Using Blog Technology to Reach Tobacco Users

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Using Blog Technology to Reach Tobacco Users

• Catch on or Catch you later

www.Quittersblog.com
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Introduction

• Objectives
• What is a Blog?
• Case study of www.Quittersblog.com
• Technology behind the blog
• Using blogs as marketing tool
• Keeping your blog meaningful
• RSS Syndication

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Objectives

• Develop a public blog (web log) that highlights
  the experiences of local tobacco users quitting
  tobacco
• Create an internal blog or identify affordable
  external hosts
• Monitor blog submissions before posting
• Understand how to market blog
• RSS/Feeds

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Catch on or Catch you later
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What is a blog? Or weblog? Or online journal?....

• Much like a regular website, exists solely online
• Designed for a specific audience general public
  or targeted niche group
• Individuals can voice their opinions
• Become a micropublisher virtually overnight
• Blogs are timely, allowing for immediate content
  updates
• No need for sophisticated knowledge of web
  publishing
• Strong community among blog writers and visitors
  most blogs are not regulated or censored,
  visitors rely on them to be completely truthful

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Facts

• 2004 was called The Year of the Blog because
  blogs were so influential during the Iraq war,
  presidential election and the tsunami disaster
• A recent study found that over a quarter of all
  American internet users read blogs
• There are over 100 million blogs in existence,
  with 40,000 new ones created each day
• Active blogs ?

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Types of blogs

• Personal focus on passion or hobby
• Topic or industry-specific current events,
  experts in specific industry
• Publication newspapers, magazines, written by
  established journalist
• Corporate written by executive within company

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www.Quittersblog.comA Case Study
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Need for a new program

• The Maricopa County Tobacco Use Prevention
  Program (MACTUPP) wanted to foster a closer
  relationship with current cessation clients and
  potential clients within the public at large
• Needed a fiscally conservative tactic to meet
  objective
• Move tobacco users along the quit continuum in a
  new and innovative way

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Solution

• Numerous articles - increased awareness and
  success of blogs
• MACTUPP decided to venture out into new territory
  and create its own blog
• Using a blog, cessation clients able to chronicle
  their successes and struggles on quitting tobacco
  with MACTUPP quit classes
• Blogs are flexible, cheap and easy to maintain
• There were no other blogs sponsored by a County
  program that focus on clients quitting tobacco
  with a program in the US at the time of launch

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Ease of use

• You dont need any HTML or coding experience
  because everything is text-based, just like
  writing an email
• You can designate access to any number of people
  to post as the moderator(s)
• Comments can be posted by anyone that visits the
  blog
• The moderator can have complete control over what
  comments appear on the blog before they are
  posted
• Comments can be posted immediately without being
  filtered

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Mechanics

• Each week, the bloggers send their entries
  through email to the moderator who posts them
  online
• All content is reviewed before approval
• No entries are modified unless there is
  inappropriate content
• Comments reviewed before posting to avoid
  unsuitable content and spam

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Unique Features

• Each clients journal page includes a brief
  biography
• Includes the participants age
• how many years they have used tobacco
• why they are quitting
• Quit class registration form submit to enroll in
  a class
• Readers from around the world can submit their
  quit tobacco story online
• A story post form can be filled out on the blog
• Sent to the moderator who will review and post
  the story
• Streaming video of featured bloggers on the news
  or radio

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Our visitors

• Visitors include
• Current cessation clients
• Our counselors
• Former clients wishing to express support
• Others include
• Potential clients pondering the use of our
  services
• Other people worldwide who have struggled with
  tobacco use and the quit process

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Entry from Larry

• At 18 I had Cancer and that wasnt enough to get
  me to stop smokingI like to think of myself as a
  pretty nice an honest person but when it comes to
  smoking Im not. I have lied about smoking, took
  cigarettes from someone elses pack when they
  werent looking when I was supposed to have quit,
  that pretty much makes me a thief.
• Didnt buy things I needed because I had to have
  cigarette moneyI have smoked old cigarette butts
  I have found, God only know what germs were on
  them. The list goes on and on and it doesnt
  paint a very pretty picture of me...
• For me nicotine has become a very wicked
  addiction that I hope someday I can look back on
  and honestly say that it is behind me. I quit
  drinking 20 years ago this past Independence Day,
  cigarettes are a million times harder to quit but
  son of a gun I just made it another 15 minutes.
  Life is good!

