Written By Sumer » Blogging Tips

Why You Need a Blogging Strategy

Michelle Salater — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:30:52 +0000

Whether you’re looking for ways to add spice to your blog or venturing into the blogosphere for the first time, developing a blogging strategy is key to your success. Why? Because, like anything else, a blog needs direction in order to move forward effectively. After all, if you don’t know what you’re trying to accomplish with your blog, how will you know when you’ve done it?

Here’s a step-by-step plan you can follow to make sure your blog lives up to your expectations this year.

Step One: Identify Your Goals

For entrepreneurs, blogs can be an excellent way to increase your exposure, get the word out about your services or products, and establish yourself as an expert in your field. Before starting your blog (or overhauling it to improve its overall effectiveness), it’s important to identify which of these goals you hope to accomplish.

Identifying your desired outcomes will help you determine what tone and style to use in posts, what subjects to post about, and who your readers (or ideal readers) are.

Step Two: Understand How Blogs Work

Once you’ve decided what you want out of your blog, take some time to read other blogs that already achieve these goals. Even if your blog is part of your overall marketing strategy, it’s important to note that blogs should not be written as if they were press releases or advertisements.

Blogs let you engage with potential clients, learn what interests them, what drives them, and what they want. When you can build a relationship with clients through a blog, you’ll strengthen your overall brand, even if you don’t make any direct sales.

Step Three: Lay Out a Plan of Action

When you know what you want to do with your blog and how blogs work, you’re ready to get specific about plans for your blog. Establish an action plan that includes:

Identifying how many posts you’ll do per week.
Assigning these posts to people on your team.
Conducting keyword research and incorporating your findings into plans for your blog.
Setting out rules for linking internally and externally.
Planning blog topics ahead of time (e.g. on a monthly or bi-monthly basis) to avoid last-minute panic.

Step Four: Track Your Results

Once you’ve gotten into the swing of your blog (new or updated), schedule time to analyze the data your blogging platform provides. These analyses may lead you to tweak your keywords, post at different intervals, or shift your focus or tone, and they’re an essential part of making sure your blogging efforts are providing you the maximum possible return on your effort.

There’s an old saying that says if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. The same is true for blogging, so if you want something specific from your blog, start planning how you’ll get it.

So: what are your blogging goals for the coming months?

If you like this post, you might also like:

The Power of Team Blogging

Michelle Salater — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:30:58 +0000

In elementary school gym class, we used to play a game called Keep the Earth Alive, which involved batting a beach ball with our bare hands so that it never touched the gym floor. Come to think of it, that might have been on the days we had a substitute teacher. Regardless, Keep the Earth Alive follows lots of the same principles as team blogging, the practice of maintaining a blog with multiple contributors or regular guest writers.

Keep the Blog Alive!

One of the most obvious benefits of team blogging is that it takes pressure of posting regularly off the primary blogger. Anyone who maintains a blog knows that the stress of conceiving and composing regular entries on relevant topics can be draining—especially if you’re also running a business or working full-time.

To maximize the benefit of working with a team of bloggers, make sure to organize.

Develop a schedule so each contributor knows when he or she is expected to post.
Assign topics or themes for each blogger so posts don’t overlap or repeat.
Enlist the help of reliable people—if there’s anything more stressful than maintaining a blog alone, it’s having to pick up other people’s slack at the last minute.

Reach New Depths and Perspectives

We all have knowledge gaps and biases, even (and perhaps especially) in the subjects about which we’re most passionate. Team blogging can help keep a blog balanced and lively. Bloggers who comment on or incorporate ideas from other team members’ posts can even help promote dialogue on the blog, which may help keep readers engaged.

Inject New Life into Your Blog

Whether or not you maintain your blog for marketing purposes, there’s a good chance you’ll develop some patterns after a while. If you’re not careful, patterns (in subjects, perspective, examples, and even idioms) can become ruts.

Sharing the writing load with a team of writers means you also have access to a team of thinkers and idea generators—a veritable snowball of fresh material for your blog.

Invite Guests

Even if you don’t work with a regular blogging team, you may want to consider soliciting posts from guest writers from time to time. Guest bloggers can benefit you by . . .

Drawing traffic from their regular readers to your site through the magic of links.
Expanding on topics you’re less comfortable writing about.
Reciprocating by asking for a guest post from you—and thereby increasing your blog’s exposure.

