98toGo's Online Rapport Building Blog

To blog or not to blog. Unsure of what business blogging can do for your business? Have you ever wondered why even big businesses maintain their own blog sites. As major players with unlimited resources, why don’t Coca-Cola or P&G, for example, just bombard the airwaves and print media with advertisements, sit back and wait for the profits?

Big or small, businesses need blogging in order to thrive in an online landscape. A blog is an informal and interactive platform that the average reader can relate to. It is a good source of relevant information and not just mere promotion. Can your business really benefit from it?

A good way to position yourself as a thought leader

It’s nice to have good leaders but thought leaders are looked up to by their peers because of the innovative and insightful ideas they bring with them. They are often associated with terms like first, best, most, top and other superlatives you can think of. Well-thought out blogs can make well-thought-of leaders who inspire, not demand, a following. When you know what you’re blogging about, you build credibility and reputation for your organization, making it a trusted resource in your niche.

A good feed for the human mind

What has this got to do with your business? The human mind works with ideas and is constantly searching for new ones. Customers are humans with minds continually looking for good products. If you provide informative blogs that help customers make informed decisions on the products they buy, you stand to win their trust and grow your clientele.

A good bait for search engines.

SEO is the lifeblood of online businesses. Business blogging is one of the most effective baits for search engines because blogs are interactive and constantly updated. Be careful though with the quality of your content. New search engine algorithms are now equipped to detect what’s good or bad bait for them. Bringing your blogs to the social web where there is an overwhelming crowd could give you an added bonus. Stellar content is shareable content that can easily go viral, providing a feast for search engines. This then drives traffic to your site, generating leads, conversions and improved ROI for your business.

A good repository of resources

Good blogs contain useful information for readers and good bloggers know how to provide them. Comprehensive company knowledge, industry expertise, subject matter understanding and familiarity and, of course, a great writing ability are what draw wows from audiences. Your information nest egg must be consistently updated in keeping with the changing needs of searchers. Discontinuity and long intervals are potential recipes of disaster that can ruin your reputation, something that is not easy to rebuild. Once you’re an established trusted resource, make sure to maintain a good supply of blogs because people will keep coming back for more.

A good crowd drawer

A crowd is what you need to grow your business. Business blogging helps you fulfill this need. People are by nature social and they often want to be in a crowd where they can connect, interact and build meaningful relationships. Blogs with shareable content can spread like wildfire. Talk about controversial industry issues, for instance, and your’re sure to precipitate a deluge of opinions, ideas and discussions. This means traffic and more traffic to your site.

Now you’d complain that your small or mid-sized business would be a dwarf to the giant Coca-cola or P&G. According to Wikipedia, even Coca-Cola started small in the 1800’s with Asa G. Candler, a Coca-cola cofounder, acquiring full ownership of the business for $2,300. Look at where it is now. There was no business blogging to speak of in those days but this just shows that one small step after another can bring a business to the big leap. Business blog writing could be that small step to that big leap.

Not convinced yet? Tell us why.

So, it's become trendy lately to write about how blogging may be dead, or at least on its way out the door. Leaving aside the slight irony of blog writing about why blogging is dead, this is a matter that, honestly, comes up year after year.

To the detractors, we say: hogwash. Blogging may not be the cool new kid on the block anymore, but it's far from dead. In fact, we say "blog or die" is still the name of the game.

A Few Facts

When we say "blog or die," it's because blogging still remains one of the most versatile and cost-effective tools in your online marketing toolbox. Here are a few statistics from a recent set of infographics from Hubspot:

• 81% of firms polled said that blogging is at least "useful" to their strategies, with fully 25% considering it "Critical."

• 57% percent report getting at least one customer due to their blogging.

• 26% percent of customers rated bloggers as having the most influence over their own buying decisions.

So, while it's true that social media is making in-roads as a method of online advertising, it's in no danger of wiping blogging off the map. It just illustrates that, as online marketing matures, there are going to be more tools developed that all have their place in a marketeer's toolbox.

Blogging As a Hub

So, why do we say "blog or die?" Because, fundamentally, your website is the hub for your business online. You might visualize your social media efforts as being satellite offices, or perhaps as embassies to various online groups. Only rarely will they make sales by themselves, unless you're in very specific fields that allow for direct buys through social media, such as the music industry.

For the most part, you put posts on Facebook or Twitter or Linked-In to lure people to your website to look more closely at what you have to offer.

