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The ABC's Of Business Blogging
by Jay Neuman
. Print Friendly Version
This article is an excerpt from: The Complete Internet Marketer: A Practical
Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Marketing Online
To understand what blogs are all about, it is helpful to change our terminology.
Do not ask, “Should I have a blog?” Instead, ask, “Should I participate in social
media?” One way to think of the Internet is as a collection of overlapping
communities. Each community is a network of people connected by common
interests. Blogs are one way people in these communities communicate with
each other.
In this article, you will learn what blogs are all about by walking through the
steps followed by a successful business blogger. You can be the star of this
story.
Participating in a Virtual Community of Interest
Let us say, as an example, that you have an interest in photographing
wildflowers. This is a pretty specific interest. Nevertheless, you can be assured
there are thousands of other people with the same interest. Many, if not most of
them are going online searching for information about wildflower photography.
This is a naturally occurring community of interest. The Internet acts as a social
medium that allows members of this community to find each other. It is not a
formal community, although these do exist online. Rather, it is just people who
have a similar interest, and they cover the same virtual ground when they go
online. Most may not even be aware they are part of a community. They just
have an interest and realize there are others online with the same interest.
Some members of this virtual community probably have information they want
to share with the rest. Maybe they have advice on the best cameras or lenses
to use. Maybe they know good spots to find rare species of flower. Maybe they
just have interesting or funny stories about their experiences in “the field.”
There is a very good chance members of this virtual community will appreciate
the information. They will want to keep coming back to see what new tidbit has
been posted. This is a potential blog that should happen.
Creating a Business Blog
Now, let us also say you do not only have an interest in wildflower photography.
You also have a business selling your artwork. Is there any reason why you
should be disqualified from posting to your community just because you make
money from your common interest? No! Of course not! As long as you are
honestly contributing something of value or interest, the community will not think
so either. In fact, if they like your blog, they will be glad to buy from you. They
would rather buy from you than someone who has no connection to them at all.
If your blog postings are interesting or useful, they will also forward them on to
others who might share your mutual interest. Word about your blog, and your
artwork for sale will keep spreading.
Now, let us pick up the story with Bob, an amateur photographer. Bob loves the
tips you post. He reads them regularly. When he sees especially good tips, he
forwards them on to his friends, Mary and Rosa. Bob loved your story about
falling in the creek while trying to get a good shot so much, he sent it to all his
friends and family. He even sent it to the ones who do not own a camera.
Then, one day, Bob’s boss says she is looking for some new artwork to hang in
the reception area at the office. Bob scores some points with the boss by
recommending your website. Now you have a new business client for your art.
Getting Linked into the “Blogosphere”
Eventually, Bob decides to start his own blog. He is so happy with your “Tip of
the Day” that he includes a link to it on his own daily blog. Now all of Bob’s
friends and fellow photographers are being linked to your blog.
You should be getting the picture of how this blog thing works (pun only slightly
intended). Before you started your blog, you were just another photographer
out there selling your artwork online. Now, you are a trusted and valued
member of an online community who are passionate about the very thing you
specialize in. You have built goodwill. You have contributed that goodwill to the
online community. As long as you continue to earn their trust, they will take it
from there. People will spread your message of goodwill around the Internet.
As a result, you will gain a large and loyal readership. This can convert into a
growing number of loyal customers.
Blogs do not stand on their own. They are part of a social network of blogs that
are all linked to each other. This is how word spreads so fast and reaches so
many people. Bloggers refer to the universe of all blogs as the blogosphere.
Setting Up an RSS Feed
Well, you saw how popular your tip of the day was with Bob’s readers. Now you
want to get those tips out to more people. You decide to syndicate your tip of
the day using RSS. RSS stands for “Rich Site Summary” or more commonly
known as “Really Simple Syndication.” It is a fairly simple technology to use.
