Year for three on Habré. We share the experience of a corporate blog.

Each of us saw exciting and solemn moments when, for example, communication is established with astronauts or with a satellite. People happily throw up their hands, sincerely and warmly smiling, sometimes hugging, especially if the event is significant. The LANIT team smiled, hugged, screamed, and sting wet with sweat from agitated hands with the mouse button “Publish” 51 times. February 2 marks the year we came to Habr. Emotions, experiences, finds, fakapi, panic and a lot of positive - in our success story under the cut. All this is definitely useful to those who want to shake their corporate blog on Habré, but do not know how.

Why do we need it?

Until January 2017, Habrahabr and LANIT existed separately, although they repeatedly heard about each other. In-person acquaintance took place in the summer of 2016 on the Khabraseminar - the guys from TM told about the secrets of working with blogs and comments, and three of our activists listened and took the most direct part in the discussion. I must say that from the outside it sounds very simple: write often, write well, comment, do not be silent, love the user as yourself and everything will be fine. Having received as much information as possible and lit up with new ideas, the LANIT team returned to the office and thought about what Habr needed. It remains to understand why. There were several options.

• Talk about our projects and attract potential customers, generate leads and even make sales.
  
• Demonstrate your best practices.
  
• Search for new people in the team.
  
• To form and maintain the image of the company.
  

Nothing unusual - many companies come to the resource with such goals. However, all this seemed to us somehow ... heartless. I wanted not just a formal blog - I wanted a dialogue with users, discussion, interest, emotions. So, we forget about lead generation, leave sales to professional sales people and decide that we’ll just talk about our projects, interesting introductions, large-scale construction projects and pleasant trifles of the daily office life of a company of 9,000 people. The only “mercenary” goal that we have left is to search for people on our team. We always need them: interns and seniors, javista and devops, analysts and managers. And now we will leave this link here - if interested, write, call and come!
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On the one hand, the preparation of texts for Habr is the growth point of our specialists, who increase their expert status when writing articles. On the other hand, this is an opportunity to demonstrate visually that ONLANTA and the GK LANIT are a serious school for all technical specialists and become part of our team is prestigious and promising.

Sergey Taran, General Director of ONLANTA Company

The journey of thousands of kilometers begins with the first step.

When we came to the general concept of the blog, we had two options for starting: to squeeze an article about the GIS utilities and immediately get a shaft of very different comments, or first “test” the ground. It was decided to start with the “Habrovskaya”, but moderate topic, and on February 2, 2017 we published our first article, “Hyperconvergent platforms: from exotic to mainstream,” by experienced author Habr and our employee KorP .

The first comment made us understand: this is Habr, baby, you will not get off here easily. Representatives of one of the vendors ran up and began an attack based somewhere on facts, somewhere on sophistry, somewhere on aggression. We were ready for this - we answered with the utmost discretion, professionally and honestly. After 46 comments, the fights subsided, and we saw the result: rating +32, 56 favorites, 9,600 views. These figures inspired the team to exploits.


Screenshot of our first article - the first three lines on Habré

And just a week later, we published an article, How to Make Housing and Utilities, so that it was a GIS , which became the most commented in the annual history of our blog. From this point on, the experience began, which we share with everyone in this article.

Habr's statistics is a stubborn thing

Voices - pros and cons rating

These are the most exciting and very first digits encountered by users who posted a publication on Habré. It is they who almost completely determine the fate of the article on the site, since they are responsible for accessing the main page. When we started, there was an “Interesting” section on Habré - all publications with +5 fell into it. In our opinion, it was very convenient and competent - many useful and necessary articles got into the “Interesting”, since +5 is not such a high threshold. But a few months later, “Interesting” was removed and a fierce struggle began for the main page, which, in descending order of ranking, includes 10 of the most-most articles. And the rating of the lower article may be +12, and maybe +29. It is very difficult to get to such a threshold, and, alas, we have repeatedly noticed sensible publications on specialized topics that could not get through to the main page and did not receive well-deserved coverage (and readers did not receive any benefit). However, our business is to accept the rules, and for our readers the advice is to view the “Everything in a row" tape, there are a lot of really cool ones.

For ourselves, we found another opportunity to talk with people who are interested in their own development, in methods of effective development in adulthood, with those who follow the experience of other companies, successful projects and details of their implementation.

Yulia Shikova, Director of the Networking Academy LANIT Training Center

As you can see, the range of topics is huge, and there is no universal recipe for how to make a rating article. It seems to us that even a neural network will not be able to identify patterns that will be guaranteed to bring the publication to the top. But nevertheless, we defined several laws of success.

What to write about? The fact that they will definitely read

• Write as honestly as possible about what you know. Habr's users are mostly professionals in their field and will quickly peer your exaggerated expertise or cleverly disguised as copyrighted material.
  
• If you have living stories from the development, implementations, and at least scram-meetings, write about them Longridas: with photos, quotes from the first person, emotions, mistakes and successes. Real cases are very much appreciated by readers (which were worth only our photos with white bears !).
  

