7
JUMPING ON THE BLOGGING BOAT
how to connect with your focus market through the power of blogging
A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list.
—UNKNOWN
The first thing you need to decide when you build your blog is what you want to accomplish with it, and what it can do if successful. Blogs can be extremely powerful not only in getting a message out there but also in continuing a conversation and building relationships with prospects and customers. In the most basic terms, blogging is about being yourself and posting the unedited you. OK, let’s qualify that a little last point a bit; “unedited” still means within good taste, unless your brand personality is more brash or edgy. Then, by all means forget the taste and post away.
The premier blog platforms
Although WordPress still seems to be the leading blog platform of choice, Tumblr is a strong second contender. In several articles and surveys released on
Mashable.com, a social media news site, Tumblr has often come in close to last, but this blog platform can’t be beat for ease of use. Regardless of others’ opinions, you need to determine which platform is best for your brand, and go for it. If you do not yet have a blog set up on your site, or if your site is not based on a blog platform such as WordPress, it is time to take some major action here.
WordPress is a free blogging platform that offers the largest amount of flexibility. Yes, it is a bit more technical than most other blogging platforms, so novice users might find it tricky to get started. But with that said, you can have zero html understanding or blog platform knowledge and be up to speed with your WordPress blog. Once you get started, you can easily use its many user-friendly features to create a great blog.
Tumblr is a more lightweight blogging system. You can upload a variety of multimedia such as text, images, quotes, links, chat, music, and videos. You can follow other users on Tumblr and see their posts. If they become friends with you, they can also see your posts. You can easily tumble their blog post onto your blog and vice versa. Tumblr is split into four main subpages: Dashboard, Popular, Goodies, and Account.
Posterous is another blog platform worth exploring. It has been rated one of the easiest and fastest blog platforms to use. You can send it your content, graphics, videos, and other files, and it will create a blog for you at no addition charge. Although its designs are professional compared to some of the other platforms, they are still limited.
No matter which blog platform you choose, just make sure that you take the time to watch one of the demo videos so you have an understanding of how it works and how it can benefit your brand online. Once you have decided on the platform that is right for you, get it set up so you can start blogging and utilizing the tips and strategies in this book. There is no time to waste here. There is blogging to be done!
Key benefits of blogging
Business startups often need to build their credibility quickly to compete with established competition. By positioning yourself as an expert in your field through your blog, you can attract media attention and serve as a quoted source in published articles and on other blog sites, which will help you gain exposure to other markets as well as massive numbers of new leads. As you gain coverage and a following on your blog, you will find that people begin to ask you for interviews and quotes, and professional associations may ask you to give speeches or participate in panel discussions, thus solidifying your credibility. Each time people read your company name and associate it with something positive, it will reinforce their awareness of your brand and help them differentiate your company from your competitors.
Blogs can also help you build stronger relationships by providing quality content and engaging conversations on your blog, as well as by helping you build quality online relationships that can often convince a newcomer to come back and read more or, yes, even buy. By aligning your blog with the goal of attracting repeat business, you can build consumer confidence and trust. For example, by answering posts or having conversations with visitors on your blog, you send a message that you value your clients and share a stake in their success.
A favorite benefit of blogging is partnering with other top bloggers. Doing so helps take you into their markets as well as increase your followers and fans. Your blog can, of course, do the same for a partnering blog. Later in this chapter, you will learn where and how you can reach out to other bloggers to build mutually beneficial relationships.
To help you determine what type of blog you should launch and how often you should post as well as engage, take a few moments to complete the questionnaire in
Figure 7.1.
Create your blog message and content
Before we dig into creating content for your blog, there are a few questions to help identify the key message for your blog. Try to be as specific as possible in your responses, and try to avoid general statements like, “I want to offer great customer service,” because everyone claims they offer that. It needs to be different and compelling. For example, maybe you offer the only mobile massage service that travels in an electric vehicle. A few quick questions to ask yourself in creating your key blog message are:
• What is the top benefit in regard to my products or services that sets me apart from my competition?
