Blogging has become one of the most
popular online activities in the recent years. Proof to that is the existence
of more than 152 million blogs on the Internet.
According to Technorati's State of the
Blogosphere 2011 report,
21% of the blogosphere are comprised of corporate bloggers and entrepreneurs. Majority
of them use blog to share expertise, gain professional recognition, and attract
new clients.
If you are planning to start a blog for your business, here are a few things to keep in mind to make sure that your
blog gets the attention of its rightful audience.
Identify
your blog's goals
One of the first things you should be
asking yourself is: what is your blog for? Evaluate the things you want to
accomplish with your blog before you start thinking about the topics you intend
to cover. Some of the reasons your blog exist may include:
- to promote your main company website
- to keep your customers engaged
- to create a community
- to make money through ads
- to talk about the benefits of your products, etc.
Wordpress and Blogger are the two most
widely used blogging platforms by businesses. They're both simple to use and offer
numerous blogging features, plus sign up is free. You don't need to be adept in
programming language to use either of them. Their respective drag-and-drop
editor allows users to add blog features quickly and easily.
Decide how you want your business blog
to look like and then look for a blogging platform that provides the features
you need.
Other blog publishing platforms to consider include:
This is usually the most challenging
part because it can eat up so much of your time. The key here is to know
beforehand who your target audience are and find out what they look for when
visiting a blog. Given the enormous amount of blog posts being published every
day it's not enough to just have well-organised, unique and relevant content.
Your content must likewise be entertaining, easy to read, and sometimes
controversial.
Keep
your blog interactive
A pure text blog is boring...so use
images and videos to add some spunk to
your posts. Occasionally, run a survey or poll in your blog to engage your
customers. People like participating in fun activities once in a while,
especially if you're giving away freebies.
Commit to
regularly updating your blog
Your customers are most likely to
forget about your blog if you only post once or twice a month. Ideally, you
should post 1 to 2 new content every week to maintain your following. Creating an
editorial calendar is very helpful in scheduling posts at specific days of the
week. If content writing isn't something you can do on a regular basis, share or
delegate the responsibility to another person in your company.
