series

Joanna Paterson over at Confident Writing further defined her unique blogging voice by choosing a theme for each month of blogging. All the posts published in a month would further expand the chosen theme. If you don’t have enough material for a monthly theme, you can choose a weekly theme or have a blog series published each month. State the theme at the end of the month and publish one or two parts each week. Also, try and come up with a unique and appealing name for your series.

5. Create your signature group writing project or award

While there is nothing new or impressive about group writing projects (GWP) or awards per se, creating a unique, signature GWP or system to award others will help readers better identify you and your blog and it will set you apart from the millions of blogs out there. Think of how we immediately connect the “What I learned from...” monthly GWP with Robert Hruzek. Or how the weekly list of new SOB badges says Liz Strauss and Successful-Blog.com to all of us!

And while we’re debating the unique blog topic, you might travel back through the archives and read this post too: What’s behind a unique blog?

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There are a lot of bloggers out there that write great content and even if they get a decent amount of traffic, some of them don’t seem to have a lot of interaction with their readers. On top of that, some of them might discover your site from the search engines and never come back again, even if they liked it. Seriously, they could have forgotten your URL or website name.

Your goal is to grow as much as possible with your current traffic. There are many different ways to get more traffic to your blog or website, but why not establish a better connection with your current readers from the start. Master this and then you can work on getting more unique visitors later on. So listed below are some ways to accomplish this and brand your website or blog:

1. Email Optin Newsletter Form

One of my favorite suggestions is to display an email opt in newsletter form on your site. If you’re using a WordPress blog platform, then you can place it in a widget on the side. In order to get an opt in form, you will need to sign up for a email service such as Aweber, Constant Contact, along with multiple others out there.

Another tip is to choose a newsletter form that is eye popping and has a good call to action. Then once you got a large list of email subscribers, you can easily email them about a new post that you made. This is more direct than having them subscribe to an RSS feed because the message is sent straight to their email address. RSS feed subscriptions can also be powerful and should be used along with email newsletters. Also, RSS is free so don’t forget to display a RSS feed on the site as well.

2. Subscribe to Comments Plugin

Another favorite tip is to use a free plugin called “Subscribe to Comments” for WordPress. Quick Online Tips uses this itself as shown on the bottom of the comments section and all they have to do is check the box. This allows readers to get email notifications after they submit a comment. That way they don’t have to keep checking up on the blog to see if someone answered their question.They just get an email that shows any comments placed after them and it gets more exposure to your blog so they are more likely to reply to the conversation. It gets them coming back to your blog.

3. Social Media

This has been discussed before, but you sometimes need to do more than the average person does. Instead of posting to social media sites and expect people to start following you, go out and read other peoples information and leave comments. You should look for targeted and similar subject areas. For an example, in Facebook you can do a search for your topic and register on a fan or group page. Sometimes there are thousands of people registered on one fan page. By interacting with a large fan page and leaving a link to your site in the signature can help get people to notice you.

4. Conversations with Readers

My third tip is to actually interact with your readers on the blog. Write a sentence or two at the end of your blog post telling them how much you would appreciate a comment or tell them to ask a question. Then come and reply to their questions or think of some to ask them. Usually having them ask questions will help lead you to more blog post ideas because some people start to become stuck with new ideas to write about. So this can be a big helper to keep your blog fresh with ideas and the readers will be more eager to come back for the whole post.

I hope this has helped and if you implement these tips you will see your blog grow. With that said, please share your own experiences, or thoughts or any question that you might have. I appreciate any feedback or if you have a tip, leave it in the comments section. Thank you!

About the Author

This is a guest post by writer Eric Woolf from the Pixels and Dots web design team. Please leave him your comments below or on the Pixels and Dots blog.

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You know me, I always encourage you to experiment, to learn new things, to reinvent yourself, but sometime the wheel doesn’t not need to be reinvented. Sometimes the best thing to do is to learn from the experience and wisdom of our “elders”. Such is the case of today’s blog post. Instead of sharing some of my own tips with you, I’ll leave you in the company of some of the world’s most famous authors and only interpret their teachings in the art of writing.

Easy reading is damn hard writing.
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret.
Matthew Arnold

It’s easy to get lost in words and ideas. It’s harder to keep your writing concise and to the point, to make it clear and easy to read. Focus on getting your ideas across, to your readers, in their most natural form. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Matthew Arnold both agree on this.

