using my head

Well I guess it was only a matter of time: the ‘for Dummies’ series of books have just added Corporate Blogging for Dummies to their arsenal of practical how-to books for business. Douglas Karr from the Marketing Tech blog is one of the authors, and if the blog is anything to go by, I am sure this book will be chock full of really useful and implementable tips. Currently only available in the USA, it releases here in the UK on the 19th – and Amazon are already taking pre-orders, so get in there!

The really great thing is that Douglas and Chantelle (co-author) have set up a microsite to accompany the book. One of the most useful things on the microsite is the list of good corporate blogs, which is a great place to start reading if you are thinking of blogging for business. I always recommend that people start by reading blogs relevant to their industry BEFORE they ever even consider starting a blog, so this list is sure to have something relevant to you, as it’s quite a comprehensive list (I’ve bookmarked it already myself).

There’s also a wealth of good info on the Marketing Tech blog, so have a looksie at their b2b blogging posts… and here’s a couple of my own posts from the archive which might be of interest, too:

• How to start blogging at work – part 1
• How to start blogging at work – part 2
• How to start blogging at work – part 3

Happy blogging!

Tonight I had the pleasure of speaking at this month’s Women in Publishing event, sharing my experience and advice on blogging. I was also lucky enough to meet and sit alongside a proper blogging celebrity, Nadine Jolie, who had quite a glamorous and exciting story to share about how she got into blogging and how it changed her life.  Have a read of her bio and you’ll get a glimpse into her experience as a blogger – if not into the amazing back-story about how her confidential beauty blog lost her 2 jobs but gained her 2 book deals and a career as a pro blogger. Nadine shared her own experiences and advice on how to find your voice, what to write about, what success looks like and more. And she looked fabulous too – she must be taking her own beauty advice

As for me, I stuck to what I know best, which is giving advice and coaching people on getting started in blogging, particularly from a business perspective. I thought it might be useful to point people at my series of How to start blogging posts, so here goes:

How to start blogging at work – Part 1
This covers what to think about and do before you even set up a blogging account/tool

How to start blogging at work – Part 2
This post includes getting internal approval/buy-in and creating your first posts

How to start blogging at work – Part 3
This post gives some tips and advice on how to keep the momentum going, writing tips, and tools to make the whole process easier

Enjoy!

Tomorrow night I will be speaking about blogging at the June Women In Publishing event. I’ll be sharing some of my previous experiences coaching people on blogging, as well as sharing some tips & things to think about before you start, as well as common pitfalls and hurdles – such as dealing with comment spam, blog guilt, writer’s block and more. If you are interested in meeting women who work in all areas of publishing (writers, printers, editors, publishers, etc), fancy a drink and some casual networking, and/or want to know more about blogging, why not come along? Details are here.

The external links that point to your site play an important role in where your site appears in the search engine results. You can think of it this way: every link from a relevant external site that points to your site counts as a ‘vote of confidence’ in Google’s eyes. In fact, it is agreed by search engine optimisation professionals that 4 out of the top 5 factors affecting your Google ranking are about external links. But when it comes to search engines, not all links are created equal. So what makes a good link from an SEO perspective? If you have partners or customers who are willing to link to you, how exactly is the best way for them to do it, in order to give you the maximum benefit?

Here’s my take on this, hopefully explained in a way that anyone (even non-techies) can understand. Let’s start from the worst moving up to the best…

DREADFUL: Image Link, no ALT tag, meaningless image name

Example:

SEO-usefulness: 0.5 (out of 5)

This link is not really doing you any favours. OK, it’s a link, but it’s not working very hard as far as SEO is concerned. Google – like all other search engines – cannot ’see’ images. So even though this link says SEOMoz, the words are part of an image. You can tell by trying to highlight it with your cursor: words that are images do not highlight as text. Therefore, Google can’t really tell what this is.

This image has no ALT tag, either. An ALT tag is a little bit of code that tells visually impaired people (and search engines) what the image is. So for a photo of a green apple, the ALT tag might say “green apple”. You can tell if an image has an ALT tag by hovering your mouse over an image. If there’s an ALT tag, the text will popup (some people call this ‘tooltips’).