Even though your blog may no longer be the first part of your organization that someone is exposed to online, it's still part of your central hub. People who are interested in what you have to offer will want to explore your website for more information. You still need to have that information there for them to peruse.

Blogging Allows In-Depth Coverage

We get it. People today have short attention spans and like the instant gratification of short social media posts. It's a fine format for sharing blurbs, one-liners, quick tidbits, questions, and George Takai's latest "lolcat" photos.

However, you still cannot truly advance an argument on social media. Many social sites of don't allow long-form content at all, and among those that do, the feature is hardly utilized by anyone. Facebook's "Notes" can emulate a blog, but in general, they're too long for the format and few people read them.

Business blogging allows you to go beyond "bumper sticker" bids for sales and to more fully express your ideas on subjects. You can't get ahead in business solely by appealing to those who only care about thoughts which can be expressed in thirty seconds or less. You need a format that allows you to explore thoughts in-depth, provoke meaningful discussions, and position yourself as a business that knows their stuff.

This is all far easier to achieve with a blog than with any social media outlet.

The Realistic Answer? Do Social AND Blog or Die.

Fundamentally, this should not be an either/or discussion, and I hope I haven't presented it that way. Don't get me wrong, social media has plenty of valid functions and can be a great tool for gaining leads. Ideally, both should be employed together, hand-in-hand, to get the best of both worlds.

So, going forward, how do you see this mix evolving in your business? More social, more blogging, or some of both?  

As we recover from the fist-clenching, jaw-dropping, work-distracting weeks that were the 2012 Summer Olympics, we begin to remember why the event only happens once every four years – it’s exhausting. As the athletes jump and run, flip, splash and hurl their way through their respective finish lines, we sit on our couches and wonder – how can anyone possibly build up that much physical endurance? The Olympians train for years in order to groom themselves for the big games, but it takes a certain amount of skill and spirit to become a medal winner.

In many ways, inbound marketing is really no different than the Olympics. Thousands of companies compete for the same customers – but only a few businesses have the knowledge and know-how to rise to the top of their field. Like the USA’s Olympic team, the most successful companies have their own special tools that help them build their brand and convert more traffic into paying customers than ever before. We like to call them the inbound marketing medal winners.

The Gold – Firstly, and most importantly, there is content. It’s important to know that content is a true success story. It can be bad – in fact, it can be downright embarrassing. However, with a little time and a lot of training, content can quickly become your star player. Content writing, at it’s gold-winning best, is relevant, well-researched, high quality and, most important of all, it’s exactly what your audience wants to see. Your web copy – from your home page to your blog posts – needs to be entertaining enough to grasp the attention of your audience and thorough enough to address their primary concerns while building brand credibility.

The Silver – Next, there are social shares. In addition to winning you big points for quality, social sharing is the player everyone knows and loves. They’re the viral videos, the colorful infographics and the witty Tweets. Social shares are the pieces of content that are so overwhelmingly interesting and entertaining that social media and social bookmarking site users feel the need to share it with all of their followers, who, in turn, will share it with their followers. If you’re looking to grow your audience and reach more potential customers than ever before, social sharing is your best bet. Not to mention, search engines generally rank websites higher when their website content is shared often.

The Bronze – Last, there is Search Engine Optimization. SEO gets a bad rap sometimes – but that’s just because not everyone knows how to use it effectively. This is the player on your team that you must watch carefully, and constantly update with all of the newest strategies. SEO can change pretty fast, and the last thing you want to do is attempt outdated or illegitimate tactics that could get you disqualified from the whole game. You see, Google isn’t fond of black hat SEO tricks and your company would be wise to avoid them at all costs. Instead of stuffing your content full of keywords or embedding your copy full of unnecessary links, stick to quality content and genuine, proven strategies.

When it comes to the inbound marketing race, it’s important you have all three medal winners tactfully in place. By creating interesting content that people will want to share, and using legitimate tactics to drive traffic to your site to discover this content, you will have a much better chance of beating your competitors and winning over new customers.  

Have you ever heard the old saying about how there are only about a dozen different plots for a story, and every book and movie ever made is just reworking one of them? Well, believe it or not, the same is true for blogs. There's really a pretty simple set of “formulas” for blog writing, and if you follow them, you can be turning out plenty of content in no time!

