By Mark Speed & Shannon Willitts Falk
A blog might be just the communications and marketing solution you’ve been looking for: You don’t need a Web site, you don’t need to know programming languages like HTML, you don’t need to spend a cent and you can have one up and running in less than an hour.
And there’s increasing evidence that if you don’t take control of your online image, then your customers—and maybe even your competitors—will. If you’re not out there being proactive then you risk losing control of your public image. If you take control now, you could greatly enhance your standing in the market.
Despite these pros, some companies still have objections to creating a blog. A common one is “We already have a Web site. Why do we need a blog?”
Here’s why: You’ve spent thousands of dollars (maybe much more) on a Web site that the techies tell you has all sorts of advanced features. It took your marketing team months of meetings to develop the content and look. Things inch forward, with an occasional expensive redesign. If you’re lucky, there’s a schedule of promotional material linked into it that has to be planned months in advance. And whatever can go wrong does go wrong—despite all the testing. In short, a Web site can be a big, cumbersome millstone instead of the spritely, sexy site that you sought. In contrast, a blog is instant and responsive.
On the other end of the spectrum are companies that have yet to create a Web site. And they too wonder why they need a blog.
But blogs are much simpler to set up than Web sites and they’re easy to change and manage. Best of all, you can probably get one up and running for free and do it yourself. Many small businesses are choosing a blog instead of a Web site.
Benefits of blogging
A blog is a great way to start a conversation with your customers. People are able to respond to what you put out on your blog either by leaving a comment, emailing or even calling. You should not be afraid of communicating with your customers—if there’s a problem with your product, it is better aired and dealt with than left to fester. Chances are you’ll also have some very positive feedback that can be used as testimonials in marketing campaigns.
Most blogging packages allow you to see incoming comments, and you can choose not to publish those that are negative. However, even if you don’t publish negative comments, you must deal with them. Either discuss them in another forum with the customer, or—especially when you suspect it’s a wider problem—summarize the comment in a more palatable way and respond to it. You might even devote a post in your blog to it. Trust me: Customers will respect your honesty.
In addition, a good blog will increase your search engine rankings for free. It can cost a lot of money to bring in a consultant to increase your rankings or to buy advertisements on search engine results pages. A blog puts up content for the search engines to browse—just a few posts with some key words relevant to your product offering will enhance your rankings significantly.
One of the other factors that affects your search ranking is the freshness of your content—and fresh content is what blogging is all about.
Lastly, blogs have an immediacy that Web sites do not and, unlike emails, they are not as intrusive. People can subscribe to your blog via what’s called an RSS (“really simple syndication”) feed or via an email facility you set up yourself.
Creating a blog
Be realistic about what you want to achieve and about how much time and effort you’re going to devote to your blog. It’s difficult to apply “hard” targets such as “increase third-quarter sales by 10%.” Your targets should be softer. You’ll know you’ve got a successful blog when you’re getting feedback about it from inside and outside your company. If it’s integrated with your main Web site, you should see a measurable improvement in your search engine rankings.
Before setting up your blog, spend time looking at other companies’ blogs and figure out what you like or don’t like about them. Notice how informal the language is—the good news is that you don’t have to be a great writer to be a successful blogger: You just need to know your business.
If you’re a large company you might want to start with an internal blog (behind your company’s firewall) and invite a large number of employees to participate. Those posts will help you choose writers suitable for a more public blog. If you’re a small business, start with a couple of short pieces on subjects you feel comfortable with and ask friends and close business associates to give you feedback.
Above all, you must make your blog interesting to your audience. You’re aiming for two things here: content and appearance. You can have the best content in the world, but if it’s hard on the eye, you’ll put readers off.
The good news is that blogging platforms give you a wide range of tested layouts, and you can change the layout until you find one that feels comfortable. We recommend that, when possible, you illustrate your stories with pictures, which break up the page and make it more interesting. You also should provide links to other Web sites within your posts. It’s easy to do; your blogging platform will have instructions.
