I was recently interviewed by a writer for Microsoft's partner newsletter publication, Redmond Channel Partner. Perficient is a Microsoft partner, and we consult on installing and configuring Microsoft software such as SharePoint for large companies.
Barb Levisay has been publishing a series on social media in her "Marketing Matters" column. This week she covered our blogging strategy. Perficient currently has 5 active blogs and over 50 experts across the company who contribute to them weekly. I thought I'd share the details she covered about how we keep our bloggers motivated to publish valuable new content frequently.
Commitment to Fresh Blog Content
If blogging is your social outlet of choice, consistent fresh content is the key to results. It's a challenging commitment, but if managed and rewarded well, a blog can give you a significant boost in organic search results and Web traffic.
Erin Eschen, online and social media marketing manager for Perficient, a National System Integrator partner headquartered in Missouri, said, "Blogs are the hub of our social media program. Our goal is to demonstrate thought leadership through our consultants' expertise. Most of our bloggers write their posts because they love it."
To keep bloggers motivated, Perficient also offers cash incentive programs based on milestones, like the most traffic to a post. Eschen said, "My bloggers are people who don't report to me so I give them constant feedback to recognize their success. We share the numbers of post visitors with the writers and they compete in a friendly way to write posts that will attract readers. It's important to share those numbers."
I'm always interested to hear about ways to keep bloggers energized about contributing good content - it is a struggle I think many of us marketers face. I think your idea about sharing the traffic reports from the blog with contributors is a good one. A little peer pressure/friendly competition is a great way to get people moving! I also think that showing traffic reports about actions people took AFTER reading the blog (went to X page of web site) can be encouraging as well.
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