• What is new, just added, or generating good responses from my current customers?
With your top benefit and something new or just added, we will begin to form your blogging message in the rest of this chapter. Now we need to look at your blog offer. We will create top tips around your message in a bit. Sit tight, yet read on.
In order to determine your blog offer from your blog message, let’s dig deeper in order to determine what your offer(s) should be. Ask yourself these two key questions:
1. What do you want them to know about your industry or topic?
2. What can you offer them (aka free advice, so leave the sales pitching out of this) to help educate them and connect more with what it is that you do? Take this answer and determine how you can save them time, money, or make their lives or business easier with your products or services.
Let’s say your website specializes in gardening because you sell gardening products. You need to clearly identify what it is that you want your readers to get from visiting your blog.
Your blog message is you offer greener, more sustainable environmentally conscious products that are less expensive than the non-green. Your blog offer around this key message (aka benefits):
• Offer quick gardening tips for what to plant during specific times of the year. This valuable information saves them time and could ultimately save them money by having fewer dead plants that didn’t work out.
• Create top tips on how they can create an organic garden in one hour or less. Again, you’re offering time-saving information that helps the planet and their health.
Each of these might also generate publicity for your blog as well. We will cover that in the publicity chapter soon, very soon.
Blog content is the essence of your branding and your connection with your target market online as well as with the media. You need to create content and posts that are not only relevant to your topic or industry but are also newsworthy, timely, and fill a need or want for your market. Let’s look at the top three types of content:
1. Top Tips and Articles. We are pages away from digging into exactly how to create these amazing content pieces.
2. Paragraph Opinion Posts. Yep, it is OK to share your opinion online; in fact, with blogging, it is encouraged.
3. Blog Sharing. Sharing content that other bloggers have posted out on their blog that compliment your products or services. For example, if you are a fitness trainer, this could be local gyms, nutritionists, vitamin companies, etc.
Quick tip on additional blog content
Improve education by asking readers to contribute their year round tips in a special section on your blog, or run a contest where visitors can vote on the best tried and tested tips and share their stories.
Identify and reach out to potential blog partners
When it comes to blog sharing, you need to develop a partner list of blogs/bloggers with which you would like to build relationships. These relationships are key to getting your blog noticed on other top blogs, as well as to reaching out to new markets and new prospects. A great way to locate top blogs is on
Technorati.com, one of the top blog locator sites. You can enter keywords in the search section to locate blogs that you are interested in posting onto your blog or build a relationship with top blogs so in time they will be open to including an interview with you or some of your content on their blog. Another resource for locating top blogs is simply using Google or Bing search. For a blog partner template, visit the website for this book at
www.socialwavebook.com.
Once you have your blog ready to go, and your blog partners identified, you need to get the attention of the top bloggers on your list. Although email and posting are great ways to build a relationship with another blogger, sometimes just picking up the phone to let them know you would like to build a relationship is the best way to grab their attention. Why? For the most part, everyone else is posting or emailing them. When calling them, assume that you only have 30 seconds to explain who you are, why you are calling, and the value of your proposed blogging partnerships.
Keeping in touch with blog partners
Even if you have already reached out and talked with the bloggers on your partner list, make sure that you send them an email or post at least once per month to keep your name and blog at top of mind. Don’t be buggy, just simply let them know you are there. Be sure to include their posts and content on your site periodically. Share the love, because as we all know, all the world needs is love.
