The Blog Coach and why hire a Blogging Consultant

My eye was drawn earlier this week by a post over at Blog Business Summit called Why hire a Blogging Consultant. Professional interest or in search of justification for what I do?

Definitely professional interest.

While it is an interesting overview, I think that it skims over the business side of what a blogging consultant should be able to offer and focuses too much on simply their knowledge of the Blogosphere. Certainly that’s important, as is the passion – you have to know how things work and why they work before you can start to apply them to a business situation.

But you also need to understand the business requirements of the companies you work with, their customers and their other marketing activities if you want to truely integrate a blog and really add value. You should feel comfortable working with both the marketing and technical teams (as well as the general management) with larger clients, and potentially be able to provide both of these roles yourself with smaller clients.

What I did like was the split that was made, between why set up a blog and how to do it so that it really works for your business. In the conferences they are running, they are focusing on the “how” rather than the “why”. I have no doubt that in the US, this is the right way to go.

However, in the UK, we are very clearly in a situation where we need both – the majority of companies are still at a stage where they are learning what blogs can offer them and why they should be considering them. However, there are also a growing number who have identified where they can be applied and now require help and direction in achieving that.

It is for this reason that I now run two blogs aimed at helping companies with their Business Blogging and the split between “Why” and “How” seems like a good one.

• Why set up a blog? – Better Business Blogging will be looking primarily at these aspects by focusing in on the range of business uses/applications of a blog and the issues in business and corporate blogging;
• How to do it? – The Blog Coach will aim to address the need for specific advice on the implementation, development and marketing of blogs as well as offering services and workshops to help businesses achieve this.

As you might imagine, there will be overlap between the two areas as one flows into the other but the differentiation is a good starting point.

So, why work with a Blog Consultant or, dare I say, a Blog Coach? Well, certainly for the understanding of how the blogosphere works and what works best, but also for the ability to apply that knowledge by getting to the heart of your business and ensuring it will produce the best results for you and your customers.

Using Technorati to research your future Blog or your Market

As I pointed out in the Green Cross Code of Blogging, the first step before embarking on a Blog yourself is to look at the blogs that are already out there – ideally ones dealing with your market or subject area – to see what is being said, how they are being used and how they are approaching blogging as a business tool.

So the question is where the best place to find out what blogs exist in a certain industry or cover certain topics. For me, I always turn to the first of my two main blog site recommendations for anyone intending to use blogs – Technorati. If you want to find out what blogs exist and what is being said in them, then this is the place to start your search.

Running my Blog – is it better to host it myself?

Question

If I want to run a Blog for my business, what is the best place to host it? Should I use a hosted service or would it be better to host it myself?

The Blog Coach replies:

If you are looking to set up a Blog which you will be using for your Business, then I would always recommend that you would be better to host it yourself, just as you probably already do with your website. The simple reason for this is that it will give you most control over it and flexibility which means that it will best be able to answer your business’ requirements.

I think that the free hosted systems such as Blogger or Wordpress.com (as opposed to Wordpress.org) are great for personal blogs because they are free and because there is very little for you to do except start to write. However, they do come with an inherent risk, as you may decide over time that you want to do more with your blog than can be done with a hosted system like this, at which point it is very difficult to move all of your content across to your new blog. Even making permanent (301) redirects so that people can still find all of your content that has been indexed is not possible on some of these blog systems, which will lead to a lot of frustration and possibly lost leads too. There have even been cases reported where proper Business blogs have been mistaken for spam blogs (splogs) and had their content deleted. Not a good situation!

Making the right choice in terms of your blogging platform is a key early decision and you want to try to consider not only your current requirements but also try to look forward to what you are going to want to do in the future as well. Ideally, something like Wordpress or Movable Type will be able to grow with you.

If you decide to host it yourself, you will need to consider whether to choose a new domain name and run your blog there or whether you should incorporate the blog into your current website. Both options have merit. If it deals with issues which are distinct from those that you talk about on your main website then it may be sensible to select a relevant domain name and separate the two. However, by incorporating the Business Blog alongside your other content (and integrating it graphically into the look and feel of the site) then you can use it as a complementary means of engaging with prospects and customers, and so enhance the positioning of your business through it.

To sum up: overall, primarily for reasons of control, security and future-proofing for your business, we would recommend that you steer away from hosted services for your blog as it is likely to become a key part of your business.

Your Profile and contact details

Business Blogs as well as personal blogs, have a personal side to them which, in part, differentiates them from being just another website full of product information and advertising speak. That’s a key part of why they work so well in communicating ideas and opinions, and in gaining positive reactions.

So make sure that you provide your readers with a clear way of finding out about the person who is writing the blog and who they are going to be communicating with. Always remember to put up a profile up on your Business Blog and also a way for your readers to get in touch with you.

If you prefer to include your details as part of your sidebar then keep it short and sweet – there’s lots more information that you also want to be highly visible there. I personally prefer a link through to a separate page where you have a little more space to include whatever details seem appropriate to you.

Some profiles will focus on past work and experience ( no CVS though, please), others will have more of a current focus and outline future plans. What ever you put there, try to make it personal though and, for extra impact, put up a picture as well. Remember that from a networking perspective, your Business Blog acts as the hub at the centre of that network – people are therefore going to be interested in the “real you” and what makes you tick so give them some insights into the person behind the Blog.

You also want people to be able to contact you. They can do this by posting comments on your blog, but they may also want to get in contact with you directly. So, make sure that you also have your contact details on your blog, either as part of your profile or in a separate section – or both! There’s nothing more frustrating than finding a really interesting blog and wanting to get in touch with the author but not being able to do so.

Key tip: make sure that your profile and your contact details are clearly visible on your Blog and help start that conversation!

Technorati Profile

Choosing a name for your Blog

As part of the process of planning your Business Blog, you need to decide what you want to call it. You may have decided this long ago – many people actually start from a name that they like and then develop the blog from there. Not recommended if you are doing it for your business though!

It is an important factor though, and certainly one which is worth spending time on. It’s important because your blog’s name is what people will remember first and foremost, it is what they will use to recommend your blog and this is what the blog search engines will use to refer to your Blog in their results.

The name of your Blog is likely to be mainly a personal decision – you may want to choose a name which reflects its contents, which incorporates the name of your business or which you simply liked and just wanted to use. A couple of words of warning on this:

• you need to choose something that you will feel comfortable promoting. So be aware that a name that you think is funny or clever now, needs to still be clever or funny in 12 months time;
• you may want to have the same domain name as the name of your blog, so it might be advisable to check on the availability of the domain name as well;
• in most blog software, the name of the blog is automatically included in the “Title tag” which is important in Search Engine Optimisation, so you may like to consider using one of your keywords in the Blog’s name.

The decision regarding the domain name that you use for your Blog is important as well, as I touched upon above – there is a fuller look at this area in the article Choosing a Domain Name for your Business Blog which covers the areas that you should bear in mind as you do so.

An additional point, some blogs give you the opportunity to have a tagline as well which is also used in the “Title tag” on the first page of your blog. Since you are given the opportunity, then select something which is catchy and works for you or add a short description about what the blog is aiming to do.