Want a recap and slides from our blogging for business Lunch & Learn? You've got it! In our blog and video, we learn how to blog for business, how to use SEO and keywords to your advantage, how to put together a blogging team and how to come up with blogging content easily.
Last week, I spoke about blogging to a great audience at our Infomedia Lunch & Learn event. The topic? Blogging for People Who Aren’t Bloggers. See, it makes sense to blog for your business, even when you feel that you don’t have much to say, because blogging gives Google fresh content. Google likes fresh content because it not only tells them what your business does (the keywords you mention in the blog clue them in on what your company is about), but it reassures them that you’re still doing it (because the content is new, Google knows you haven’t gone out of business).
The struggle for most business owners who want to blog is that it’s tough to come up with content that not only feeds Google but also interests readers. So last week, while the Lunch & Learn attendees ate free Taziki’s pasta, I gave a little talk on blogging. I also Periscoped the whole thing (I’m @crollwagen if you want to follow me), and Pam and Valerie helped me out by saving the video below and adding in some slides from my PowerPoint.
Here are just a few key points from my talk. If they whet your appetite for the great feast of business blogging, find more ideas and tips about blogging in the video clip below.
Use Keywords and SEO to Your Advantage
If you’re blogging primarily to get traffic to your website, make sure you’re writing strategically and incorporating strong keywords. Don’t go SEO crazy — if your blog is packed with keywords and sounds like nonsense, Google won’t like it (and neither will people) — but do send a little bit of time planning your strategy.
Turn Existing Content into Blog Posts
A lot of companies get stuck trying to reinvent the wheel, but they almost always have existing content that they could turn into blog posts. Look at the brochures and newsletters that your business produces to see if they could be turned into blogs. See if memos or company emails or even your employee manual have ideas that could be turned into blogs. Listen to what your clients and customers already ask you to explain to them, and turn those explanations into blog content.
Put a Blogging Team in Place
Consistent blogs are most effective, but most companies don’t have one person who can generate enough content for regular blogs. Putting together a team of bloggers who each contribute once or twice a month is a good way around this issue, but if you’re blogging as a team, be sure to designate one point person (or “gatekeeper”) who edits each post to be sure it’s consistent with your company’s mission, checks grammar, and actually hits the “publish” button. Also be sure to build in work time for your team members to work on blogs — each blog could take up to two hours, especially as your team is adjusting to the process.