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Promotion

• Our successful news stories

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Results

• The blog generated 16 news stories in both print
  and television mediums
• This generated over 23,500 in earned media
• Stories appeared in the Arizona Republic and the
  Tribune
• KTVK (Channel 3) and KPNX-NBC (Channel 12)
• In the first month, the blog accumulated over
  7,000 hits
• Over 50 individuals have registered on the blog
  for free quit classes

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Technology behind the blog
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Technology

• The blog itself contains 19 different pages,
  including each participants blog page,
  registration forms and streaming video.
• Specific computer programs that were utilized in
  this project
• Adobe Photoshop CS
• Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004
• WordPress (blog publisher)
• StartLogic (server)
• Microsoft Word

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Collaboration

• MACTUPP wanted complete control over the design,
  maintenance, and speed of posting to the blog
• Collaborated with countys Public Information
  Office to receive clearance to purchase its own
  separate server space and host the blog outside
  of the county
• MACTUPP able to easily monitor page hits and
  visitor statistics
• The blog was designed and implemented within one
  month by the community promotions team

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Using Website Server

• What is a server
• Web hosting solution
• Capabilities / Startlogic
• Ability to use web design program to customize
  blog
• Control all functions of blog
• Get analytics and stats
• Unlimited Email Accounts
• eCommerce Enabled
• FREE Setup FREE Domain
• Website Builder Enabled
• Front Page 2002/2003
• Promotional tools

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Promotional Abilities

• Marketing Guides (500 Page Manual)
• Search Engines Check
• Positioner
• Search Engines Submitter
• Meta Tags Generator
• Keyword Generator
• Link Checker

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Build your Blog

• Paid
• Typepad
• Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe GoLive
• Free (extra features avail. for a monthly fee)
• Blogger (owned by Google)
• WordPress
• Bloglines (owned by AskJeeves)
• LiveJournal (owned by SixApart)
• Moveable Type

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Using blogs as a marketing tool
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Marketing the blog

• Readership is dependent of search engine results
  or word-of-mouth
• Linked or mentioned by other blogs
• Register on blog-specific search engines
• Advertise online
• Public Relations efforts

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Registering blogs in search engines

• Blogsearchengine
• Blog explosion
• Bloglines
• Blogarama
• Blog catalog

• Bloghub
• Technorati
• BlogPulse

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Keeping your blog meaningful
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Meaningful measures

• Referral sites linking to blog
• Search words led to site
• Unique visitors
• Visits per month
• Average length of visit
• Blog rank on search engines

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Analytics
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Referral Sites
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Keywords key phrases
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Unique visitors hits
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Average length of visit
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Blog rank on major search engines

• Can we improved by monitoring key words and
  phrases, more requests, etc.
• Most web publishing programs have a tool that
  will insert keywords you choose to include by
  just clicking a buttom
• Can be purchased to rank higher

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RSS Syndication
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Feeds / RSS

• Really Simple Syndication delivers content from
  the Internet for personal viewing
• Uses XML web language to create metadata
  metadata gets delivered to a service called a
  news aggregator or reader
• News reader brings information from numerous and
  assorted websites into one place
• When a website that you have subscribed to
  publishes new content it is delivered in the form
  of either headlines or the full article to the
  RSS reader
• Think of your favorite bookmarks, going to each
  website, when you can get all the relevant
  information in one place

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Using Blog Software

• Another quick way to generate feeds is using blog
  software that automatically creates feeds
• Install software such as Movable Type
  http//www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ or
  WordPress http//wordpress.org on your server
• Use a subscription service like TypePad
  http//www.typepad.com or a free service like
  Blogger http//www.blogger.com

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Anatomy of an RSS Feed What to look for
People paste the link into their reader.

• Syndicate to this site, Subscribe to my feed,
  XML button

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Why RSS is Important

• Important, for higher statistics consistent help
  and visitation
• Spread around web quicker
• Monitor readership

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Feeds / RSS continued

• Feedburner and other programs create feeds
• Can be inserted with a paid program or input
  manually
• Can Google How to apply RSS Feed

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Questions?

• Erica Velasco
• Maricopa County Tobacco Use Prevention Program
• Community Health Promotions Senior Specialist
• ericavelasco_at_mail.maricopa.gov
• Phone [phone]
• www.Quittersblog.com