Entrepreneurs: Blogging Requires Commitment. Are You Ready?

What is your company’s blogging strategy?

That is one of the first questions I ask when talking to a client for the first time. I understand it’s not a simple question, specially if the company hasn’t been blogging yet.

Just to give you an idea, the answer involves things like how often are you planning to publish content, who is in charge of developing this content, what’s the plan for front-end interaction, how is it going to be distributed and where. That is of course, besides knowing exactly what is the business goal behind blogging and how it integrates with the rest of your marketing overall strategy.

It’s 2am in Santiago, Chile. I arrived yesterday at 1am after a 12-hour flight from Los Angeles that was originally delayed almost 24 hours. I’m finally in my room after a day of meetings and writing a huge proposal. After the February earthquake, I admit I’m not too thrilled about the 16th floor but at least it overlooks beautiful Las Condes business center, so I’ll focus on that.

I wrote and published a post before flying since I knew I wouldn’t have the time during my stay here. You know, I try to be consistent with that stuff and write at least once a week. It’s been almost 48 hours and I barely go back to my blog to see what’s up before crashing, I’m really half-way crashed as you can imagine. BUT, I see that my post has more than 200 Retweets and quite a few comments I haven’t reply too… I guess I’m not going to sleep yet.

Am I insane? Let me ask you this, if you just finished speaking in front of an audience and now you open for some Q&A time, people start expressing their thoughts on your subject and asking you questions, would you respond to them? or would you ignore them and just stay quiet?

That’s what I thought.

Blogging requires of a huge commitment and every company or entrepreneur should ask him/herself a series of questions before diving into the so popular blogosphere. So let me see if I can stay awake a little longer and articulate some of these basic questions…

Let’s assume that your business objective and your online goals are clear and aligned. Let’s jump right into how are we going to approach this blogging thing.

Content Development

• Who in the company is in charge of this? I understand there is a big chance there’s nobody around you so… guess who? Acknowledge that.
• How often are you going to write and publish content? Forget about what everybody says, frequency builds traction and all that stuff. It’s fine if it’s only once a week, just establish that. You can even consider using an editorial calendar.
• Do you have enough ideas for content? Is this a topic with enough juice that you can write stuff on a weekly basis? Consider keeping a document to write possible headline ideas, see how many you can come up with.
• What is the time and cost that this will take? If the person in charge is one of your employees or maybe it is you, your time has a value too and you’re most likely the highest (or the only) salary.

Distribution

• Again, who is in charge of this? Consider the time spent on this task or the cost.
• Where are you going to distribute the content? Twitter, Facebook?
• If your distribution plan involves social media, what is the strategy for that? it can’t only be self-promotion. How are you going to approach social media.
• Are you being consistent with your brand in different social platforms? Key messages, design, etc.

Front-End Interaction

• Who is going to deal with interaction inside your blog?
• Are you going to reply to every single comment? or only the ones that engage in meaningful conversations?
• How quick are you going to reply?
• Should you set up email alerts for those comments?
• How are you going to interact with outside reactions? You can’t ignore what happens on Twitter, Facebook and the other platforms that are relevant to you.
• How are you going to monitor those reactions? Is there a tool you’re planning on using?
• How are you going to approach those reactions? Are you planning to engage on all existing conversations? or how will you decide when to do so and when to pass?

Metrics

• What are the metrics that are relevant to your business? Traffic, content engagement, subscriptions, conversions? Or do you only care about Retweets?
• How are you going to measure the impact?
• What tools are you going to use to measure performance? Google Analytics, PostRank?
• How are you planning to adjust your strategy? Based on what results?

Help Me Finish This Post

Is there more? I’m sure there is but I’m falling to sleep and I want to send out the post. Help me by sharing your thoughts in the comments section. What else do you think it’s important to consider when planning to start a blog for business?

Final Thought

Not that there are rules for blogging, I don’t believe in rules for anything. I think you should be creative in everything you do, specially in business and marketing. But I think the point here is that there are some basic items to consider as an entrepreneur or as a company before jumping in for the wrong reasons, without a strategy or without knowing what it takes to enjoy some success.

Blogging is a great opportunity. Do it. Plan and commit to it. Just sayin’

Thank you all for the comments, retweets and likes. You rock!

Good night from Santiago!

15 Blogs To Follow If You Want To Kick Ass Online

Being successful online requires that you beat a pretty long learning curve and while I try to contribute with my 2 cents, there are amazing bloggers out there that you should be reading on a regular basis.

These people put their amazing talent and knowledge into blog content and deliver it to their online communities week after week.

