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MARKETING A SUPPLEMENT OF THE ZWEIG LETTER
B E S T P R A C T I C E S
Blogging is good business More and more companies are utilizing blogs to share information and to connect with clients, employees, and others.
By LIISA ANDREASSEN Contributor B logs are a great way to share information. Here are four companies that are exercising their blogging muscles. STAYING RELEVANT. At Michaels Energy (La Crosse, WI), a 60-person energy efficiency consulting firm, the top goal is to share relevant content re- lated to the energy efficiency industry, with a refreshing, unfiltered (or slightly filtered) spin. The primary author for this weekly blog is Jeff Ihnen, vice president, who gathers fodder for the “Energy Rant.” “We’re trying to start a conver- sation,” says Kristin Laursen, director of marketing and busi- ness development. “Nothing is really off limits as long as it’s related to energy efficiency.” “We track opens, click- throughs, and comments on all posts (sent to subscrib-
START A BLOG OF YOUR OWN. We asked these professionals what tips they would offer other firms that want to start a blog. Here are some ideas: Be sure that your company leaders are on board. They can suggest topics, which helps keep your contributors engaged. Decide ahead of time how often you want to post and set reminders to yourself so the blog doesn’t get lost among other tasks. Prepare ideas as to what kinds of features, topics, or spotlights you want to have and understand that blogging takes time and research. Marketing departments need to be proactive and own the blog. It helps to schedule a 30-minute meeting with project managers to learn about their projects and find the story. Ghostwrite the first draft based on your interview then let the “author” proofread it and give it their own spin. Know what your clients (and website/blog visitors) care about. Utilize fun blog headline generators like Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator to find an attention-getting headline that is search engine optimized. Use tracking tools such as Google Analytics or Wordpress plug-in Blog Metrics. Before you post your first blog, create a backlog of posts. Engage people from across the firm in the content creation. Having co- workers take turns being in the “hot-seat” keeps everyone fresh. Create simple blogging guidelines to distribute to new contributors. Inform them that the blog shouldn’t be too long (400 – 600 words is fine), should have a fun and interesting title, and should contain plenty of photos and graphics. If a certain blog topic or author tends to receive more views than others, schedule more posts on similar topics or by the same author. Comments, social media shares, and “likes” are also a good way to gauge a blog’s success.
See BLOGGING, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 30, 2015, ISSUE 1129
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