Print
E-mail
Comment
Getting started with business blogs
By Robyn Lydick
All fired up to get that blog started?
First, identify your audience.
Who wants to read about your business or expertise? Do you want to reach 18- to 25-year-olds who are looking for a used car, apartment or snowboard? Or about-to-retire couples looking for senior housing. Both demographics use online social networks, but usually not the same ones.
Find a service to use
Blogger, Blogspot, Blogsome, Wordpress, even MySpace has blogging capacity.
Write a bio for the company or its top people
People want to connect to people in the blogosphere.
Add a photo
Use a professional portrait or pictures of a product or project where appropriate.
Use keywords to help the Web spiders find your text when they crawl the Web
Blogging about pet care?
Use the words pet, cat dog, care, and any associated words or phrases people would use in a search, such as “new puppy” or “new kitten,” “litter box,” “dog training.”
Aim for 200-300 word posts
The connected generation gives very little time to each topic. Older users still need information in small pieces, Blogging is not the Great American Novel. It’s an elevator speech.
Include other bloggers in a blog roll
Rolls are usually listed along one side of a blog and connects writers together.
Let’s say your expertise is pet care, and you find blog posts discussing litter box issues. Assuming it is not a direct, local competitor’s blog, link to the post and write commentary about it, preferably good, because who wants to read more negative stuff?
Referrals get listed in the originating blog, giving the commentator access to that blog’s readers.
For example, Jill in Highlands Ranch blogged about her latest biz venture — painted miniature cars.
Jack in Anchorage, Alaska, sees the post from the keyword “cars.”
Jack writes a post about the woman who is making toy custom hot rods.
His readers now have a link to Jill’s blog and contact information and she sells a few custom orders.
Now, Jill reads about a dollhouse designer who works in a scale identical to hers, and the doll house has a garage.
She writes about the doll house maker, and in his comments, a ping back or track back appears: a link to Jill’s blog.
Taking a bit more time, Jill could quickly look through a feed, a list of blogs within certain topics or ones to which she has subscribed, and sees someone posting about paints. She can answer, and her name would link back to her blog, building credibility.
A well-written or interesting blog can create its own buzz. And that “buzz” means people checking out your business.
Watch your words
Unless you sell holy texts, leave faith off the blog and politics, too to avoid estranging potential clients.
Even Tweets live forever, somewhere, and you never know when they can resurface.
Try not to call people yuppie chowderheads, even on personal blogs that might come up in a search for your business. Trust me.
First, identify your audience.
Who wants to read about your business or expertise? Do you want to reach 18- to 25-year-olds who are looking for a used car, apartment or snowboard? Or about-to-retire couples looking for senior housing. Both demographics use online social networks, but usually not the same ones.
Find a service to use
Blogger, Blogspot, Blogsome, Wordpress, even MySpace has blogging capacity.
Write a bio for the company or its top people
People want to connect to people in the blogosphere.
Add a photo
Use a professional portrait or pictures of a product or project where appropriate.
Use keywords to help the Web spiders find your text when they crawl the Web
Blogging about pet care?
Use the words pet, cat dog, care, and any associated words or phrases people would use in a search, such as “new puppy” or “new kitten,” “litter box,” “dog training.”
Aim for 200-300 word posts
The connected generation gives very little time to each topic. Older users still need information in small pieces, Blogging is not the Great American Novel. It’s an elevator speech.
Include other bloggers in a blog roll
Rolls are usually listed along one side of a blog and connects writers together.
Let’s say your expertise is pet care, and you find blog posts discussing litter box issues. Assuming it is not a direct, local competitor’s blog, link to the post and write commentary about it, preferably good, because who wants to read more negative stuff?
Referrals get listed in the originating blog, giving the commentator access to that blog’s readers.
For example, Jill in Highlands Ranch blogged about her latest biz venture — painted miniature cars.
Jack in Anchorage, Alaska, sees the post from the keyword “cars.”
Jack writes a post about the woman who is making toy custom hot rods.
His readers now have a link to Jill’s blog and contact information and she sells a few custom orders.
Now, Jill reads about a dollhouse designer who works in a scale identical to hers, and the doll house has a garage.
She writes about the doll house maker, and in his comments, a ping back or track back appears: a link to Jill’s blog.
Taking a bit more time, Jill could quickly look through a feed, a list of blogs within certain topics or ones to which she has subscribed, and sees someone posting about paints. She can answer, and her name would link back to her blog, building credibility.
A well-written or interesting blog can create its own buzz. And that “buzz” means people checking out your business.
Watch your words
Unless you sell holy texts, leave faith off the blog and politics, too to avoid estranging potential clients.
Even Tweets live forever, somewhere, and you never know when they can resurface.
Try not to call people yuppie chowderheads, even on personal blogs that might come up in a search for your business. Trust me.
Submit a Comment
|
You must be logged in to post a comment.
|
Not yet a registered member?
Click here to become one. |
