Do you sell into different industries? Tag posts appropriately and design your industry page to pull the appropriate posts into a featured side bar.

Posting about product updates, feedback or features? Link those posts to your product page.

Your blog can be used in so many ways to create relevancy for your prospects, partners and customers. The content you create on your blog can be some of the most valuable web content you have because of its currency and relevancy to very specific topics. Whether you use it to nurture leads with email marketing, or to drive fresh web content, look for ways to use your blog across your business goals and you will make the most of your investment in this important marketing asset.

You can see the full article “Need sales leads? Think like an editor,” on VentureBeat.

Here is my plan for regular blog content:

• Establish your goals: This is obvious, but if you don’t have a goal, you won’t meet it. Set a posting target and adhere to it like you would delivering to an important customer or client. I am using The Hit List to track my own deliverables, make sure you get your posts on a to do list.
• Read a lot: Make sure you follow the news in your industry. Articles and other blogs are a great source of ideas for posts and cross links.
• Always be on the lookout for topics: Have something with you at all times to jot down ideas for topics. I use Evernote because it syncs with both my iPhone and computers.
• Write ahead of time: It is often hard to write when you are under the gun to publish. Write your posts ahead of time and queue them up to publish.
• Make appointments to write: You should set aside time in your calendar to write. Treat this like any appointment. Prepare for it and you will be successful.

Keeping your blog content regular, fresh and interesting isn’t an easy task as I can attest. It takes planning and commitment. These are my own strategies to stay on track and make sure I don’t let my own site lapse. Hopefully I can stick to it .

The essence of the book is something that I believe strongly in and have posted about several times, and that is PR has fundamentally changed. The book looks like it addresses the shift in PR from simple information distribution to a strategy that utilizes content creation and social participation more fully. As companies experience diminishing returns on the way they have historically run PR they will need to adapt to the new media environment. Certainly it looks like it’s worth a read.

My first thought was to use my iPhone. I figured that there had to be an easy way to do it. After much searching, I came across the Recorder app by Retronyms. I bought it and tested it out and the quality seemed good. Unfortunately, when it came time to do the interview, the quality was so poor that my interviewee couldn’t understand me and I had to do the interview the old fashion way, just taking notes. I’m not sure if it was a bad connection through the Recorder app or the iPhone, but my suspicion was that it was the app because the call before and after on my iPhone was fine.

Following that experience I looked further and came across what I am using today RecordiaPro. This is an application that allows you to place a call from any phone, including a land line, and it gives you a dial tone to place a now recorded call. The quality is excellent and the output is available in an MP3 immediately. Simply connect to the site download the MP3 and get to editing the output. I have used this three times now with great success.

For the resulting MP3 file I am currently using iTunes as a rudimentary tool for cropping and exporting the output. When you select the resulting file in iTunes you can use “Get info” to set the beginning and end times for the file to eliminate the call setup conversation and limit it to the interview itself. Once you have done this, you can go to the Advanced menu to “Create an AAC” version that is cropped as you specified. Of course you can also use more sophisticated audio editing tools, but this worked fine for me.

My next problem was transcription. The first interview I did was about 15 minutes long, but it took me over an hour and a half to transcribe it with my modest typing skills. I did some searching and came across an excellent post on audio transcriptions using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Andy Baio does a fantastic job of walking you through a step by step posting of an audio transcription job. I used iTunes again for splitting the MP3 into 5 minute blocks using the start time and end time technique I mentioned above. I have used this twice now and I am hooked. I was able to transcribe a 12 minute interview for less than $10 total and got the results in less than two hours.

Interviews are great content additions to your website or blog and using the right tools makes it even easier.

The question was also directed at whether it was better to try to promote and build a following for company representatives as thought leaders, or whether it was more important to publish regular rich content that supported sales objectives. The answer to the question isn’t the same for every company.

Developing a following for your blog with significant link-backs, tweets, and comments can be valuable but is also a challenge. It requires that you invest in a full time person who’s primary responsibility is evangelizing your company, market and approaches to solving the problems in the industry you serve. I have rarely seen this done effectively by someone who holds a full time role in the company. The reason for this is that building a significant following requires full time attention, significant content, and ideally is complimented by speaking engagements and other public facing communication.

A famous example of someone who filled this role is Robert Scoble when he became the poster child of corporate blogging at Microsoft. The keys to his success aren’t easily duplicated.

