Season’s Greetings from the Sequentia Team!
We were really amazed by the response we got to a small piece in our last issue on blogging and media relations. And with the upcoming election it feels like blogging is really in the forefront of cool tools for business, personal, and clearly, political use. So we’ve decided to focus our Holiday issue on blogging and then some…
Speaking of the holidays, here’s wishing you and yours a very happy holiday season. Remember that our office will be closed from December 23 to January 2 inclusive. I look forward to connecting with you in 2006!
Yours,
Jen Evans
President, Sequentia Communications
TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG: Should You Jump on the Blogging Bandwagon?
With apologies to Hamlet and Shakespeare, that is the question. Sure, everyone you know has a blog, including one quarter of the US under-25 population. Companies in Canada have been slightly slower to adopt the technology, but are now evaluating whether or not they should jump on the blog bandwagon – or if they need policies for employees blogs. Should You Blog?
So you’re wondering how you can leverage this blogging thing for marketing purposes. First of all, you need to understand the basics: what the heck *is* a blog, what type of software makes blogging easy, and how RSS and blogging are related.
Once you understand the basics of how the mechanics work and how blogs came to be, then you’ve got to decide if blogging is for you. There is so much buzz right now about blogging that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. But you need to approach blogging like any other marketing tactic: strategically. Blogs as a medium have their own specific charms and challenges, and you can do yourself more harm than good by arbitrarily jumping on what is a personal communications method to deliver a corporate message.
So when should you consider blogging for your business? If you can answer the following questions in the affirmative:
- Do we have the necessary writing skills to keep readers engaged?
- It’s not just about putting words together – you need to have the writing style to keep readers returning. In other words, typical marketing speak will not work. To get political for a moment, you only need look at the difference between the Conservative Party blog and the Liberal party blog to see the difference –all partisanry aside, which one are you likely to revisit?
- Do we have the subject matter expertise required to keep readers coming back?
- If your blog is going to gain an audience, you need to have a fresh viewpoint and a significant enough grasp over your subject matter that an audience will want to hear your opinion. If you’re just parroting existing information or pushing out corporate messages, your audience isn’t going to stick around for very long. Figure out what your angle on a topic is: if you’re a software company, do you have a trend expert who can keep people informed on what’s coming up? The key here is value and entertainment, and a balance between the two.
- Can we produce enough content to keep the blog fresh on a very regular basis? (weekly at a minimum)
- This is the biggest challenge for most organizations, and if you’re not able to commit to weekly blogging at a minimum, you probably shouldn’t get underway. Some organizations handle this by group blogging and assigning responsibility for days to individual bloggers which helps shoulder the burden.
Finally, recognize that even if you don’t blog corporately, your employees may be. It’s a good idea to look at a corporate blogging policy before your words come back to haunt you! And in case that train has already left the station, here’s some tips on keeping your job and blogging at the same time!
Have more questions about blogging? We’re here to help. Give us a call at 416-203-3656 or send us an email.
NEXT ISSUE: Wikis, podcasting and videopodcasting – oh my! Get the latest on the application of these media in the next issue of Sequences.
Sequentia News
Congratulations to Nizzi Karai Renaud on her new role as Sequentia’s VP of Online Marketing. Nizzi will be running the online marketing team and overseeing internet marketing strategy for Sequentia’s clients.Sequentia also welcomes its newest team member, Martina Kelly, as our new Office Manager. Davida Woolley has moved onto a new position within Sequentia. And our PR Coordinator, Ryan Heney, is wrapping up at Sequentia at the end of the year. Good luck to Martina, Davida and Ryan in their new roles.
Timewaster
Want a little bit more culture in your life? We recommend visiting The Museum of Online Museums. Some amazing links to bricks and mortar museums with an interesting online presence.This isn’t a timewaster, but more of a “we highly recommend”. If you need to tote around your laptop, why not do it in style. Acme Made’s laptop bags rock! Enough said…
In This Issue
December 2005
| • | TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG: Should You Jump on the Blogging Bandwagon? |
| • | Sequentia News |
| • | Timewaster |
| • | Quick Tips |
| • | Did You Know? |
Looking to set-up a blog? We love Blogger.com for its ease of use, cool search functionality (a result of its acquisition by Google) - and yes, it’s free too!
Here in Canada, we have an amazing array of homegrown blogs discussing everything from technology, politics and of course, hockey. Interested in finding Canadian blogs, visit BlogsCanada.ca.
Did you miss our last e-newsletter? Click here to read our feature on Talking to the Media: Hints for Great Media Coverage and other Sequentia news.