I have to advise you that if you see that I’m not going with the obvious is for 2 reasons, one because I like helping you discover stuff that you might have missed (there is just too much content out there…) and two, not that I don’t occasionally read the usual suspects, but this is the stuff I visit frequently. Also let me say that this is not a ranking so don’t pay attention to the order.

Why am I sending traffic to other blogs? Am I crazy? That’s just how I roll… enjoy and I hope you find something awesome!

Think Traffic

I just love the approach, it presents a different view at building website traffic. It delivers advice that’s easy to understand and also the transparency to showcase itself as a case study so you can learn from real experience. ThinkTraffic is the second blog from Corbett Barr, author of FreePursuits.

The Launch Coach

Dave Navarro, known as @rockyourday on Twitter, takes it to the next level by teaching you how to launch and sell products online like there’s no tomorrow. TheLaunchCoach is a great resource to learn how to monetize your online presence. He’s also the author of the famous ebook “How to launch the **** out of your ebook”.

ViperChill

Glen Allsopp teaches you how to build traffic, get hundreds of comments, tweets and subscribers. My advice is that when you are trying to learn from somebody, do so from a person whose achievements are obvious. ViperChill has that. If you need creds, this kid was the social manager for brands like Land Rover, HP and Nissan at 18 (No, that’s not a typo…).

Mars Dorian

If you’re tired of reading the same old boring crap about online marketing and personal branding, Mars Dorian is your guy. Just out of the ordinary, kick-ass content with fresh design and writing style. One more thing, you gotta love the photography! Also follow him on Twitter.

Fuel Your Blogging

Part of the Fuel Brand Network, it delivers advice on all aspects of blogging from writing content to promoting and building community. Fuel Your Blogging feels very light as they usually craft very short and fresh posts. Most of the content here is created by Brandon Cox, who deserves a special mention.

IttyBiz

IttyBiz has the perfect tagline to describe itself, “Marketing for businesses without marketing departments”. The blog is ran by Naomi Dunford, who is a true ninja if you hang around the social platforms and the blogosphere. Make sure you visit the store for a collection of kick-ass marketing products.

CopyBlogger

I don’t need to introduce CopyBlogger. The only reason I have included it in this list is because I think this is really a solid source for any level. The blog includes amazing sections on topics such as Landing Pages, SEO or Copywriting 101 (look over the left sidebar…).

Social Media Examiner

Solid social media advice for business people, lots of it. Usually very meaty posts with lots to chew on. What I love the most about Social Media Examiner are the contributors, you get content from people like Denise Wakeman or Mari Smith.

The Hubspot Blog

Hubspot talks about blogging, SEO, social media, analytics and other stuff, but what I like about it is the Lead Generation advice. In this case we’re talking about a company rather than a blogger but we are after the knowledge to beat the learning curve. Hubspot also offers a lot of webinars that are very good resources to speed up you learning process.

Convince & Convert

Another one in the social media department, this one is a little bit more on the advance side. Jay Baer’s Convince & Convert is probably one of the only blogs I read on social media. Solid and consistent content.

Kikolani

Straight up kick-ass advice on blogging and social media. Kristi Hines of Kikolani is not afraid to lay it all out, she shares a lot of resources, links, tutorials, etc. She also contributes to sites like SME.

Famous Bloggers

Do you want lots and lots of content on blogging in general? Famous Bloggers has an awesome frequency of quality advice. This is another one with lots of contributors, I particularly look for stuff from Kristi Hines, Hesham (its founder) and Julius Kuhn-Regnier.

TopRank

One of the most recognized blogs in the online marketing world. Top Rank is definitely one of the few you need to have in your learning toolbox. It covers SEO, social media, content marketing and PR. Top 5 in the AdAge Power150 blogs. Also, follow Lee Oden on Twitter.

Kaushik

You can’t ignore analytics. This one is from Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0. Leaning more towards the advance level. Long posts loaded with great concepts, thoughts, examples and graphics.

Search Engine Journal

I have to admit I don’t read much about SEO, Search Engine Journal is probably one of the only places I visit because of the content, easy to understand for regular human beings. The blog also delivers content on social media, PPC and other very useful topics. Look for Ann Smarty‘s posts…

Me?

Hopefully I can continue to build up SocialMouths and provide value too. Let me know if there is something you would like to read here or if you have any ideas on what direction you would like me to take. I’m always open to ideas, specially if they’re kind of crazy!

Your Turn…

As usual, in these kind of lists, there is always somebody left out… I’m sure there are lots of cool people and blogs delivering awesome content that I failed to include, but I need to keep working, you know?

So why don’t you help me by adding your favorite blogs and participating in the discussion by adding in the comments!

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