A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.
Richard Bach

If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.
Edgar Rice Burroughs

Writing is a continuous activity. You experiment constantly. You learn and evolve. The more you write, the better the chances to put something good out there. It’s “trial and error” until it becomes “trial and success”.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Jack London

It’s something I’ve always preached. Keep your eyes and ears open to the world around you. Look for inspiration in every single thing you read, hear and see. There’s actually no such thing as a “writer’s block”, but rather failure in finding a good starting point.

Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.
Anne McCaffrey

Stories… even simple news have a story behind. Give people a story they can relate to. Give them a story they can understand and let them draw conclusions themselves. Give them the tools and let them build their own result.

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it.
Ernest Hemingway

I try to leave out the parts that people skip.
Elmore Leonard

Being a good editor is also a must for a good writer. Proof-reading and “shit detecting” as Hemingway calls it are required in order to make sure you get the best possible copy out there. What’s harder to achieve though, is being neutral, looking at your own work from an outsider’s perspective.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.
Samuel Johnson

When 20 people are writing about the same thing, the only one to “make it” is the one putting it in a new light. There’s no point in doing the same things in the same way. Find your original angle.

What is written without effort is in generally read without pleasure.
Samuel Johnson

And your original angle comes from within your original voice. Put your heart and mind into your writings. Put passion into writing and passion with be reborn into reading.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

As promised a while back, I’ve finished editing the Corporate Blogging Guide in PDF eBook format. So, today I give you the chapters you’ve had the chance to read online plus a whole new chapter (8. Technical aspects) and some bonus tips to guide you in your corporate blogging adventures!

How to download the eBook?

In order to download the ebook, all you have to do is to subscribe for free to Blogsessive’s RSS feed (if you haven’t done so until now) and you’ll find the download link at the end of each article in the feed.

eBook preview and contents

Here are two screenshots of the book’s cover and the contents page:

Don’t forget to subscribe…

… to Blogsessive’s RSS feed to download the eBook and to stay updated. There are plenty more freebies in the works, including a new WordPress theme and my second eBook: “From Zero to Blogging Hero: 100 Blogging Tips”

Enjoy the eBook friends!

PS: Please do not link to the download link in the feed. Instead, if you wish to promote this ebook, link to this post. Otherwise, I will consider it spam and wrongful usage!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

A blog’s success is measured through both its number of active readers or of RSS subscribers and its performance in traffic: number of page views, of unique visitors, popularity, page rank and many others.

There are a few methods to obtain the needed statistics to track and measure such indicators.

1. Access and traffic statistics

Google, the most powerful and popular search engine in the world, provides bloggers with traffic statistics though its free Google Analytics service.

By choosing a free Google Analytics account, you can view stats regarding your blog’s page views, number of unique or returning visitors, keywords used to reach your blog, the most visited pages you have posted, geographical tracking of your visitors and much more.

Google Analytics is currently considered to be a very accurate and relevant tool. Other services you might consider are StatCounter or Woopra with its live tracking and analytics features.

2. Indexing statistics

The number of pages indexed by a search engine and their position in search tops reflect the indexing rank of a site.

Do you want to find what your indexing results are for two of the most important search engines are? Google and Yahoo offer you two critical tools for any website administrator:

1. Google Webmaster Tools (XML Sitemaps)
2. Yahoo! Site Explorer

You can check the number pages from your website indexed by Google by typing the following in the search box:

site:www.domainname.com

You can also check the number of outside links your website’s pages receive by typing the following:

link:www.domainname.com

3. Popularity statistics

Traffic, accessibility, search engine exposure levels as well as content relevancy and its focus on certain niches all contribute to your blog’s popularity.

The popularity is statistically tracked by a range of online services, of which the most relevant are:

1. Alexa
2. Compete
3. Quantcast
4. Technorati (Blog dedicated service)

4. Statistics’ relevance

A thorough analysis of your blog’s stats will help you identify its strong spots and the type of content best suited for its audience. It will also help you determine its weak spots or to improve your content and focus more on covering certain areas of interest.

Yet make sure you never forget that blogs are maintained through relevant, interesting and fresh content, not statistics!

This concludes the “Corporate Blogging Guide”! I hope you all found it useful and share it with those who you think might need the information provided here. A PDF version of the guide is also in the works and will include an additional chapter.

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools (current)

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Happy Halloween folks! As you might have noticed, Blogsessive has changed its “clothes” on this special occasion. Don’t worry, the nerd will be back tomorrow, when Dracula “leaves the building”.

Now, since this is a special occasion, the topic for today’s article has been inspired by a comment I received on part 6 of the Corporate Blogging Guide:

I think we all start our blogs worried people might not like us and when they do, we don’t want to change for fear of losing readers. I’ll take experiments to stagnation any day.
David Walker

The moment I read David’s comment I knew he made a really good remark. It is fear that keeps us in place. It is fear that keeps us from “spreading our wings”. We abide all the rules and all things that we know for sure will work and hope to be the next blogging “rockstar”. But, do you really believe those “rockstars” we all follow are there because they are copycats? Because they follow rules? Or might it be possible that they are the ones creating new rules? Might they be the ones revolutionizing the concepts?

Do you want to be a better blogger? Then…

Don’t be afraid to stray from the pattern!

What worked for other people, might work for you. But it might not also. Do you want to be another face in the crowd, or “the inspiration” for the crowd? If you want to inspire, then find the unexplored paths. Lead people to places they did not visit before! Try, try, and then, try again. Who cares if an experiment fails? You lost 3 subscribers? OK! Move on, fight to find that something that will get you 300 subscribers in return!

Don’t be afraid to be yourself!

It’s your blog! I’m not saying you should be an a*s, but if you have an opinion, put it out there. If you’re not comfortable with your own views and opinions you should not blog. Blogging is about being personal. You need to have your own voice, different than the voices you hear in the crowd around you! Out of 10 people that say the same thing, only one will go down in history for saying it the best way, his way!

Don’t be afraid to lose battles!

No one is victorious every time. It’s all about winning the war, right? I’ll give myself as an example here. I’m still “fighting this blogging war”. I lost battles. You’ve noticed the time I spent away from the blog. It was a lost battle. So, I took the time to find the right resources to continue “the war” and I’m back. Have I lost something along the way? A couple of email subscribers. I do get why they are not subscribed anymore, but those who believe in you and support you will be there, for better or worse. (Thanks again folks!) Everything that you lose, can be built again. We’re not born with these. We’re born naked. With the right mind set on it, we can overcome loses.

Don’t be afraid to dream!

Dream. Hope. Believe! If you don’t set your mind to the higher target, you’ll never achieve it. Know your limits, and when you know them, set your standard above them. It’s the only way you can actually reach your limits, because it’s hard to avoid falling in the trap of indulging into small victories or sufficiency.

It’s Halloween folks, but on this day, you should NOT be afraid!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Regardless of the blog type you choose, be it personal or corporate, the following pieces of advice are meant to guide your steps in your future blogging activity. These are the most important blog tips you’ll need to follow when starting a new blogging adventure!

1. Look for ideas at any time and in any place

A conversation in the subway, a debate or piece of news heard on the car radio, anything can turn into a new topic for your blog. Keep your mind open and tune your hearing, combine them with good analysis skills and you will have some killer weapons in your arsenal.

2. Raise and maintain interest

An attractive first paragraph is not enough to maintain the reader’s interest throughout your blog post. “Start big, finish bigger”. Provide new hooks in small doses to keep your readers interest throughout the article.

3. Generate the conversation and take part in it

Often times, bloggers are compared to journalists, and their blogs to newspapers (usually tabloids, not broadsheets). Yet blogs and online newspapers differ exactly where they are also alike – the comments section. Newspapers use the comments section to allow users to express their frustrations and almost never moderate them. The classic journalistic style rarely requires an answer or any feedback, usually being limited to presenting the facts or expressing an opinion.

The main ace bloggers play is their power to start conversations and to keep them going by being part of them.

4. Make sure you provide quality information

If your new blog post is based on personal opinions, make sure they have the required features to become points of reference. If you’ve used other sources for it, make sure you check their credibility and quality first.

5. Never promise more than you can give

Failing to deliver everything you have promised will lead to a significant decrease in a blog’s credibility and popularity. Teasers do work, but only if what you were teasing readers with becomes reality.