Whether your team consists of two-dozen third graders or three copywriters, busy hands really can keep your planet / blog alive.

What are your thoughts on team blogging?

If you like this post, you might also like:

How One Blogger Gained the Confidence to Take Her Blog to the Next Level

Michelle Salater — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:30:44 +0000

Image to the left of Naomi Estment’s friend, Juanita Meijsen, and her cat, Jina, taking the Love Your Blog course. Image Copyright Naomi Estment

I am absolutely thrilled to share a guest interview with Naomi Estment, blogger of Naomi’s Notes and writer of the novel Out of Air.

Naomi has been blogging since March 2009 but wanted to take her blog to the next level, which is why she decided to take our elearning course, Love Your Blog.

See below for a case study on how Naomi saw incredible results from taking the Love Your Blog elearning course:

1. Tell us a little bit about your blog, why you started it, and when you started it.

Finishing my first novel, Out of Air, provided the initial impetus to start my blog, Naomi’s Notes, encouraged by some expert presentations from Your Creative Career Telesummit. The message was clear: as an aspiring author, if you want to attract a publisher and build a readership, you must be blogging. I took a deep breath and leapt straight in, during March 2009. Thankfully, I came across WordPress.com (www.wordpress.com, a brilliant free platform, in my opinion) up front, and went with that on pure instinct.

Within a week, I realized that my blog was also an ideal place to share my husband’s wildlife photography, which has remained one of the consistent objectives ever since. More recently, with the help of the Love Your Blog program, the focus has developed in the direction of nurturing talent and spreading inspiration, hand in hand with sharing information about the professional photography that Dave and I offer, as well as showcasing some of my writing.

2. You have used Sumer’s Love Your Blog product, which is an elearning course. What changes have you made to your blog as a result of taking this elearning course?

So many changes . . .

For starters, the course gave me the confidence to upgrade my blog to the self-hosted option with WordPress.org (www.wordpress.org), which offers far more flexibility and control, especially in terms of design features, plugins, and search engine optimization—all of which I’ve capitalized on. I’d been toying with the idea of upgrading for months because I felt that my blog had maximized its potential with WordPress.com, but I feared the associated slew of technical implications and potential costs. A sense of stagnation, coupled with diminishing clarity of purpose, had begun to contribute to a loss of passion for my blog. The Love Your Blog course has completely lived up to its name and re-inspired this!

3. What are some of the results you’ve seen from making these changes?

I’m enjoying phenomenal, far reaching results, to the point that our business has expanded to incorporate blog consulting in the form of start-up assistance. This ties in perfectly with my freelance writing and our professional photography, which we’ve been commissioned to do in conjunction with blog support. In addition, my blog has been infused with fresh life and direction, including more clearly defined categories and tags, improved presentation, and more marketing-oriented content. Overall, the Love Your Blog course has imparted invaluable skills and understanding about the powerful business role a blog can play.

4. Do you believe the Love Your Blog elearning course has helped you get clearer on your blog and its purpose? Would you suggest it to others who might be having difficulty seeing desired results from their blog?

Without a doubt, and I whole-heartedly recommend the Love Your Blog program. As mentioned, it has helped me streamline the existing content on my blog, launch a new branch of our business, and also gain the clarity and confidence to utilize my blog more effectively to market what we do—all in a way that considers our readers and makes a broader contribution to others.

5. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

After two years of avid blogging, I certainly didn’t think I knew it all, but I did completely underestimate the positive impact that the Love Your Blog course would have on my blogging journey. It has enabled a quantum leap in my online experience, to the degree that I’m finally ready to explore a range of publishing options for my novel, strongly featuring the Internet. Heartfelt thank you to Michelle and her team for making this possible, by sharing so much insight and inspiration!

Naomi Estment

About Naomi Estment

Naomi Estment is a South African writer, photographer, and blog consultant, who co-owns a photographic company, Outdoor Video & Photographic, and Studio with her husband, Dave. Her blog www.naomisnotes.com is a 2010 SA Best Photographic Blog Finalist, while her first novel, Out of Air, is pending publishing options.

Connect with Naomi on Facebook or Twitter.

If you like this post, you might also like:

How to Maximize Online Marketing Efforts

Michelle Salater — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:30:02 +0000

In case you missed Part I of this exclusive interview with Janet Slack, lead coach and business consultant for SoloPreneur.Biz, click here.

