Can live blogging help with your company’s Digital Marketing strategy and ensure you reach customers with relevant content at the most appropriate time?
We have seen, in the most recent years, plenty of action unfold in front of our eyes thanks to live coverage on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.
But what if it were possible to deliver that type of live content in your WordPress blog, helping your visitors keep up with what is important to them?
Live blogging has plenty of benefits to bring to the table, such as traffic spikes and more interaction — whether in your comment section of via your social fee.
Websites like The Guardian, live coverage of sports events and news accounts for 3.6 million unique user visits and 9% of comments.
How can your company leverage that? In this blog post, you will find out:
- What is live blogging?
- How to find the right live blogging platform?
- How to live blog on WordPress?
- What are the benefits of live blogging?
What is live blogging?
Before we start on how to live blog on WordPress, we need to define what live blogging means in this context.
Live blogging is a tool that allows users to provide coverage in real-time on their blogs or websites.
An article that is live blogged gets updated consistently to make sure the reader is aware of the latest developments.
Live blogs are especially helpful in times of crisis — when news updates can make a lot of difference in how users plan their next step.
It is also useful in lighter events, such as sports competitions, when keeping track of scores is what the user wants most.
The difference between a live blog and an updated post is that users don’t have to reload the page to be informed of the latest developments.
Live blogging can help you build a relationship of trust and understanding with your audience when used properly.
How to find the right live blogging platform for WordPress?
The best way to get started with live blogging on WordPress is to find the perfect platform for your business needs.
You should be on the lookout for a few features that will guarantee your live blogging events will be successful. A live blogging platform should provide critical features such as:
- support to as many platforms as possible, not only WordPress. This way, you can reach your audience using other communication channels;
- high-end security features that will keep your live blog safe from interventions from third parties;
- customization tools that allow for your live blog to integrate smoothly to your blog environment;
- add-ons, plugins, and APIs to connect your live blogging platform to other Digital Marketing resources, such as mobile platforms;
- sharing tools for your user to engage with content not only on your main website but also all across social media.
We separeted two platforms that might be a good choice for you. Take a look!
Live Blog
The right tool will make it easy for you to create a live feed with no help from a developer.
There are a couple of platforms that work this way and are open source, like Live Blog.
The issue with this type of tool is its extensive documentation, which means you will have to spend a lot of time studying to get the knacks of live blogging on WordPress.
Live
For you to avoid the situation described above, a good solution might be Live.
With Live, you can start a live blog in a couple of clicks by using out-of-the-box templates to publish your content and featuring different media types in your live experience.
The tool provides marketers with all they need to integrate live feeds on their WordPress blogs, embedding content in just a few steps.
Live reporting, polls & quizzes, social walls, storytelling, social curations, and scoreboards all work together to make your live posts more interactive and attractive to customers.
Among its benefits are the customization options, which will make sure your live blog is integrated with your brand colors, logo, and style to make for a better content experience.
How to liveblog on WordPress?
With the right platform, live blogging on WordPress can be as simple as making a regular post on your blog.
With just a few steps, you can start live blogging now.
Step 1: install a live blogging plugin
To get started, simply install the plugin for the platform you chose to use for live blogging. The plugin will grant access to the tool so that it can automate self-updating posts.
Most plugins will ask you to activate the live blogging function in the posts you intend to live blog on WordPress. To do so, click on “Posts” and “Add New”.
Step 2: create a new blog post with live blogging functions
Create a blog post on how you normally would and use the content section to give a brief synopsis of your post.
If it’s a live event, like the Super Bowl, you might want to add something like “[Name of the website] ‘s live coverage of the Super Bowl”.
Be creative as this is the text that will help your live blogging appear more prominently on Google results.
Step 3: publish and update your live blog
If you are ready to go live, simply publish your blog post. Scroll down to find your plugin window and select “enable”. Choose the template for your live coverage, and you’re done.
In the live blogging section, you will find a link to your live blog. This is an exclusive link on your WordPress installation, that will be seen only by you and other members of your company with editing credentials on your WordPress.
The link will open in a new window and feature a box where you can write and publish updates.
What are the benefits of live blogging?
Now that you know exactly how you can start live blogging on WordPress let’s take a look at the main benefits your company can achieve with this tactic.
Interact in real-time
Live blogging is a preferred tool to generate as much engagement as you can with your users.
Providing real-time coverage to events is a way not only to attract more visitors to your website but also to make sure those visitors get to know more about your brand and offers.
Live blogging an internal event, for instance, will help your customers get to know more about your company’s culture and day-to-day.
That will help you get closer to users and build a relationship with them.
Diversify your content
Brands have never had a more diverse environment for publishing content than they do today.
Text, images, videos, and audio are a couple of the tools a company can use to express their view and leave a mark.
With live blogging, you can use all those media formats to push live updates on relevant topics, which, in turn, will help you build an always-on environment for customers.
Learn about your audience
Live blogging is also an opportunity to get to know your customers and what matters to them.
By following the analytics dashboard on your live blogging platform, you will be able to understand what makes your customers want to interact with your feed, what matters to them, and how well you are addressing their concerns.
This information will come in handy when developing personas for your products and services. It will also provide useful data (KPIs) to better your marketing funnel.
Live blogging is a great way to engage with your customers, keep them updated on trends that matter, and understand what type of content can better help your company reach its goals.
That’s why this is one of the most important tools to build a competitive strategy in 2020.
Now that you know how to properly live blogging in WordPress, check our content with some tips on how to do real-time coverage for elections!