Umka exists and sends Habr's readers a snow-frost greetings

• If there is information about unique conferences or professional solutions - write about them. You may not get a single comment, but views, rankings and favorites will be eloquent testimony to the interest of hardcore IT people to the topic.
  
• If there is a holivar and valuable topic for Habr, open it and publish an article - you will receive a shaft of comments. Yes, your team (especially the author) will wake up at night the first day (the author will not fall asleep at all) and update Habr to see what was written to you, but it's worth it.
  
• If you have an interesting and unique topic that seems to be not quite for Habr, but it is amazing, please write - readers will appreciate. In fact, there is no such topic that is not for Habr - just try to find the same IT thread that will embrace your story and appeal to the entire audience, including those coming from the search.
  

These are not all secrets. We turn to a new indicator and look for insights in it.

Views

This is another figure around which an impression about the publication as a whole is built. Perhaps, there is no other such IT resource where you can get 5-7 thousand views and be dissatisfied, because a figure less than 10 thousand is not serious. Habr really gives a lot of views. Of course, no author will be so naive to think that all these 10 thousand have enjoyed his masterpiece from the first letter to the last, but you will agree, even 10% of complete readings of this value are not bad. But we have inspirational statistics: readings of articles on our blog, according to the Mediator, over 40% of the number of views.

The factors that influence scans complement the principles described above.

• An interesting and lively topic will receive its views, even if for some reason it does not come to the main (although much smaller).
  
• Comments affect the views - readers see that the article is commented and open to see what caused the discussion and whether it is worth it to participate.
  
• The views are greatly influenced by three “whale” articles of the article - the headline, CDRV and dokatny text (for PR and other media brethren - lead paragraph). The title should reflect the theme, but be interesting, catchy and even defiant in form or referring to a joke (for example, the AliExpress headline of the brain sounds more interesting than How AliExpress and Fibrum made 11.11 virtual. And you could have done with the press release version of boring Fibrum developed a VR solution for AliExpress retailer ). KDPV (picture to attract attention) should stand out from the tape - it can be live photos of the project, funny suitable images, photoshop and even memes (be careful with them) - anything other than licked clip art and stock photos. The dokatny text should be capacious, transmitting the topic, preserving the intrigue and forcing read further.
  

Comments

Comments are no longer just a figure. This is the point of contact between the company and the readers. Users may be different: grateful, experienced, truthful, deceitful, fierce, etc. It can be your competitors, customers, employees and just those who are interested in the topic. Working with comments is a hard and serious work, for the words in them you should answer just as you are responsible for every word in your publication. Let's be honest: you can't do without negativity. Working with comments, follow a few rules.

• Communicate correctly, do not go on about the opponents.
  
• If possible, respond to all comments.
  
• Answer fully and deployed.
  
• Do not forget to approve comments that users write in Read & Comment mode (well, if they are adequate, of course. Sometimes there is something weird, spam, frankly rude).
  

And another moment, it is quite specific for us, but still worth mentioning it. Some commentators associate the company with the work of the product itself (for example, someone’s account didn’t load into GIS utilities or Aliexpress didn’t deliver someone’s package, but LANIT is responsible for it, they write about it in comments). In such cases, it is necessary to reject the claim correctly and aggressively, to make it clear that you are outside the scope of this issue. Do not enter into polemics and do not try to restore justice - for this there are responsible people in their places.


That we respond to comments on the post about GIS utilities

The general advice is this: don't be formal, talk the way you would communicate in person. And remember: humor is a double-edged, but effective weapon with an amazing destructive ability. Good irony is able to nullify the toughest negative.

Add to Favorites

This is not so critical, but a very significant indicator. If your article is added to Favorites, it means it has generated interest. Yes, it can be read later, forwarded, returned to it as the work is necessary, but the fact remains that it interested readers.

Social networks - not an indicator, but a marker

As soon as your publication is gaining +6, it can be in the public Habra VKontakte (and this is 750 thousand subscribers) and on Facebook (110 thousand subscribers). First, readers will come from these posts to your article on Habr, second, this is another front where it is worth tracking the reactions and comments (including the texts accompanying users' reposts). As a rule, VKontakte activity is several times higher, but if Facebook is already fired, then consider the article a success.

What you need to remember when working with social networks (according to our feelings).

• This is a completely different audience - not habrovskaya. Accordingly, the manner of communication can go all the limits.
  
• Often, commentators judge your article only by the picture and title, which means they can make false conclusions and write completely off topic.
  
• Reposts and likes can be a merit of a picture or a loud theme.
  
• Narrowly themed materials in social networks go bad.
  
• Article can be otreposhena huge communities that will bring your article on Habré shaft views, but this is a lottery, which can not be influenced.
  

Winning chips

In this section, we will list the most valuable secrets obtained by the keyboard and megabytes of articles. Take into service, use, become better, but do not forget that each company is unique and able to find its own brand feature.