Finally, the filename of this image has nothing to do with the website where it is pointing. The filename is “logo135b.jpg”. Unless someone goes onto Google and types “logo135b”, this is no help whatsoever. In fact, I encourage you to go to Google now and type logo135b in the search box. Does this give you any clues as to how image names can help with SEO?

POOR: Image Link, with ALT tag, meaningful image name

Example:

SEO-usefulness: 1 (out of 5)

I see this as the bare minimum when it comes to a link that is useful from an SEO perspective. Even though Google still can’t ’see’ the image, it can read the text in the ALT tag, and that text contains the brand name of the website it is pointing to (hover your mouse over the image to see). Furthermore, the filename of the image is “seomoz.png” – which also contains the brand name of the website it is pointing to. Luckily, in this case, the brand name and website URL have something to do with the services that the company offers. But if your company name is something like “Deep Blue” and you sell shoes, you’re not so lucky. There’s nothing in your brand or URL that tells Google – or human visitors – that deepblue.com sells shoes. So the usefulness of any links that mention the words “Deep Blue” are only helpful to you from a branding perspective. We’ll expand on this next…

FAIR: Image Link, keywords in ALT tag, keywords in image name

Example:

SEO-usefulness: 2 (out of 5)

If you simply must use an image link (for branding purposes/advertising), this is the way to do it. The ALT tag here is “search engine optimization resources” – and this contains keywords that people might use when searching on Google for such a site. The filename of the actual image itself is “search-engine-resources.jpg” – again, this contains keywords. Including keywords as part of the link is absolutely critical: Google sees this as saying “Hey, look over there on that site if you are interested in search engine optimization resources”. Naturally, this only works if the site you are pointing to actually contains search engine optimization resources. Google isn’t stupid.

You can further improve the usefulness of the image link by adding a text link directly under or next to it, something like the below…

MIDDLING: Text Link, keywords near the link text

Example:

SEOmoz.org – a good place to look for search engine optimization resources

… if you are interested in reading more about search engine optimization, you might look here.

SEO-usefulness: 2-3 (out of 5)

Now we’re getting somewhere. Google likes text, and text-based links. More importantly, remember that the success of Google is based on TRUST and RELEVANCE. So this is what Google uses when evaluating links. We’ll get to the TRUST part in a minute, but as for RELEVANCE, this is how it works: Google sees a link on a page, and if there’s nothing in the link itself to give clues about what the linked site is about, Google then looks at the text in the immediate vicinity to find out what the link is pointing to. It is common sense, really. The words around the link give context, and indicate that the link is relevant to that topic.

Now, ordinarily a link with a generic word like “here” (above) is a bit of a wasted opportunity. But luckily, this one has been partially rescued by putting some relevant keywords in the link title (hover your mouse over it to see). However, it’s still not as good as the link above it, and nowhere near as good as the following…

GOOD: Text Link, keywords in the link text

Example:

SEOmoz.org – a good place to look for search engine optimization resources

… if you are interested in reading more about search engine optimization, you might look at SEOmoz.

SEO-usefulness: 3 (out of 5)

Even better: use the keywords in the link text itself. This is a clear signpost to Google indicating that the linked site is all about the topic of search engine optimization. Equally importantly, it’s a clear signpost to site visitors that when they click on that link, they will find search engine optimization resources. This is almost as good as it gets in terms of relevance…

I say almost because relevance is not just about the words immediately in and around the link. What is on the rest of the page?

BETTER: Text Link, keywords in the link text, on a page about the relevant topic

Example:

As above, but in an article about SEO

SEO-usefulness: 4 (out of 5)

Naturally, if the rest of the page is about web design, and there’s a link to an SEO site stuck on, then this is not as good in terms of relevance as a link on a page/article purely dedicated to SEO. So if you think about my own blog (what you are reading right now), the links I have used as examples on this page are exactly what we are talking about: the text links above are a 4 out of 5 in SEO-usefulness for SEOmoz because this entire article is about SEO.

Think about how most links occur on static websites: more often than not, they are lumped into a page called “Useful Links” or something. Usually there is nothing on that page that gives any relevant info about those links. Now think about how most links occur on blogs: usually they are sprinkled throughout the text in an article about a relevant topic. With this in mind, is it any wonder why blog pages often appear high in search engine results*?

