Guest post by: Tracey Bauer
In an age where the economy is lean and people are constantly glued to mobile devices, tablets and laptops, how can you get them to notice your business? Blogging. Corporate blogging has numerous advantages; let’s take a peek at seven reasons why your company needs a blog.
Guest post by: Veronica Clyde
Seth Godin, one of the Internet’s greatest thinkers, says that we are entering a ‘gift economy.’ A gift economy is basically a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” approach to business espoused by marketing gurus like Tony Robbins. This approach works because people end up remembering you and what you stand for based on the quality of the product you gave away for free.
To profit from the gift economy mentality, businesses should create different types of free giveaway items and consider the expense of doing so as part of the marketing budget. The heart and soul of any business are its clients. The best way to reach clients is through products and services that appeal to them.
Guest post by: Carlina Yepinski
When you run a blog day in and day out, it can become difficult to come up with fresh, new content. Writing can feel like a chore. You can run out of ideas, and you can lose your motivation for finding them.
Blogging block can cripple even the most seasoned bloggers. However, it doesn’t have to be the end of your blog. You can beat the block and come up with interesting new content. Four ways to beat blogger’s block are:
Are you still on the fence about a blog? Maybe you haven’t made up your mind if a blog will be useful to you. Or, maybe you have a blog but it doesn’t seem to be working the way you thought it would. Sometimes, getting back to basics can help.
Blogs can provide greater visibility within your industry, help position you, your company or organization as a thought leader in your field, and generate speaking opportunities.
But, like anything else in the digital marketing arena, blogs have their downsides too.
Here’s a look at the basics of blogs and blogging, why they work and what you’ll want to watch out for if you have a blog or are planning to use one for marketing purposes.
Blog stands for ‘web log,’ a type of website that uses a journal-type approach. Unlike websites, the meat of blog content comes from posts (individual entries), not pages. Blog posts usually appear in reverse chronological order, so think of it as starting your journal on the last page and working your way toward the front cover.
Posts may consist of several different types of content, including:
Each post lives as its own separate page, under a unique URL. Therefore, each post becomes a potential way for visitors to find you.
In its 2010 State of the Blogosphere survey of more than 7,200 bloggers, Technorati (the leading blog search engine), reported that of the corporate bloggers who participated, 57% blog to share their expertise and experiences with others, while 39% blog to get published or featured in traditional media. In other words, they want visibility.
Blogs can provide greater visibility within your industry, help position you, your company or organization as a thought leader in your field, and generate speaking opportunities.
Most businesses find that, in addition to establishing themselves as thought leaders, blogs help drive traffic to their website.
Why?
Primarily because of the way items published on a blog are made available tosearch engines and potential readers. While individual blog posts may rank well in search results – by accident or on purpose – the real power lies in what’s called RSS (Really Simple Syndication).
RSS sends out a feed of your blog’s content. As new posts are published, they join your blog’s RSS feed. Search engines and subscribers pick up new content via your RSS feed. Every time you publish something, it’s a little like the shot heard ’round the world.
Blogging platforms provide tools that allow you to create and manage content with ease. Creating a new post requires little more than word processing skills. In other words, rocket scientists are not required.
If you combine your website and blog within your blog platform, you can apply the benefits that come with an easy-to-use content management system to your website, too. In that case, any new pages you publish on your website also get placed into the RSS feed, acting as an automated public service announcement to search engines and subscribers.
Access to most widely available blogging platforms is provided free via the web. So you can log in and take care of business while you’re vacationing with Aunt Tillie and the kids or out rustling the bushes in search of new business.
Another primary benefit of blogs is they offer interactivity to readers. Instead of slogging through your text, going cross-eyed and nodding off, your visitors can watch a video, leave a comment, vote in a poll, share your content on their social networks, and otherwise interact with you.
Blog platforms have a built-in organization system to make it easy for visitors to find posts on a specific topic. For one thing, blog platforms typically provide a built-in (or easy-to-add) search function. Secondly, you can select one or more categories for each post. Your visitors can then browse for posts within the categories that interest them.
Blog posts are also archived and labeled, allowing you to make your content findable by date published or by tag (label). An easy way to understand tags is to think of them as smaller subcategories or as keywords, making it easy for any content miner to find gold in them thar hills.
Content development. Once you have a blog, you’ll be expected to publish content on a regular basis. While the most common rate of publishing reported in Technorati’s survey is two to three times per week, consistency is more important than focusing on a specific number of posts.
Content is indeed king, but quality only trumps quantity to an extent. If you only publish a new post once or twice a year – no matter how gut-wrenching your content – interest in your blog is likely to vanish.
Maintenance. Besides the time you’ll need for publishing regularly, you’ll need a little time for oil changes and tune-ups.
Most blog platforms push out regular platform updates and enhancements (free). Failing to install updates can leave gaping security holes for hackers to pounce upon. Fortunately, maintaining the blog usually requires only a minimal time commitment and can be tended to while in the process of creating and publishing posts.
Promotion. Although your blog posts (and pages, if you include them) are distributed via an RSS feed, you’ll still need to shamelessly promote new content because it’s competitive out there. It’s a safe bet your competitors are doing it, too.
Various methods to get your content found and build your blog traffic include, but are not limited to:
In no time at all, the tasks of content creation, blog promotion and site maintenance can become an unwelcome time suck.
If you’re concerned about the demands that a blog and blog marketing will place on your already limited time, you can outsource some or all of the tasks of creating and promoting new posts, as well as blog maintenance and management. (Consider partnering with a marketing agency that specializes in writing killer content. Ahem…)
Contact us if you want to discuss whether a blog (and blog marketing) is right for you or how we can help with your blogging needs.
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