Often times, small businesses have a difficult time with blogging and content. This presentation given to the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce #outoftheboxlunch event covers the basics of blogging from platform to writing to social media.

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Small Business Blogging
Presented by: Adam Dince @adamdince
Head of Organic Search & Social Media Optimization

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These days, everyone has a blog

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On average…
2,730,000 blog posts written every day
81,900,000 blog posts written every month
982,800,000 blog posts written every year
http://www.quora.com/Blogging/How-many-blog-posts-are-written-every-day
http://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-wordpress/all/all

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Blogs are powerful!
• 81% of U.S. online consumers trust information and advice from blogs.
(Source: BlogHer)
• Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small
businesses that do not blog. (Source: ThinkCreative)
• Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links. (Source: Hubspot)
• 92% of companies who blog multiple times per day have acquired a
customer from their blog. (Source: HubSpot)
• Once you write 21-54 blog posts, blog traffic generation increases by up to
30%. (Source:TrafficGenerationCafe)
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/top-blogging-statistics-45-reasons-blog-
180101993.html

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Today, we’ll get you started
• Configure
• Ideate
• Write
• Socialize

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Step #1 – Select and Install Blogging
Platform

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Start with the right address and location
Recommended:www.yourwebsite.com/blog (best for SEO)
Secondary: blog.yourwebsite.com

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60% of bloggers use WordPress and so
should you!
Check with your Web hosting company or visit
http://wordpress.org/hosting to find the easiest way to install
WordPress on your server

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Why WordPress?
 Easy to set-up
 Easy to integrate social
 Easy to embed video, images, etc…
 Easy to integrate Google Analytics
 No coding experience needed to maintain
 Thousands of free site themes to use
 Great for SEO

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Find a free theme or hire a designer
to create one for you
 http://mashable.com/2010/09/07/free-wordpress-
themes-small-business/
 http://wordpress.org/themes/
 http://www.designrazzi.com/2013/free-wordpress-
themes/
 Google, “free wordpress themes”

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What a free theme can look like
Source: http://www.designrazzi.com/2013/free-wordpress-themes/

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Download theme

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Sign into WordPress admin panel

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Click on appearance & themes

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Click on Install Themes

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Click on Upload

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Click on Choose File, Install Now &
Activate

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This is what a Free theme did for me

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Basic plug-in downloads
A. Asynch Social Sharing: http://rachelbaker.me/download/
B. Captcha: http://bestwebsoft.com/plugin
C. Google Analytics: http://wordpress.org/plugins/googleanalytics/
D. Slick Social Share Buttons: http://wordpress.org/plugins/googleanalytics/
E. Yoast SEO Plug-In: http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/
A
D
B
E
C

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Installing plug-ins

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Configure Permalinks
Not Default!

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Step #2 – Once you’ve set-up your blog,
it’s time to get ideas!
Source: http://theweddingwardrobist.blogspot.com/2011/04/excuses-
excuses-miss-paige.html

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It first starts with an idea
Content should be created based on:
 The interests of your audience
 Your business goals and objectives
“Crowdsourcing is the process by which the
power of the many can be leveraged to
accomplish feats that were once the province of
a specialized few”. – Jeff Howe, Wired Magazine
Source: http://www.ereleases.com/

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A few tools to identify your audience’s interests
Crowdsource Search Queries Social Listening
VerticalResponse.com Soovle.com SocialMention.com
Freemium Free Free
Email and talk with customers
and prospects and about
what types of information
related to your products /
services they’re interested in
learning more about
Type in a keyword and Soovle
provides you the top suggested
keywords from the major
search engines
Input keywords and themes
to see what’s buzzing about
it on blogs, forums, and
other social channels

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Let’s look at the process in action
Query: “garageband for ipad” “garageband for ipad tutorial” is a suggested
keyword across almost all engines
SocialMention questions related to queryNow you’re ready to create your content

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One last tip for gathering ideas
Keep track of the questions your customers and
prospects ask. Write articles or helpful resource
content around common themes.
Source: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/head%20tilt?before=37

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Finally, put together a content calendar
and stick to it
Source: MarketingLand.com

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Step #3 – It’s time to write!
Source: http://rickischultz.wordpress.com/

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It’s got to be quality
• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well,
or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting,
original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in
search results (competitors)?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is
beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or
recommend?
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-
guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

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A great example: dirtyyogaco.com

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And it’s so easy to write in WordPress

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More tag makes it easy to make the
user-experience great

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“Fullscreen” allows you to write it
freely

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Publish

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Step #4 – Let’s get social

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Once you write a post, share it on your
networks

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Customize your messages

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Market your content to your customers

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Questions and Answers
Source: http://www.centersquarejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Raise-Your-Hand-05.jpg