But wait, there’s more…

BEST: Text Link, keywords in the link text, on a page about the relevant topic, on a trusted site

Example:

As above, in an article about SEO, on a site trusted to be about SEO

SEO-usefulness: 5 (out of 5)

This is the Holy Grail of value when it comes to external links and SEO. Remember, I said we’d talk about TRUST later, so here we are. Google wants to give customers the best possible results, so it makes sense that a link from a trusted, relevant website is best. You would do the same: you’d trust a mechanic’s car recommendation more than you would trust a baker’s. At the beginning of this article, I said a link is like a vote of confidence, so a vote from a website that is well-established in its niche area is better than a vote from a site which isn’t.

If we look at the example of the SEOMoz links, if all other factors are equal, a link from my blog is not going to be nearly as valuable as a link from a site like Search Engine Watch. Search Engine Watch is all about SEO, it’s been online for many years, it has lots of relevant SEO links pointing to it, and it ranks high in search engines itself. In this sense, Google trusts Search Engine Watch more than it trusts me. Which is fine by me – I trust Search Engine Watch more, too!

So there we have it, the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to inbound links and search engines. Now you can make better use of adverts, partner links and hopefully make better links yourself, too.


* Search engines also like fresh content, rather than stale mouldy old pages… but that’s a whole other article!

Well, at the January NetTuesday I managed to build a pretty decent-looking website live, in 33 minutes. The lovely Amy from NetSquared has uploaded some video of the presentation, and the videos of the actual website build will be coming soon, I’m told. But in the meantime, you can have a look at the slides from my presentation about how web apps have fundamentally changed the web design industry and web project lifecycles. Some linkies for you:

- Web design before web applications (video)
- Web design after web applications (video)
- View the presentation (slides)

I was really thrilled to see the Meetup attendees gave me a 5 out of 5 rating for the presentation, and I hope they will find the info and tips to be useful. It’s a lot to cover in an hour (both theory & practice), so the slides may be a very broad generalisation, but I do think the concept holds true: making websites today bears little resemblance to the way we used to build them even just a few years ago.

I think the really interesting thing to me is how I now tend to input content first, and do design second. This is completely the opposite of how we used to do things. But it’s a great tip when working with content management systems like WordPress or Squarespace, because it means you can create a design that you know will work with the type of content you have. So often we as designers would mock up something that looked beautiful with a couple of paragraphs of ‘lorem ipsum’, only to find that the design didn’t work so well with loads of text and several photos, which is what the client needed to have on the page. If you’re a designer, give it a try on your next project.

Recently clients & enquirers have been asking about which platform is better – WordPress or Squarespace – so I thought it might be helpful to post a comparison here. This is based on my own experience in using, designing for and administering websites and blogs on both platforms: your mileage may vary. But here’s how I see it…

NOTE: All comparisons and info below relate to Wordpress.org, which is the installed version that you download and install on your own hosting. I am not including Wordpress.com in this comparison, which is the hosted version of WordPress that you sign up / subscribe to. This comparison is for professionals and small businesses, and I don’t feel that WordPress.com is the right choice for this purpose.

Similarities between WordPress & Squarespace

There are a number of similar characteristics and functions of the two products; here’s a few of the most relevant ones. Both:

• Can be used for creating and managing blogs or a variety of different types of website
• Are cost-effective, starting at a few pounds per month for hosting/subscription
• Allow you to use your own domain name (instead of something like http://yourdomain.wordpress.com )
• Allow non-technical people to update the website text/content without much training
• Offer a lot of visual design flexibility, in which an experienced designer/developer (like me) can create polished, professional websites quickly ; however, there are some design limitations with both systems
• Use template-based designs that can be easily changed, customised or tweaked in future without affecting the content
• Have a number of search-engine-friendly elements built into the way the pages/sites are structured
• Offer the ability to have multiple authors/editors with different levels of editing permission
• Have the capability to use/embed Flash, video or other media within the site
• Have their own quirks – things that don’t quite make sense – but are easily worked around once you figure it out

So what are the main differences?

About Squarespace

Squarespace is a full-featured hosted content management system (CMS) designed for websites and blogs.  Users pay a monthly subscription fee to Squarespace in return for hosting the site and access to the content management system. You don’t download anything and you don’t need to find hosting: as soon as you sign up online, you can get started working on your site.