Take time in every single day or week to build relationships with other bloggers and sites online. Create a list of blogs and content sites that you like and feel are relevant to your industry that can compliment what you are already offering. For example, if you are a nutritionist, partnering with gyms, vitamin sites, health blogs, etc. could greatly benefit your site. How? Glad you asked. As you locate sites you like and find content that you want to share with your clients and prospects, include these site links on your blog or throughout your site. These links will help you build search engine ranking with Google and other search engines such as Yahoo! and Bing. In addition, as you begin to share these sites, the site owners will pick up that you are linking back to them and start to check you out—and possibly share with their market as well.
figure 7.2–“30-second” connection
It may take you some time to get into the groove and build relationships, which is an ongoing process. Be patient with yourself, and don’t put too much pressure on, just continue to take action. Initially you might blog two to three times per week, but as you become busier as a result of all of the business, syndicated columns, and speaking engagements you have drummed up from your online activity and engaging, you may reduce your blog time to once or twice per month. Keep in mind that if you set your foundation, and you persevere, six months down the road you’ll started to feel the love and business from your blogging efforts.
Marketing your blog
Marketing your blog is not a one-time effort. You need to consistently reach out and market on a daily or weekly basis in order for your blog to climb the rankings and gain more readers, especially in the beginning. Below are top tips on how you can market your blog.
•
Post out to social sites. When you create a post on your blog, reach out to your other networks online such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to let your fans, followers, and friends know about your recent post. Make sure you include the link back to your blog so all they have to do is click on the link instead of cuting and pasting it. Example: Check out top five tips on social networking at
www.insertblogurlhere.com. (Reminder: You can tiny your url by going to
bit.ly. If you are using Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, these social media dashboards will automatically tiny the url for you.)
• Partner with other bloggers. Words cannot express enough how important it is to reach out to other bloggers online. Bloggers are some of the most approachable and helpful people you can find online. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a fellow blogger for help.
• Include video clips on your blog. This is a great way not only to connect with your readers on a deeper level when you post them on your blog through sites such as YouTube, but also to pull people over from YouTube to check you out. Videos are quickly becoming one of the top ways to help your blog or site with search engine ranking.
• Include links. Another highly effective approach to help raise awareness for your blog is to include links to other blogs, social bookmarking sites, and/or other places where you have been featured online.
•
Monitor mentions and send thank-you posts. Monitor inbound links, traffic, comments, and mentions of your blog from sites such as Google Alerts (
www.google.com/alerts), Technorati, Blogpulse, and Yahoo! Explorer. When you see that your blog has been mentioned or linked back to, send a thank-you and post something sincere directly on that blog in the comment section.
How to monetize your blog
Once you build your site credibility and have some solid site traffic/readers, there are dozens of ways you can monetize your blog. Below are several options to explore once you are ready to make some cash.
• Advertisements. Ads come in the form of text links and banner ads. There are many pay-per-click, pay-per-post, and affiliate programs available. There are programs available through Amazon Associates, Google Adsense, and eBay Affiliates, just to name a few.
•
Selling merchandise. If you do not yet have your own merchandise available for sale, you can use sites such as
Cafepress.com to customize hundreds of products with your brand message and/or logo.
• Industry reviews. If you are an established expert in your field, this is an excellent way to bring in some revenue from your blog. There are a handful of excellent bloggers out there that review products, events, businesses, and even websites through their blog posts.
• Donation button. If your readers love your content and posts, another way to bring in cash flow is by simply asking your readers for donations by adding a donation button to your blog via Paypal. A popular line that has surfaced from bloggers: “If you like this blog, why not buy me a drink or a cup of coffee?”
Consumer reporting on your blog
Let’s dig into this one a little deeper to consider adding some flair to your blog: a category or focus on consumer reporting in your industry. This is one of the best ways for bloggers to build readers and engagement. Whether you are new at blogging or have been blogging for a while, reviewing products can be a huge benefit of blogging. Not only do you get to try out new and cool products, you also get a chance to have a company and others know your honest opinion about the products. The keyword here is honest. So even if you do not like the product, you need to be transparent about it.
To get the hang of reviewing, you can review products you already own and use. Make a list of product attributes, divide the list into pros and cons, and think deeply about how you use the product in your everyday life, how it helps you, and how you would improve it. Then post your review on your blog.
