I have been blogging for about 3 years now, only in the past few months I have been putting more emphasis into producing blog posts for people to read on a weekly basis. My recent blogs have been about how businesses can benefit from using social media tools and I have seen an increase in blog views as well as comments and followers.
Blogging has allowed me to share my thoughts and opinions when I get asked a question or want to join in, in a debate that has been speculating the media. This made me realise, businesses can use blogging as a way to showcase their expertise on a frequent basis where they write about what is happening in their business and the industry they are in. There are a number of free to register blog sites such as Blogspot and WordPress.
Here are tips on how to use blogging to benefit your business objectives;
Building trust and credibility
1. Share your own opinion, insight and experiences in your particular market place.
2. Answer those common questions clients or customers you get all the time.
3. Give your readers links to other interesting blogs and articles you think they might find interesting that is related to your business.
4. Show off your exposure when you deserve it by showing your company featuring on other sites or media.
5. Sharing content with the readers and customers that is relevant to what they might be seeking for.
6. Post a video of what occurs at an event and share slides from presentations so others can read.
7. If you are going to be at an event or function, mention it in a blog post. Make readers aware of it by sharing details to it.
8. Be original, fresh and first to break news that concerns your market, industry or what your customers are talking about it.
Marketing your business
9. Talk about what your mission statement is for your business.
10. Keep your readers informed about the events you and your business will be attending throughout the year.
11. Reward your readers by offering discounts or other special offers just for them.
12. Talk about those who work for your business, share other personalities for others to know about.
13. When you have a new product coming out, talk about what new things are planned for the future.
14. Always show a personality to your business, bring it to life and the customers will respect you for it.
15. Discuss what your business is to your customers (Who are you and why you do what you do).
16. Conduct frequent poll or survey to get your customer input (It’s a two way process, not one way). It will draw more engagement to your blog by giving readers a chance to have their say.
17. Publish testimonials to the blog. It will gain a lot more trust into your business.
18. Allowing comments, if you do not allow comments then you are limiting the interaction you want readers to have to share their comments.
19. Promote your website and other social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) you use.
20. Sharing reviews of products by others that interest your readers and customers.
21. Be proactive when it comes to handling any complaints about your product or service.
Engaging with customers and readers
22. Allow comments on your blog but have moderated rules around what can be said.
23. Encourage your readers to get involved in the conversation.
24. Answer comments as people will want to get an expert view on the matter.
25. Listen to what your readers are saying about you, your business and your product.
26. Write about what is working and not working for you and your products.
26. Write about what is working and not working for your customers. write about how customers are using your products that you may have not imagined.
27. Write about how customers have influenced you to improve your product or business.
28. Ask for feedback for your blog and listen to the feedback given.
29. Use your blog to announce any holdups, mishaps or anything which may affect your business or product.
30. Enjoy yourself sharing what you feel is appropriate towards your business, product and industry.
Following these easy steps will ensure you to have more interaction between you and your readers and customers. I hope this helps to clear up how to use a blog for a business and what you can do with it.
