Blogging,%20Marketing%20

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Blogging, Marketing SEO

• The Benefits of Blogging
• Blog Software and Search-Friendliness
• Marketing Corporate Communication
• Linking, Social Tagging Viral Traffic
• Brand Identity Building
• How to Create a Successful Blog
• Selecting an Author a Focus
• The Blog Launching Process
• Building a Passionate Audience
• Examples of Successes Pitfalls
• Disney's Imagineering Blog,
• The Stranger's Slog
• Fake Blogs (Mazda, McDonald's, Coke)
• Offending the Blogging Community

Our blog www.seomoz.org/blog.php
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Benefits of Blogging

• A personal voice
• Direct feedback communication
• Search engine friendly publishing medium
• Targets tech-savvy connectors mavens

Technorati Growth of the Blogosphere60X growth
in 3 Years, doubles in size every 6 months
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Blog Software Search Friendliness

• Use of Friendly URLs
• Easily Crawlable
• Keyword use in URLs, title tags and Hx tags
• Excellent linkability
• Spread of anchor text and content via RSS, blog
  directories, etc.

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Marketing Corporate Communication

• Creates a human voice inside the company
• Builds brand loyalty and creates buzz around a
  product
• Attracts valuable online connectors, mavens
  salespeople
• Lets passionate users connect to your company for
  feedback and participation

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Linking, Social Tagging Viral Traffic

• Blogs are pre-disposed to getting links from
  other bloggers
• Trackbacks, blog directories RSS feeds all
  serve as link mechanisms
• Viral memes - revolutionary ideas or projects
  can attract tens of thousands of links very
  quickly (aka linkbait)

SEOmoz blog trafficMay 11th - Digg home page
Just make a great site, with great content...
that's going to help you capture the mind of the
blogosphere and that's really the best way to let
search engines find out about you too." -
Matt Cutts in an Interview with Mike Grehan
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Brand Identity Building

• Blogs allow for a relatively unknown brand to
  build a high profile online
• Blogs can help to change the image about a
  company by creating a forum where user voices are
  heard
• Brand identity can be crafted and refined through
  the perception of blog readers and filtered for
  offline audiences

Techcrunch Unknown 18 months ago, now one of
the biggest brands in the online tech sphere
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How to Create a Successful Blog

• Find a passionate blogger
• Write in a real voice don't use PR or
  sales speak
• Approach topics that are fun, informative, vary
  in scope and drive interest

Yahoo!'s Jeremy ZawodnyA real voice inside the
company jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/
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The Blog Launching Process
DO
DON'T
Create fake comments
Start with comments off
Leave excessive trackbacks
Be self-effacing honest
Bribe bloggers to link to you
Launch with 3-6 posts
Be overly defensive of your product, service or
company
Link to competitors
Email friends, industry contacts
Build relationships through forums, other blogs,
communities and industry events
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Building a Passionate Audience

• Get creative in your blog posts write about
  subjects that readers care about
• Don't be afraid to be negative or stir up
  controversy, better to be loved and hated than
  simply mediocre
• Recognize and call out your users fame is
  intoxicating

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Examples of Successes Failures

• Disney's Imagineering Blog an incredible
  success
• Real Disney designers, speaking with passion and
  without reservation
• By siding with fans criticizing the company,
  the team has re-created passion around their
  projects

imagineerebirth.blogspot.com
There was a severe power shift at Walt Disney
Imagineering in the early-90s, which completely
changed the creative landscape. The best ideas no
longer made it into the parks, and WDI fell
victim to the kind of personal politics and
rampant cronyism that is often associated with
Hollywood studios, reported SaveDisney.com in
2004. Many talented Imagineers were laid off or
put out to pasture, while finance executives were
given the power to make creative decisions.
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Seattle's The Stranger Starts a Blog

• Recognizing the threat of an online cultural
  voice, The Stranger created Slog
• Coverage includes politics, pop culture, Seattle
  events and more
• Thousands of daily readers and a massive
  influence on Seattle culture music,
  restaurants, politics, etc.

www.thestranger.com/slog/
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Pitfalls The Fake Blog

• Blogs require an honest, real voice these
  companies failed the test and turned off their
  readers
• Bloggers are a savvy, investigatory group they
  don't like to be manipulated
• The lesson don't blog unless you're prepared to
  go off script

Fake Blog Viral Video
Fake Lincoln Fry Blog for Superbowl
Fake blog on Coca-Cola Zero
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Beware Offending the Blog Community

• Bloggers are remarkably sensitive to
  manipulation, spam or intrusion
• Lawsuits against bloggers typically hurt brands,
  don't succeed and create badwill (and bad SERPs)
• Bloggers are loyal to one another and the
  communities /blogs they read piss off one
  blogger, and an entire community can come after
  you.

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More Information on SEO Blogs

• Beginner's Guide to SEOwww.seomoz.org/beginners.p
  hp
• Search Engine Ranking Factorswww.seomoz.org/artic
  les/search-engine-factors.php
• SEOmoz Daily Blogwww.seomoz.org/blog.php
• Get in Touch with Rand Directemail
  rand_at_seomoz.org