The last part of this series on blogging for business success…
A Genuine Conversation: Blogs are also engaging for readers because they provide a convenient forum for genuine dialogue. Successful blogs build on direct communication. Once your fresh content has attracted readers, you want to keep them engaged in the conversation you’ve started. Blogs provide a number of ways to encourage that connection.
1. Reader comments– Most non-blog web sites don’t offer a way for people to comment on specific new content added to the site. Tenacious readers may hunt down your email address and send you their thoughts, but that kind of conversation takes place in private, adding nothing to the vitality of your site. Blog comments add the voices of your readers to your posts and give you an opportunity to gain priceless insight about your market and its view of your products/services and your company.
2. Interaction with other bloggers– Blogging culture encourages conversations that start on one blog and spill over into others. Blog A discusses (and links to) a post on Blog B, and the readers of both blogs leave comments that link to other sites, spreading the conversation to even more readers and creating the “buzz” that blogging is famous for.
3. Sponsor or host blogs– A low-risk strategy is to sponsor a blog that contains editorial content that appeals to your potential and existing customers. This is what Boeing has done with their “inFlightHQ” blog. inFlightHQ is not a blog specifically about Boeing or its products, but it does contain posts that business flyers find interesting with its “tools, tips, and techniques for being productive at 30,000 feet.” This approach doesn’t require the company to blog, and presents little risk.
In conclusion, one of the most beautiful things about blogs is that they don’t require a massive Web design project. They’re small, nimble, and simply structured, so your company can launch its blog in a matter of hours and immediately begin playing with the medium.
About Wendi McGowan