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10 Things You Must Know About Blogging For Business
I'm working on a longer article on the topic of why and how a business owner can benefit from blogging - any business in any market. Here is my first cut. I use a number of examples from my clients over the last 18 months. I get to writing on this topic and I think there is a book in here somewhere. Hope you find this helpful.
1. What is blogging?
The Wikipedia description is “A blog is a website in which journal entries are posted on a regular basis and generally displayed in reverse chronological order. The term is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called “blogging.” Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts,” or “entries.” A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger.”
That’s pretty dry. Let’s get more practical. Blogging uses software that you log in to via a web browser to update certain pages on your website with new content on a regular basis. Let’s say that your business is training dogs for the more well-to-do in Austin. Check out http://www.fideliodogs.com/dogblog and see what this business owner writes every few days. He provides tips and tricks on how to train dogs. If you phoned him, these are the kinds of stories he would tell you. It’s all about conversation it doesn’t matter if you’re a dog trainer or you a consultant who advices corporations on enterprise software solutions you’re reputation proceeds you when you blog.
2. Why bother blogging?
Bottom line – it makes you more real as a person and a business and you generate more goodwill – and sales. With a business blog your web content is more connecting and more valuable to that first-time visitor who wants to develop some trust with your business via your site. Ask yourself: How much of the marketing hype do you read when you go to a home page that talks about how great the company is and how long it’s been in business? When a business owner maintains a blog, he’s making himself more visible and transparent and real to his/her anonymous web traffic. People are attracted to that willingness to be open and honest, to reveal facets of one’s self, not just talk about one’s business. From a sales perspective, what I know is true from all the businesses I’ve worked with: Blogs shorten the sales cycle. New prospects call and they already know about you, your business and what you sell. They want to take the conversation to the next step. You spend less time on the phone and close more sales.
3. Where do I put my blog?
Install blogging software (MoveableType.org, Wordpress.org) on the same server as your website. Try not to use the free blogging tools that sit on someone else’s server. This is because you want all the traffic coming to your website directly. Why share it with a business selling you blog software (or even giving you blog software)?
4. Does blogging help me be more visible in search engines and get more traffic?
Without a doubt. There are two compelling reasons why. First, when you blog, say, 2-3 times a week, you end up with ~150 new web pages a year. Search engines favor sites with fresh content. Remember, when you blog you’re talking about your business, you’re answering the same questions you get when people call on the phone and when they email you for help. When you put those conversations in short blog stories on the web you’re also seeding your articles (and the search engines) with important keywords that people use to find you in the search engines. In fact, a lot more keywords than you’ll ever be able to cram in 3-5 pages of overly generalized marketing copy.
Most website have only 3-5 pages, right? There’s the Home page, About us, Contact us, Products, Services, and so forth. They’re necessary to say precisely what you can do for your clients. But it’s static content, and that’s uninteresting. If you add 150 new pages in a year, that’s like having 150 more lottery tickets. Each time a person finds you in the search engines, you win more often because you have more pages, and more pages mean more chances for sales from the increase in traffic.
5. What’s the second reason for increased search engine visibility?
When you install blog software on your site, it comes with a dedicated URL just for the blog. It’s called an RSS feed or XML feed. This is so people who use RSS readers can automatically be informed when you post new content. Their RSS reader (like www.my.yahoo.com or www.bloglines.com or www.pluck.com) uses a machine-to-machine interface called an RSS feed. Did you know that there are 130+ web directories that are ONLY for blogs that have RSS feeds? Here is the punch line: Those web directories will also get scanned by Google, so your blog articles may show up multiple times when a person is looking for a specific topic covered by one of your blog articles. In addition, some people will use RSS as a way of streaming news and other related information for their own website. If that includes your blog RSS feed, then you’ll get links and click-throughs back to your blog. An example of how this works is at http://talk.bmc.com where there are 8 bloggers. See the following article in IT Managers Journal on the branding impact of blogging for BMC Software. See " Blogging and podcasting help BMC Software meet business goals"