If there are products you are interested in, search the internet for their PR contacts or look them up on the fabulous LinkedIn. Let them know you are a blogger and you would like to review their products. Include why you would like to do this. There are also sites that can help you get in touch with companies that want bloggers to review their products. Here is a list of just a few.
1.
Buzz Agent (
www.bzzagent.com/) is a favorite site. Not only do you get a chance to review products, but you can also earn points to redeem at MyPoints.
2.
Blogger Linkup (
www.bloggerlinkup.com/) sends you an email several times a week that lists requests for guest bloggers and lists of those who want to guest blog. There are also lists of companies requesting reviews for their products and their contact info.
5.
My Blog Spark (
www.myblogspark.com/) provides “sparks” of information directly to its members from some of the best-known consumer brands in the country.
These are just a few sites to get started with. Remember, start out small and work your way up and into consumer reporting. As you get more familiar with blogging and/or reviewing, more opportunities will come along. Don’t get frustrated, be patient, and stay focused. Be a voice for your industry. Remember honesty is seen and felt online, so do not try to hide bad products or overdo it with a good review product post—unless you really like those new red stilettos Jessica Simpson just sent you. Then shout it out to the world.
Develop ongoing plan
The key to success with any blog campaign is consistency. You can have the best blog design and content in the world, but without consistency, your efforts will not bear fruit. Some people do not want to take the time to consistently post on their blog and market it, so they choose to hire a VA or blog agency. However, you have made it this far! You can do this successfully on your own if you simply commit to the process. If you are just way too busy, or you have no passion or desire to make this happen, then certainly, outsource. Just make sure your brand personality is all over your blog and with every single post and reply. Create a “lingo chart” for your VAs to use when and as needed. Give them words you use when you write or talk online. Update this list of lingo as your personality changes. Ha, now that was a funny sentence! Hey—change happens!
OK, let’s dig deeper to determine who will handle your blog. There are a few options to consider. You can, of course, create your content and posts. Decide right now if you will consistently develop content and post to your blog. Are willing to be consistent for the success of your company? If you absolutely are not committed to this, then you need to outsource your content creation and posts. You can do this by hiring a VA or signing up with your local university’s internship program to attract help from students majoring in your field. Students not only love this experience and need it for the good of their future careers, but they also might even do it for school credit/ pro-bono, just for the experience. Visit your local university’s career center or give it a call to ask how you can post your information for these positions.
Next, you need to decide how often you will post on your blog. Will you be posting daily, weekly, or monthly? If you want to be known as a top blogger in your industry, I suggest you post daily. If you want to have a blog presence and continually build your credibility, I suggest you post several times throughout the week. If you just want to have a blog to post periodically and/or you want to ease yourself into blogging, then post once per month. In order to stay on track, create a content calendar and schedule. Whether you are outsourcing or doing the content and posts yourself, you should have a 6- to12-month blueprint calendar so you have a plan and general idea as to what you will be writing and posting about. You can create this calendar using the seasons, as with summertime recipes; popular monthly topics in your industry, such as National Women in Business month; or even self-created ones, such as National Eat Your Vegetables Day. I created my own Super Starr Day (notice the two r’s?), when we celebrate successes every year, now, on October 22. Yep, that is the success-celebrating day. Oh yeah, and it’s also my birthday!
WIPEOUT
I have been blogging for a while, now, and I can’t seem to get people to read it, let alone post comments or engage, what am I doing wrong and how can I fix it?
WAVE TIP
Consider your blog in light of these two points:
1. How long is the post? If it is more than 750 words, edit it back to 750.
2. Are you asking questions in the post, giving them ways to engage and get involved, or are you just talking one way to them?
If you solicit your readers for suggestions on how to improve your blog in a post, you will encourage more people to engage with your blog. Make sure you list your blog on
technorati.com as well as other blog listing directories under your keywords and categories.