6. Offer help

Nothing pleases blog followers more than getting help from a field expert. Whenever you have a spare moment, help those in need of your professional help. Make sure to reply their comments and their emails.

7. Links are sacred

Are you quoting a source? Then link to it! Are you publishing survey results or statistics? Link to those who have created them. Are you expressing your opinion regarding something that has been published on another blog or online outlet? Link to the initial article. Why?

1. Because it helps prove the quality of the provided information and places them in a broader context;
2. Because it is a nice way to thank those who have inspired you to find a new topic for your blog.

If you have already discussed a certain topic in previous posts, link to them at the end of the current article. This helps those interested in the topic to get more details on it.

Additionally, a solid inbound and outbound linking policy will help your blog rank better in search engines.

8. Never, ever…

Do any of the following:

1. Attack someone else’s stand on an issue if you are not 100% sure of your own. Make sure to provide arguments to sustain it;
2. Publish someone else’s content without having their permission to do so.
3. Start open conflicts with your blog commentators. Keep your cool!
4. Allow the needs vs. solutions balance incline towards the former in your posts. Provide more solutions than debates over what’s needed.
5. Shy away from commenting on similar or competing blogs. As long as you don’t do it to shamelessly plug your blog or attach the author, your contributions will be valued and will direct more readers towards your own posts.
6. Take all blogging advice as laws. They are only pieces of advice. Experiment with them and see which work better in your case.
7. Fill your blog up with plugins, widgets and other useless elements. We are ultimately talking about a corporate blog. You really do not want to compete in MTV’s “Pimp my blog” competition!
8. Postpone for too long your blogging platform and plugins update. Don’t be the first to do it either, to make sure bugs are found and solved, but don’t be the last one either!

9. And the most important piece of advice…

….I’m going to ever give you is to never be afraid of EXPERIMENTING. Experiment with different tones, new post types, new topic approaches.

Stay fresh!

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started (current)
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Depending on the type of corporate blog you’re targeting, you can then put together an editorial team. To make sure you correctly appoint those in charge of content generation and blog management, you need to consider the following criteria:

1. Criteria to help build the editorial team

The future bloggers needs to be/have:

1. Experts in the filed they are going to cover;
2. A good communicator, able to manage potential communication crises arising from dialogues and feedback generated by the blog;
3. Concise, clear and explicit when they express themselves, as they will not target only those who are in their turn experts and are acquainted to the field’s jargon;
4. Believable and genuine in what the provided information is concerned;
5. A human touch and a pleasant manner of writing;
6. Ready to face a reduced level of privacy in their lives, at least in what the online world is concerned.

2. PR department involvement

Most communications through the corporate blog usually abide by the general public relations policies within the company, thus it is strongly recommended that your blogger(s) work together with your PR department. Their collaboration helps:

1. abide by the general communication tone imposed by company standards;
2. prevent or, if needed, manage possible communication crises;
3. develop the bloggers’ communication skills and ability to generate valuable content.

3. The blog’s tone

Depending on the type of blog and target audience, the tone and style of the blogger may vary.

Usually, a relaxed, human voice and an openness to communicate and interact with all those providing feedback or reactions within the comments section or on other blogs guarantees your blog’s success.

Staying clear from “corporate speeches”, what is communicated through the blog should have an equivalent in day to day life, such as:

1. A relaxed conversation with one or more friends;
2. A conversation with in a larger group comprising both good friends and recent acquaintances;
3. A first meeting with one or more persons that you have never interacted with.

To find the right tone or voice, the term “conversational” should always be your reference. Using words such as “I”, “you”, “us” adds more personality and openness and, thus being highly recommended.

Further reading recommendation: Finding Your Reader-friendly Blogging Tone

4. Content generation

Generating content for a blog is an activity that uses up a lot of resources, from time to information. The most common sources used to generate new debate topics in your articles are:

• your own area of expertise;
• news and events related to your company;
• the evolution of your products and services;
• industry events;
• industry press releases;
• debating your own opinions with other industry representatives;
• the analysis of industry statistics and forecasts;
• analyzing pieces of news published by the media;
• attending fairs;
• guides to success – tips & tricks;
• lists of preferences and recommendations, etc.

