Blogs

Blogs and Blogging: Your Website Needs Content

One of the best reasons to consider blogs and blogging and one reason to consider hiring a professional blogging service is that your Website needs content.

Valuable Original Content
Originally uploaded by 10ch

But more than that, your Website needs good content:

• Relevant
• Interesting
• Targeted

It must be specifically tailored to your audience or customers, not simply thrown up as an afterthought.

One option, as Steven York at seopher.com suggests, is to delegate the writing of the blog to one person at your place...or you could hire someone else to do it.

One thing's for sure though, as social media expert Lee Odden puts it, when it comes to getting fresh stuff on your blog or other Website to maintain your Web presence with customers, it isn't optional.

The challenge, says Odden, in a post at the Online Marketing Blog: Content or Die.

The True Value of Business Blogging

What is the true value of business blogging?

Quality and Value
Originally uploaded by wetwebwork

Flowery descriptions aside, it's really pretty simple.

When you create a blog for your business, whether you hire a blogger or do it yourself, you increase the number of people interested in your product, service or brand who can find you online.

In short, as Seth Godin explains, blogs get you attention in a world of ever increasing choices.

Technical ideas of Search Engine Optimization aside, do you think it's important that people interested in your product or service be able to find you amongst all the clutter? That's the true value of business blogging.

Hire an Evangelist to Blog for Your Business

How do you hire an evangelist to blog for your business?

Saint John the Evangelist
Originally uploaded by cliff1066™

In a recent post, marketing guru Susan Oakes of m4bmarketing.com suggests:

An outside blogger will only become an evangelist over time as they develop the relationship with you and your brands, just as it does with an agency. If you do hire a blogger then the more you involve them the better they can write.

While I agree that bringing in hired guns has it's problems, I could blog passionately about online video or the cool quality of Raven's Brew coffee starting tomorrow!

Exchange a few e-mails and find out what makes your perspective blogger tick. Make sure they are a good fit for you and vice-versa. Great evangelists are born not made. Find the one that's right for you. 

Hire a Blogger and Go Global

Hire a blogger to blog for your business and go global with your marketing efforts.

Global Network
Originally uploaded by WebWizzard

Blogs are uniquely positioned to take a business across cultural lines and to a whole new audience.

But cross cultural marketing expert Cindy King insists the greatest challenge is to understand and adjustg your marketing message accordingy.

For more on Cindy's thoughts read the post "Take Your Small Business Global" at the bizSugar blog today.

Hire a Blogger: Blog Free Speech

Though we often talk about how to hire a blogger to blog for your business, the fact is that blog free speech has even greater connotations the world over.

EFF Bloggers' Rights
Originally uploaded by hughelectronic

Yes, blogs can give your small business the opportunity to cut through the media clatter and the million dollar marketing of huge corporations to get your message to the people who most want and need to hear it.

But in many places in the world blogs give a voice to those long repressed to speak their mind as never before and change the world.

Read this article on "Micro-blogs in China: Tweeting through the 'Great Firewall'" from CNN Tech's Digital Biz and learn more about blog free speech.

Why Hire a Blogger to Blog for Your Business?

Why hire a blogger to blog for your business? You can read some of the discussion over social media ROI including blogging in a recent post at bizSugar.com.

Blogger Barbie
Originally uploaded by BitchBuzz

In reality, there are many goals a business may bring to blogging:

• Increased traffic to their Website
• Increased page rank on search engines
• And, yes, sales conversion

When hiring a blogger, starting a blog yourself or engaging in any other social media, from hiring a professional to delegating the job to employees, it's important to understand your expectations.

Then develop a way to measure whether they have been achieved and to what extent so you can decide whether the return on investment is right for you.

Yes, Blogs Are Social Media!

Blogs ARE a part of the social media, so don't let yourself get confused.

Anti-Social Media?
Originally uploaded by Intersection Consulting

At least every other year (as often as he answers his voice mail) Brian Clark of Copyblogger feels the need to "respond" to claims that blogging is dead.

Brian also, last year, complained about the tendency to treat blogs and blogging as if they were not part of the new, more trendy "social media" set including Twitter, Facebook et al.

We were all set to agree with him and cite a post of our own with a link to blogger Robert Scoble to back it up...then we came across this post where we fell into the same trap.

The best that can probably be said is that "social media" is a term everyone uses when they want to distinguish blogging from all that other stuff...or when they really mean social networking.

But one thing's for sure. When you've got a brand to promote or a lot of content to create and want to customize your presence online, stick with blogs. When it comes to social media, they remain top dog.

Why Business Needs These Things Called Blogs

Since we never get tired of telling people how important blogs are for their business, personal brand or just about anything, it's so cool to run across others who also get this fact.

Blog World Expo 2008
Originally uploaded by ShashiBellamkonda

Whether you are considering blogging yourself or partnering with a professional blogger who will be working with you, consider some great thoughts Web site promotion specialist Tinu Abayomi-Paul has to share about them.

Simply blogs:

• Are great for your site's Search Engine Optimization
• Will engage customers in a way that shortens the sales cycle
• Are really cheap compared to other methods of getting your message across

Hey, why not try on a blog for size and see how it works for your business? For more, read "Why You’re Not Blogging - And Why You Should Start Today" at the Duct Tape Marketing Blog.

Blogs Are the Meat of Social Media

Blogs are the meat of social media or the "deep content" to which "short content" and "networked" content often refer.

Chuletón & blogs
Originally uploaded by mikineator

In an August post media theorist Seth D. Brown looked at how to best use these tools from blogs, to Facebook and LinkedIn to Twitter in the most efficient manner to reach your audience.

Think of conventional Websites and blogs as deep, additive, static content, Brown suggests.

It's uncertain how static a blog is if updated regularly and more certain that based on content alone it will be much deeper than a traditional Website after several months of these updates.

Shorter content media like Twitter can then be used as a relationship builder encouraging followers to return to your blog or Website and find out more about who you are and what you do.

For more, read "Throughput and New Media" at the Ski on Throughput Blog and add your comments below.

What Experts REALLY say about blogs and marketing

Going on with the topic of what some junk posts out there are saying about blogs and their usefulness for business, here are what some REAL experts have to say on the subject of blogs and marketing:

• Remarkablogger Michael Martinez thinks every business should have a blog and tells you why.
• Justin Smith of Searching Solutions gives an explanation of how blogging can help build relationships for your business.
• Finally, Peter Ericson of The Complete Website gives you "5 Reasons Your Website Needs a Blog.

Heard someone say to you recently that blogs can't really do much to build your business? Don't believe them. Watch the above video to learn more.