The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Social Media Blogging Velocity

A Blog's a Blog for a' that: why blogging still matters

Author

By Craig McGill, Digital Strategist

July 10, 2013 | 7 min read

Mike McGrail is one of the better known faces on the Scottish Social Media scene with work that wouldn't be out of place as a Social Buzz Award entry. Recently he's been reminding people of the power a blog can have, which is appropriate as he is behind one of the UK's more interesting social media blogs, the Social Penguin.

Mike McGrail of Velocity Digital

As you would expect he has strong opinions on how to do social right - and wrong.

What's your background?

I'm a marketer and have been for close to ten years. I've spent my career working mainly in agencies but have dabbled on the 'client-side' In the past five years I've been very focussed on digital, with social media playing a large part of that.

I'm not a 'social media consultant' though! In August 2012 I broke away from employment and started my consultancy, Velocity Digital. Since then I've been working with a really diverse client base, helping them to make the most of digital and beyond.

You're running a blogging course on July 24 in Edinburgh. Aren't blogs passé in 2013 and it's all about SnapChat and BBM with only old folk using Twitter/Facebook and geriatrics using the actual web?

Blogs have never been more important and I'll cover that on the course. While it's great for businesses to be using social media platforms etc (as long as they are doing it with the right approach of course!), a blog offers a fully owned presence - you don't own your Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr etc profiles, which means you have to play by their rules.

A blog creates a hub of activity on your own site, a place to hold relevant, refreshed and quality content that can be used to fuel social media (and beyond) activity. The flexibility a blog offers should never be underestimated, that coupled with the SEO impact a well-structured and planned blog can create, means to regard blogging as old-hat is a bad move.

Why do so many still shy away from blogging? Is it seen as too much hard work in terms of planning, ongoing content and so on when compared to a tweet or Facebook update?

I do think many people are scared of the potential workload. However, just because there is little limit to what you can create on a blog, it doesn't mean that every post etc has to be War and Peace. Any business should have a plan for their marketing and comms strategy - a blog should be a part of that.

What's your way of convincing the sceptics? I've got a technique that allows me to sit down with any sceptic and show them how to write, structure, publish and spread a quality blog post in 45 minutes. That hands-on approach works wonders.

A phrase that threatened to take off in social media circles for a while was 'tag management' - have people been quite poor in looking after their blogs. Should they be more structured when it comes to tags and categories?

Tag management is a huge area, especially within website management. On the blog front, categories and tags are important and can really help the user navigate your content easily, however, I put more emphasis on the meta data of the post (I recommend using the Yoast plugin on Wordpress), and the actual content itself, as that is key to success from a Google perspective.

Most people swear by WordPress for a blog. Would you go along with that?

Absolutely 100%. It is the best blogging platform out there for many reasons; it's so easy to use, is constantly developed and even Matt Cutts of Google fame loves it. Wordpress has moved on from being just a blogging platform, it's now a highly popular and flexible CMS (content management system), my Velocity Digital site was built using it.

Some people hear the phrase editorial calendar and panic about the volume of content they might need. What would you say or do to reassure them?

While you need a strong body of content to keep up momentum and ensure key messages and aims are met, the old adage of 'quality over quantity' applies. A proactive approach to planning is key, but I always press clients to ensure they have space to be reactive too. Writing the right blog post in reaction to a relevant and highly topical subject can be absolute dynamite!

Who should be writing the company blog – the social media team, the PR team or the Marketing dept?

If possible, the blog should feature content from all areas of that business that play a part in the delivery of the brand's product or service - this gives the public deeper insight into the business and ensures a variety of content. I do recommend that the blog is driven by one business function though, and this should usually fall to marketing and PR. Without a guiding force, things can fall by the wayside too easily.

Before Velocity, you were well known in blogging circles for the popular Social Penguin site. What lessons have you learned from there?

I started The Social Penguin Blog as a way for me to learn more about social media and share my opinions. It has gathered a very strong readership and the Penguin team and I have big plans for its future. Running the blog has taught me what type of content has the biggest impact, how to attract a readership and most importantly, how to analyse and make changes that suit that readership.

The 7:2:1 rule allows for a blatant message from yourself so why should people sign up for your blogging course?

As mentioned earlier in your questions, many people are still baffled by blogging. Either that, or they have been blogging from a business perspective for a while and have seen very little success.

My course will teach people how to write and structure effective blog posts, come up with the creative ideas to make it compelling, ensure that everything they do is SEO friendly, how to use social media (and email etc) to target and attract a readership and techniques for analysing success. Each course participant will be in front of a PC and writing a blog post as the half-day unfolds, I wanted it to be a very practical session.

Social Media Blogging Velocity

More from Social Media

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +