Question: Blog Strategy: For this assignment, you will choose one of the companies listed below. Then, follow the directions to develop a blog strategy for your company.

1. Modern Mowing - this company provides lawn care (mowing, seeding and fertilizing) to suburban neighborhoods using ALL organic products.

2. Sea Strands - this company provides hair care products (shampoos, conditioners) to women. Their products are created from seaweed and are less toxic than traditional shampoos. This product is recommended for women with a variety of hair issues.

3. All A's - this company provides a specialized technique to improve test taking skills for young people. It is an online service.

As you know from the reading, a blog should not promote a company. Rather it should make the company an expert in something. Pick one company and develop an area of expertise that the company can write about regularly in a blog. To complete the assignment you need to answer the following questions below using the numbering system.

1. Pick a topic for the company. This topic should highlight your area of expertise.

2. Pick a target market and describe the target market. Be specific.

3. Explain why the topic and your area of interest would be of interest to the target audience.

4. Explain why being an expert in this topic is helpful in the effort to get found on-line. To answer this question, pretend you are the consumer. What phrase or key words would the consumer put in the Google search box and why? Does your area of expertise match what a consumer is most likely to Google when searching for answers? Here is a hint: If you choose the Seaweed company, consider how a consumer thinks when searching for hair care products. Seaweed shampoo is a completely new product. A consumer wouldn't know to even Google 'seaweed shampoo." Therefore, you shouldn't expect "seaweed shampoo" to be the key word combination that gets your company found.

Instead, you have to identify what you think the consumer might be Googling that is related to the product and the needs expressed by the consumer.

5. Using the information above, create an editorial calendar covering two months. Each month should have a different theme related to your area of expertise. For each month, suggest two (2) blog posts related to the theme. You are not writing the blog posts. You are simply suggesting compelling titles for the blogs.

I am providing you with an example of how to write blog titles for an area of expertise. For my example, I've created a fake company that makes shoes for people with odd shoe sizes - very small, narrow, large and wide. The company wants to do more than just talk about their shoes. because this will sound like an ad. Instead, they understand that being an expert will help them find people trying to solve a problem with a product. After a company brainstorming, the company identifies an area of expertise that they believe will help them attract the buyers for their shoes: common foot problems. The reason they have chosen 'foot problems' is because people with odd shoe sizes often have foot problems. Therefore, they can 'get found' by showing their expertise on this topic. In summary, the company is targeting people with uncommon shoe sizes with a focus on women. They hope to find these women because they are expecting that this target market will be searching online for information related to foot problems.

Here is a partial example of their editorial calendar.

January - Theme "Winter Boots"

Blog Title 1 - "5 Ways to Stretch Boots"

Blog Title 2 - "Why Do My Feet Hurt So Much In Winter?"

The book gives tips on how to create blog titles. Use the tips the book provides. It is also important to test your titles by Googling them yourself. If the search does not result in anything, it's probably a bad title.

6. Choose 5 key words to use in the blog headlines. At least two should be longtailed keywords. Explain the concept of a longtailed key word and show why it makes sense here. Again - test your key words. Are they returning what you want? If not, they won't work for your target market.

7. Why are key words important to being found? Why would your target market search on the key words you have selected?

8. Discuss two sites where you could place links to the company blog. Do these sites have a category that matches your blog theme? Why would this be important. (Use your book to find sites that take links.)

Your answer should be at least 3 pages long.