You publish a part of your content in an RSS feed. This is basically a headline
that gets pushed out to people who subscribe to your feed. They read your RSS
feed with an RSS Reader. You allow people to subscribe to your “Wildflower
Photography Tip of the Day” feed by putting a button next to your tip of the day
post in your blog. Once people have subscribed to your feed, they will get your
headline pushed to their RSS reader every day. If they want to read more, they
just click on the link and will be sent to your blog. Then you make your tips
even more available by including a “Forward-to-a-friend” link with each daily
tip. Traffic to your blog increases dramatically.
Monetizing Your Blog
Now we will move one step farther. Your wildflower photography blog, with its
loyal readers, has become a highly targeted source of traffic. As an additional
revenue stream, you may decide to place ads on your blog. People have come
to trust you. If you put ads on your site for products, services or other websites
that you honestly believe in, then your readers will be glad for the
recommendation; just like people were glad when Bob placed your tip of the day
on his blog. As long as the links you post take your readers to someplace
worthy of your recommendation, they will not have a problem with it. They will
actually be more likely to become loyal customers of those businesses than
people who click thru from less targeted sites.
However, if you post an ad for something unrelated to your topic or for an
inferior product or service, then you risk losing the goodwill you were so careful
to build. You will turn off your readers. More than that, you will turn off a group
of readers who are passionate about your mutual interest. They will be sure to
spread that bad news about you to others in the community.
Advertising on Social Media
There is just one more part to the blog story we must tell. You may determine
that your website has something of value to contribute to a certain niche within
the blogosphere. However, you do not want to invest in creating your own blog.
There is a good chance bloggers are already out there reaching your target
community. It is likely they are looking for revenue. If you contact them, they
may be willing to post your ad in their blogs. If you are genuinely offering a
significant value to the community, they may even write about your business in
their blogs.
Again, here is a place for caution. If you do not offer a significant benefit, they
may still write about your business. But, you may not like what they write. The
same could happen if you just approach a blogger in a way that offends them.
Considerations for Business Blogs
In the example above, you have seen what a blog is and how it can help a very
small business. But what about larger businesses? Can a blog help a
corporation with over a hundred employees? Over 10,000 employees? The
answer is yes. However, there are some considerations you must be aware of if
you are planning to have a blog for your larger business.
First of all, if you have something to contribute to the communities you serve,
then by all means create a blog. The same rules apply as for small blogs.
However, you must remember that your blog represents your business just like
any other published public relations material.
Content on your blog must go through the same scrutiny. Do not be fooled into
thinking that blogs are supposed to be informal, so you can just let your
employees make postings to the blog. It is worth remembering that anything
posted on the Internet is there for everyone to see and will stay there forever.
This is especially true of the Blogosphere where people love to spread gossip
and love a good joke. You do not want your company to be the brunt of either.
To avoid this, you simply need to set up official guidelines for blog postings,
appoint qualified personnel to write your blog entries and involve both your
Legal and Public Relations departments in the project.
A blog is a strategic outreach to a community of customers, investors and
possibly the press. In the best case, they will be passionately supportive of your
products and services. As such, they will value the content on your blog
postings and share it with others. In the worst case, they will be critical of your
company. Still, if you do a good job of it, they will see your blog as an attempt
to reach out an olive branch as a good community citizen. In either case, a blog
well done will help your company.
Even if you do not intend to publish your own company blog, still it is important
to keep tabs on what is going on in the blogosphere. People are talking about
your company. If your company reaches a significant number of people, then
there is a good chance someone is writing about your business in a blog. News
travels fast on the Internet. If you find that a particular story is being circulated
that hurts the image of your company in some way, you will be able to respond
quickly to it.
==========================
This article is an excerpt from The Complete Internet Marketer: A Practical
Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Marketing Online by Jay Neuman.
Since 1994, Jay Neuman has been helping businesses as varied as Fortune 500
companies, startup Dot-Coms and nonprofit organizations overcome their
Internet Marketing and Database Marketing challenges. Jay is currently Sole
Proprietor of the KnExT Consulting Group. - www.knextconsulting.com.
He can be reached at jay.neuman@knextconsulting.com
by Jay Neuman
. Print Friendly Version
This article is an excerpt from: The Complete Internet Marketer: A Practical
Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Marketing Online
To understand what blogs are all about, it is helpful to change our terminology.
Do not ask, “Should I have a blog?” Instead, ask, “Should I participate in social
media?” One way to think of the Internet is as a collection of overlapping
communities. Each community is a network of people connected by common
interests. Blogs are one way people in these communities communicate with
each other.
In this article, you will learn what blogs are all about by walking through the
steps followed by a successful business blogger. You can be the star of this
story.
Participating in a Virtual Community of Interest
Let us say, as an example, that you have an interest in photographing
wildflowers. This is a pretty specific interest. Nevertheless, you can be assured
there are thousands of other people with the same interest. Many, if not most of
them are going online searching for information about wildflower photography.
This is a naturally occurring community of interest. The Internet acts as a social
medium that allows members of this community to find each other. It is not a
formal community, although these do exist online. Rather, it is just people who
have a similar interest, and they cover the same virtual ground when they go
online. Most may not even be aware they are part of a community. They just
have an interest and realize there are others online with the same interest.
Some members of this virtual community probably have information they want
to share with the rest. Maybe they have advice on the best cameras or lenses
to use. Maybe they know good spots to find rare species of flower. Maybe they
just have interesting or funny stories about their experiences in “the field.”
There is a very good chance members of this virtual community will appreciate
the information. They will want to keep coming back to see what new tidbit has
been posted. This is a potential blog that should happen.
Creating a Business Blog
Now, let us also say you do not only have an interest in wildflower photography.
You also have a business selling your artwork. Is there any reason why you
should be disqualified from posting to your community just because you make
money from your common interest? No! Of course not! As long as you are
honestly contributing something of value or interest, the community will not think
so either. In fact, if they like your blog, they will be glad to buy from you. They
would rather buy from you than someone who has no connection to them at all.
If your blog postings are interesting or useful, they will also forward them on to
others who might share your mutual interest. Word about your blog, and your
artwork for sale will keep spreading.
Now, let us pick up the story with Bob, an amateur photographer. Bob loves the
tips you post. He reads them regularly. When he sees especially good tips, he
forwards them on to his friends, Mary and Rosa. Bob loved your story about
falling in the creek while trying to get a good shot so much, he sent it to all his
friends and family. He even sent it to the ones who do not own a camera.
Then, one day, Bob’s boss says she is looking for some new artwork to hang in
the reception area at the office. Bob scores some points with the boss by
recommending your website. Now you have a new business client for your art.
Getting Linked into the “Blogosphere”
Eventually, Bob decides to start his own blog. He is so happy with your “Tip of
the Day” that he includes a link to it on his own daily blog. Now all of Bob’s
friends and fellow photographers are being linked to your blog.
You should be getting the picture of how this blog thing works (pun only slightly
intended). Before you started your blog, you were just another photographer
out there selling your artwork online. Now, you are a trusted and valued
member of an online community who are passionate about the very thing you
specialize in. You have built goodwill. You have contributed that goodwill to the
online community. As long as you continue to earn their trust, they will take it
from there. People will spread your message of goodwill around the Internet.
As a result, you will gain a large and loyal readership. This can convert into a
growing number of loyal customers.
Blogs do not stand on their own. They are part of a social network of blogs that
are all linked to each other. This is how word spreads so fast and reaches so
many people. Bloggers refer to the universe of all blogs as the blogosphere.
Setting Up an RSS Feed
Well, you saw how popular your tip of the day was with Bob’s readers. Now you
want to get those tips out to more people. You decide to syndicate your tip of
the day using RSS. RSS stands for “Rich Site Summary” or more commonly
known as “Really Simple Syndication.” It is a fairly simple technology to use.
You publish a part of your content in an RSS feed. This is basically a headline
that gets pushed out to people who subscribe to your feed. They read your RSS
feed with an RSS Reader. You allow people to subscribe to your “Wildflower
Photography Tip of the Day” feed by putting a button next to your tip of the day
post in your blog. Once people have subscribed to your feed, they will get your
headline pushed to their RSS reader every day. If they want to read more, they
just click on the link and will be sent to your blog. Then you make your tips
even more available by including a “Forward-to-a-friend” link with each daily
tip. Traffic to your blog increases dramatically.
Monetizing Your Blog
Now we will move one step farther. Your wildflower photography blog, with its
loyal readers, has become a highly targeted source of traffic. As an additional
revenue stream, you may decide to place ads on your blog. People have come
to trust you. If you put ads on your site for products, services or other websites
that you honestly believe in, then your readers will be glad for the
recommendation; just like people were glad when Bob placed your tip of the day
on his blog. As long as the links you post take your readers to someplace
worthy of your recommendation, they will not have a problem with it. They will
actually be more likely to become loyal customers of those businesses than
people who click thru from less targeted sites.
However, if you post an ad for something unrelated to your topic or for an
inferior product or service, then you risk losing the goodwill you were so careful
to build. You will turn off your readers. More than that, you will turn off a group
of readers who are passionate about your mutual interest. They will be sure to
spread that bad news about you to others in the community.
Advertising on Social Media
There is just one more part to the blog story we must tell. You may determine
that your website has something of value to contribute to a certain niche within
the blogosphere. However, you do not want to invest in creating your own blog.
There is a good chance bloggers are already out there reaching your target
community. It is likely they are looking for revenue. If you contact them, they
may be willing to post your ad in their blogs. If you are genuinely offering a
significant value to the community, they may even write about your business in
their blogs.
Again, here is a place for caution. If you do not offer a significant benefit, they
may still write about your business. But, you may not like what they write. The
same could happen if you just approach a blogger in a way that offends them.
Considerations for Business Blogs
In the example above, you have seen what a blog is and how it can help a very
small business. But what about larger businesses? Can a blog help a
corporation with over a hundred employees? Over 10,000 employees? The
answer is yes. However, there are some considerations you must be aware of if
you are planning to have a blog for your larger business.
First of all, if you have something to contribute to the communities you serve,
then by all means create a blog. The same rules apply as for small blogs.
However, you must remember that your blog represents your business just like
any other published public relations material.
Content on your blog must go through the same scrutiny. Do not be fooled into
thinking that blogs are supposed to be informal, so you can just let your
employees make postings to the blog. It is worth remembering that anything
posted on the Internet is there for everyone to see and will stay there forever.
This is especially true of the Blogosphere where people love to spread gossip
and love a good joke. You do not want your company to be the brunt of either.
To avoid this, you simply need to set up official guidelines for blog postings,
appoint qualified personnel to write your blog entries and involve both your
Legal and Public Relations departments in the project.
A blog is a strategic outreach to a community of customers, investors and
possibly the press. In the best case, they will be passionately supportive of your
products and services. As such, they will value the content on your blog
postings and share it with others. In the worst case, they will be critical of your
company. Still, if you do a good job of it, they will see your blog as an attempt
to reach out an olive branch as a good community citizen. In either case, a blog
well done will help your company.
Even if you do not intend to publish your own company blog, still it is important
to keep tabs on what is going on in the blogosphere. People are talking about
your company. If your company reaches a significant number of people, then
there is a good chance someone is writing about your business in a blog. News
travels fast on the Internet. If you find that a particular story is being circulated
that hurts the image of your company in some way, you will be able to respond
quickly to it.
==========================
This article is an excerpt from The Complete Internet Marketer: A Practical
Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Marketing Online by Jay Neuman.
Since 1994, Jay Neuman has been helping businesses as varied as Fortune 500
companies, startup Dot-Coms and nonprofit organizations overcome their
Internet Marketing and Database Marketing challenges. Jay is currently Sole
Proprietor of the KnExT Consulting Group. - www.knextconsulting.com.
He can be reached at jay.neuman@knextconsulting.com
The Complete
Internet Marketer
Internet Marketer
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