Many community managers ask themselves whether it is necessary or not to keep a blog. Let’s try to answer it by laying the simplified foundations of a blog in advance
We will answer the question by drawing several portraits of community managers. The holding of a blog is not always an activity to take, especially as a hobby. Still, more a passion sees an obligation in some cases, especially from a professional point of view.
And yet it is where it must be approached! It is like a professional tool and indeed to have fun at the same time. As a result, there should always be a motivation to register in the long term, with at least one goal towards which to bring your blog.
Community manager and blogger
Sometimes we tend to say that the blogger plays a community manager role when he is present on social networks and that he promotes his articles by creating commitment with his community.
He also manages actions such as quizzes, analyzes the figures of his traffic etc
On the other hand, the community manager is not necessarily a blogger, but he can be brought to use it as part of his work. A little paradox that almost tries to make us believe that the blogger is a more complete profile than the community manager!
Now let’s see what it means to create a blog and its outfit.
Create a blog and feed it
The creation of a blog is less and less complicated today if we put a little hand in the dough. The most challenging part of blogging is to launch a successful blog and promote it because it inevitably involves a lot of time and a lot of promotional work around it.
To be convinced of this, it is enough to see what represents the work of a professional blogger.
Using a CMS to create a blog
Many tools such as CMS (Content Management System) or content management exist, to guide the user in all its steps. These tools still have some disadvantages for most of them; they only allow their creators to monetize their visibility better, and block a little on SEO content optimization.
If you have a blog hosted on one of these CMS online, you will not have the hand on all the aspect creation, design etc … and you will have to sacrifice certain aspects.
Clear ! the blog will not belong to you.
The best solution to remember is the WordPress CMS, but by hosting it on a domain that you have acquired in advance, and not via the WordPress platform that offers free hosting. Just know how to install WordPress.
This is the best solution for a customizable space, and it is your property, but in return, it is also the most difficult to implement for neophytes.
In this case, do not hesitate to get advice and if you had to pay a few hundred euros for real support, put your motivation and your goal in the face.
Setting up a blog is not free; you’ll understand.
What would I need to create my blog?
To create a blog, you will need several essential elements:
- Host
- Domain name
- Theme
- SEO
- Time
Each of these elements will not be evaded by a project that is followed in detail and detailed on a set of specifications. These are vital points, but not the only ones to integrate.
Through these elements, we will define its graphic charter, its logo, its editorial line, its legal mentions, its services etc. the community manager should not have too much trouble with these steps.
1. The host is the provider who will host your blog on its servers. He will assure you a quality of service according to the formula which you will choose; namely dedicated server, shared server and different modules or additional services such as outsourcing for example.
Many blogs cover these topics to guide you step by step. I recommend the excellent blog of Alexandre Bortolotti: WP Marmite
2. The domain name that will remain the identity of your blog, the URL through which users will access your content.
There is no need to drag a keyword into your domain name. Be rather original by creating an identity that will be your own, and preferably short enough to easily remember your name.
The extensions to privilege will always remain the .com that you will be able to acquire simultaneously if you have to check their availability in advance.
3. The theme that is called the skeleton of your site, the framework around which you will fine-tune the layout of your blog and the content you will publish there.
Do not neglect this aspect for which the blog WP Marmite to publish a real guide to help you in your choice. Do not hesitate to use it.
4. SEO. Some people agree that it starts on paper, but I instead think to stay on one side on paper and the other online it’s just a question of how to work and of procedures.
So SEO is more of an online job, but it certainly requires the definition of keywords and essential expressions (on paper) beforehand.
The actual SEO will take all its value when your site will be online, and when it will fully reflect your project on paper.
5. The time. It is undoubtedly the most critical factor and one not to neglect. It is therefore essential, before creating a blog, to know if you will have time to feed it by working on your content and sharing it.
Feed his blog
Create a blog is okay! It is then necessary to maintain it and to bring it content regularly. The first thing to determine after the creation stage is the frequency of publication according to your editorial line defined upstream.
We can call it an editorial calendar as well.
The idea is to follow a rule that aims to produce content according to your editorial capacity, not produce to produce.
If inspiration is there, it is better to set aside some content in case you run out of ideas to maintain a pace of publication.
As a general rule, it is a question of publishing 1 to 2 contents a week to start, and to put the blog online with a dozen articles to avoid that it is empty during your announcement of launching.
You will also be able to alternate between short and long contents so as not to make the exercise too heavy at first.
Share your content to make yourself known
The phase that the community manager will be able to approach without problem logically. The community manager’s blog would be a tool where the knowledge of social networks and sharing mechanisms, would already be a great asset.
How to make yourself known?
For that, nothing is more comfortable than to share your contents on your different supports; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. and create a parallel eve to complete the social media news broadcast if this is your theme.
You can then reduce the frequency of sharing other writers, and favour yours when you write more regularly.