Squarespace Pros:

• The subscription fee includes full technical support from Squarespace. Response times have been quick in the past: anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
• Cost effective: the lower level subscription rates are comparable to the cost of standard web hosting, with a lot more included.
• Very intuitive content management system: incredibly user-friendly (the best I have seen at this price point). It is clear that Squarespace developers focus a lot on usability.
• Offers scope for additional functionality (eg custom forms, private client pages) through built-in features & modules that are easy to set up, usually even by non-technical people. These modules are supported by Squarespace’s tech support in case of any problems.
• Basic website statistics are built-in, and conveniently accessed through the same login used for editing the site.
• All the infrastructure is managed by Squarespace. This means future product upgrades are applied automatically by Squarespace, so you don’t need to install anything or worry about whether you are using the latest version (you always are).
• Everything’s in one place: if something goes wrong, you know it’s Squarespace. With WordPress, you sometimes can’t easily tell whether it’s a WordPress problem or a problem with your hosting provider, making troubleshooting take longer.

Squarespace Cons:

• As a fully-hosted solution, you cannot shop around for better hosting deals: you are tied in to Squarespace’s hosting and prices.
• Some added features are only available through higher monthly fee subscription packages.
• Some features cannot be easily customised without a designer/developer’s help (custom coding).
• The statistics that come built into Squarespace are not as detailed as those from Google Analytics or other web analytics tools (note: you can install Google Analytics or other on Squarespace).
• Squarespace is not a huge company with thousands of developers, so product improvements and enhancements are not released as often as with bigger CMS products, nor as often as new plugins for WordPress become available.

About WordPress

WordPress is an open source blogging platform that can be adapted for use as both a standard website CMS and/or blog.  You need a suitable hosting provider and a downloaded version of WordPress to get started. Once this is installed, you login to your WordPress admin panel to work on the site.

WordPress Pros:

• WordPress is available free of charge, without having to pay a license fee or subscription, so the only cost related to purchase is the cost of web hosting. This means you can shop around for the best hosting deal, or move hosts in future should you choose to.
• WordPress is one of the world’s most-used and well-supported blog CMS platforms; it has an active support community and a development roadmap, with frequent upgrades that constantly improve functionality and security. Out of all the open source blog CMS platforms, it’s the one I recommend most.
• A huge range of 3rd party plugins is available to expand the functionality of WordPress. The variety of plugins available is far greater than the variety of modules available for expanding Squarespace. Plugins include website analytics/ statistics through Google Analytics (just one example).
• The fact that it is open source (rather than commercial) appeals to some clients from an ethical perspective. This means that you are free to use the product without many restrictions of commercial software, and are supporting the open source ideology.

WordPress Cons:

• The fact that it is open source (rather than commercial) is a barrier/turn-off to some clients. They want the assurances that come with a commercial organisation developing and taking responsibility for the product. They want to be able to hold someone accountable, and be able to contact someone whose job it is to respond, in case of any problem.
• Although WordPress is a popular platform, it is reliant on the pool of open-source developers for all product improvements and bug-fixes, who do this free of charge, primarily in their free time. Therefore, it can sometimes take a while for bugs to be fixed.
• The user interface for administering and editing is a bit less intuitive than Squarespace, and not as user-friendly.
• Most added features are only available as 3rd-party plugins or widgets: this means they are not supported by WordPress, and can sometimes cause compatibility issues when the WordPress platform is upgraded. And sometimes they are just plain rubbish, as there is no quality-control process. Anyone can develop and release a plugin/widget, so there’s a high chaff-to-wheat ratio.
• Because WordPress is an installed application, someone must manually upgrade the product whenever a new version is released. Failure to upgrade can cause security risks, but upgrading can create compatibility issues (see above).

So which is better?

There is no right or wrong answer: the best tool will depend on your own preference, and whether you have someone you can trust to help design/develop/administer/train on that particular platform. Because as easy as they both are to use, it can really help to have someone who knows what they are doing to work with you, at least in the beginning.

