Recently, I wrote a blog post on 10 reasons NOT to start a corporate blog. Obviously, the post was a little tongue-in-cheek and was intended to demonstrate that every organization should seriously be thinking about how blogs can help demonstrate the thought leadership of their employees, provide a service channel for customers, or drive inbound leads by packing search engines with keyword-rich content about products and services. Although a blog might not be a fit for every organization, it’s a good idea to at least consider the possibilities.
To expand on the post, I thought it might be a good idea to devote an entire series to succeeding with your blog, including tips and best practices. So, this week I’ll be sharing a post each day that focuses on each of the following five steps for succeeding (be sure to click the title of each step to visit the next article in the series as they are published):
1) Building a blogging plan – Creating a set of goals for your blog and aligning the measurement plan with the goals of your organization.
2) Choosing the right platform – Blogger vs. Tumblr vs. WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org. Which platform might be right for your blog, and why?
3) Developing a content strategy – Decide who your audience will be and what content would meet their needs.
4) Develop a search engine strategy – Understand why SEO is critical to your blogging success and what tools might help you get listed and drive traffic.
5) Creating a content promotion plan – Tweets, posts, bookmarks, cross-linking, RSS, email subscription…how do these tactics work and which should you focus on?
If you’re preparing to build a blog, stay tuned this week and I’ll share some of the best tips, tricks, and resources that I have found over the last few years. So break out those running shoes, do some light stretching, grab your favorite power drink…and check back tomorrow for the first article in the series!
Image used as featured image licensed under Creative Commons license by tableatny at http://flickr.com/photos/53370644@N06/4975884671