Blogging in the time of crisis

When the going gets tough, the tougher get going. Since it is clear that the country is in recession, the job of any marketeer just got exponentially tougher. Your marketing initiatives have to be tactical, low-cost, with high return and high visibility; results are imperative. One of online media tools that has a potential to market your brand, build a community, increase public awareness and raise company profile is a blog.

Although, it may seem that blogs are everywhere, American Express, in one of its surveys, estimates that only 5% of businesses with 100 people or less have blogs. If you are one of the businesses in this category, it is time to step-up and take some pointers from Accenture, Adobe, Google, Best Buy and Dell. Those are only some of the top brands that use blogs.

Obviously, there is an explanation to why larger brands use blogging – they have the peoplepower to sustain an interesting and informative conversation. However, small companies can be quite creative in their blogging efforts, and gain all the benefits of blogging without overstretching themselves.

Blog consulting is one of the services we offer to a number of clients. Being this business for a number of years, we have picked up a number of tips and strategies that can make a blog successful. Here, we want to share our findings. You will be able to see if having a blog is right for you, tips on managing blog effectively, and proven ideas on how to make your blog remarkable. This is just a tip of a blogsberg (blog iceberg); we would be thrilled to have an opportunity to work on your blog, and make sure it is aligned with your business strategy and delivers the needed results.

We can’t emphasize enough the urgency behind a marketing strategy. Blog should complement your strategy, and not replace it. Here are the reasons to have your own business blog:
• Give a backstage pass to your potential customers. For example, let people know how your product is being made, such transparency develops trust. People will know what hard work goes into making a product they are using, this will give them a certain appreciation.
• Share your smarts – this way people will know what to expect of you, if they consider hiring you or your business. This specifically applies to consultants.
• If you have a product, be very careful when you blog. Nobody wants to read a commercial. The alternative is to use your blog for testing grounds, and for asking consumers for advices and feedback. This gives people a voice, and develops an immediate connection with your brand. One famous athletic shoe company blogged about a new line of clothing, and asked consumers to offer their ideas for colors and slogans.
• Give consumers tips on how to use your product. Chocolate factory offered different receipts as their blog posts, later they offered blog readers to post their own chocolate receipts.
• Share what you know about the industry you are in, offer your perspective on the current news. Your knowledge of the industry helps you sell yourself.
• Use blog as a customer service tool, let people know about any updates, bugs or new software editions. This is your new interactive FAQ. On Nike’s corporate blog, there is a feature “Ask Our Expert.”

• Use your blog to host what others have to say. A lot of companies offer other businesses to write postings on their own blog. This makes your blog a community, and gives consumers a broader outlook.

If you decide that blog is for you, it is time to do some research. You want to find out what platform to use, what your competition is doing, what keywords in this field are most popular, and what blogs in your area are considered to be an authority. This is where we tend to help our clients the most: market research will help you build a blogostrategy (strategy behind your blog), and a strategy is a key. Your blog needs to answer a very simple question: what is the objective, every posting needs to support this objective.

Once the objective and strategy are established, it is time to roll up your sleeves and start blogging. Here a couple of recommendations we give to our clients:
• Learn from other blogs in the field: see which posts get the most comments and attention and what keywords they use. See what works best for them and utilize it. Install StumbleUpon toolbar, it will help you monitor the information in the field you are in.

• Make a habit of monitoring what your competition does. Use free tools like Google Analytics and Site Meter to understand how people are finding sites and which key words are working.
• If writing is not your favorite thing to do, start with capturing your ideas with short sentences and key phrases. It will be easier to put it together later. This is like a Lego, put a final post together from small pieces. If it helps, com-up with a list of headlines, then turn them into a story.
• Prepare a couple of posts for later use. This will help when you do not have any time to blog.
• Create a blog series, a series of blog postings on a specific title. People quite often like to monitor a series, it shows that you have a lot to say. Additionally, a series of blogs can be easily turned into an article to help with your public relations initiatives.
• Offer your employees to write postings, you never know who has what hidden talents.
• Your blog can easily add flare or character to your organization. You and your coworkers have a personality; this is what sells.
• Follow the news, and offer short postings about recent headlines or review new books.
• Many people ask us how regularly they need to post new content. There is no winning formula. Update your blog regularly, so people remember that you exist. On the other hand, paste yourself; you can’t publish quality content every day.
• If somebody sends you an interesting email or good question, reply to it on your blog.
• Link your posting to other sites and blogs. While you do that, let other blogs know about what you wrote and offer them to link to you. Additionally, try to include different forms of media in your post: embed an image, video or a presentation.

Once your blog is set-up and working, give it some time to blossom. Attention is a scarce resource, and it will take time for people to learn about your blog. Be very skeptical of those who tell you that blog is a hidden treasure that will magically put your site on top of Google’s page rank. Just because Mark Cuban has it, doesn’t mean that you need to have it. Blog will help you with Search Engine Optimization, and will increase market awareness and sales in the long run. This will take some time and patience on your part.

If you decide not to have a blog, there are still several strategies for you to benefit from the blogosphere. Here are a couple of examples:

• Create a Feed Aggregator on your site. This tool will help you aggregate different blog posts and put all of them on one page. This greatly benefits a consumer, who can read 10-15 blogs in one location.
• Become a guest blogger. If you do not have the time to maintain your own blog, offer other popular blogs to write for them once in a while. Establish your own series.

If you are trying to understand whether to have a blog or not, how to create a blogostrategy or how to manage and continuously improve your blog, we can help. We would appreciate an opportunity to help your blog bloom. Please let us know if this information was helpful. With any questions or suggestions, please feel out this form http://infotrustllc.com/contact-us or email us at info@infotrustllc.com

To Your Continuous Success,
InfoTrust Team