Client Corner – Avoid the blog standard 

Successful blogging for business by Lauren Fisher

Last month I attended a training course on social media for business. The focus of the course was on how companies can find a way to interact within social media and, refreshingly, this didn’t centre around Facebook.

Among the talk of fancy widgetry, slick marketing campaigns and sophisticated user interaction was a focus on the written word, and in particular online blogs. Once thought of as a space for those wishing to record the minutiae of their daily lives, blogs have evolved into a crucial marketing tool and have given birth to the increasingly powerful super blogger. See an interview with Al Carlton writer of one such blog that has 72,000 RSS readers, for his valuable insights in to blogging successfully.

Benefits of blogging for business

The value of a blog for businesses must not be overlooked. A blog…

• is the most effective way to reduce the distance between consumer and producer.
• provides your business with a face – online transactions often take place no human contact.
• builds brand trust – it is an opportunity to shout about the good (and the bad)
• is your communication tool between you and your customers / potential customers.

Managing a blog

There are basic requirements that are going to make your blog effective.

• Resource – choose the right person/people in your organisation to write it. Ensure they have…

  • the relevant experience and passion for the company.

  • the writing skills and personality to engage with readers.

  • the time to dedicate the necessary focus.

• Copy –  ensure content is fresh and meaningful. If it looks half-hearted, then so do you.

• Visual & audio – enhance the content and appearance of your blog.  Blogs do not have to centre solely around text - the use of audio and video (a vlog) will significantly add to the user experience.

While the course provided a real insight into how brands can contribute to the ‘social’ circle, I felt that an understanding of the psychology of the user was missing. The traditional concept of marketing to an online audience is changing. It is no longer based on a one too many model. Social media is, by definition, an area designed for personal use - to contact friends, to share tips and to distribute yourself to the online world. I don’t doubt that businesses can interact in this space, but there needs to be an understanding of how it will benefit the user - what will a user be looking for in a blog that your business can provide?

Writing blog content

The challenge for a business blog is to engage individual users in a way that is meaningful and useful.

• Have a goal – define the outcome you want to get from your blog. This will then steer your content creation.

• Choose an audience and define what they need – then you can be sure you’re giving it to them.

• Create unique, relevant and interesting content – give your audience something of value. Don’t waste their time with repetitive, regurgitation of other stories. Add comment, keep it topical, link to relevant content on other sites and forward the conversation.

• Don’t use jargon – if you use language that can’t be understood you will alienate people. If you use a technical term make sure you offer a definition.

• Keep it consistent – if you have different writers then make sure they all keep to a similar tone and structure. It helps your readers and shows a professional approach.

• Measure and improve – watch the traffic on your blog. See what topics are popular and generate comment. Reflect on why others are not. Use this to plan content for the future.

Search strategy benefits

Producing a blog can have a powerful impact on your search engine results.

• Improve your rankings – search engine spiders like a website that stays fresh and is constantly updated. A blog does exactly this.

• Uses the language of searchers – blogs can improve your ranking for long-tail search terms as the writing style of your blog is likely to be more day to day conversation than your site’s current content.

• Creates topic relevant links – most importantly, a commitment to ensuring your content is exciting, useful and fresh, may just be rewarded with a big fat juicy link.