Mashable.com has published a comprehensive article providing over 40 sources you can use to generate content: http://mashable.com/2008/08/11/topics-for-corporate-bloggers/

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy (current)
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

So, you think you are ready to launch a corporate blog for your company? Based on previously set goals for your blog and the available resources, the most common types of corporate blogs from which you can choose are:

CEO blog

The CEO blog is the blog authored by someone from the company’s top management. The general trend for such blogs is to publish analyses of the main events in a certain filed, forecasts and statistics, this content pattern thus positioning the author as a thought leader.

Often times this type of blog will be strongly related to the company brand, its products and services.

A few famous examples of CEO blogs:

1. Jonathan Schwartz (President & CEO, Sun Microsystems)
2. Craig Newmark (CEO, Craig’s List)
3. Jason Calacanis (CEO, Weblogs)

Entrepreneur blog

Similar to the CEO blog in what the editorial style is concerned, the entrepreneur blog is set apart by a significantly larger volume of information relevant to the author’s field of expertise and by diary-type entries describing the ongoing projects the entrepreneur is focusing on at the time.

A couple of examples of entrepreneur blogs:

1. Guy Kawasaki
2. Jeff Pulver
3. Kevin Rose

Multi-author company blog

Several authors – company employees from different departments – publish content on this type of blog, each of them writing articles that cover their area of expertise. Often times these types of blogs turn into blog communities aggregating content published by individual, single-author blogs.

Example: Google Blog

Department blog

This type of blog is almost exclusively authored by leaders in certain company department and it is focused on the activity and expertise of said department.

Example: Kevin Lynch – Chief Software Architect at Adobe Systems

Employee’s blog

This is the semi-professional blog of one of the company’s employees and it will use the company’s brand and image to promote the author as a guru of his field. The content of such a blog focuses almost entirely on job related topics.

Example: Lori DeFurio – Adobe Systems

Product/Service blog

This type of blog is dedicated to a certain product or service provided by a company, and it’s meant to help promote it, create a community around it and obtain feedback from the customers.

Example: WordPress Blog – Automattic’s corporate blog dedicated entirely to the WordPress blogging platform

Human Resources blogs

Although not a very common type in the corporate blogging world, the HR blog is characterized by its efforts to present a company’s team and the events they attend as casually as possible, thus opening the company up to potential employees who might be attracted by what they are being offered and the light atmosphere in the office.

Example: Astraware Team Blog

Choose wisely and make sure that the blog type you choose matches your goals and the resources you have.

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs (current)
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

So, did you ask yourself if a blog is the right thing for your company? Is it a solution that will boost your business instead of being a resource consumer? If so, it’s time to find out what options are there in terms of positioning a corporate blog.

Each company has its specific communication needs. Based on said needs and other established targets, a newly launched company blog can help achieve specific goals, such as:

• Becoming an alternative, and dynamic method to publish content;
• Positioning employees as thought leaders and experts in their respective fields;
• Building a community around a company, product or service;
• Boosting sales;
• Encouraging customers to send their feedback;
• Speeding up customer service;
• Gaining you exposure through both new and traditional (print press, radio, TV) media;
• Positioning you as a trendy company that keeps up with new technologies;
• Becoming and effective channel for crisis communication;
• Supporting your HR efforts by offering an “alternative” look at your team and thus attracting new job applications;
• Helping your company rank higher for specific search phrases and attracting new backlinks.

It’s highly recommended to establish a set of complementary goals. If a company manages to focus on and reach its main goals, the adjacent targets will also be achieved at the same time.

Here are a couple of examples of complementary goal sets:

• Building a community + boosting sales + attracting feedback
• Positioning yourself as a thought leader + building a community + gaining media exposure

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning (current)
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Not all promoting and marketing techniques yield results in any given situation and likewise blogs aren’t always the best solution. In certain cases, a blog can become a useless investment, or worse, a way to boost the already negative view the audience has on a company.

Before launching a blog, each company needs to ask the following questions:

2.1. Is the blog a necessity or just a whim?

A company’s decision to launch a blog may be based on obvious advantages generated by the freedom of communication and by its being given a human touch. Considering these advantages or failing to do so, we still run into situations where a company chooses to launch a blog because of reasons such as:

• Our competitor X has launched a blog;
• It’s trendy, any teen has one. Why can’t we have one?
• We want to look high-tech / tech savvy.