I’m back in the UK after my long trip back to the States, and while I was away, my latest Squarespace site went live: IT recruitment and consulting service provider Populo. This time I had the pleasure of working with Katrina Dixon, aka The Marketing Lady, who is working with Populo on their marketing. It was great to have a partner on the project, and I think the results are a polished site that promotes and explains Populo’s offering in a really appealing and engaging way. I hope I have the opportunity to work with other marketeers this way in future.

This project was particularly interesting for me because the client wanted to use Squarespace in a somewhat unconventional way: the blogging functionality has been adapted to act as a job listing tool. While it may not provide all the bells and whistles of a fully-featured job engine, it certainly does what it needs to, and demonstrates that with a little creative thinking, web platforms such as Squarespace or Wordpress can be adapted to work for almost any type of business or website.

Blogging functionality can be used to house any information that needs to be presented chronologically and/or categorised, whether it’s news, events, job postings, recipes or properties for sale – yet the word ‘blog’ has very specific connotations to most non-web-techies. I often wonder if there needs to be a rebrand of products such as Squarespace and WordPress, who are known primarily as ‘blogging’ platforms, because it’s sometimes difficult to get past the associations with this word when recommending these products to clients. Maybe in future there will be some clever term that sums up the capabilities of blog tools without the baggage of that word.

I see this question being asked a lot, and I’ve realised this is akin to asking a stranger ‘Which vehicle should I buy?’. What’s the answer: Ferarri? Hatchback? Lorry? Bicycle? Motorcycle? Without knowing what you will use it for, it’s impossible to answer. And even if you tell me you want a family car to cart your kids around and run errands, the best answer depends on factors such as whether price is more important than fuel economy, whether you have 6-foot-tall teenagers or triplet toddlers, and ultimately, which one feels most comfortable to you when behind the wheel.

So the answer to ‘which tool’ has almost nothing to do with which tool is the ‘best’, and everything to do with what it is that you are trying to achieve, and with whom. The very words ‘online collaboration’ could have lots of different meanings:

• I want to share documents online, and let others edit them
• I want to have meetings online instead of travelling for face-to-face meetings
• I want to manage a project that has lots of remote stakeholders, and easily keep everyone up-to-date
• I want to be able to easily track all of the things my team and our external partners are working on together
• I want a central place where all the discussions and files about a project can be stored and accessed

and so on.

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of attending Netsquared’s London NetTuesday meetup which was focused on online collaboration. A representative from Huddle (Andy, I think?) was there, and he did a good job of covering what are the potential benefits of online collaboration, as well as covering the main features available. I think Andy and I are in agreement that the best tool depends on many factors, so I’m going to summarise his and my tips on how to choose the best tool for your needs.

What is it that you are trying to achieve?

Are you trying to save time – if so, whose time? Increase a sense of unity within a team? Cut down on resource-heavy meetings? Stop things slipping through the cracks by centralising information? Move away from email? Any of these are valid goals, and it’s a good idea to make note of your aims before you even start looking for a product. Make sure you revisit this at every stage of the way to ensure you are still on track to achieving it.

What tasks/processes do you need to perform?

Make a list of all the actions you/your team need to do, and prioritise the list into essentials and nice-to-have. It’s important to be as specific as possible, and make sure you are listing human actions rather than technical functions. For example:

Good:
Ability for remote team members to communicate through text, not necessarily in real-time

Bad:
Online forum

Why? Because the former is open and could be achieved in different ways (forum, wiki, chat room, etc). Stating something like ‘online forum’ is limiting, and is a statement of the tool (I want a handsaw) rather than the need (I need to cut wood). Limiting yourself in this way closes doors that could have led to better ways of achieving the same thing.

Who will be using it?

Are they technical or non-techie, based in one location or geographically dispersed, mature Sales Directors or young Office Assistants, native English-speakers or not, enthusiastic communicators or isolated solo-flyers? Many tools available can perform the same function, but the best one for your needs depends on who will use it, and how often. Also be sure to think about how they will be trained on the tool.

Who will be supporting it?

Many people make the mistake in thinking that externally-hosted online tools need no user support within the business. I think this is the number one factor contributing to failure of the tool being used and adopted. While it’s true most of these tools are very easy to use, and most offer some level of support from the supplier, you should always factor in having someone act as user support within the organisation. This person needs to act as the point-person for questions, training, adoption & embedding. They don’t have to be technical – tech questions can usually be referred on to the supplier – but they do have to be patient, good communicators, and pro-active. In large organisations, it pays to have a ‘champion’ like this in each department, with one overall administrator/super-champion.

