We’re on a Blog Roll: How Blogging Can Benefit Your Business
by Nancy Sims
December 15, 2009
When Pierponter Nancy Sims set out to launch her blog, “Mayoral Musings,” she instinctively knew it would also serve to promote Pierpont in some capacity. What Nancy didn’t anticipate was that Pierpont’s third-party experiment would explode into a viral phenomenon, with more than 25,000 visitors in just a few short months. As soon as the New York Times and the Houston Chronicle picked up her insights, developing her commentary into their own stories, Nancy realized the considerable leverage the blog had achieved in generating reach, credibility, loyalty and new business.
In “Mayoral Musings,” Nancy exposed the hard facts and tugged at critical issues surrounding Houston’s highly competitive mayoral race and the candidates in contest. From an independent stance, Nancy infused passion and expertise into her posts, with the goal of creating well-informed voters. Nancy’s candid wit and vast knowledge of Houston’s public affairs activities resonated strongly with her audience, and in turn, built up a legion of frequent readers and commentators. As a result of her blog’s success, Nancy plans to expand into covering all things Texas, including politics, through her new blog: “Texas-Musings.”
Most people are familiar with traditional blogs, commonly written by “citizen journalists” without a vested interest in a company or its products. Business blogs, however, can function as a channel to disperse company happenings or timely product news, bridging relations with consumers, shareholders and employees.
The following are blogging best practices learned from the success of Nancy’s “Mayoral Musings” blog:
- Communicate openly. Think of a blog as a direct means of connecting with your clients on an informal level, and showing that you value their interest. This is also a great approach to developing a sense of community and enthusiasm around your brand.
- Speak passionately. The most successful blogs are those written by earnestly passionate people. The dedication and analysis offered by blog authors invested in a certain topic are what drive traffic and attention to the site. Offering differing opinions and unique angles perpetuate conversation that will keep readers coming back for more.
- Provide links. By incorporating a linking strategy throughout your blog, you will not only support your position with third party sources, but also direct visitors to your company with a strengthened image of your authority in the industry. As your online readership grows, the connections will generate quality referrals and improve your company’s organic search engine optimization.
On the flip side, be wary of engaging in the following blog strategies – they may do more harm than good:
- Allowing comments. Carefully consider the nature of your company and its industry before opting to include or exclude commentary on your posts. In determining how transparent you want to appear, Pierpont can provide counsel on the discretion of your online presence.
- Inconsistent posting. A blog is a long-term commitment that must be taken seriously. Intended for real-time communications, your followers will constantly crave new content. Readership will wane if you fail to deliver new information consistently.
- Ghostwriting. Although a blog can be time-consuming, it is well worth the return on investment. The investment is fairly minimal to start up, but it must be properly managed. The FCC has passed regulations to crack down on companies who employ marketers to pose as private bloggers. Pierpont can help you create an internal plan to accomplish your goals and make your blogging campaign easy to execute.