In theory, none of the reasons above is a real obstacle, given it’s associated with and supported by other factors such as having the necessary resources to create and maintain a blog or a positive or neutral image in the market.

2.2 Do you have the needed resources to launch and maintain a blog?

Unlike classic company website, blogs keep consuming resources.

Blogs imply costs. Be it the technical side – design, development, hosting, be it hiring an experienced blogger to maintain it and publish fresh content, a blog needs financial resources.

Blogs take time. It takes time to create and publish content; it takes time to research, write posts, update them and maintain the blog. And for any company with a sense of business, time always means money.

Blogs need dedicated personnel. While there are quite a few tools to render content publishing automatic, the best results in corporate blogging are harvested by those publishing customized content, created by their own people. Are there people in your team who can maintain the blog? If not, do you have enough resources to bring in someone new?

Blog require information. And information is either created or needs to be searched for, analyzed and filtered. These steps also take time and need to be carried out by people who need to be effective and thorough in research, data filtering and content creation.

2.3 How does the online audience feel about your company?

We are talking about the online world, where the fastest and most relevant reactions are being published. How do we track them?

2.3.1 Reactions in the blogosphere: Technorati

Technorati.com is at the same time a blog search engine and a blog content aggregation service. According to the latest data, Technorati indexes and analyzes the activity of about 110 blogs from around the world.

Through a system reviewing both post tags and inter-blog links, Technorati returns relevant search result in a reverse-chronological order, the most recent ones being displayed first.

2.3.2 Reactions in the blogosphere: Google Blog Search

The world famous Google has a search engine entirely dedicated to blogs. Using the traditional search algorithms it’s already known for, Google Blog Search allows you to filter results based on multiple search parameters as well as on the date when the blog articles and reactions have been published.

Running a search for your company’s name will most likely return relevant results which are usually very personal, as they are reactions from within the blogosphere. If your brand mainly targets domestic customers, the wisest choice is to use the local version of the blog search engine.

And of course, running the search directly on the main Google search engine can return similarly relevant results.

2.3.3 Reactions in the online press from your field

Although it is not always the most relevant source, as it is often affiliated to certain trade groups or biased by advertising constraints, the online press covering your field can be an effective indicator for your company’s image by taking into account what their experts and analysts have to say about you.

2.3.4. Quantifying the risk factor

Based on the results obtained after analyzing all these online reactions, one can quite accurately quantify the risk factor their company is exposed to by publishing a blog, especially if it is a blog that allows comments to be posted.

A negative online image can lead to a virtually unlimited series of negative comments which rarely have to do with the actual content published on the blog. Visitors would have thus found a way to express all their frustration caused by real or imaginary flaws they see in the company’s products and services.

2.4 Interpreting the answers

It hardly takes a genius to determine if the blog is just a whim with a short life span and inexistent success in communicating with customers.

Also, it is obvious that without the necessary resources, a blog cannot be launched or it will be launched while lacking any real possibility of it being maintained in the future.

And who would ever want to help spread an already bad image through exposing themselves to ever present negative comments, especially in their own “online home”?

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog (current)
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools

Photo credits to Johanna Ljungblom

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

A few months back I was invited to attend, as a speaker, an event on corporate blogging where the people in the audience were mostly PR Managers for different companies in my country. Along with the PowerPoint presentation, I have decided to also give those who attended the event more information on corporate blogging through an eBook I wrote at that time.

The following post is the first chapter of that eBook, translated into English. The rest of the chapters will be also published, over the next few days, except for the weekend. Now, let’s see what corporate blogging is about and if it is the right tool for you and your business.

1.1 Blog, Blogging, Blogosphere

The term blog, contracted form of weblog, defines a certain type of website where texts, photos, audio or video content are published in chronological order, much like an online diary.

The first blogs date back to 1993 when the term was first introduced, but they only started to be used more frequently in 1998 when the first blog community, Open Diary, appeared.

The true hit of the online mainstream happened around 2002-2003, when the first blog reactions regarding the Iraq war were published and when Google acquired the Blogger.com platform, which allows any person with Internet access to create and maintain their own blog.

The Blogosphere comprises all public blogs and is defined as a community based on the theory that all existing blogs are somehow interconnected, often through blogrolls or links inserted in their content.