So, if you're writing blogs for your company, read on for some tips on how to keep producing high quality content that brings in new leads!

Writing Blogs Made Easy: A Quick Guide

1. Find a topic.

Sources of inspiration are all around you. Talk about an aspect of your industry, or your manufacturing process. Answer a question you heard recently. Listen to the news for subjects relevant to your business. Read other blogs, respond to what they say. Variety is the main key here. Don't write about the exact same thing every day.

2. Decide on a Format.

Here's where those formulas really come into play. There are really only a small number of basic formats when writing blogs. Once you come up with an idea and then pair it with one of these formats, you're already halfway there.

• Problem resolution. Basically, you just present a problem, explain its causes, and then detail the solution to that problem. This format works for everything from explaining flea prevention to advocating political policy.

• Top ten (or bottom ten) lists. Go easy on these. A good Top Ten list can go viral because of its simplicity, but there are so many out there that it's become a stale format.

• Answering questions. A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) is a great subject for a blog, if you commonly get questions all regarding a specific area of your business.

• Prognostication. Everyone likes to slip on their fortune teller hat from time to time. Analyze trends in the industry (or the country) and explain how you think they'll affect your business down the line. These can be great for getting you noticed as a strategic thinker.

• News analysis. No matter what industry you're in, regulations constantly change, and major financial or political news can have a big impact on you. When the wind shifts, that's a great time to write a blog with your thoughts on it.

• Article response. If your industry has a friendly community, start blog-based conversations going with fellow members by writing a response to something they say.

3. Pick Keywords

Hopefully you already have a set of keywords for targeting your SEO. If not, now is definitely the time to do so. Find a couple keywords that are relevant enough to your topic that you can slip them in naturally when writing blogs. Generally, you don't want to have more than two or three different keywords.  Otherwise your writing becomes about shoehorning them in, rather than actually producing good content writing.

And remember, you only need to have a keyword density of around 1%-2% for your SEO, so don't overdo it.

4. Include Some Links and Citations

Including links are great for your SEO. Just like back in school, it's best to provide links with sources on facts you're presenting, since it both legitimizes your work and gets some outbound links in there. Also, don't forget to link to yourself as well. If you mention something you covered previously, link to it so interested visitors will keep reading what you have to say.

5. Proofread!

No, seriously, proofread it before posting. Your word processor isn't going to catch all your typos or grammatical errors. When in doubt, read it aloud. You'll hear errors your eyes don't catch.

That's it! That's really all you need to know. Writing blogs really isn't that hard, once you break it down step by step.

What blog writing tips have you discovered that worked for you? 

So, your business has a website. Congratulations! Is anyone actually reading it? A vague, cookie-cutter website that doesn’t actually say anything will do little more than annoy your potential clients. Fresh, informative content writing, in the form of blogging, is a vital component to your web page.  A solid blog will keep you at the top of search engines, and draw potential clients to you.

Here's how to get the most out of website content writing

Utilize keywords

Nowadays, online search engines are the most frequent source people turn to for accessing information. We type in a few words that are related to what we want to find, and hope for the best. To be one of those lucky companies that pops up first on Google, you need to become a mind reader. What key words will your potential customers search for when trying to find the services you can offer them? Know your customer, and make sure your blog content contains those key words they are looking for. The more your content matches up with what your clients need, the easier it will be for them to find you on search engines.

Be relevant and to the point

Nobody surfing online wants to read a novel to find what they are looking for. Your website’s content writing should be clear and concise. If people have to read through a bunch of meaningless fluff to get to the point, your point will never reach anyone. Your page’s visitors are looking for quick help and useful information. Your blogs should be informative and easy to understand. Stick to one clear topic, and don’t lose your readers to a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo.

Be unique

In a world that seems to have become completely A.D.H.D, it’s hard to keep anyone’s attention. Sifting through the same, bland websites gets really old really fast. Don’t let your website’s content writing melt into the vanilla ice cream that is corporate blogging. Engage your readers and stand out from the competition. You can make your point and still crack a few jokes or make some interesting observations. Be informative, but break it up now and then with something different to keep your readers reading.

There is no point in paying to operate a website if it isn’t reaching anyone. Good content writing will both capture and hold the attention of search engines and potential clients. Staying current with your blog will keep you at the top of customers searches and keep your readers coming back for more.

How often do you update your blog’s content? In what ways do you engage your readers?