For Part II of our interview, where Janet continues her discussion on business success tips, see below:

1. How can a company utilize their social media platforms and blog hand in hand to increase exposure and express an accurate brand message?

A comprehensive online marketing strategy allows individuals to easily connect with you in many ways, so that they can become more familiar with you and your business over time. A key component of this is to have a simple path that connects each social media site to your blog, and vice versa. If you are marketing on a particular social media site, along with your blog, you would make sure that the reader that found you on one site could easily find you on the other.

For example if you are using Facebook marketing, you might want to use an application such as Social RSS that allows your blog posts to automatically post onto a sub-page (tab) of your Facebook business page. Even more important for Facebook visibility would be to manually post the link to each new blog post to the wall of your business page. In the opposite direction, you would want to make sure you have installed the appropriate Facebook widget on your blog so that each blog post has the Facebook Like button attached. That means when a reader clicks the button on your blog, a post about your blog occurs in the Facebook newsfeed for all of that person’s friends. You can get the html code for the Facebook Like button for your blog here.

Every social media site now gives you ways to connect directly to your blog so that you can maximize your marketing exposure. Whatever the site you are using, explore in detail your options. Using our Facebook example and going one step further, perhaps you also decide to use other “social plugins” to give even more community appeal to your blog. Different plugins will display the pictures of those who have Liked your page, for example, or show a stream of recent Likes and comments from Facebook.

2. In your opinion, how important is a marketing strategy when it comes to running a successful business?

It might be too dramatic to compare having a marketing strategy for your business as being equal in importance to being able to breathe, but it’s only a slight exaggeration. The days of having a sustainable business through trial and error marketing are over. Now it is vital to make your marketing decisions strategic and intentional, to know how each piece and each decision fit into the big picture of your marketing plan. Today’s small business success story is one where there is no wasted time, energy, or expenditures on the latest marketing craze that may not be relevant for that business. Smart and strategic comes out ahead every time.

Janet’s area of expertise: Janet is a well-known author, speaker, and blogger on topics related to running a successful small business. She has mentored, coached and supported hundreds of others as they started or grew their own small businesses. Her first book, Mind Your Own Biz, is a guide to starting and developing a coaching business. Janet is a collaborating author of the Amazon best seller How the Fierce Handle Fear. Janet is a social media expert who mentors her clients to profit from their use of social media.

Follow Janet on Facebook or visit her website.

If you like this post, you might also like:

Business Coach and Consultant Shares Marketing and Blogging Tips

Michelle Salater — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:30:08 +0000

Continuing with our Love Your Blog Series, where we interview blogging and marketing experts, we’ve interviewed Janet Slack, lead coach and business consultant for SoloPreneur.Biz. During this unique interview, Janet shares effective and proven business success tips that have helped her, as well as countless small business owners build their businesses.

See below for this exceptional interview:

1. What are some of your most powerful business success tips?

Business success can be highly dependent on your ability to stay current in the marketing world. There have been rapid and fundamental shifts in the effectiveness of marketing in the past few years. Potential customers are overwhelmed with marketing messages and are depending more and more on businesses they are familiar with and have some kind of relationship with. These days, to keep pace, small businesses need a way to reach out to their target market and converse with them in order to gain familiarity in the marketplace and stay current in the minds of potential customers.

I suggest to all my business clients to have a blog as a top way to do this. Although there is a place in business for a static website, a blog allows a level of interaction with your audience that is important for marketing. The ability for readers to make comments, be in the conversation, and simply to see the interaction of like-minded people, are all highly correlated to positive feelings towards a business on the part of consumers. The familiarity you create with your blog will greatly increase your ability to convert those potential customers into paying customers.

In addition to having a blog, the use of other social media sites has become almost mandatory for successful businesses. Having a successful presence on a social media site where your target market is already in the conversation can lead to a wealth of business opportunities, including web traffic, referrals, joint venture, and new clients. Don’t be fooled, though, by “if-one-is-good, more-is-better” thinking. My clients get the best success from focusing their marketing efforts on one social media site than from scattering attention to three or four sites.

2. What three tidbits of advice would you offer to small business owners who are new to blogging?

First, I would suggest widely reading other blogs, both within your own field and in others. As you read, look for ideas on types of posts, how to get interaction and comments from readers, how posts are titled, and other details. As you explore the world of blogs, you will gain exposure that will help you develop a blog that is relevant to your target market and construct a community centered on it.

