Simplifying Corporate Blogging

A primary barrier to a successful blog is creating enough content. A close second is managing the content! For those who work out how to create a decent volume of content, they can easily get buried under plain old content logistics. So when we launched our blogging system here at The Association, I was careful to choose a platform that would simplify the work required after the content was created. Thus, we choose Compendium.

As they say on the Compendium website, “Whether you’re managing 300 authors in 50 locations and generating 5,000 customer stories or just a small team, Compendium’s hosted platform will simplify your blogging program.”

How does it simplify the logistics? Well, if you have multiple authors submitting content via email, that alone can drive you crazy just keeping track of changes. What if more than one person needs to approve the content before it gets submitted? What if, horror of horrors, online searchers find your blog and actually start leaving comments? Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the spam bots that leave non-sensical blog spam. Those have to be “managed” as well.

Spend Less Time Managing

Automatic categorization is a prime feature in the Compendium system. Categories of content are worked out in advance, usually around specific keywords, to increase “findability” of the online content.  By simply mentioning the category by name in the content, the article is automatically assigned to that blog. This feature alone makes your Compendium blog exponentially more powerful than an ordinary blog, because even with just the basic Compendium package, you have 25 categories to organize your content around. If your content is going to show up on the first page of Google search results, it’s important to “pick your battles” by selecting specific categories to write about. Writing without establishing niche categories can be fruitless, as there isn’t enough focused content with keywords around specific topics to create visibility. Compendium is neatly built around the idea of niche categories.

Approval layers are already built into the Compendium system. Each author in The Association has their own account on Compendium that helps them create content. A nice extra feature is that authors may email their content into Compendium’s system, then log in later to modify and submit it for approval. There are two possible layers of moderation available. There can be a single Moderator who approves all authored material and comments, and a second layer of approval may be added (for example, a technical or Executive approval layer could be added prior to content reaching the public view). Authors may also be approved to just publish directly to the blog without moderation if preferred.

Customers provide the best kind of content. Feedback and testimonials are very worth capturing, but it can be difficult to accomplish. Here again Compendium has a feedback loop built in. Customers and clients fill out a simple web form, and the content is sent to the Moderator. Once approved, the Compendium system alerts the contributing customer that their content is live on the blog, and gives them the opportunity to share it on their personal Facebook account. This kind of referral marketing can substantially improve a company’s bottom line by validating them as an excellent source of service and/or products.

Using Compendium has allowed us to effectively increase our visibility for our Canon Boot Camp classes. Half of our class signups consistently come from internet searches, which was not the case when we started the blog in July 2010. This graph illustrates the increased blog visits from July 2010 to March 2012. We produce an average of 4 blog posts a week (on a good week).

Using the Compendium system has enabled me to keep track of blog posts more more easily. I handle everything inside the Compendium system platform. No emailing blogs back and forth for approval. I can send comments and decline articles as needed, and approve them to become visible. It’s seamless and easy. One moderator could handle as many as 250 blog posts a week without much strain, assuming he was full time. But most companies don’t produce near that much material.

Interested in finding out more about Compendium? We’re an authorized reseller of the platform, and I’d be happy to give a tour of the system and explain it in more detail. Compendium is the Bentley of blogging platforms, in my humble opinion. We are happy to recommend for any effective marketing plan.