Just because Schubert is a marketing communications agency doesn’t mean that it’s any easier for us to stay on top of our agency’s blog. The fact is, it’s always easier to ride herd on clients than it is to police ourselves when it comes to posting. I think it’s one of those “shoemaker’s children have no shoes” dilemmas. We’re always so busy with client work that attending to our own marketing needs (we are a business, after all) always seems to get pushed to the back burner. I think that’s one of the hazards of working in a service business based on billable time. (Every agency person I have ever known has confessed to this same problem.) We’ve tried gentle persuasion and military schedules, but eventually contributions to our blog always seem to wane. “How do we keep pushing out blogs?” we wondered.
We needed help. We could sit here all day long but it wasn’t going to happen on its own. In the past we tried to just relax and let things flow. It didn’t happen. Some people were just blocked. Others were just so busy the urge to blog passed. There was no movement.
No one we know of had ever come up with anything to help get bloggers regular, so we created the help ourselves.
That’s right. Schubert’s Blog Bran! Just like the box says, “It’s part a balanced marketing plan.”
But this is not just a funny label. To motivate our team to “stay regular” with their contributions to our blog, the box is filled with tasty starter ideas that our staff can pick at random. And if someone has been irregular, we bring the Blog Bran to their office so they can sample from the box. Guaranteed that they blog within 24 hours and it won’t be crap! Our Blog Bran now has 20% more Branded Content, so our readers will be have plenty of relevant, compelling reading material to digest.
Many B2B companies are learning that participating in social media and producing quality branded content takes a lot of time and effort. It’s quite common for peoples’ interest to drop off after a new technology or tactic loses its novelty (Twitter, anyone?), and that stinks. But with a little creativity, you can keep your team engaged to get the most out of your social media efforts. Because if your team doesn’t regularly contribute to the social Net, you might as well flush your whole program.
What are some of your best ideas for regularly generating content and meeting your social media goals?
Schubert b2b is Philadelphia’s B2B digital marketing agency that unites the lead-generating power of inbound marketing with the brand-building power of outbound marketing. Schubert b2b develops 100% strategic business-to-business marketing programs that generate leads and grow revenue. For 37 years, Schubert has been creating B2B brand leaders in technology-rich industries as diverse as biotech, chemicals and computer software using integrated marketing communications (IMC) programs. Schubert is a member of ICOM, a global network of marketing communications agencies.