Secondly, a blog is a marketing tool and as with any business tool, success comes from a thorough understanding of the tool. I highly recommend learning as much as possible about the uses of any new tool. For success, you need to know both the how-tos of the technical details and the whys of the strategies that lead to success. Use of a tool without understanding is often a waste of business resources. Enroll in a class about blogging, buy a program specifically related to blogging success, or consider getting a mentor who has already built a great blog. In short, make sure you know how to use this tool to effectively grow your business.

Thirdly, think of blogging as community building. Make it easy for your community to find you and the information they want through the appropriate use of tags and keywords. Make it easy for them to follow you through subscriptions by RSS and email. Make it easy for other bloggers to connect with you by adding links to relevant other blogs within your posts.

About Janet:

SoloPreneur.Biz provides business growth services for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. Through highly successful group programs, workshops and 1-1 coaching, the SoloPreneur.Biz offerings provide expert guidance, education and support for new and developing businesses. Lead coach and business consultant Janet Slack has a background in management of both non-profit and for-profit businesses and two decades in the helping professions. She is able to move her clients forward by helping them develop an entrepreneurial mindset, develop business systems and marketing plans, and gain visibility and increased income.

Stay tuned for Part II of this interview, scheduled to publish tomorrow, Thursday, August 11.

Visit the SoloPreneur.Biz website.

If you like this post, you might also like:

Give Your Blog Added Flare with Distinguished Design That Is In Line with Your Brand

Michelle Salater — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:30:45 +0000

I’m so excited to share with you another guest interview for our Love Your Blog Series, where we interview blogging and marketing experts. Today’s interview is with one of our favorite and most trusted web, logo, and blog designers, Claudia Cokis.

In this guest interview, Claudia shares advice for small business owners looking to make their blog a more effective marketing tool.

See below for the interview:

1. In your opinion, how important is the design of a blog when it comes to projecting an accurate brand image?

The design of a blog, when it comes to projecting an accurate brand image, is very important. A corporate brand identity should make the company distinguishable and recognizable, in not only image, design, or logo, but also in the feeling it generates within consumers.

There is a common misconception that a logo or tagline is a brand. When, in actuality, it is much more. It embodies company culture, quality of products or services, and yes, even trust. When developing a blog, all the subtle nuances that can’t be seen are just as important as the obvious.

Think about the evolution of Apple, Inc. If you looked at their fist logo, unless it had the word computer in it, you would have no idea what the product was. Now, all you have to see is that white apple and you know exactly who and what you are dealing with.

2. On a scale from one to ten, ten being the most important, how important is it for a company to have a business blog integrated into their marketing strategy? Specifically, is a blog an important business investment?

It is becoming more and more important for all sizes of businesses to have a blog in today’s world of technology and computers. Here are some reasons why blogging can improve your business marketing strategy:

a. Human Interaction:

Blogging brings a human face to your company. Actually, a blog is quite affordable compared to other means of advertising. Blogs are a great way to connect with your customers by building relationships and trust.

b. Controlling the message:

Some companies run far away from blogs in fear of negative publicity. But more than ever, blogging is a way to control your company’s message and how you release it. Instead of running from them, companies can use blogs as a platform to get their voice online and release information that doesn’t involve press releases to the media or press conferences.

c. Anticipation

Blogs can be used as a means to build excitement and anticipation about an upcoming, new product.

d. Fresh Content

Every time a blog is updated it provides fresh content to your site. This helps in search engine results and keeps viewers coming back for more.

3. How does proper social media branding play a role in a company’s online success?

It all depends on the type of company involved. But overall, social media success establishes and facilitates personal relationships with clients, customers, prospects, and fans. It drives traffic to your main website and draws attention to your products and services, allowing customers to see what others think and how they feel about your products and services.

Once a person becomes fully engaged, they begin to post comments or tweets, depending on the social media outlet used, allowing them to share their positive, and even sometimes negative, opinions. The sharing of negative opinions can often be a good thing, giving the company an opportunity to rectify the situation quickly and effectively for the rest of the followers to see. This turns a negative into a positive, and satisfies the unhappy customer immediately, rather than making them wait.