• First, he worked for the industry giant Microsoft. His initial influence was significantly bolstered by writing for one of the largest companies in the world about their products and addressing users questions directly. He invited feedback and even published his mobile phone number at one point.
• Second, he was free to criticize Microsoft and be fully independent. At Microsoft this served to humanize the company and connect users to a company that could be seen as technical and aloof. This level of freedom doesn’t always work to a smaller company’s advantage when they don’t have the market clout of Microsoft.
• Third, this was his main responsibility. Scoble’s title was technical evangelist and he made it a point to indicate his freedom and independence when it came to posting on his blog. The following is quoted from his old blog:

“Robert Scoble works at Microsoft (title: technical evangelist). Everything here, though, is his personal opinion and is not read or approved before it is posted. No warranties or other guarantees will be offered as to the quality of the opinions or anything else offered here.”

At smaller companies, this role can often be filled by a founder who is the visionary and chief evangelist for the company naturally, but they don’t always have the time or talents to fill this role, or they are occupied with another executive position. At the end of the day, because of the independence required to be successful at this, the blog can often become more valuable to the blogger than the company as evidenced when they ultimately leave as Scoble did after less than two years at Microsoft. If you start down this path, ensure that the blog supports the thought leadership at your company and team in general, not just the individual.

Because of these and other considerations, for most companies a blog is best used to develop rich and regular content in support of your sales objectives. In this case you don’t measure your success by comments or link backs, but rather by web traffic, search results and sales support.

Today’s individual typically doesn’t read an individual blog or news publication religiously. This is why so many papers and other periodicals are failing. Search, email and social media drives users to the content the ultimately consume through links to a specific article of interest. The key is ensuring that your company will be found when a prospect is looking for a solution to a problem you address.

If your company engages in blogging at a minimum of 1-2 times per week about topics relevant to the industry you serve, you will quickly find that the top search results for your key web terms will often point to blog entries. If you want to get the best results for your business keep the following items in mind:

• Publish regularly – You need to publish a blog entry at least once or twice per week in order to get the most impact. If your blog posting frequency starts to approach one blog every two months or so, your blog can begin to have negative returns as it will appear to be inactive and may not reflect well on your business.
• Keep SEO in mind – Blogs should cover topics that your prospects will be searching for. Clever topics are nice, but blog titles that match a prospects frequent search terms are even better.
• Take the time for a quality post – This should go without saying, but your posts need to reflect well on your company. Take the time to share a unique insight or your perspective on a recent news item that will be of interest once your visitor is reading your post. Low quality repurposing of data sheets or other blatant marketing materials won’t have full impact.
• Publicize your blog – Search is great, but you should also give your blog airtime through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, on your website, and in any drip marketing like a newsletter. Blogs are fantastic tool for advancing a point of view that supports your sales team and lays traps for the competition.

Blogs are a tremendous tool for corporations to develop and deliver regular content to their ideal prospects. Whether you have the right makeup to support a blog with

“I pointed out that two years ago, if we were having this conversation, we would be talking about Second Life. Last year, we would be talking about MySpace. Next year? Possible XBox Live. The space is in flux and these sites come and go. Too much time worrying about one particular site is going to fail to set you up long term for this inevitable change.”

I agree that there is change taking place and that your company should focus on one site at your own risk. That said, your business shouldn’t wait. There are things your company can do now that will yield benefits to your company’s communications strategy. Here are some trends evolving that businesses would be wise to pay attention to.

• Social media strategy begins with content – Here you should channel Jim Rome and “Have a take and don’t suck!” If you want to be successful it all begins with producing quality content. In my opinion a social media strategy without a blog is like a car without gas. Your blogs are the fuel that keep that strategy going. The same can be said for white papers, contributed articles, and quality commentary on other sites, but nothing replaces the regular quality content of a blog.

• Establish connections with your customers and prospects – Social media is about connection and with a business that should be about getting a conversation going with key customers and prospects. In your communications with them you should invite them to connect with you. Always monitor your brand and respond to comments, both good and bad, on social sites. Look for opportunities to establish a more personal connection to your customers and they will be more likely to be good advocates.

• Coordinate your outreach efforts through multiple mediums – Link your recent tweets on your blog page. Cross post links to new content on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Reply on other blogs and especially if it links to your site.

With these basics, you should be prepared for whatever the popular social medium may be.

Don’t be confused into thinking Twitter is only a cult of personality where people follow the daily minutia of their favorite celebrity. When used as a part of an overall content and outreach plan, Twitter is a great mechanism for businesses to promote their own original content and corporate activities.

Below are five common questions I come across when it comes to how to use your corporate Twitter account.