What is the scale / duration of your project?

If you just need something for a few team members working on a short, fixed-term project, you can afford to choose a tool without much research aside from the above. However, if you are looking to create a permanent extra/intranet or manage a long-term programme with many stakeholders, you should consider going through a full evaluation process, including setting up trial accounts and gathering feedback on a few products before making your decision.

What is your budget?

The costs of online collaboration tools range from free to several thousands of pounds. The more expensive ones are not always ‘better’, but they do tend to come with greater levels of tech support… and often, greater levels of complexity that you may or may not need. But don’t be put off by free/cheap fees: many online tools operate on a volume basis so you might be surprised to find complex, feature-rich products even at the lowest price point.

How quickly do you need it?

Many tools can be set up within a few mouse clicks, while others will require installation and configuration. Weigh up the benefits of quick setup on an entirely external server, versus those of having something installed that your tech support team can have access to. How will the data be backed up? Can we survive if the tool is temporarily unavailable due to maintenance? How easy is it to get our data in and out? Or do we just need to get on with it NOW?

Do you have other systems to consider?

Would it be beneficial for your online collaboration tool to link in with Outlook, Google Calendar, LinkedIn or Facebook? Do you have existing internal data storage systems that will need to feed into (or out from) your new online collaboration environment – how will this happen, and is it even possible? Can you achieve what you want by simply changing the way we use existing tools or bolting on new modules, rather than bringing another different tool into the mix? It’s worth bearing these important questions in mind because the answers can have long-term ramifications.

I hope the above will help you in evaluating which tool is best for you. In a future post, I will try to mention a few ‘best of breed’ tools that you might want to look at for various different online collaboration needs. Remember, the best way to determine which car is best for you is to take it on a test-drive: no amount of good advice can replace putting yourself behind the wheel.

How to keep your blog going

This is the final installment of the ‘How to start blogging’ series, based on the advice, ideas and tips from the London NetSquared Meetup group – a rather nice bunch of bloggers, tech peeps, blog-hopefuls and others who are interested in harnessing the social web for good causes. I’ve also thrown in a couple of my own tips based on my experience getting the folks at NESTA blogging.

Writing tips

If you don’t feel the love, don’t write

The world is not going to fall apart if you don’t post in a few days. And if you force yourself to write, you may end up feeling it’s more a chore than a pleasure. Instead, you might consider one of these ideas for keeping your blog busy, without having to write yourself:

Invite guest authors & experts to post on your blog

If one of your colleagues or peers has a great way with words, perhaps they could pen a post or two. Make sure their topic is relevant to your blog, and be sure to give credits and link-love.

Use your del.icio.us bookmarks as blog posts

This can be a quick & easy way to ensure there are no tumbleweeds on your blog. Here’s instructions: for WordPress, for TypePad, for Movable Type and for Blogger.

UPDATE: If you use WordPress, you can use Postalicious to post your bookmarks from mag.nolia, Google Reader, Reddit or del.icio.us to your blog. You can also customise how the post will appear, the tags, and more.

Publish your Twitter tweets as blog posts

If you use Twitter and WordPress, you can integrate the two services, so your tweets appear as blog postings, and your blog postings get automatically posted to Twitter. You can do it all using Twitter Tools.

Tools to make your blogging life easier

Use Netvibes as a blogging ‘dashboard’

I am a huge Netvibes fan. I use it for everything from planning trips to viewing my website analytics charts. I also find Netvibes to be a great way of keeping track of blogs and ideas for blog posts. I have several Netvibes tabs set up with RSS feeds from my favourite blogs, one tab for each of my areas of interest. I also add Netvibes webnotes to each of these tabs, so I can quickly jot down any ideas and paste links to posts that I want to write about.

Use a shortcut blogging tool instead of logging into your blog admin panel

If you can’t be bothered logging in to your blog admin panel, maybe placing your blogging interface closer to your ‘usual hangout’ will encourage you to blog more. If you spend all your time in Facebook, you can install a blogging app so you can post directly from Facebook. There are loads of apps for all the major blog platforms. Another cool tool is ScribeFire, a Firefox plugin that allows you to post from wherever you are on the web in seconds. (Hat tip to Farhan for pointing me to ScribeFire.)

Monitor, Measure, Rinse & Repeat

Monitor the volume & value of authors on multi-user blogs

If you are looking after blogs at your organisation, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on how the different authors are doing. If things are looking stale, boring or empty, you may want to step in with some advice, or run a blog authoring workshop to help your authors get back on track. If someone has posted once & that’s it, you may want to remove them from the author list to make room for more dedicated bloggers.

Measure the impact of your blog

It goes without saying that it’s a good idea to set up a monthly report on your blog activity (number of visitors, page views, posts, comments & pingbacks), but there are also other areas that can be watched. If you link to your organisation’s website from your blog, make sure you check your website analytics referrals section for visitors who clicked through from the blog to the website. Also look for ’softer’ measures, such as people mentioning your blog in person, or spikes in traffic to your blog after mentioning it at a conference or event.

If you have set goals for your blog, or if your blog is part of a larger communication strategy, make sure you are evaluating your success against those goals.

Celebrate milestones

Have you just had your 100th post? Your 20th comment? Your 50th pingback? Why not take a moment to pat yourself on the back, and invite others to celebrate with you. Any excuse for cake, really.

That’s it as far as tips from the NetSquared group, but I’d love to hear others if you have your own tips.

Many of the folks who came up with these tips have been blogging a lot longer and more frequently than me, so take their word for it… I will certainly be incorporating some of these ideas myself, as I could do with a bit of help keeping my own blog fresh & up-to-date. Life’s so busy sometimes!

If you feel comfortable with the stuff covered in Part 1 of How to start blogging at work, now we get onto the meaty bits: setting up your blog, getting it going & keeping it going.

Preparing to blog

Get your manager’s approval

Make sure your manager is OK with what you are going to do… and make sure any other potential bloggers in your organisation do the same. Seems pretty obvious, but some people seem to forget this part! Managers need to be prepared and accept that you will be spending time blogging as part of your job. If you have a set of personal goals at work, the ideal scenario is to factor blogging into them. At the bare minimum, you need to feel empowered to blog, and not feel guilty about spending time on blogging. It’s important for managers to understand that blogging can become a valuable part of your work, not something you do outside or on top of your ‘real work’. One way to get managers on board is to…

Present/tell people about blogging

Just like anything else you do in business, you’ve gotta have a business case for blogging. Put together a presentation or report for management to consider. It should include:

• why you will be blogging, what your goals are, what the desired outcomes will be, and how you’ll measure success
• benefits of blogging in general, and the potential benefits for your organisation
• relevant case studies, specific to your market/industry/area
• links/snippets of other blogs in your niche, to show the kind of thing they can expect

If you’re presenting to senior people such as the CEO, it never hurts to provide examples and statistics for CEO blogs. There are hundreds of CEOs and senior execs who blog. Here’s a handy wiki page of Fortune 500 blogs, and here’s a growing list of charity blogs in the UK.

(If you feel you need help with this bit, get in touch. I love this kind of thing, and if I’m not the right person to help, I can probably put you in touch with someone who can.)

Find a high-level champion

It always helps to have someone higher up the food chain who supports what you are doing, and blogging is no exception. One way of getting someone senior on board is to consider having him or her blog, even if it’s internally. Done well, internal exec blogs can be a win-win situation, especially in large organisations: it gives the exec a more informal way to converse with his/her staff and share thoughts, and it can also ‘humanise’ someone who may seem distant and disconnected from people on the ground.

Draw up a blogging policy

It’s important to create a blogging policy, not just for legal pitfalls, but equally to make people feel safe & comfortable blogging. The policy should be clear, concise and in Plain English, and should include guidelines for tone and what to do, rather than being a big long mega scary list of don’ts written in legal-ese. Tie your blogging policy to any existing policies about communication and representation of the organisation through email, phone and other means.

Be prepared for the worst… but hope for the best

It’s always a good idea to think about what might go wrong, and make sure you have plans in place for how you would deal with it. This is especially true of organisations that deal with tricky areas. If you already have to handle lots of disgruntled customers or negative press, expect to get this when you open up a blog, too.  Better to be prepared for something that might not happen than to be taken off guard.

