I recently had the opportunity to moderate a panel on blogging for a joint event with the Public Relations Professionals of Long Island and the Social Media Association. The panel consisted of Kevin Kelly, Chief Creative Officer at BigBuzz Marketing and host of the BuzzBubble video blog; Richard Murdocco, grant writer for a regional housing non-profit and author of The Foggiest Idea blog; and Hilary Topper, CEO of HJMT Public Relations Inc. and author of HilaryTopper.com.
Here were some of the great points and tips from the panel:
Bloggers have a HUGE voice
There are an estimated 31 million bloggers in the United States. 60% of them are men and 40% of them are women. 60% of businesses have a business or company blog and on WordPress alone more than 25 billion blog pages are being viewed every month and WordPress blogs are receiving more then 400,000 daily comments.
Do Klout and Kred scores matter?
While Klout and Kred scores, aggregators that look at your online influence and compile a score, may not always be a completely accurate measure of your social influence, high scores can be great for your online credibility. When you are looking for guest blog opportunities, features, media interviews, etc. a high online score is a great way to get noticed. One of the panelists even recommended that you should include high scores on resumes.
Top Advantage of Blogging
Across the board the panel felt that blogging was something they loved to do. They got to write, or in Kevin’s case, talk about things they loved. Not only did blogging help them connect to their audience and position each of them as a leader in their respective industries, but it also gave them an outlet to be creative and real.
Top Disadvantage of Blogging
Not enough hours in the day. Overall, the biggest disadvantage was the amount of time and discipline required. All of the panelists were very dedicated to blogging consistently. For example, Hilary has blogged at least 5 days a week for the last 5 years. Now that’s commitment!
Can You Be Bullied On Your Blog
While all of the panelists welcomed negative criticism and feedback, they did agree that some of the comments are beyond the point of disagreement and constructive criticism. There are people out there who are “bullies” and are mean just to be mean. The group feels the best way to handle these sort of issues is to do your best to ignore them.
Should Your Posts Be Based Solely on Keywords
Web browsers are now looking more at your content than at your keywords. How influential is your content? Is it getting shared and linked back to? If so, your SEO will increase. The panel all suggested that while keywords are important, don’t get too caught up with them. Instead, spend your time focusing on creating great content that your audience will enjoy and share.
Do Bloggers Offer a PR Opportunity?
Bloggers should be a huge part of your media outreach efforts. Bloggers have very strong voices and are a great outlet to review your product or service. Guest blog opportunities are also something that shouldn’t be ignored.
The overall takeaway from the panel was that blogs are a powerful marketing resource and an important publicity tool. Convinced it is time for you to start blogging? Learn how to start by choosing your blog’s look by clicking here!
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Kristie Galvani is the Executive Vice President at HJMT Public Relations Inc. You can call her at 631-393-0220 or email [email protected].