There are other areas of the page to fill aside from the one where the posts appear, and you should take advantage of these. The layout you choose might already have some of these, such as a calendar, RSS feeds and archives. And there typically are myriad free plug-ins to attach—everything from hit counters that show your traffic to daily thoughts that get posted automatically. It can be tempting to include them all, but make sure what you add is relevant. Don’t clutter your blog.
Promoting your blog
As we mentioned, your blog will attract the attention of search engines—and therefore will promote itself to a certain extent. It’s also worthwhile to contact the owners of the Web sites and blogs you link to and ask them whether they will provide reciprocal links to your site. You should provide the Internet address, or URL, of the blog on your company stationery and as a link at the bottom of emails. If you have an email list of customers, dealers and suppliers, send them the link.
Choosing your content
In short, you can publish whatever you feel comfortable posting under your company’s name. Remember that blogging is a more personal and much less formal means of communication than written correspondence or printed marketing materials.
Beware of plagiarizing, slandering and breaching copyright. Never blog when you’re angry about something. “‘If in doubt, leave it out” is a good guideline. Also be careful not to leak confidential information.
Some items you might want to consider posting regularly:
* Customer comments As we discussed earlier, you will inevitably get customer feedback and this will be a valuable—indeed essential—source of content.
* News Posting your perspective on industry news has the additional benefits of showing that you’re progressive and responsive and keeps your blog’s content fresh.
* Instructional How about doing a series of posts on closing techniques for sales associates or marketing tips for dealers? This shows that you’re dedicated to the success of your business partners.
* Promotional You easily could run a promotion through your blog. For larger promotions, you could produce a separate blog because they’re so easy to set up.
* Public relations Many companies remove PR stories from their Web sites after a couple of months without realizing that the content is valuable for maintaining search engine rankings. Why not publish your PR on a blog attached to your Web site? Trade publications such as BedTimes always are looking for news; suggest they subscribe to your blog.
How frequently should I blog?
There’s a myth that content must be updated daily, though the chairman of one of the world’s largest publishers told me recently that he blogs for 10 minutes every day. Once or twice a week is sufficient for most businesses. What is most important is that you establish a schedule and stick to it so that your audience’s expectations are met.
To link or not to link?
A foremost blogging consultant suggests that you attach the blog to your main Web site if you have one. However, Microsoft’s in-house blogger is one of the world’s most successful and he publishes his blog outside of Microsoft because he wishes to retain an air of independence from his employer.
Large companies will probably find it better to have the blog attached to their Web site because it will improve its rankings in the search engines. For smaller companies, it may be easier to use a platform such as Blogger or WordPress. They are free and someone else manages the site. It’s relatively easy to transfer a blog from a blogging platform to your own Web site, so your decision is not final.
Building up your blog
We recommend that you consider including or adding these features to your blog:
* Name Your blog has to have a name and it will appear as part of the Internet address, or URL. For instance, if your company’s name is John Blog, then your address at WordPress would be johnblog.wordpress.com.
* What you’re about There should be a field for you to tell the world about yourself and your blog. You also should include photographs of people who will be posting. People will relate to them more easily.
*RSS feeds RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” These feeds allow readers to receive updates automatically from your site. (The latest release of Internet Explorer may make these obsolete.)
*Links Provide links to Web sites that you think your audience will find useful, but make sure that they are relevant and don’t compete with your business. You also should provide links in your posts—search engines favor sites that contain links.
*Blogroll A blogroll is a list of links to blogs you think your audience may find useful or interesting. As with Web site links, vet them carefully.
*Free email subscription service Every time you post, subscribers will receive the first few sentences of the post by email and can read the rest by clicking on a link to your Web site. Web sites like Feedblitz have a basic service that is free to use. However, before selecting a service provider, check exactly what you’re getting. For example, make sure that you can veto any competitors who try to subscribe and that you can access and download email addresses.
Mark Speed is a marketing consultant and “blogger extraordinaire.”
Shannon Willitts Falk is a professional writer and founder of the Web site www.travelwithattitude.com.