Find the right blogging tool

There are loads of options, from things that are run entirely on external websites (called ‘hosted’ versions), to software that you install on your own servers (‘installed’). Here’s a previous post outlining how to choose the best tool for your needs.

Practice before you start

Practice makes perfect! Some folks suggest writing things without publishing anything for a month, just to get the feel for it first. Others suggest trying micro-blogging through tools like Twitter or Facebook status updates as a way of getting your feet wet. Another way to get comfortable is to start blogging internally, privately, first. Whatever works for you is fine, but hopefully a little practice will help you discover your voice, and the style, content and tone that works best for you.

Let the business know what to expect and when

When you are nearly there, after you’ve gotten internal buy-in, chosen a tool and tested it, and had a bit of blogging practice, it’s time to set a date for launching your blog. The most important thing is to be sure everyone knows what’s happening, and when. Post it on your intranet, send an email, or just go talk to people – whatever. Just be sure your marketing and PR teams aren’t in for any surprises!

Getting your blog started

Set up your blog

Make sure you fill your blogroll (aka links list) with relevant links to other blogs that are in your niche area. Set up Feedburner to create nice RSS feeds that people can subscribe to. Set up any spam filters (such as Akismet) to keep your comments free of junk. Set up your comments to be moderated before going live, and ensure the email address associated with comment alerts is working and receiving alerts fine.

Write your first post(s)

Write what you know about and/or are passionate about, and write in a tone that is conversational. Be sure to tag your post with keywords, categorise it, and link out to relevant sources.

Invite comments from your friends, family & colleagues

It’s a great idea to let your contacts know about your blog, and ask them to comment. Not only will this help boost your morale, it will also get the comments flowing so you don’t feel you are talking to yourself with no one listening.

Read other author posts & comment

If you have other fellow bloggers in your organisation, make sure you read their posts and comment on each other’s posts if the fancy takes you. It may seem like all you are doing is talking to each other, but soon enough, someone from outside will join in.

Celebrate your launch internally

Book out the conference room and have a bottle of bubbly and a nice bit of cake. If you make positive associations with your blog for your colleagues, they are more likely to have a read, and maybe even think of contributing. If nothing else, people get to associate you & the blog with cake!

Set aside time to blog

Earmark time each week – and block out the time in your calendar. If you don’t, you will always find your time filling up and soon blogging will slip off your radar. Even if you don’t write, make sure you use the time for doing things such as reading or commenting on other blogs.

Monitor your blog

Make sure your spam-catcher is working, and make sure that any valid comments are approved in a timely manner. You should also start keeping an eye on your blog stats, and think about setting up a review schedule.

Start promoting your blog

Once you have a few posts under your belt and are feeling confident that the blog is off to a good start (and that it will continue), start promoting your blog. Link to it from your website. Add a link in your email signature – and get your colleagues to do the same. Promote it in your e-newsletter. If you have an event, make sure the final slide or handout includes a link to the blog, and create a post on your blog where the conversation can continue. Promote the RSS feed – think of ways of getting people to sign up for the feed as an alternative to your e-newsletter.

Set up Google Alerts

You can set up Google Alerts to notify you of topics that are of interest to you appearing on other blogs. Not only does this help you identify your peers, and give you a great starting point for reading and commenting on blogs, but it can also help give you ideas for topics to write about. And if you have already written a great article or opinion piece on your blog about whatever it is that someone else is writing about, you might want to let them know about your post.

Help colleagues subscribe to your feed

If you use Feedburner, people can subscribe by email, so they don’t even have to know what RSS is. Why not help your colleagues subscribe to your feed, or set it up for them? Not only will it increase your readership and the blog’s visibility internally, but after time you may find that some of these internal readers want to become authors, too.

Establish/reinforce your presence in the community

Go to events, lectures and networking evenings with other bloggers or members of your community of interest. You might just meet someone who’s read your blog, and these kinds of events can also provide good blog subject matter. This post itself was spawned from the conversations and ideas that emerged from this week’s NetSquared Meetup, an open event where bloggers, soon-to-be bloggers and non-profit peeps interested in the whole social web thing met up to talk about blogging.

That’s it for today! Part 3 comes next: how to keep the momentum going.