In our last blog we talked about the first four steps in getting a blog up and running and this week I want to finish that thought with Step Number 5. Ready? Here’s goes:

5. Flexibility. Jim has become very excited about his company blog. Although we meet every couple of months so I can gather the information I need for the next four or five blogs in the lineup, he frequently shoots me an email to say “Hey, what about doing a blog about ‘X’.” Sometimes there is a time-sensitive aspect to the topics he wants us to write about, in which case we do a quick refocus, I contact him for information, we converse (or sometimes just exchange emails, if his schedule is too packed to meet with me directly), and then I draft a blog and send it back to him for review and approval.

Some of my clients prefer to produce their blogs internally, in which case we develop the editorial calendar together and my task is to simply edit the completed blogs for spelling, grammar, customer focus and common sense. The editorial calendar keeps everybody focused and provides a benchmark for knowing if the project is on task. It also gives us all an easy way to determine if we have covered a great topic in the past.

Whether you produce a blog internally or outsource it, you need to have a clear approvals process in place. Generally speaking, the fewer people involved in the project the better, since committees slow things down and risk delaying the posting of the content.

But What are The Benefits of Blogging?

Jim’s blog has been rolling for less than a year but he has already experienced some benefits from the program, specifically:

• More visits to his website
• Greater brand recognition – website visitors are reading his blog, which we know from looking at his Google Analytics statistics, and the messages they see in the blogs are consistent with the messaging elsewhere in Jim’s marketing material (his company website, his customer brochures and, soon, his company newsletter)
• A consistent opportunity for customers and potential customers to connect with Jim’s company – Jim and his general manager both get email feedback from customers and non-customers alike saying they liked the previous post – which gives them opportunities for conversations focused on customer attraction and retention
• Jim is enjoying the opportunity to share more about the qualities that make his business extraordinary
• The blog is contributing to stronger search engine results
• Jim’s salespeople are able to point customers and prospects to blog topics that relate to issues they are dealing with in their own businesses, thus positioning Jim’s company as a valuable resource for providing solid assistance

Here’s an idea of how we determine blog topics. This way of looking at it is pretty formal, and we will flesh out the topics with blog posts that are more community or industry oriented as well.

Does that sound more manageable? Would you like some help with your blogging? Shoot me an email at susan@crossmancommunications.com and let’s have a conversation about how we might be able to get your blog up and running so that it is serving you, and your customers, as powerfully as possible.