Live Blogging for Publicity and Brand Building

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Whether you blog professionally or just for a bit of fun everyone would love to have more attention for their blog. And by harnessing the power of live blogging secrets you can tap into a growing trend while cementing your status in the blogging community.

What is Live Blogging?

Live blogging does exactly what it says on the tin: blogging about up to the minute news and events as they happen.

In its simplest form this may involve tweeting about a breaking news story. A more sophisticated version would be publishing blog posts from major events, commenting on what’s happening and potentially including photos, videos and more.

Why Should You Blog Live?

It’s simple really: real life events are limited in a way that the internet is not. Venue capacity, ticket prices and logistics are all barriers to attendance. By live blogging you give non-attendees access to the event, breaking down those barriers and feeding their hunger for the inside scoop.

How Do I Live Blog Successfully?

Part of the trick to garnering attention for live blogging is to be at the hottest events. They might be exclusive (sold out events), expensive or just so compelling that lots of people out there want to know more.

Investigate the big events in your niche, find out what’s hot, check out what’s got Twitter buzzing and find a way to be there.

Found an event and got access? Great, now you need to be able to blog on the fly.

1. Make sure you have the kit you need – tablet, notebook, laptop, whatever works for you. Find out if there will be wifi at the event and/or consider buying yourself a mobile dongle so if the venue lets you down you’re still good to blog.
2. Now practice your typing. You need to be able to type fast so you can take notes on what’s being said, without losing the flow of what’s happening. If you can’t already, learn to touch type, it’s the most useful skill you can have for great live blogging.
3. Decide what your blogging style is going to be, will you just give a straight account of what’s happening? Will you include photos and videos to give a flavour of the event? Are you going to comment on what’s happening?

Base your choice on what the event is, who will be attending and above all who you’re trying to attract.

1. Put together a plan of action for the day – pin point the key times when you’ll be able to upload your blog posts. If you are going for a measured commentary as opposed to a live stream you’ll need downtime to gather your thoughts.
2. Find the key promotional opportunities. Will attendees be tweeting? Can you butter up the organiser for a link to your live blogging activities? It’s no good shouting in a vacuum, figure out how to get on the bandwagon before it leaves the station.

Live blogging can be a great way to get exposure, but like all successful promotional strategies it takes planning and hard work. The more you put in, the more you’ll get out.

Katie Saxon works for online marketing company Boom. She dabbles in all areas of Internet Marketing – from PPC to SEO. Follow Katie on Twitter.

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