4. What three tips do you have for business owners who are looking to redesign their blog or have a completely new blog created?

a. Usability

The use of your blog should not require any thought on the part of your reader—it should come naturally. Make sure your most important content is visible and easily found. Take advantage of search engine optimization techniques. Blogs are naturally search engine friendly because they are regularly updated, which encourages search engine spiders to visit more frequently in search of new content. However, if a business doesn’t have time to focus on their blogs, it would be well worth hiring a company such as, Sumer, to help write blog postings that have a solid key phrase strategy, meta data, tags, and relevant content that can keep your blog at the top of search results. The payoff is well worth it in the end.

b. Accessibility

To ensure that your blog is accessible to all readers you will need to:

* Build a working search-function into the site.

* Make sure that your blog is not only available to high-bandwidth readers, but that your blog will also load, even for users with slow connections.

* Ensure compatibility across all browsers, including mobile phones.

* Take into account people with disabilities and try to make your site as accessible as possible for them.

* Make it easy for your site visitors to be interested and become engaged. Once they are, you have them hooked.

c. Layout/Good Design

* Everything on the page should be there for a reason. Remove any unnecessary things on your blog.

* Brand consistency, visually pleasing, and user friendly.

* Search engine friendly.

About Claudia Cokis Creative Studios:

Give your business added flare with distinguished consulting and design from Claudia Cokis Creative Studios. Break through traditional marketing strategies and ignite your business potential while leaving your competitors behind. By delivering a multitude of avenues that lead straight to your products and services.

Innovate your image with affordable quality from Claudia Cokis Creative Studios.

Area of expertise: Creating the best experience for clients and their customers through delivering social media branding, website implementation, print media, and WordPress custom theme and blogs by targeting there audience in the right way. We take pride in listening to your needs and delivering a final product that is user friendly, SEO optimized, brand consistent, website compliant and on-time. We not only give deliver with 100% satisfaction but educate you on your final product.

Connect with Claudia on Facebook or visit her website for more information on creating an exceptional blog.

If you like this post, you might also like:

It Takes More than Great Written Content to Make a Blog Successful

Michelle Salater — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:30:08 +0000

As part of our Love Your Blog Series, where we interview blogging and marketing experts, we interviewed Doug Stewart, owner of DSC Web Services, Inc., to share valuable advice on running a successful blog on WordPress.com. Specifically, Doug outlines essential design elements, discusses plugins, and offers tips for blog optimization.

See below for this exceptional interview:

1. Can having the right WordPress plugins increase traffic to your blog? If so, which plugins do you suggest?

Installing the right plugins is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get more traffic to your blog. Some plugins help you craft blog posts that rank higher on the search engines. Some plugins help your blog pages load faster (Google really likes pages that load fast). Some plugins help people stay on your blog longer. Some plugins help people share your blog with their friends. And some plugins help new blog visitors signup for your blog updates.

Here are eleven plugins we recommend for increasing traffic to your blog:

1. SexyBookmarks Plugin: http://www.sexybookmarks.net/

2. Facebook Like Button Plugin: http://martinj.net/wordpress-plugins/facebook-like-button/

3. TweetMeme Retweet Button: http://tweetmeme.com/about/plugins

4. WP Greet Box: http://omninoggin.com/projects/wordpress-plugins/wp-greet-box-wordpress-plugin/

5. Google XML Sitemaps: http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

6. WordPress.com Stats: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

7. WP Google Analytics: http://xavisys.com/wordpress-plugins/google-analytics/

8. WP Super Cache: http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/

10. Broken Link Checker: http://w-shadow.com/blog/2007/08/05/broken-link-checker-for-wordpress/

11. SEO by Yoast: http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/

2. How important are blog stats when it comes to analyzing your blog’s success? What other elements should you look at when measuring blog success?

Stats will open your eyes to new opportunities and hidden issues with your blog. I don’t know how many times I’ve been surprised by the keywords people used to find a blog. Stats give you this information. With a little bit of effort, you’re able to tweak your content or improve your blog’s content based on what your stats tell you. These little tweaks can have a dramatic effect on your blog’s success.

Here are a few other signs your blog is becoming more successful:

Growing number of newsletter signups or RSS feed subscriptions
People start calling or emailing you questions
People share information from your blog with their friends
People start asking you to speak about your area of expertise
Reporters and bloggers ask you for interviews

3. Your WordPress blog uses the Thesis theme. What are the benefits to using Thesis and is it user-friendly for businesses that are new to blogging?

Thesis is one of the most search-engine-friendly WordPress themes available. I find that Thesis also saves me a lot of time. If I want to create a special landing page for a promotion, I’m able to do it quickly and easily without knowing programming languages. I’m also able to create custom pages quickly and easily.