Never neglect the sharing of articles from your colleagues, it is well seen, and it is an excellent way to win subscribers on your Twitter account, among others.
Create, Feed and Share! Summarizes the blogger in outline.
Here’s a quick introduction to blog creation, content writing and sharing.
All this takes some time you will agree, so measure it well and make the idea that it will bear fruit after a few months and not a few days! Visibility research is endurance work based on the production of relevant content.
The more you produce, the more likely you will get a better SEO … but quality must remain your leitmotiv.
Is the community manager’s blog mandatory?
Let’s see now if it is useful to keep a blog as a community manager. We will distinguish two different statuses of CM; to know those who are independent, those working in an agency, the advertiser etc …
We will see then that there is a real interest to keep a blog or at least write on collaborative support.
Warning: This is not an absolute necessity, and nothing requires you to create a blog; it’s just a tip to take advantage of what we are going to see.
Finally! Does the community manager have to keep a blog?
The benefits are many, but can quickly take up your precious time if you have a role to play at an employer. The main advantage is the highlighting of your expertise to make it known to your future customers/readers, see your prospective employers if you decide to change your company.
The blog of the independent community manager will be of more interest than the blog of the community manager working within a structure.
But the freelance community manager, in addition to managing his time, will have to know how to reconcile work on his blog and work for his clients. He will then be confronted with the question: how and how much does the community manager have to charge? To be as profitable as possible.
If I ask you these questions:
- How do you intend to make yourself known?
- How will you expose your services?
What will you answer me in return?
To become known as an independent, you need support where it is possible to present oneself, to expose one’s expertise and to announce its achievements, for example.
But still, make it easy to make contact, create a grid of services and possibly pricing.
All these points will be grouped in support that will be your own. On a social network, it would be challenging to expose everything professionally and adequately… even on Linkedin, where it is not advisable to use it for this purpose.
The blog is the tool and the support necessary to present its know-how.
Social networks remain places of exchange and interaction, but not platforms where static data is exposed in detail. They may exist, however, but not as effective as a blog without a doubt.
The advantages of the independent community manager blog
Let’s take a look at the benefits of running a blog as a separate community manager. It would be a shame to miss by taking only one option on social networks!
It’s not good if you sell services and you’re looking for customers. In this specific case, and if you want to speed things up professionally, the blog quickly becomes indispensable.
Know that it also represents a showcase and a complete digital footprint to judge your work and your presentation.
The blog is a valuable ally in many cases. It will save you time on the questions that will be asked by your interlocutors, by providing them with a presentation of your activity, a contact form, one or call-to-action and possibly pricing of your fixed benefits.
In any case, you will only have one URL to provide through your email signature and a business card. You will bring at your own pace while remaining consistent, content that will expose your expertise in your industry.
Aim for a specialty to add value to your profile, so as not to enter a mould facing the competition that hardens over the years.
The advantage here will be the work on your visibility so that we find you on your keywords. Social networks, meanwhile, you will then share your content and have them relayed by your fans.
The advantages of the community manager blog
If we limit ourselves to what differs from the independent community manager, it remains that the community manager working within a structure will not remain advice eternal!
Which means that all the work done for a company, a brand or something else, will remain an asset for the structure that has hosted it.
In many cases, the community manager will have to start from scratch and sell again. In contrast, a blog allowing him to expose his work and his expertise would be once again precious support to be known more efficiently and more quickly.
In my opinion, the blog of the independent community manager would be as useful as the blog of the current community manager. However, they can, in both cases, write for a collaborative blog or guest blogging.
This last solution is valid to the extent that it can reflect your business vision and your expertise.
Once again ! we will not say that it is essential to keep a blog, but strongly recommended if you want to create a print and a name in the job quickly.
It is not a question of putting oneself in the real sense of the word, but of making oneself visible to a range of professionals, insofar as one rarely stays many years within the same entity.
If creating a blog may seem impossible for some, get help and glean tips from your contacts.
Feel free to opt for a WordPress solution to customize with a host, not for a blog hosted at wordpress.com as said in the introduction.
There are also solutions like Tumblr, Blogger etc. but be careful because once you are launched, it will be difficult to restart from another platform.
Be ready to break your piggy bank for a few hundred or tens of euros rather than giving in to the all-free!
To conclude on the blog of the community manager
Having laid some foundations of what represents the creation and the holding of a blog, it seems essential to me to conclude on the net interest to create a blog as a community manager, see at least a site that shows your activity, your services etc. if you do not have the easy pen.
Put yourself in the shoes of bloggers who are also working on their community management; it is easier to remember their name, and we will often look for content and answers to questions at home.
If tomorrow is your home community managers will come, you will have visibility and legitimacy to promote to your Internet users and your future customers/employers.
Think about the fingerprint, the best CV of the community manager
