John Cass, Director of Marketing,

ideaLaunch

Marketing with Corporate Blogs: Customers are willing to talk if you are

willing to listen

Today’s Agenda

Today’s Agenda

Today’s Agenda

• 78 million • 25% (Nov, 2008).• Changed the landscape.• Born – 1946 – 1964.

Baby Boomers

Generation X

• 62 million• 20% (Nov, 2008)• Shadow of Baby

Boomers.• Born – 1965 – 1979.

• 92 million• 30% (Nov, 2008)• Changing the

landscape.• Born – 1980 – 2001.

Generation Y

Digital Natives

People access news online and local TV news.

Ball State University Center for Media Design “A Day in the Life: An Ethnographic Study of Media Consumption”

Group Conversation

Cut Through The Clutter

• Need to filter incredible amount of information.• Advertising noise, seen as an interruption.• Distrust of corporate messages.• Consumer desire for greater control and

engagement.

To connect with Gen Y online…

Strategy to reach them is Content Marketing and social media engagement…

Develop compelling content that people want to read.

What Makes Compelling Blog Content?

• Culture Foster culture of openness.

• Transparency Be open about who you are, and reveal any connections.

• Time Understand the level of commitment needed.

• Dialogue• Key to building trust through authenticity.

• Entertaining writing style and personalization• Humor and personality do bring back readers.

Digital Natives

Use that content to engage your Gen Y audience.

Non Digital Natives

Also how the web works for Gen X and Boomers.

Why Blog?

Blogging is a content marketing strategy that combines both SEO & Social Media

A little about the SEO side of things

Google Sponsored & Organic

Keywords Your Keywords Your Audience UsesAudience Uses

Indexable Site

Links From Sites With Keywords Your Audience Uses

Blogs Are Perfect For How The Eco-System Of the Web Works

Blogs Are Not Just About Compelling Content

Blogging Infrastructure

• Build a blogging plan– Goals– Comments, who, when, what – Measurement

• Blogging Assessment– Research list of keywords– Build list of blogs – Tools for research and monitoring– Help determine how much you need to blog in your community– Enable you to develop a content strategy

• Understand Company Capabilities – Culture? People? Resources? Time?– Will your community provide the benefits you seek?

PR Blogging Community

Nokia N90 Blogger Relations Blog

Dell Hell

Blood, Sweat, and a Couple of Spreadsheets

• March 2006 customer outreach

• August 2006 sentiment monitoring 49% to 22%

• New model for customer outreach – Sentiment

• New tools for monitoring & customer engagement

Blogger Relations Tactics• Media relations is not blogger relations.• But it can be….• Blogging conversation is the key, monitor the

community, post articles and comment on other blogs.

• To be successful you have to engage people on your blog and across social media communities.

Twitter

Blog

Sustain Evangelists, Sustain the Community

Blogger Relations Tactics

Seize the Opportunity of the next decade!

1) Build a social media engagement strategy.

2) Include a blog in the strategy.

3) Listen to put your company in context.

4) Learn how to market to Gen Y even if you don’t sell to Gen Y as Gen Y changes society.

* Image courtesy of Dietmar Temps, via Flickr

Connect

– LinkedIn: John Cass– Facebook: John Cass– Twitter: @johncass– Cell: 339-368-1955