Top 5 Things I've Learned In Training Corporate Bloggers
Ahmed over at Performancing.com asks the question of how to train bloggers. Franki and I run a Blogger Boot Camp, and we've held several dozen personalized classes training all kinds of folks the ins and outs of blogging and social media. What I have taken away from those classes?
1) Look for curiousity. If they aren't passionate about learning, don't sell them a training package.
2) Look for basic internet skills. It's difficult to teach the intricacies of social networking if they don't know what hyperlinks and address bars are. If you do find yourself with internet-challenged individuals, take the time to work on their overall knowledge. It's worth it to them, and helps them fit into online communities later without embarrassment.
3) Never charge too little. When I first started, I let clients accept projects that weren't at full price. Very few of those people are blogging today. The problem is simple one of time and interest. If you gave them a watered down program to fit within their budget, they rarely learned enough to generate the benefits you sold them on.
4) Respect your client. It's their time and their money, but clients have a business to run and jobs to do. Your job as their trainer is to work blogging into their day, and leave the with discipline to use blogging to magnify their efforts and improve their results without turning them into full-time bloggers. To do that, you have to understand and respect them.
5) No one fails at blogging until they give up. If you have done a good job planning and executing a blog strategy, you will be successful. The only failures I have seen are people who have given up, and they tend to give up immediately. If I can get you writing for three months, you'll generate benefits, and stick with it from them on. That's something to be proud of, and should be part of your sales pitch. Blogging is a long-term marketing strategy, not a short term PR or sales fix.
Recently, we've begun offering blogging services to companies when it's clear they don't have the internal staff to do it on their own. I initially resisted this path, but the truth is some people can use blogging, but don't have time. It's a fine line, because you don't want to outsource the blog (it defeats the whole purpose of community), but if they don't have staff, you're left with no option. The solution is to find, hire, and train a dedicated blogger whose job it is to work with the company on their goals. They have the knowledge of an employee with the freedom of a consultant. It's a good solution, with just one problem.
Now you need to hire and train more bloggers. This is a good topic. I think I'll share more in later posts.
Select your Clients CarefullyBlogger Training has been the most difficult sale I've ever made. It's not closing the sale - that's the easy part. The hard part is determining who would make a good blogger and who wouldn't. If you build someone a website, you get to walk away when done. If you train a blogger, you're with them for life. Maybe not on a contractual basis, but blogging is about building networks, and the only way to be successful is to have your students (clients) be successful. Each success brings you a valuable ally (and SEO resource). Each failure points to the conclusion that your training isn't all it's cracked up to be. With that in mind, here are my top five observations about training corporate bloggers.
1) Look for curiousity. If they aren't passionate about learning, don't sell them a training package.
2) Look for basic internet skills. It's difficult to teach the intricacies of social networking if they don't know what hyperlinks and address bars are. If you do find yourself with internet-challenged individuals, take the time to work on their overall knowledge. It's worth it to them, and helps them fit into online communities later without embarrassment.
3) Never charge too little. When I first started, I let clients accept projects that weren't at full price. Very few of those people are blogging today. The problem is simple one of time and interest. If you gave them a watered down program to fit within their budget, they rarely learned enough to generate the benefits you sold them on.
4) Respect your client. It's their time and their money, but clients have a business to run and jobs to do. Your job as their trainer is to work blogging into their day, and leave the with discipline to use blogging to magnify their efforts and improve their results without turning them into full-time bloggers. To do that, you have to understand and respect them.
5) No one fails at blogging until they give up. If you have done a good job planning and executing a blog strategy, you will be successful. The only failures I have seen are people who have given up, and they tend to give up immediately. If I can get you writing for three months, you'll generate benefits, and stick with it from them on. That's something to be proud of, and should be part of your sales pitch. Blogging is a long-term marketing strategy, not a short term PR or sales fix.
Recently, we've begun offering blogging services to companies when it's clear they don't have the internal staff to do it on their own. I initially resisted this path, but the truth is some people can use blogging, but don't have time. It's a fine line, because you don't want to outsource the blog (it defeats the whole purpose of community), but if they don't have staff, you're left with no option. The solution is to find, hire, and train a dedicated blogger whose job it is to work with the company on their goals. They have the knowledge of an employee with the freedom of a consultant. It's a good solution, with just one problem.
Now you need to hire and train more bloggers. This is a good topic. I think I'll share more in later posts.
posted by James Durbin @ 7:29 AM PERMALINK
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