David SmookeWhat to Learn From How SmartRecruiters Built and Rebuilt Its Corporate Blog
Too often, companies think that their corporate blog is all about themselves. Too often, the corporate blog is limited to posts about new product offerings, canned customer stories, and keyword stuffed pieces of pseudo thought leadership. I want to change the mindset of corporate blogging; I want to show corporations how to build larger audiences by being less self serving. To think of your brand as a true publisher, you should adopt a mindset that is bigger than your product’s positioning.
New Corporate Blogging Mindset #1: You are the news source of your keyword.
When you blur the line behind industry news source and company news outlet, you widen your funnel of re-engage-able audience and increase your brand’s share of the industry news pie.
To anyone who says something along the lines, “Content from brands aren’t trusted, they create content to market their product.” Respond with “All publications have an interest.” For example, if recruitment tech vendors and recruitment firms pay to advertise on a recruitment blog, that recruitment blog has vested interest to appeal to these vendors, firms and their target consumers.
New Corporate Blogging Mindset #2: Images shape first impressions as much as headlines. Place weight accordingly.
Articles with images get 94% more views. The featured image is a blog post’s logo, and when you distribute your posts, this featured image will dramatically impact overall engagement.
On the old SmartRecruiters Blog, images accounted for 21% of the blog homepage’s area. With the new design of the SmartRecruiters Blog, images account for 78% of blog’s homepage area. Images just make it easier for the reader to be intrigued by the next post.
The 3 ways to improve your corporate blog image game: (1) syndicating images through a service like Getty, (2) leveraging creative commons – with proper linked accreditation – through a site like Flickr, or (3) creating an original image to embody the text of the post.
The 3 respective examples of upping my corporate blog image game: (1) play on “tired interviewee” with stock image of someone sleeping on bench with “Can a Growling Stomach Help You in a Job Interview?” lead to 300+ LinkedIn shares, (2) play on ducks walking in a line with “15 Questions to Align Talent Acquisition in Employer Brand” led to 1,000+ social shares, and (3) you can see on “Crafting a High Performance Culture” that creating original images can be as simple as authentic pictures of the workplace.
New Corporate Blogging Mindset #3: Reframe the News.
Yes, you are a small part of creating your industry news. The reality is, the news will go on with or without you. It is up to frame how you fit into the news. Two simple techniques to enter the current news are smart commentary on the day’s headlines and the “What if?” game.
If you are going to play the “What if?” game, your success lies in structuring a sound argument. In “Is Google About to Enter the Job Market?” My lead is 4 reasons why Google is positioned to enter the job market,I elaborate on those 4 points, and I also offer a counterpoint on why Google won’t enter the job market today.
In terms of smart commentary on existing news, think of it like surfing. Riding the wave of news cycles is an easy way to increase traffic and establish your blog as authority. When the news breaks, who did your target consumer hear it from? For example, by posting within a few hours of the Indeed and BroadBean acquisitions, I not only garnered the trust of breaking news, but I also framed these acquisitions in the vein of how SmartRecruiters sees the future of recruitment.
Listen, I’m blunt: this post exists (1) to improve your corporate blog, and (2) to have you look at the New SmartRecruiters Blog. The previous sentence is in the right order. Think beyond your product offering. Think beyond your company’s purpose. The new corporate blogging mindset is about helping your target consumer. Think about how your next post will add value to their news feeds.
Lee Ann Prescott