• Habr is the optimal platform for supporting the image of an IT company and translating corporate values. We know that many companies go to Habr for HR PR, in other words, they are looking for employees to join the team. So, you need to show not only technology, but also the work of the team from the inside, to demonstrate corporate culture. For example, we specifically for Habrakhabr shot a video clip LANIT, which told about the team as a whole and showed the office a little.
  

Later we ventured to post a story about how we go through corporate events: the birthday of the company and the New Year. Honestly, we were very worried, but as it turned out, in vain - users positively evaluated our experience. And we were pleased to throw interesting ideas to HR-services of other companies - well, where else, if not on Habré, write about how to entertain hardcore IT people.


The department of eternal youth and the department of linear happiness are all LANIT

• A variety of topics - a pledge of user interest. The more aspects of the company you cover, the higher the interest in the company, its diverse experience. Be sure to publish and product, and image, and even offtopic articles - so you create a really cool content and shift the focus from the advertising (if you have one) component.
  
• It is very difficult to gain subscribers, and it is possible to get a constant interest. This is incredibly sad when there are vivid articles on the blog with a lot of comments, and the number of subscribers is growing barely. We noticed that there are fans who do not subscribe, but, for example, constantly comment on articles. So the interest of the audience should not be evaluated only by subscribers, although it is definitely necessary to strive for their growth - a pool of fans will help you start more effectively with each publication.
  
• To be in good shape, you need to strive to be on the first page in the list of companies. We were in seventh place, constantly keeping in the top twenty, but the constant updating of the rating regularly rolls back the company to its previous positions, and everyone in this race once discovers that all the successes burned at one moment.
  

We theoretically understood what “pessimization of Habraindex” is, but really felt this cunning, working with a secret algorithm process only a month after the release of the first high rating article. When the rating fell not according to plan, but from about the height to which a particularly popular article lifted us, we immediately became more active and supported our positions with additional posts.

Our conclusion is that if you want to hold positions, you need to write at least once a week and keep the current total monthly rating not lower than the total rating of the previous month, taking into account what the neighbors write, because their publications, of course, also affect positions in the top corporate blogs. Ideally, you need to prepare at least one potentially strong article per month. If you adhere to this principle, get all the profits: and rating, and interest, and views, and stable traffic to the site.


This is our team is sad that the company blog has few subscribers

• Do not be afraid to be bold: you need to experiment with pictures, captions, forms. For example, we used fairy tales, science fiction, and the photo report genre in our publications. We have a few more experiments with forms and feed ahead. The condition is one: carefully prepare for any updates. Tip: Check out the blogs of other companies and articles of users, they can find a lot of insights.
  

Employees of large companies will learn about the success of projects by reading the materials on Habré. The materials are juicy, interesting, with a large number of illustrations / photos. This gives an opportunity to “touch the success” of those employees who either did not participate in these projects (or out of the project activity (back office)).

Andrei Bedran, technical director of LANIT-Integration company

We tried to show the project the way the direct participants saw it.

• No need to panic and despair if the rating did not reach the desired performance or no comments. Your article will never be ignored - for a long time people will access it from a search and Habr's users, and you will be able to see links to your site.
  
• Do not be afraid to write honestly. Remember: if you write this way, you already win in many ways. It so happens that the company, fearing competitors, is constantly keeping something in the articles back, hiding, telling by a third or half.
  

We show the whole process from the very beginning, when you can still find traces of hares around the future stadium.

Of course, these are the most versatile things that will suit different companies. But almost every corporate blog has its own secrets, secrets and chips that distinguish it from others, make it unique. The main thing is to have your face on Habré.

Those without whom this article would not be

The most important thing is that there are people behind the blog.

• Authors - in our case, these are company employees who create texts within their professional competencies, endure hundreds of edits, make changes, learn and gain experience together in us. They need to love, cherish and encourage. We thank our best authors:
  Yegor Savochkin Savochkin
  Yakova Shuvaeva 91koff
  Ilya Sazonov Poxvuibr
  Dmitry Izmestyev DmitryI
  Evgeniya Elizarova KorP
  Sergei Solovyov Folow13
  Evgenia Vircer Virtser
  Sergey Mikhalev Sirgun5000
  Konstantin Kotochigova Crazyhatter
  Artem Prosvetova Art_pro
  Roman Svitich Raccooon
  George Kasatkina GKasatkin
  
• Internal edition is a formed group of people who remove the authors' work on agreement, proofreading (be sure to correct mistakes!), Proofreading, etc. The same team helps to work with comments and coordinates all the work.
  
• Managers of the Habr content studio who conduct training, seminars, help to impose and give useful advice during the publication.
  

Together, they create a large team that fills the blog with interesting publications. The main thing in this process is an understanding of the topic, techno-thinking and complete trust in each other.
That was our first year in Habré. Total for January 29 (when they wrote this text): a total rating of 1,835, 1,768 comments, 3014 favorites, and 632,421 views. Kilometers of nerves, a ton of adrenaline, hundreds of smiles, a couple grams of panic and despair, a solid team of real heroes. We do not know about you, but we continue.



So we look in a year. It's only the beginning!
By the way, you can join our team .