Tessa Horehled | Strategic Marketer, Community Manager, Brand Strategist, Digital Communications Specialist | ATL / NYC

Blog Formatting 101: Adjust Where Appropriate

This afternoon I clicked on a link from R.E.M.’s Twitter and it brought me to an article on The Huffington Post about some music exclusives, including R.E.M. (alas why I clicked on the link).

Now there comes a time in every blogger’s life where you have to make a few decisions. Have I outgrown my current format? Is the theme or design I am currently using appropriate for how I am blogging?

Anyone who has heard me rant about things to watch out for as a blogger knows I constantly pick at The Huffington Post. While they consistently have great content, the user experience is completely bogged down by ads and poor formatting.

Here’s the example I ran into this afternoon:

This screenshot shows the article I clicked on from Twitter. I could only screenshot the title, byline, social icons and tags because there is such a plethora of tags! This isn’t tag stuffing as they all relate to the blog content and aren’t repetitive. It should however be looked at in regards to other options for displaying these tags. Tagging is fantastic for indexing, searching for similar content and a quick look of the subject of the piece but this is incredibly clunky.

The large number of tags on this post caused this block of content to take up an entire fold pushing the actual article down to the third fold on the page. The blog post promised exactly what it promised in the title and tags but spans well over 20 folds. Back to formatting — this is a blog, not a newspaper. We can only view so much of the page at once. Consider breaking this article into multiple articles? That would cut down on the length of the post and the tags in the byline, making it much easier to digest and read. Even if the pieces of the larger whole are related you can link to them within the content or in an included list for readers to navigate in between. This is also a better option in regards to your search engine optimization.

SXSW Panel Pitch: The State Of Music Blogs In 2010

One of the biggest conferences of every year (and my personal favorite) is SXSW, held every March in Austin, TX. The entire conference comprises of Music, Interactive and Film tracks over a two week period. Last year, I attended both Music and Interactive which was a great experience though quite exhausting!

This year, I am pitching to speak on a panel with a friend I made through a mutual contact at SXSW 2008, Greg Swan, Editor of Minneapolis music blog PerfectPorridge.com. The topic of our panel is “The State Of Music Blogs In 2010.”

Panel Description:
Just how important are music blogs to the industry today, is that prominence growing or fading, and how will new technologies and strategies impact the marketing mix in the coming year? Join prominent music bloggers, record label and PR firm executives to discuss the state of the industry, what’s around the corner and how musicians and record labels can develop relationships with these blogging influencers.

Questions We Will Discuss/Answer:

1. Journalist or super fan: what does it mean to be a music blogger these days?
2. How will the new FTC regulations on freebies to bloggers impact today’s marketing practices?
3. How important are aggregation sites to a band or record label’s marketing strategy and bottom line?
4. If video killed the radio star and blogs killed the music mags, what will kill the music blogs?
5. While the RIAA is suing fans for illegally downloading music, bands and indie labels are begging blogs to give away their albums for free. What’s the future of profitability in selling music versus giving it away?
6. What new technologies (e.g., mobile phone, embeddable players, interactive video) are being used by bands to reach fans directly and what’s next?
7. Will microblogging and lifestreaming of musicians directly interacting with fans affect traditional marketing strategies?
8. How do burgeoning and established social networks help and hinder artists?
9. What’s the worst pitch you’ve ever received and why?
10. What’s the guaranteed strategy to position a band for ultimate blogosphere buzz?

Please vote for our panel on the SXSW Panel Picker! Today is the last day for you to do so. The Panel Picker partially determines which panels are chosen for the conference. SXSW should begin to announce the chosen panels in October.

For those of you who enjoyed my IgniteATL presentation last night on “How To Identify A New Media Douchebag (And Save Yourself From Becoming One)” should check out the “How To Not Be A Douchebag At SXSW” panel as well.