Q: How should I get started?
A: In my opinion there are two top priorities for companies using Twitter. First, to promote your blog. This necessarily assumes that you have fresh, regular blog content. For companies, you should target at least one or two posts per week. If you are going to engage in social media, you shouldn’t do so without a blog. Second, to monitor your brand. There was a great example of monitoring your brand by P.F. Chang’s I posted about a little over a month ago. The basic concept is you should reply to people mentioning your company. This is an opportunity to engage with your early supporters and prospects and create viral support of your offerings.

Q: Should I tweet as myself or on a corporate account?
A: Both. Your corporate account should focus on promoting your content, corporate events, webinars, and relevant news from your industry. You can also use your corporate account to retweet positive tweets about your products as well as reply to and promote fans of your company. Personal accounts are good for companies to put a face to their leaders and provide a means of direct communication. Where the corporate account should be more informational and promotional, your personal accounts can provide opinions and links to varying points of view on topics for your industry. Personal accounts are best used to give insights from your daily activity in your business and what relevant topics you care about. A word of caution. Be sure to remember that Twitter is a public forum. Even if you delete your tweet it can be retrieved so choose your words and topics wisely.

Q: Should I be concerned with how many followers I have?
A: Yes and no. You want as many followers as possible who are in your industry and might care what you have to say. You should promote your Twitter account on your website, blog, and newsletter. Follow people that tweet interesting content in your industry and a good number of them will follow you back. Under no circumstances should you subscribe to one of those hair brained services that get you followers. You want the right followers, not just any followers.

Q: How can I manage multiple accounts?
A: Use a third party Twitter platform. I use TweetDeck personally, but there are many different solutions for businesses like CoTweet. The key is that you want to be able to manage and monitor tweets, mentions, direct messages, replies and searches for multiple accounts from one same interface. CoTweet allows you to set up multiple users for a single corporate account, for example.

Q: Should I use reply or direct messages for tweets that mention my company?
A: This is based upon whether your reply has broad interest or whether it is personal. Use reply for tweets that have broad interest and direct messages for tweets that are more directly applicable to only that person. For example, reply when someone asks you if you will be at an upcoming trade show or what your booth number will be. Use direct message if someone asks what time you would like to meet for coffee.

This is just a starting point and if you search on this topic you will find a wealth of advice. The best way to figure out how to use Twitter for business is to create an account and get started. You will learn more from doing it than you will from reading about it. Good luck!

You should check out the article, but here is a small sample:

From Amanda Watlington:

It’s all about content

Develop a long term editorial battle plan to maintain quality.  Use your analytics to guide your editorial choices.  Build your keyword list early and revisit it frequently.

Tend your investment – address comments in a timely manner.  Encourage deeper reading by showing “most popular posts” and “related posts.”  Prune the clutter and refresh the look, as needed.  If it’s not adding value, get rid of it.

Good advice. I have been talking with a lot of businesses about the value of blogs and a social media outreach plan. If you are in marketing and you aren’t paying attention to how original content combined with social media is changing the face of PR then your competition will leave you behind.

So if comments are highly desirable, does this mean you should give up on your blog if all you hear are virtual crickets in response to your posts? Definitely not. Your first order of business is to get people to follow your blog and to generate interest in what you are commenting on. Here are a few ways to look at the values of your blogs:

• Blog traffic – If you aren’t using some form of web analytics, start immediately. Generally it is easy to see a direct correlation between your blog posts and the traffic to your site. You should promote your blogs through any and all social mediums you are currently using like twitter. If you are promoting your blogs properly, you should see a bump in your traffic on the days of blog posts.
• Drip marketing - Blogs are great for drip marketing and lead nurturing. Highlight your blog posts in your newsletters and create quick e-mail templates for your sales team to send relevant entries to their prospects. Not only will you find that blogs are one of the top links of interest on your newsletter, you will also find that it helps facilitate opens of those newsletters over time.
• Competitive marketing –  Blogs are great for staking out a competitive position. It is an easy way to point to your competitive advantages and highlight weaknesses of competition. When competitive questions come up in a sales engagement, a link to the appropriate blog is a good tool in the hands of your sales team.
• Search optimization – Populating your blogs with search key words is an important use of blogs. Blogs help your ideal customers find you rather than having to search them out.
• Lead generation – Ultimately you would like to convert blog traffic to leads. Leads that come through blog traffic are often more qualified than other prospects because they found you while searching for a particular topic that you wrote about. You should certainly be using web analytics to track lead conversions from links on your blog.

These are a few of the reasons you should blog even if there are relatively few comments. Also recall that you are blogging for your specialized audience and the magnitude of that audience may necessarily be limited. Generating regular and relevant content through a blog is a marketing tool that every company with an online presence should be using.