Archives for July 2013

Coming up with great daily posts is always our clients’ No. 1 concern when it comes to blog content management. After all, the idea well can run dry pretty quickly if your brand is posting a new blog everyday, seven days a week. Interviews are a great solution for blogs in need of dynamic and different content. Not only do interviews break up our blog’s monotony but they also give readers a chance to hear from different voices within our company or industry. Never performed an interview before, you say? No problem. We’ve come up with a fast list of easy blog interview tips!

Pick a great subject: While Shirley in receiving makes one hell of a lemon bar, she may not be the best choice as an interview subject. But then again, she might. To find out, ask yourself this: Would you yourself want to learn more about a certain employee, industry leader or expert? More than that, can you turn a conversation with this person into fascinating blog post? If the answer is “yes,” then you’ve found a subject for your blog interview.

Write good questions: To avoid scrutiny of the “What kind of tree would you be?” variety, ask questions that followers of your brands will be interested in and that have to do directly with your subject’s areas of expertise or interest. An interview is only as good as your questions, so make them fun, provocative and conversational. Also, for email interviews, try to keep the questions down to 10 or fewer. You’re having a chat with this person, not writing their biography. 

Edit, edit, edit: Some people just love to talk for hours — and good for them. But ramblers make for bad interviews, so don’t be afraid to trim the fat off your subject’s answers. Are the answers too long? Are there whole sections that if cut would make the piece a better read? Do some of the responses not make sense? Then cut, cut, cut! Again, interviews, like the rest of your blog posts, should pop. They should be the kind of thing your readers want to forward and help people get to know your brand better.

Here’s a blog creation conundrum for you: How does a company walk the line between a blog that entertains followers while speaking directly to the folks who work at said organization? As usual, when it comes to great digital marketing solutions, we look to the fine folks over at Levi Strauss for the answer.

In addition to being purveyors of denim awesomeness, Levi’s sure knows how to rock out all things social. From a killer Facebook page to a super stylish Tumblr, Levi’s sets just as many trends online as it does in fashion. So naturally, when it comes to blogging, the company approaches the platform with the same sense of style and approachability it uses elsewhere. LS&Co. Unzipped is Levi’s branded blog which dances lightly between a backstage look at one of the planet’s oldest jean manufacturers, a traditional fashion blog and an online resource for all things Levi’s.

“Here’s where you’ll find a ‘behind-the-seams’ look at what’s going on with Levi Strauss & Co. You’ll hear from a variety of voices, from both inside and outside the company. And you have the chance to share your thoughts,” the blog promises on its front page. The content is varied, intelligent and really interesting to read. Blog entries like the one which discusses the long history between motorcycles and Levi’s and the company’s German roots give readers a look at Levi’s history. Other posts, like profiles of employees and efforts to conserve water, introduce shoppers to the more corporate yet progressive side of Levi’s. Still more posts about the new colors and styles of denim bring the focus back to jeans, the product that put Levi’s on the map. 

LS&Co. Unzipped is inspiring for branded bloggers mainly because it offers a multi-dimensional glimpse into a company most consumers thought they already knew everything about. Readers of the blog are enticed to stick around and read more posts, thanks in large part to unique posts which inform and entertain. Levi’s solves our puzzle posed at the top of the post by warmly welcoming us inside the world of Levi’s. And your company blog can do the same thing. By presenting a backstage look at daily operations and showing readers how your business works, your company blog instantly becomes more personal and less robotic.

When does blogging for business stop sounding like a commercial and start sounding like an interesting online publication? It happens when bloggers stop acting like advertisers and start acting like writers. Great branded blog writing can express our company’s point of view while blogging about things that are entertaining and fun to read. The move from traditional brand journalism to more editorial content isn’t for every company, though. Companies with a varied assortment of topics to blog about can make the transition to online magazine fairly easily, while ones with a narrower focus could have a more difficult time coming up with things to blog about. Nevertheless, if a deodorant like Degree can come up with a dynamic online magazine, maybe your brand can, too? 

While visiting Adrenalist, it’s easy to forget that you’re reading a site created by Degree deodorant. This doesn’t look like branded blogging. It looks like an extreme sports, travel and men’s lifestyle magazine. Base jumping, windsurfing videos, an article on adventure vacation spots and photos of extreme skateboarding stunts all signal that we the reader are certainly in dude territory. But a closer inspection not only finds Degree’s logos and taglines all over the place but also the company’s message of “products that won’t let you down.” The Adrenalist says it’s “Powered by Degree,” which is a clever way of saying it’s a magazine created by a brand. Yet what Degree might have done is reinvent the way we think about branded blogging by taking the overt sales messages out and replacing them with articles that followers of the brand would be interested in. 

While the Adrenalist’s brand of sponsored blogging is new and not every company has moved into online magazines, the trend is an interesting one that we can all borrow from. Who’s to say you can’t also blog about current events, trends and news stories that relate to your industry? Nobody, that’s who! While you might not want to become the next Adrenalist, your brand can certainly widen its scope of topics — and widen its audience in the process.