A blogroll is a list of links, commonly displayed in a blog’s sidebar. The links usually point to blogs the author deems relevant to the content of their own blog or simply wants to recommend to their readers.

Therefore, through blogrolls, it is believed that any two blogs can be connected through one or more intermediary links.

Blogs allow publishing content in a wide range of types and formats, and these types of content lead to a first classification of blogs:

1. a. Classic blog – text content
2. b. Photoblog – publishes photo content
3. c. Videoblog – publishes video content
4. Audioblog (podcast) – publishes audio content

Microblogs and tumbleblogs, both defined as blogs with extremely short entries, are two other blog formats gaining more and more popularity in the past few years.

Regardless of information format, the online publishing of content through blog platforms is called blogging, and the author of a blog is called blogger.

1.2 Corporate blogging

Once they have hit the spotlights, the blogs’ potential to communicate effectively was immediately noticed by companies.

Initially seen as a mere tool to promote products and services, blogs gradually became part of a company’s brand. Aside from placing a name and a logo on them, blogs granted companies a persona they could be associated with. In short, they made them human. The corporate blog managed to break the barrier between the “inaccessible company” and its customers.

The true value of a company is undoubtedly fueled by its employees’ individual values. But how exactly can these values be expressed? How can they be best presented to the world?

Blogs allow companies to position their employees as industry leaders through the opinions they publish, through the breakthroughs shared on the blog, all in a human, personal form that eases communication with customers.

A few companies that have successfully adopted the concept of blogs are:

Adobe – http://blogs.adobe.com/
Microsoft – http://www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs/ and http://blogs.msdn.com/
Google – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

The benefits of a well crafted and maintained blog are plenty, but is it the right tool for companies? Find out in the next chapters.

Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging (current)
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools

Photo credits to Peter Nielsen

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Tweetmeme buttons, plugins to show latest tweets on blogs, Twitter accounts linking to the owner’s blog, new posts being tweeted, and blog addresses and twitter links in signatures. If that’s not enough, I don’t know what else would show that blogging and tweeting go hand in hand for tons of people. If you think of names, blogging and microblogging, you kind of see the connection. If you think microblogging appeared later, you’d think much of the blogging knowledge is applicable. But how can you be on both platforms and make them work individually and as a team?

1. Spot the similarities

Blogs and Twitter are of the same species. They come from the world of the social web where the same rules apply. You know, give before you ask, be nice, share relevant information, never, ever, ever limit yourself to broadcasting, be conversational, help out. It’s not rocket science and it’s definitely not new. To make it more clear, here’s the example section: comment on other blogs before you expect comments – or – retweet before you expect your followers to retweet your 140 characters of content.

Catchy and interesting content is crucial for both. If your blog post is a big hit, make your tweets the same. “New blog post + link” won’t make a lot of people click. “Star Trek is real! We can all now teleport! + link + Fresh from the blog” might work a lot better.

They both need frequent updates. If you’re planning to create a blog and never post after the first time, you’ve failed. If you’re planning to get a Twitter account to say hi and have a cool button on your blog without ever doing anything more, you have failed. People expect updates from both bloggers and microbloggers.

Both need monitoring. You need to check responses, reactions and trends to be on top of your game. And if you’re blogging and tweeting right, that will take a whole lot of time.

Your blog and your Twitter account need to be welcoming and make it easy for visitors / followers to take action. Login required, captchas and about three other levels of security make it difficult to comment. Protected tweets make it difficult for new followers to 1. decide if they want to follow you and 2. actually do the following. It all has to be easy and accessible.

2. Acknowledge the differences

Blogs and tweets need different frequencies in updates. While it’s OK to post a couple of times each week on your blog, that might not work that great for Twitter. It’s more like a few posts per day. Yes, it takes time. It does take less time than to write a blog post. Plus content is readily available: your posts, industry news, tweets from those you follow. Add a few replies and you’ve got a quite active Twitter stream!

140 characters vs. virtually no limits. You need to adjust what you want to say to the platform you’re posting it to. Keep ideas short and sweet for Twitter and develop on the blog. Yes, we’ve all seen the huge ideas split into 4 consecutive tweets… But if you follow a few hundred people, you’ll see how fast the meaning gets lost in between tweets.

