To get to know Spredfast I checked out their site and read a few case studies.
I really liked the case study on Ganassi Racing.
That was a cool case study. I’ve gotten into racing a little bit the last few years and recognized the Ganassi name. The issue for them was bringing younger fans to the sport and to their team. They have a young new NASCAR driver, Kyle Larson, and they want to help bring him more fans along with other goals.
Ganassi used the tools and platform that Spredfast offered to learn about how young people use social. They found influencers and came up with a campaign that would lead to word of mouth about the even on social media.
That’s a short overview of what Spredfast does. You can read through their site for more, but as always I’m going to skip over to their blog and check out what they’re doing there to attract enterprise clients like Ganassi Racing.
1. Minimal Distraction
The first thing that stands out to me on the Spredfast blog is the distractions…there aren’t any.
They have a featured post at the top, which I think is just the most recent post. That kind of stands out, but it really should when you’re looking at a blog.
After that you have a basic archive of posts in chronological order. You have a call to action in the sidebar to subscribe to the blog. That CTA looks nice and does pull your attention, but it’s nothing crazy.
With some business blogs the CTAs can get a little crazy. There can be too many and that makes the visitor feel overwhelmed and they can end up leaving because they don’t know what they’re supposed to do.
And it can make their experience negative because when they want to read the post (the one you worked hard to create) they’re being distracted by other items on the page.
So this is a great example of how to design a business blog with minimal distraction.
2. Consistent Commitment
Something I catch myself writing on the blog is the phrase “consistent commitment”. I don’t know if I ever explain what that means.
In the context of blogging, consistent commitment is publishing regularly for a long period of time.
Two things stand out to me on the first page of Spredfast’s blog.
First, they have a good number of recent posts. I would say that lately they’ve been publishing 4-6 posts per month. So they’re right around weekly or even a bit above for a blogging schedule.
Second, if you look at the bottom of the page you’ll see that they have 67 pages of archives. With about ten posts per page that’s over 600 posts.
That’s long-term commitment. And the consistent comes in because you could post one post today and another in five years and have long-term commitment without the consistency.
Success in blogging, and really in any marketing effort, comes from consistent commitment and Spredfast seems to understand that.
3. Commenting On Industry Trends (With A Little Personality)
The latest post on the blog is one from April 11th. Facebook’s big conference was going on at the time and they made a number of announcements including on on Instant Articles.
What’s Instant Articles?
That’s a question that companies are likely asking themselves. And Spredfast is stepping in as an industry leader and providing some understanding on the topic with this post.
When events like this happen in an industry, and they do happen in every industry, it’s an opportunity for brands to provide understanding and to help others know how to react. It’s a way to build trust in the industry.
Spredfast gives an overview of what Instant Articles is and what it means for enterprises.
I also like how they inject some personality into the post in the intro. It’s a little hint to their Texas roots and they don’t follow your standard rules for writing, which I like. It’s more conversational.
4. Addressing Client Challenges (With A List)
Lists get a bad reputation sometimes in the blogging world because there are so many of them.
A post like, 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Peyton Manning’s Shoes, can seem a little over-the-top when it comes to a list post or listicle, but there’s a reason there are so many lists…people like them.
A business blog would do well to have a good number of regular list posts mixed in with how-to posts and other types of posts. But even how-to posts can be in list form. A list is just an easy way to format content.
Here’s a post that Spredfast did that is in list form. The title doesn’t make you think that you’re going to see a list, but it works really well in list format.
The post touches on a challenge that Spredfast’s clients likely deal with – how to handle customer service and support with social media. Spredfast knows that this is a challenge for their clients and they’re addressing it with a blog post.
That approach is the basis of any good business blogging strategy. The more you can help your target clients with their challenges the more traffic you’ll earn (because they’re searching for answers) and the more trust you’ll earn.
That leads to earning new clients.
And this one is broken down in list form so it’s really easy to digest.
5. Conference Reviews
Not everyone gets to go to cool industry conferences. And not everyone gets to visit every event or get together when they are at a conference.
That’s where conference or event reviews as blog posts can provide value.
Spredfast did that with this recent post.
They shared some of the key takeaways from the event that they saw. This is a great way to reuse content. So much content at conferences kind of gets lost especially the discussions. But you can recapture that when you do a post in the way that Spredfast did.
It provides great value to readers and it’s a type of post you can do after every conference. And you could even do multiple for different events within a single conference.
Conclusion
Spredfast seems like they are a leader in the social media world. That seems evident from their product and their case studies. But it also becomes evident with what they’re doing with their blog. They see the benefit to maintaining a business blog. They have consistent commitment and it seems to be working well for them. It’s another example of how to do business blogging. If you’re looking for inspiration and direction, Spredfast is a good example to follow.