Blogging Strategy
A formal custom strategy and plan will be developed upon company approval based off of your SCOUT blogging assessment. Your strategy and plan will include the following elements:
Blog Strategy Overview – Executive summary of the strategy for your company highlighting the key goals, tactics, and measurement standards.
Designated Bloggers – An overview of the bloggers who will be posting and their administrative privileges. This section of your strategy also provides a profile of the types of people from your organization who would support your company’s overall blogging strategy.
Blog Description – The formal written description of your company’s blog(s) and its mission.
Content Focus – The content focus describes the various topics that the blog(s) will cover on a frequent basis. An abstract description for each recommended and agreed content focus area will be available in this section.
How often should bloggers post – Your bloggers will be provided with coaching on the posting frequency. Your post frequency strategy is determined by the assertiveness of the stated goals, available resources, and the scope of the agreement with SCOUT.
Content Review Process – This provides all parties with the agreed upon protocol for posting to the blog. The goal is to provide the highest level of content scrutiny without sacrificing the voice of the post or the ability to post an entry or comment in a timely fashion.
Blogging Policy – An outline of the limits to what can be written on the blog, what is expected of all bloggers, what topics are off limits, as well as basic rules and guidelines for engagement in the blogosphere.
Comments Policy – A publicly posted policy outlining how your company will filter and or respond to comments and trackbacks. The general guidelines are to post all comments and trackbacks as long as they are not inflammatory or obscene. Your company can also reserve the right to prevent overly promotional posts or spam.
Employee blogs: Internal and External – A posted guideline regarding internal or external company blogs. For example, you may authorize your employees to run their own “external” blogs as long as they follow certain guidelines, list a disclaimer, and link to the official corporate blogs with a designated image or line of text.
General Employee Consumer Generated Media Policy – We will work with you to set up a general employee consumer generated media posting policy. If even your employees don’t blog, it is important to let them know what can be said about your company on the web while they work for you.
Blog Marketing Plan – Based upon your marketing goals, we develop your strategy for generating awareness and reaching your marketing goals for your blog. The blog marketing plan will provide an overview of your blog SEO and PR goals, which will offer quantitative goals to achieve with the number of articles.
Blogger Relations Plan – How we intend to promote your blog with the key influencers in your space, addressing who we will target with comments, and trackbacks,.
Blogging Technology and Hosting – The recommended technology solution for your blogging needs.
Blog Design Recommendations – Design guidelines and recommendations.
Training Schedule and Participants – Training for your designated bloggers and affiliated team members.
Implementation Timeline – A living document outlining the implementation process for your custom strategy.
SCOUT Corporate Blogging Services
SCOUT is Backbone's flagship blogging service, providing corporate bloggers tools, training and ongoing support to help them succeed at blogging. SCOUT helps companies assess their blogging potential, create a strategy and identify and train corporate bloggers. SCOUT also provides daily monitoring reports that help bloggers stay on top of the relevant online discussions, news and keywords. SCOUT finds the best opportunities; you stay focused on what are most important -- relevant content, your message and unique voice. The SCOUT Service is Implemented in Four Phases
Phase 1: Assessment
Blogging is a strategic decision and has many possible implications. A company should consider carefully how they approach their online blogging community, therefore we recommend each client initially conducts an assessment of their blogging community before deciding to blog, who should blog, and what to write about. Our first objective is to understand your goals and then conduct an audit of your related blogging communities to understand the costs and potential benefits. SCOUT provides your company with a detailed assessment report outlining the opportunity for your business, profiling the key bloggers in your industry, and recommending possible strategies and next steps.
Phase 2: Strategy
If it is determined that blogging is worthwhile for your company, our SCOUTS work with you to create a comprehensive blogging strategy. Your strategy will include a detailed plan with specifications for building and running the blog, design guidelines, and a blogging policy. >>see sidebar for an outline of your blogging strategy>>
Phase 3: Setup Blog(s) and Blog Management System
In the third phase, SCOUT will work either independently or collaborate with your existing interactive team to design and build your public and private blog management systems. We also provide extensive blogger training. Bloggers are trained to use the blogging system and are provided a crash course in blogging and blogger relations.
Phase 4: Ongoing Blog Monitoring and Daily Scout Reports
The most unique and valuable aspect of the SCOUT service is the SCOUT
Report. Daily SCOUT Reports provide your designated bloggers with recommended
tasks that will help your company seize the best opportunities for posting,
commenting, and linking online. Reports are sent directly to the private
area of your blogging system. They highlight current blogging opportunities,
recommend ways to respond, and suggest effective keywords to use. SCOUT
finds the best opportunities of the day; your bloggers focus on what is
most important to you – your unique voice, your message.
