• Blogs are a simple way to build high-
value links to pages deep within your website. • The posts within your blog also give a compelling reason for others to link, share, and comment, because they're more timely and "human" than your business website. • Blogs feature fresh content, and search
engines love fresh content. • Blog posts have keyword-rich titles and URLs. Blog software usually builds URLs out of the blog post titles. For ex- ample, a blog post about storm cleanup, ti- tled "Storm Cleanup After a Hurricane," would include something like http://www.yourblog.com/2011/06/storm- cleanup-after-hurricane. Search engines value keyword usages within URLs.
Before you get started 1. What's the goal? Identifying the
goal of your blog is the first step in build- ing a plan, because everything else you do will feed that goal. Think about your over- all business objectives and your other so- cial media strategies, and see how a blog
can enhance these efforts. 2. Who is the audience?
Understanding who you're speaking to is important to knowing what kind of tone to take, what content to push out, and what feedback you can expect to receive. Most likely, your audience will change and/or expand, so pay attention to the people who interact with your blog. It can tell you a lot about how your messages are being received. 3. What is the focus?Your blog can talk about different topics, but try to keep them within the categories of what your audience is expecting. Visitors to your blog go there because they're expecting certain types of content from you. So, if you're an outdoor power equipment dealer, try to stick to topics that fit your business. 4. Who is going to blog? Is your
blog going to be messages from your com- pany president, a wide range of individuals within the organization, or the "business" as a whole? There's no right or wrong way — just evaluate your staff and see what works for you.
What platform are you going to
use? There are many popular blog plat- forms out there. Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr are all good choices, and there are many others. Another option to consider is to have the blog live on your company website.
Resources: How to create a successful company
blog via Mashable.com— http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/company- blog/
The 10 Best Corporate Blogs in the
World via SocialMediaToday.com — http://socialmediatoday.com/markwschaefer/ 258359/10-best-corporate-blogs-world
Les Robinson, a five-year veteran with social media, is the social media special- ist for Stihl Inc. Stihl's blog is: www.stihlusablog.com.
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