6. What do I talk about on a blog?
You talk about the same topics you discuss when you‘re on the phone or responding to emails from new prospects you want to do business with. Just be you. If you’re the kind of person who likes to write more formal blog articles, that’s fine; they don’t have to be informal. Maybe you like summarizing critical information for others on a periodic basis. For example, Steve Crossland of Crossland Realty has the Austin TX Real Estate Blog, in which he provides a weekly update on the Austin real estate market for home and business properties. Some people use a blog as a kind of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) area for their website, and they call it Question and Answer with “The Owner” (fill in a name).
7. Can I have guest bloggers or paid bloggers?
Certainly, as long as they are sincere and they bring something of value to your web visitors. It only makes sense you would want to invite people that have the same vision as you do with regard to your traffic. You can pay a blogger to write for your site. I have clients who do that, and the key there is to develop an on-going relationship with the blogger(s). You want them to be independent with their writing; however, you do want them to share the same vision and philosophy as you. So develop the kind of relationship with your guest or paid bloggers that you would with anyone employed by you. Relationships take time – it’s worth it. One side-note here: Be OK with asking for help with editing, spelling and grammar. While it’s fine to be folksy and informal with your writing, don’t get caught up in the “Nobody minds if I misspell and don’t fix my grammar” attitude. If you need a bit of help, ask someone to read over your blog entries while they’re in Draft (a feature of blog software), then push the Publish button afterwards. That’s what I do and I sleep better at night. Makes a better impression. I use a copy editor called www.MyCopyEditor.com, who also has a blog of her own about – copyediting and other things that pique her fancy.
8. How do I make money blogging?
The real payoff for you as a business person who adds a blog to your website is that you have more people knowing about you and your business. It’s a kind of branding or guerilla marketing that’s super-cheap to produce. This improved visibility on the Internet creates new business opportunities over time. You become more widely known (on the Internet) as an expert in your field, and that brings you more business opportunities. And as I’ve mentioned earlier, your blog will draw in more qualified traffic that will turn into more sales because more people can find you in the search engines. A wonderful example of this is what Dr. Doug Kelsey and Ryan Smith have done for their business, the Sports Center Austin, http://www.sportscenteraustin.com, a local physical therapist group. They have more than 200 blog articles now. They are already expanding their business in 2006 and blogging in 2005 helped make that possible. See Dr. Kelsey’s blog, The View, at http://www.sportscenteraustin.blogs.com/.
9. If I blog I’ll give away what I know and people will just use me, right?
I get this question a lot. It’s an older philosophy where you worry about talking too much about your business and fret that all your trade secrets will be stolen from you. I haven’t seen a business yet where this has happened with blogging. Sure, you want to use some discretion when writing; however, it’s important to include information that is immediately useful to the reader – just like you do when you have a face-to-face conversation. But let’s look at the reality of life. People are busy. Most people are coming to you because you’re the expert in your field. Your product is the best for a given application. Most people just want answers and they don’t have time to figure it out themselves or try to apply what they learn to test what really works. When they see that you’ve already done the testing, they want YOU to do the job for them.
10. Should I turn on the Comments feature?
Yes, in most cases you want comments. You want people to feed back to you what they know and how you can improve your business from their eyes. You can, of course, delete comments that are totally off-target or mean-spirited. Note that in most cases it can take time for comments to start showing up. People are busy and in many cases won’t take the time to write. But when they do, you’ll receive a lot of valuable feedback.
So get started now. A few tips – don’t think about writing too much. These aren’t 8th-grade essays. Just write short notes like you do short email responses to people asking you questions. Some can be long; most can be short. And don’t worry about writing every day. Every few days is fine. Write when you have something useful to say. And by all means don’t be solo about your writing. Link to other businesses that have blogs. Respond to what others are saying in their blogs, and add your two cents’ worth. That’s important. Many people forget – blogging is about community and collaboration and communication. Involve others and you will be involved.
All the best
Tom
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