There’s alot of conversation going on in the blogosphere about business. Research shows that about 40% of all blogs are business blogs. They’re created by entrepreneurs, brand followers, and companies. Eastman Kodak was among the first companies to blog back in 2006. Since then, they’ve learned a thing or two about effectively using social media, especially blogging. Want to know how you can create a successful business blog?
Follow these seven blogging tips from Eastman Kodak social media manager Jennifer Cisney from a recent webinar to find out how you can get consumers talking about your brand, too.
Tip #1: Start with a strategy.
- Ask these basic questions before blogging: What are our goals? Who is our audience? Who will be posting and how often?
- “Don’t just talk about yourself,” says Cisney. “Provide content that will convey value to readers.”
- One of the best things about blogs is their immediacy. You can communicate faster with a blog than (building) a web page.
- Blogs are also low cost, with several free services available i.e. Google’s Blogger or WordPress, in addition to paid services that offer more features.
Tip #2: Provide valuable content.
- Blogs are all about a constant stream of fresh content. Share tips and tricks, answer questions from your customers, or report on trade shows and conferences for your employees and readers. A good way to do this is by posting regular features.
- The more creative your posts, the better. They could get picked up by other bloggers.
- A simple way to keep up with post ideas is to maintain an ‘internal’ calendar for planning blog posts that will cover what’s going on inside your company and an ‘external’ calendar for world-wide events that might relate to your business.
- Blogs are also very SEO rich. They’re full of keywords that help drive traffic to your site when readers use them.
Tip #3: Be transparent.
- Display photos of employees who write your posts.
- Avoid ghost writing when possible, Cisney asserts, since it’s best for information to come from the source.
- When posting, be real. “It’s not the time for PR-speak.”
- Don’t delete negative comments on your blog. If you do, (disgruntled) commenters could retaliate. Take advantage of the situation and help them with the problem – unless they’re completely unreasonable. Other customers tend to come to your defense in such situations.
Tip #4: Work with your best assets.
- Look for employees who have a real passion for your products and are keen to blog about them. “Getting your employees involved will help boost morale and ‘humanize’ your brand for your customers. It also shows that your employees use your products and love what they do,” says Cisney.
- Get your customers involved by encouraging them to blog about their experience at one of your sponsored events. Customer testimonials also make great content. “If you’re a B2B business, interview your customers about how they use your products to get them to be brand ambassadors.”
Tip #5: Work with your internal teams.
- Social media has the most impact when you work with other teams in your company (PR, Marketing, Communications). It can also extend the reach of traditional media when your company is featured on TV or radio.
Tip #6: Listen and respond.
- Give your blog a dynamic feel. Develop an interactive relationship with your readers: answer questions, offer contests, and get your customers involved with product launches.
- Blogs can also offer more substantial information in the form of FAQs to answer questions redirected from your other social media like Twitter.
- Improve your business with customer comments that can be fed back to your product development team.
- Embed photos, videos and links in your blog posts to enhance interactivity.
Tip #7: Measure your results.
- “One of the most important things when participating in social media is to measure your results,” Cisney sums up. “You can do this simply by using Google Analytics, or a paid service, to track the conversation that people are having about your brand.”
Follow Jennifer’s blog: jennycisney.1000words.kodak.com/
Get Eastman Kodak’s social media tips e-book: www.Kodak.com/go/followus
What other tips do you have from your own business social media experience? Share them here and I’ll include the best ones in a future post.