Different pace, different tempo! It all happens faster on Twitter. Yes, you can reply to a comment after two days. But if you reply to a tweet after the same amount of time, you have 90% chances that the person getting the response will have no clue what you’re talking about.

3. Fuel the team spirit

If it’s a team, it has to look like one! You are in the end promoting the same brand, so make sure to have common visual elements on your blog and Twitter page.

If it’s a team, it should feel like one! The style on the blog and that of your tweets need to be somewhat similar. People have to sense the same spirit behind it all; otherwise the connection between the two will be feeble. They’ll stick to one or the other, and your plan to make them work together would have failed.

If it’s a team, it should have the same purpose! Be it to promote your business, stay in touch with friends, position yourself as an expert, you need to have a common goal for both platforms. You can’t try to drive leads your way with the blog and talk about raising kids on Twitter if you have any plans to promote one through the other!

Over to you!

As it happens to just blogging, just tweeting, blogging and twitting, or any field for that matter, the pool of relevant information is always bigger than one person. What tips and tricks have you come across while trying to make your blog and twitter work like a dream team? Do share your advice in the comment box!

About the Author

This is a guest post by Alina Popescu, PR Consultant & Founder of Mirror Communications. If you’re looking for a fresh voice, balancing unique views on life with original PR and marketing tips, head over to her blog at WordsOfABrokenMirror.com, or better yet, subscribe to her RSS feed.

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

Let’s play! Today’s post is a fun, creative exercise that I’d be happy to complete with your help through the comments section. What is the exercise about? Blogging tips, of course.

This post is part of the change I wish to bring to Blogsessive and get closer to you folks, your needs and thoughts!

What I will do: Using the ODD letters (A, C, E, G, I, K, M, O, Q, S, U, W, Y) of the English alphabet I will list 13 blogging tips, each in a sentence starting with that letter.

What you could do: Share your tips and views by completing the sentences starting with EVEN letters (B, D, F, H, J, L, N, P, R, T, V, X, Z).

I’m sure that each and everyone of you has something to share with the community, so let’s get creative!

The Blogging Alphabet of Blog Tips

A. Acknowledge the latest trends in your area of blogging. Always stay up to date, informed.

B. …

C. Connect with other people, with bloggers in your niche. Offer help. Network. Friends are some of bloggers’ greatest “assets”.

D. …

E. Experiment with different approaches in your written speech. Depending on topic, you might find that different “voices” impact people in different ways. Push your communication skills.

F. …

G. Guide your audience through your content, through your posts, or posts’ paragraphs. Make your content accessible and readable.

H. …

I. Innovate. Don’t go on the same routes as everyone before you. Find your strengths and build a unique brand upon them.

J. …

K. Know when it’s time to let go. If an experiment or an idea doesn’t prove effective, leave your feelings aside and let it go before you’ve invested too much time and resources.

L. …

M. Mix your posts. Every once in a while add a small drop of fun. Informal and educational posts are great for your audience, but too many such posts in a row can become boring. Remember when you were in school. Your favorite teacher must have been the one that knew how to make learning fun!

N. …

O. Organize yourself. From writing habits to files, contacts and even structure of your blog’s categories. Create a pattern that will save you and your readers time!

P. …

Q. Quiz your target audience from time to time. Run polls and ask for views and opinions. Or make it even better. Run a real quiz and have some cool prizes ready. It helps getting more engagement from your community, as well as loyalty.

R. …

S. Seize opportunities as soon as they come up, especially if you’re an internet marketer. We’re living in an extremely fast world and what today is opportunity, tomorrow might be old news.

T. …

U. Unburden yourself. Learn how to delegate or outsource certain tasks while you focus on those you’re more skilled at or more time/cost effective.

V. …

W. Write. Write every day. Even if it’s not going to get published on the blog. Write as an exercise. Train your creativity and your writing habit until it all comes much more natural.

X. …

Y. Yield the best results by investing in your blog. Blogging consumes resources: time, money, energy, creativity. Be prepared to use them in order to succeed.

Z. …

Contribute to the alphabet

Leave your tips and contributions in the comment area and please use your NAME, not keywords. The best contributions will be selected for at PDF mini-ebook that I’ll make available for free download on the blog, and all contributions will be attributed to their authors with name and website link.

Sounds cool? Then jump in and let’s have fun!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive