Your companies blog - an investment or cost

Earlier last week, I was having a conversation with some people about blogging, and was surprised to see that most people still consider it a cost rather than an investment. So, I decided to write a small post on this topic to let you guys know my thoughts on it.

I agree, random blogs with unauthentic or irrelevant content are pointless. But if you are doing business, you need to have a strong blog presence, and here’s how:

1- You need to have a personal voice for your business that people can relate to, communicate with and understand. One of the best ways of doing that is with a good content blog. For authority blogs you have to provide value and insight, instead of following the crowd. Your posts should be authentic, original and unique. That’s the best way for you to make a mark on the niche and get a following. Whatever business you are in, make sure you have a good voice for your community.

2- Its a platform for you to connect with people. Once you have people reading you, try to engage them in conversation. Get them as involved and connected with you via the blog as possible. An active community is one that spreads the most. If you are an event manager, cover your events or engage your audiences in activities through the blog.

3- You can also use your blog as an effective messaging board. Turn it into a key source for your company information. Use it for answering questions or giving clarifications. Use it for announcements and updates. Use it for publishing case studies of your clients.

4- When you are connecting with other bloggers, try to give away links or look for points of synergy. Its good to open and friendly with the blogosphere at large. This helps to make your blog stronger and more visible to potential readers.

5- Make sure your content is relevant to your niche and that you keep posting to it frequently. This is where good resource allocation skills come into play. Don’t think that you have to do everything yourself - get over your inhibitions and get a team onboard. Did you really think Donald Trump writes his blog posts himself?

6- Set realistic expectations and goals for the blog. Your blog has to have a long term plan and shouldn’t be sporadic or spontaneous. Know exactly what your goals are (whether its something measurable like direct increase in traffic or something unmeasurable like brand awareness)

7- Have a good feedback mechanism in place. Get hold of a good trackbacking software and actively engage in comments and responses. This is as important as writing the posts itself, so make sure you can schedule dedicated hours to it.

Simon U Ford (SUF.EDBD)

Today’s tip! To get search engine traffic you must own software that’s capable of showing you everything the search engine spiders see.

Social Traffic - Event Marketing In A New Media Scape Join my JV partner program

Digg - Your companies blog - an investment or cost Twitter - Your companies blog - an investment or cost Stumble Apon - Your companies blog - an investment or cost Del.icio.us - Your companies blog - an investment or cost Facebook - Your companies blog - an investment or cost Myspace - Your companies blog - an investment or cost Google - Your companies blog - an investment or cost Technorati - Your companies blog - an investment or cost Share This - Your companies blog - an investment or cost Reddit - Your companies blog - an investment or cost

Related Posts


If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.

  • Point 4 stands out for me. Simon, I'm learning so much for your articles as well as your Social Traffic book. I can see that it's all about strong synergy in my relationships. Being open and friendly, as you mention, is the key to personal blogging.

    Noting the cute cartoon: it's all too true that public honesty is not always valued in a corporate structure. :-)
  • JoLynn_Braley
    I orginally started my blog with the only goal being to blog, meaning that I did not have any other business in mind. Now I do have a business, a coaching/mentoring business that inspires me beyond measure, and I find myself in great transition with my blog. Where the blog used to be my main focus, it is now a part of my list, however I need to bring it back in as a main component in my business model because it is a great source of traffic and connections....
  • halicea99
    Simon, I have been on a reading frenzy the past couple of days and I have been getting so much out of these articles, Thank you and everyone posting for the great Ideas.
  • Nicole VJ Allen
    Addy, Thanks for your addition to the the blog. I just created a blog for my husband's company and we had IMMEDIATE participation. Our community is very active and the response was very favorable. Before that, we used a forum exclusively, but because of spam we had to lock it behind a username a password. Now we are able to contribute relevant information to a wider audience and hopefully satisfy the curiosity of the looky-loos who would like to know more but who aren't yet ready to sign up for a forum.
  • Point number 7 really stands out for me. The exchange does seem very important especially when questions and comments are being posted. I was speaking the other day with a woman who ran one of Yahoo accounts that does a lot of work with Fortune 500 companies and she said that a lot of them are using SM for the direct feedback aspect of it.
    They know the necessity of keeping on top of things that are not working and finding out what does.I know that for the not-for-profit sector a lot of these things are run by volunteers but some problems arise when the voice of the agency is not consistent. They are looking for ways to develop a strategy to keep the volunteers as well as the profile consistent.
  • Rebecca, I have a client who sells electronic goods. Over the years they have closed down three retail stores to move their entire operation online. They communicate with customers through their blog and social media . They also deal directly with their manufacturer in china who drop ship product for them.

    They have cut 4 layers out of the traditional supply chain. They get product to customers 40% cheaper at greater profits and their customers perform the role of product testing through direct dialogue.

    They sell new stock at discounted prices and within days of receiving it customers are on their blog posting their feedback. They know instantly if a product line is going to be well received and even more importantly if it may not.

    They can pass customer feedback to their suppliers months before they would when working out of retail shops.

    Customers are now getting better value at 40% less whilst the retailer earns greater profits without carrying any stock or having to store it. Why would you do it any differently into the future.

    It's clear where its all going and just think. Everyone in business has to learn how to do this. <-;
  • Another point ERP/ SCM software are not cheap at all. The 2007 numbers: ERP vendors top the top 20 list of providers, SAP with $835 million, Oracle with $700 million, and Infor with $410 million. JDA Software jumped from No. 6 in 2006 to No. 4, followed by Manhattan Associates. At the bank we are implanting SAP since 2002 and I can say that, in most case, those monsters are really cost since it take long time to integrate, learning curve; experts go to other companies, retraining... no CIO would never tell that. Now, imagine doing business with free blogs and free social media connection over an intuitive platform. That's real value added!
  • Guest
    That's very interesting Simon I'm also in touch with a clients who does the same e.g imoprting stuff with very specialprices. Actually I have to set upa store for him to start a pilot with a few products (tuner for lazer printers). If the pilot goes well, then we will keep on with other 10's of other products. The guy is a very smart guy. He told me and my partner, "just lett me know what you'r clients need, I'll give them the best price they might imagine." So I'll probably add GFC rating instance to or for each one the tuners description page, and a main wall gfc widget for the site.
  • Guest
    Ok, thanks for the 7 points. Just may I add, if it's a companies blog, you may like to find a platform that lets a few writers share the same blog.
    Benefits:
    1.Work splits between a few people.
    2. More content, less time outs.
    3. More interesting, e.g each one is an expert of something different usually, each one has his special voice style and language.
    4. Each writer has his won feed.
    5. Invite "guests/experts" , out side the company, writers from time to time.
    6. It motivates a few people to act. You might find out that someone really likes it/blogging. (e.g you'll see him/her late for work :) ).
  • Avi,

    Events Listed will be launching our buddy press community centric and social networking blogging platform in the coming months. It's going to be fully integrated into the Events Lsited platform and learning center allowing each user to have their own ready made blog on sign up that's linked to Events Listed users blogs.

    All blog comments will be streamed through the Events Listed profile page pulse,....users will be able to bookmark / rate each others posts.

    Events Listed will become a one stop shop for event marketers to blog, plan events in our wiki, discuss issues in our forums, blog, buy tickets and market event pages to sell tickets to their events.
  • Guest
    Good to know, sounds very groovy. I was just generally speaking, for any one who might be reading.
  • BuddyPress is very nice for WordPress MU. I am glad to see Events Listed to use those features. It will really be great. A community plugged in a unique platform.
  • addytseng
    I love this idea offered by Seth Godin in his book "Small is the new Big" re blogging.
    Here is HOW companies should take advantage of blogs!

    1) Have Customer Service use a blog reader/RSS tracker to search all blogs for complaints/issues/requests/references to the company.

    2) Immediately call the blogger(customer) to answer her question and or resolve her complaint or request.

    Wouldn't that delight a customer, especially a frustrated one? Instead of calling and being put on hold, you blog it and someone responds to you!

    Seth suggests that it is very powerful to allow blog readers to watch everything in real time. If the issue is handled well and quickly, the blogger will rave about it right there on the blog! Can it be more authentic?!!

    I haven't been pleased with Comcast's service since they switched over to their "Smartzone email system" (Smart? Yeah right!) and I've basically given up calling their customer service. I've joined other folks in voicing our disatisfaction on a blog. No Customer Service person from Comcast has yet reponded to the blog to address our issues. It's very pathetic. If you work for Comcast, pay attention.

    Last year, I also tried to contact a somewhat prominent internet marketer on twitter to request a refund. This person's strategy was to offer NO WAY for customers to contact him or talk to a live person. I got no response to my tweets. He obviously wasn't following me on Twitter!! I had to go through my bank and other means to get my refund. He's lost his credibility now with me and my friends.

    Investment or cost? You tell me!
blog comments powered by Disqus
Improve the web with Nofollow Reciprocity.