First off, let me start by saying that blogging is a real fun way of updating or "web logging" as the term suggests, the every day happenings of someone's personal life, for the rest of the blogosphere to see and read. Now some of you reading this will ask but what can it do for my business and can it increase my ROI or even drive more traffic to my website and convert prospective visitors into buyers and long term clients?
Well the answer is a yes, if done in the correct way, but it can be a train wreck if it is done without any effort, time or careful consideration.
Take the following in mind when setting up your business blog:
Be An Authority in your field
The most important thing that you want to establish, by having a business blog, is to establish yourself as an authority in your field, in other words when posting to your blog, you must have something useful to say.
For example, the traffic statistics of AskDaveTaylor, which is a Q&A blog, focusing on tech support and other related Q&A topics, reported that he had 11.6 million visitors and 17.71 million page views for the year in 2007.See the link for the AskDaveTaylor blog stats in the resource box below.
Now that is a lot of traffic, and all that he does, is providing knowledge and expertise to his fellow blog readers, which establishes him as an expert in his field, and at the same time sends loads of visitors to his blog coming back for more.
Keep your readers in mind
When posting to your business blog, keep in mind that some blog readers are not always going be to up to date with the latest trends and terms in marketing, science, economy, real estate or whatever niche your company is focusing on.
So in this, case the person responsible for posting on the blog will have to communicating at the level of the individuals reading the blog. At the end of the day you want them to grasp what you are trying to bring across. Whether it is installing one of the companies TV's, washing machines or fixing a drill. People don't want to sit through long blog posts anymore, only to find that it did not produce the solution or result they were looking for.
Responding to the blogosphere
You will have to be ready for comments that people will leave on your blog, that are sometimes going to be nasty or just outright ugly. But there can be some comments that are going to range from good to complimentary. The best thing to remember here is, to be cool and calm about it, and not to ruin your company's reputation by responding in a negative way. The best solution is not responding to comments on your blog altogether or to just let it be. Remember not to fuel the fire that is already burning.
In an event where your company's reputation is at stake, you can always get someone to monitor the comments on your blog where ORM, or otherwise known as online reputation management, plays a big role. But that is a topic on its own.
Writing about more than just your product
Because the online community today is of such a nature that they need to have a reason to come back for more, you must try and write about topics on your blog, other than that of your company and its products. Perhaps write about something related to your industry or personal experiences. Try and interact with your readers on a level which they will feel comfortable on.
Have good writing skills
Although you do not need to be a journalist or writer to post on a blog, you must make sure that the person/persons responsible for posting on the blog must at least have a good sense of connecting and communicating with the blog readers through what is being written.
Be sure to check grammar, the structuring of your sentences etc. Your blog readers will immediately see through your word choices and grammar. There is nothing worse than coming across a blog post that is full of spelling mistakes. Immediately it looks unprofessional, especially when your company's' reputation and credibility is at stake.
Remember:
At the end of the day a good business blog's success will depend on how much time and effort is being spent on it. In my opinion, the more the better, because communication today with your customer has gotten all that more important.
AskDaveTaylor blog stats link: http://www.intuitive.com/blog/2007-traffic-stats-askdavetaylor-blog.html You can set up a free blog at http://www.blogger.com David Retief is an Internet Marketing Strategist at Golive e-marketing, an Internet Marketing firm based in Cape Town, South Africa. |
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