Standing Apart From Competitors
In this article we continue our series that began with Web 2.0 Online Marketing Series – The Overview. We now move to the second ring of the graphic below and investigate those items/activities that net the highest return on our investment in terms of time and funds in driving traffic to our website – our virtual store/office.
Blogs are very popular and most people are familiar with them. For those that are not, allow me to explain. “Blog” is a contraction of the term “weblog” which is a type of diary located on a website. It is usually maintained by an individual with regular entries called posts consisting of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order and usually provide the ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format. As an example, you are reading this article on a blog.
Allow me to share with you a short, older but relevant, video because a picture is worth a thousand words.
The entire purpose of Web 2.0 online marketing (including social media marketing) is to go where your prospects are hanging out and build a community there around your company. No matter what you do, it is extremely difficult to build a traditional website that people will follow. Blogs on the other hand, have compelling and ever-changing content can be very effective in building a community of people. The Blog as well as other social media can then include links back to your traditional website.
According to Hubspot, companies that blog have far better marketing results:
- 55% more visitors
- 97% more inbound links
- 434% more indexed pages
Hundreds (hopefully thousands soon) of readers are following my blog through my RSS feeds and are alerted each time I post a new article. Almost all visitors to traditional websites found them through a search engine, stayed for a period of time and then they were gone – forever. As you can see, this is one way a blog is completely different from a website. A blog helps you build relationships and a community over time that a website alone cannot do.
Blogs are popular for many reasons:
- Search engines love blogs because of frequent additions to content as opposed to websites with infrequent additions/changes.
- No HTML or FTP experience/skill is required as content is easily added through an administrative control panel.
- At best, blogs are free and at worst, extremely low cost.
- Anyone can be online, broadcasting content to the world in a matter of minutes
- Blog software is now sophisticated enough that some use it to create their website
Although blogs have many uses, for the purpose of this article we are focusing on the benefits of a corporate or small business blog. In addition to the benefits mentioned above there are specific benefits for business. A blog:
- Is an important component of a multifaceted approach to social media marketing – in subsequent articles, I will describe how to use other forms of social media to drive traffic to your blog;
- Creates a community by building a relationship with the general public through articles about topics the public wants to read so they will follow by RSS feeds;
- Provides valuable information needed for product support, education, FAQs, etc. – a link to various blog posts can easily be included in emails;
- Builds brand recognition, trust, and credibility – whether a company brand or a product band because the community is receptive to receiving frequent messages from you if they are following your RSS feeds; and
- Provides brand protection – gives readers a great forum to air issues while allowing the world to see how well you handle problems (a good thing – far more positive than deleting negative comments).
There are two types of visitors to your blog. First, there are first time visitors that find you through a search engine, a tweet on Twitter or a post on LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, MySpace, etc. The second type of visitors are those that become part of your community by following your RSS feeds (we will talk more about RSS feeds in a future post in this series). You need both types. Without the first type, you will never secure the second type. Your ultimate goal is to build as large a community of people following your blog as possible. Activities to generate the first type of visitor are just the first step in the process to meet this objective.
For a small business to build a large community of blog followers, it is very important to make it easy to follow. Although most all blogs come with an RSS feed, you really need more than this. You will note in my Web 2.0 Online Marketing graphic that “RSS Feeds / Widgets” are activities located in the outer ring, which we will address in future articles. For now, let me just state that if your blog does not offer RSS feeds by email, you need to set up a free account at http://feedburner.google.com yourself.
Why is this so important? I offer both options on this blog: Subscribe by Email; and Subscribe by Reader. My experience is that 80% subscribe by email and only 20% prefer the reader. Therefore, if you are not offering an email solution, you are missing a lot of followers.
So how expensive is it to set up a blog? As it is with most all of the elements in our graphic, the cost is either free or very low. The issue with Web 2.0 Online Marketing is more about time than expense. Of course, if you don’t have time, you can always hire someone to put in the time (there are many firms that do this) and then it may become an issue of expense.
Setting up a blog is pretty easy. If you use one of the free services like WordPress or Blogger, you can have your blog set up and your content published on the web for the world to see in 30 minutes or less. It really is that easy. I am sure I will stir up quite a debate (but debate is good) when I say this, but I prefer WordPress over Blogger. As you try to drive traffic to your blog you may wish to post your article headlines on other social media sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, etc. In my opinion, the applications used for WordPress stand out better, look more professional and are easier to set up. (Check out my LinkedIn profile to see what it looks like.)
Another reason to use WordPress is that as you get down the road and your traffic and community grows in popularity, you may wish to switch to a self hosted blog (hosted at the same place as your website). A self hosted blog has many more templates and software features than the free services. If you use WordPress.org software in a self hosting environment, it is exactly the same software as WordPress.com and you can download it free of charge. Therefore it will look exactly the same to the public and there is not much new for you to learn. You can find first class WordPress.org hosting for less than $10/month.
Blogger doesn’t offer software that you can host yourself. Consequently, making the transition to a self hosted blog down the road would require new software.
Even so, it is far more important that you begin blogging rather than waste time deliberating over which software you use. If you choose to start with one of the free services, do yourself a huge favor and secure your own domain name (about $10/year at GoDaddy.com) and pay the extra $10/year that WordPress.com charges you to use your own domain name.
If you do not use your own domain, WordPress.com will simply assign you a domain like http://username.wordpress.com (the same is true with Blogger service). However, if at a later date, you change to a self hosted solution, you will need to secure a domain name. Then, since your blog was originally located at a different domain, none of the links leading visitors to your blog from other blogs/websites will work anymore and all of the time you have invested to secure these links will be lost. (There will be more about the importance of links in our article about Search Engine Optimization next week when I post the next article in the series.)
Although we will address this further in future posts in the series, let me just state that it is important that your blog allows readers to:
- Share the article with others;
- Broadcast it on Twitter;
- Bookmark or Tag it with popular bookmark/tag services; and
- Vote/Review it with popular vote/review sites
If you are already blogging or just thinking of starting, I recommend you join The Blog Zone, a LinkedIn Group for bloggers. The discussion board is full of tips, pointers, ideas, debates and much information to help every blogger, whether new or experienced. It is a great place to ask questions and secure answers. The Blog Zone also has their own blog, The Bloggers’ Bulletin, created to help fellow bloggers. Members of The Blog Zone can contribute articles with a link back to their own blog to help generate traffic to their blog.
Finally, if you are not yet following this blog, why not do it now so you do not miss a single article in our Web 2.0 Online Marketing Series. All you need to do is click on this “Subscribe by Email” link or the graphic above on the right hand side and enter your email. You will first receive a confirmation email instructing you to click on a link and then from that point on, you will receive an email notice whenever a new article is added to this blog. Each of these notices has a link to unsubscribe should you decide that you no longer wish to receive them.
Those that enjoyed this article, also enjoyed:
Web 2.0 Online Marketing Series
The Elements of a Web 2.0 Website
Web 2.0 SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Web 2.0 Email Marketing & Autoresponders
Web 2.0 Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Web 2.0 Online Press Releases& Articles
Web 2.0 Forum & Blog Commenting
Web 2.0 Professional & Social Networking
Web 2.0 RSS Feeds and Widgets
Web 2.0 Video & Podcasting
Web 2.0 Wikis & Open Source Marketing
Web 2.0 Bookmarking & Reviewing Sites
Web 2.0 Affiliate Marketing Programs
If you would like to contact me, you can do so by emailing me at mike.clough@bestbizpractices.org or visiting my LinkedIn page.
Posted by: Mike Clough
