12


Winter 2015


CONTENT MARKETING


Creating A Great Brand Blog (And Getting It Read)


The people behind two highly successful brand blogs give us the lowdown on how to deliver value, resonate with an engaged audience, and further your brand conversation. By Tim Sweeney


ompanies today are engaging consumers on a more personal level than ever before, inviting


them inside their walls to hear from decision makers and get a glimpse of their cultur Producing an informative and engaging blog is one of the most useful and cost-effective ways to have this extended conversation. What’ more, studies show that blogs are now one of the most highly sought-out sources by consumers prior to making a purchase. PlayStation and Stone Brewing Co. shared with us how they do it so well.


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Though a blog’s low price tagce tag may be an appealing aspect to the budget keepers, the brands that blog best are less concerned with RO and more interested in creating a platfcreating a platform es and engage in


spect to e brands that erned with ROI from which to tell stories and engag


regular discussion with their most passionate followers. Readers of The Stone Blog (blog.stonebrew.com), the blog for Escondido, California-based Stone Brewing Co., crave details on everything Stone does with regard to creating craft beers. Senior Communications


“Tactics aren’t really what we’re about. “T en’t really what we’re about.


We write our blogs from the heart and talk about things that are important to us,” he says. “The blog provides us the ability to go into great detail about our beers, which helps those interested in them learn more than 140-character tweets and social media posts can convey.”


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Specialist Brandon Hernandez writes many of the posts and insists that the blog has never been thought of or written specifically as a marketing tool.


Likewise, when Sony PlayStation launched PlayStation.Blog (blog.us.playstation.com) in 2007, the goal was to create a more direct, two-way conversation with PlayStation owners. “PlayStation.Blog was inspired by a desire to democratize communication and increase transparency with our audience,” says Sid Shuman, Senior Manager of Digital Communications at PlayStation. “The blog gave readers and media outlets an opportunity to get gaming information from the people who were making it happen.” Topics range from new products to announcements surrounding the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).


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The blog also lets PlayStation’s authority figures interact with readers in real time, answering questions and garnering feedback via the comments section.


a e que via the Although great content


always helps with search results, both Shuman and Hernandez insist that increased sales is not a motivating factor. Shuman says SEO benefits are a bonus,


but the most gratifying results of the blog come when gamers and media find value in the content posted on the blog and then share it. He points to PlayStation’s Ultimate PS4 FAQ Page, which took their team a month to assemble. The page


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