In theory, a blog is just a series of short essays (called posts), bolstered by links and comments. In practice, a healthy, vital blog is so much more and can play the central role in your company’s conversational marketing efforts. What makes a blog healthy and vital? It’s all about what you do with those posts, links and comments.
Your Posts: Relevant, Compelling, Unique Content
You know your customers and potential customers better than anyone else does, so put yourself in their shoes: What are the specific problems and concerns they face that your company is an expert at solving? That’s precisely what you want to write about in your blog (along with other types of content) and constitutes the first of 4 steps to create content that your customers can’t pass up:
Step 1: Deliver content that others will find useful and valuable. In addition to writing about thorny problems and solutions, consider discussing answers to frequently asked questions, market news or trends, outstanding books or products, notable people in your business or industry, interesting research findings, relevant articles or Websites that your customer base will find useful—you get the idea.
Step 2: Say it in a way that draws people in and evokes conversations. Remember that your goal is to drive human-to-human connections, so by all means use personal, conversational language (second-person “you” vs. third-person “he, she, it, one”) and active voice (“Virginia Web designers create the best Websites” vs. “the best Websites are created by Virginia Web designers”).
Step 3: Post new content regularly to keep people interested and coming back for more. While there’s no magic frequency that will guarantee vitality for your blog, most blogging experts agree that the regularity of your posts makes a big difference in building community and sustaining readership. Whether you’re posting daily, 3 times per week, weekly or bi-weekly, be consistent. People are counting on you!
Step 4: Make sure people can find your content. You can write the best content in the world, but if no one knows about it or they can't find it, you’re out of luck. Be sure to get the word out through traditional channels (e.g., email invitations, a press release), as well as by reading and commenting on other related blogs, using social media channels and optimizing your content for search (SEO).
Link, Link and Link Again
One of the attractions of blogs is the ability for readers to discover and explore other valuable, related information from your posts. Don’t deny them that service—and it is a service that demonstrates your commitment to helping them find the information and solutions they need. Include links to other posts within your blog, as well as links to other blogs, articles and Websites they might find interesting and useful.
A Few Comments About Comments
Comments provide a hefty dose of vitality to any blog and often supplement the information you share in your post with additional useful content. A healthy blog provides the opportunity for people to easily communicate with each other as well as with you, the blogger.
Yes, it takes time and effort to get people to comment in the first place, and it also takes energy to keep up with the comments once they start coming in. But the investment is worth it. I'll close this post with 5 tips to help you get the conversation going and keep it going:
1. Read other blogs and leave thoughtful, valuable comments on a regular basis. Not only will your reputation as a trusted specialist grow, but others will return the favor in your blog.
2. For the same reason, rate and recommend rich media content, articles and books that you’ve found valuable on social media sites such as YouTube, Digg, deli.cio.us and StumbleUpon.
3. Get active on Twitter and tweet about useful information—including your posts or a comment on a post.
4. Participate in relevant communities on LinkedIn and Facebook. In short, the more actively you participate in conversations, the more conversations will come back to you and your blog.
5. Consistently encourage and invite your readers to leave their comments about your posts. For example, what have I left out of this list of conversation-generating tactics? Be sure to leave a comment and let me know the best way you’ve found to get a dialog going with your customers.
Your Posts: Relevant, Compelling, Unique Content
You know your customers and potential customers better than anyone else does, so put yourself in their shoes: What are the specific problems and concerns they face that your company is an expert at solving? That’s precisely what you want to write about in your blog (along with other types of content) and constitutes the first of 4 steps to create content that your customers can’t pass up:
Step 1: Deliver content that others will find useful and valuable. In addition to writing about thorny problems and solutions, consider discussing answers to frequently asked questions, market news or trends, outstanding books or products, notable people in your business or industry, interesting research findings, relevant articles or Websites that your customer base will find useful—you get the idea.
Step 2: Say it in a way that draws people in and evokes conversations. Remember that your goal is to drive human-to-human connections, so by all means use personal, conversational language (second-person “you” vs. third-person “he, she, it, one”) and active voice (“Virginia Web designers create the best Websites” vs. “the best Websites are created by Virginia Web designers”).
Step 3: Post new content regularly to keep people interested and coming back for more. While there’s no magic frequency that will guarantee vitality for your blog, most blogging experts agree that the regularity of your posts makes a big difference in building community and sustaining readership. Whether you’re posting daily, 3 times per week, weekly or bi-weekly, be consistent. People are counting on you!
Step 4: Make sure people can find your content. You can write the best content in the world, but if no one knows about it or they can't find it, you’re out of luck. Be sure to get the word out through traditional channels (e.g., email invitations, a press release), as well as by reading and commenting on other related blogs, using social media channels and optimizing your content for search (SEO).
Link, Link and Link Again
One of the attractions of blogs is the ability for readers to discover and explore other valuable, related information from your posts. Don’t deny them that service—and it is a service that demonstrates your commitment to helping them find the information and solutions they need. Include links to other posts within your blog, as well as links to other blogs, articles and Websites they might find interesting and useful.
A Few Comments About Comments
Comments provide a hefty dose of vitality to any blog and often supplement the information you share in your post with additional useful content. A healthy blog provides the opportunity for people to easily communicate with each other as well as with you, the blogger.
Yes, it takes time and effort to get people to comment in the first place, and it also takes energy to keep up with the comments once they start coming in. But the investment is worth it. I'll close this post with 5 tips to help you get the conversation going and keep it going:
1. Read other blogs and leave thoughtful, valuable comments on a regular basis. Not only will your reputation as a trusted specialist grow, but others will return the favor in your blog.
2. For the same reason, rate and recommend rich media content, articles and books that you’ve found valuable on social media sites such as YouTube, Digg, deli.cio.us and StumbleUpon.
3. Get active on Twitter and tweet about useful information—including your posts or a comment on a post.
4. Participate in relevant communities on LinkedIn and Facebook. In short, the more actively you participate in conversations, the more conversations will come back to you and your blog.
5. Consistently encourage and invite your readers to leave their comments about your posts. For example, what have I left out of this list of conversation-generating tactics? Be sure to leave a comment and let me know the best way you’ve found to get a dialog going with your customers.
Comments for In Pursuit of (Blog) Health and Vitality!