5 Types Of Blogs And Best Practices
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This document discusses 5 types of blog posts and 5 blog best practices. The 5 types of posts are: 1) Useful, everyday posts about company/industry happenings, 2) Redistributed posts that summarize external articles, 3) Discussion posts to start online conversations, 4) Report posts that embed internal reports, and 5) Thoughtful posts that are opinion pieces. The 5 best practices are: 1) Using keywords, tags, and hyperlinks, 2) Writing catchy post titles, 3) Social bookmarking to increase SEO, 4) Including a call-to-action in post footers, and 5) Offering reserved release content to generate leads.
5 Types Of Blogs And Best Practices
- 1. 5 Blog Types
- 2. 5 Types of business blogsUseful, Everyday PostsRemarket postsDiscussion Posts (aka fire starters)Report postsThoughtful Posts
- 3. 5 Types of business blogsUseful, Everyday PostsThese are every day to every other day happenings within you organization or industry. Examples of topics: New members and their productsAdvancements at your companyEmployee showcases and random musingsPosting Characteristics: 250 characters or lessHyperlinks to other internal or external pagesOne picture Should take no longer than 30 minutes to create
- 4. 5 Types of business blogsRedistributed PostsThe easiest posts to make are Redistributed posts. This is when the writer finds a compelling article with lots of media (aka, video, slideshow, scribd), writes a summary of the material and embeds the corresponding media. Examples of topics:White papersPress Releases of partnersHow to videosSlideshows of relevant industry materialPosting Characteristics:150 word introduction with hyperlinks crediting original source Hyperlinks to other internal or external pages Takes around 5 minutes on average to create
- 5. 5 Types of business blogsDiscussion Posts (aka fire starters)Discussion Posts are great for starting the conversation online. Some call them comment bait. Regardless what they are called, they need to be prolific with a topic and must relate to a current issue.Examples of topics:“Is CRM based businesses in trouble?”“Is Twitter going to put Facebook out of businesses?”Usually will be slightly different view from a current trade publication posts.Posting Characteristics: 250 characters or less Hyperlinks to other internal or external pages One picture Should take no longer than 30 minutes to create
- 6. 5 Types of business blogsReport Posts (aka White Pages)Report Posts are usually an entry of an internal report or document that is relevant to the community at large. It is best to embed this material as a reader using Scribd, Examples of topics: Reports and White Pages about quarterly stats Industry specific informationPosting Characteristics: Very short intro no more than 150 characters summarizing the reportHyperlinks to other internal or external pagesEmbed of report or reserved release hyperlink to a pdf download 30 minutes tops
- 7. 5 Types of business blogsThoughtful PostsThese types of posts could be construed as a white paper, but are more of an opinion or opt-ed column style posting. These are once a week or once every 2 week posts and should have insightful ideas about a topic. Yes this is the most tedious posts, but they must be done every once and a while.Examples of topics:Trends in the industryWays and techniques for product marketing/salesBreaking newsCaptivating titles. Example: “5 types of business blogs”Posting Characteristics: 250 words + (usually around 350-500 words)Hyperlinks to other internal or external pagesSeveral pictures and bullet points Takes around 3 hours on average to create
- 8. 5 Blog Best Practices
- 9. 5 Blog Best PracticesKeywords, Tags and HyperlinkingPost TitlesSocial BookmarkingCall-to-Action FootersReserved Release Content
- 10. 5 Blog Best PracticesKeywords, Tags and HyperlinkingThe point of any blog is to be read and posts cannot be read unless they can be found. Search engines use keywords, tags and hyperlinking to find your blog so it is very important to complete this sometime forgotten task. Keywords:Make sure your posts use keywords that are topic specific to the post. (example: A post on ISVs should not only use the acronym, but use value-added reseller)Tags: Tags are used to identify topics within the post. They also make it easier to find similar posts internally on the company blog. Search engines sometimes use tags to index web pages as well.Use a maximum of 10 tagsHyperlinking:Hyperlinking is very important to use on words that need definition, other topics you are referring internally/externally and profiles of post authors. Search engines use hyperlinks to measure post importance.
- 11. 5 Blog Best PracticesPost TitlesPost titles are very important to garner readers. Titles must be written in a certain way to be search engine compliant and pose a question or answer.Examples:What’s the best way to market software?5 best ways to market software.10 ways to reach critical mass for new software.Is Google going to pose a threat to the MS operating system?
- 12. 5 Blog Best PracticesSocial BookmarkingSocial bookmarking is a great way to increase relevance of new postings. Self-bookmarking can be construed as unethical through some services, but for others it could be very useful to improve SEO. Search engines use commonly bookmarked posts to measure relevance and it gives authors a chance to control the message more effectively.Services:Services to use: Delicious.com, Stumbleupon.com, reddit.com, buzz.yahoo.comServices not to use: Digg.com, NewsVine.comTechniques:Tag the postInclude a description
- 13. 5 Blog Best PracticesCall-to-Action FootersBusiness blogs require a call to action with each post. One of the best ways to do this is having a standard footer after each post describing the business offerings in 50 words or less. It is also important to have a hyperlink or email address box for readers to be added to the post mailing list. Example of Footer:Become an Intel® Software Partner Program member today, and together we can deliver powerful solutions that help customers do more. It is easy to do. Just start with the enrollment and create a project using the links below.
- 14. 5 Blog Best PracticesReserved Release ContentReserved Release means the company is trying to get the reader to act on a call to action. This can be offering a free white page, recent webinar slideshow, or access to hidden and useful content. It will require the reader to sign up for the program, but they will be emailed the desired content once they input all their information. This is a highly effective way to garner leads and increase membership to a community.Example:Blog Post Footer
- 15. 5 Blog Best PracticesBonus SoftwareFor readers to spread the information in a blog, you must make it easy. There are a wealth of free services that make this easy. These “share services” give readers a list of their favorite bookmarking services, social networks, microblogs, printing and emailing options to use. We would suggest using one of the following:ShareThis (http://sharethis.com/) – ShareThis puts a button at the end of all posts with javascript style listing for all sharing services.
- 16. Tweetmeme – (http://tweetmeme.com/)Tweetmeme makes it easy for users to tweet your post and keeps a running tab of the most popular articles.
- 17. Add to Any (http://www.addtoany.com/) – Add to Any adds a icon for subscribing to the blog posts or sharing the posts around the web.