With Thesis you don’t have to buy another theme if you want to change the look of your blog. You’re able to have a completely different look fairly quickly. And you don’t have to mess with learning a new theme every year or two.

4. As a business blogger yourself, what elements of a blog do you believe are the most essential in engaging readers?

The headlines of your blog posts and opening paragraphs
Ease of navigation
Having a design that visually communicates the benefits of the blog
Having a blog that communicates one major benefit to your target audience

5. What three tidbits of advice would you offer to small business owners who are new to blogging?

Tidbit 1: Clearly define your blog’s purpose and audience.

Tidbit 2: Before you write a blog post, think of one person you want to write your blog post to. Even if your blog post is meant to benefit thousands of people, write to one person.

Tidbit 3: Stick to a schedule. And if you don’t get immediate results, be patient. You’ll be glad you did.

About Doug Stewart and DSC Web Services, Inc.:

Doug Stewart, the owner of DSC Web Services, Inc., built his first website back in 1998. At that time, he was working for an IBM Business Partner selling printers. As a commissioned salesperson good quality leads were extremely important to him. And the company’s website wasn’t bringing in any leads. No one could find the company website on the search engines – until he built and promoted his first website for them.

That first website ranked high on all the search engines and brought in a bunch of leads every week. Soon the IBM Business Partner wanted more. So Doug built 4 more websites for that first client. All the websites brought in a lot of leads. This was DSC Web Services first taste of helping a business dominate their space on the web. In January 1999, Doug Stewart Consulting was born, which later became DSC Web Services, Inc.

Area of expertise: DSC Web Services, Inc., offers professional web page design—including Flash and graphic design work, as well as custom programming services, and HTML or web updates / maintenance.

Want to find out more about effective WordPress design elements? Visit Doug’s blog.

If you like this post, you might also like:

How To Effectively Weave Your Brand Message into Blog Content

Michelle Salater — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:30:05 +0000

Because we want to provide you with the best blogging tips possible, we’ve created a Love Your Blog series that features some of our talented and knowledgeable Love Your Blog vendors.

Today, we interview freelance writer and professional blogger Britt Reints on how to produce result-driven blog content that is in line with your brand.

As a freelance writer and professional blogger, Britt produces content that is both search-engine- and people-friendly. She’s best known for having a relatable voice and creating content that sparks engagement.

Read below for our exclusive interview with Britt:

1. What is it about blogging that inspired you to become a professional blogger?

I love writing. In the past when I’ve worked in marketing, advertising, and sales, writing had always been my favorite part of any project. As I spent time blogging, I learned that other people were building businesses as professional bloggers and I thought that I might have the talent and passion to do the same.

2. In addition to a professional blogger, you also consider yourself a brand ambassador. What does this mean? Specifically, what benefits do you provide businesses with as a brand ambassador?

A brand ambassador is someone who works closely with a company to share their message with other people. As a brand ambassador, it’s my job to know what’s going on with a company—keeping up with new products, corporate changes, shift in messaging, etc. The more I can experience the company for myself, the easier it is to begin organic conversations about that company with people in my own various spheres of influence, both online and off.

3. Do you believe that blogging for business helps to express a company’s brand image? If so, what three tips do you have for businesses that are looking to use their blog to express an accurate brand image?

Blogging adds another dimension or layer to the company’s brand that should enhance the other platforms a business is already using to communicate with customers. My three tips for a business looking to use their blog for relaying a brand to consumers would be:

1. Be very clear on what your brand is and make sure you relay that branding to your writer. You want your brand to be conveyed, not your writer’s voice.

2. Be clear on what your brand is not. Sometimes using examples of what you do not want to convey helps your writers, employees, and partners to have a more accurate picture of the brand.

3. Make sure you are giving the same message across all platforms. Your blog should be an extension of existing branding, not a new message to reach new markets. People who read blogs also engage with other media and you will come across as insincere if you are sending mixed messages across various platforms.

4. What is a common misconception business owners have about blogging?

Business owners often believe that the mere existence of a blog will improve sales. It’s more complicated than that. You need a good blog with an engaging message and you need to have a concrete plan for attracting readers to your blog. If your blog is going to support current customers, you don’t need a massive marketing plan for it, but you need to be clear on what that goal is when you start.

5. What would you say to small business owners who are on the fence about starting a blog?

A blog is an excellent way to build customer loyalty and top-of-mind awareness. It isn’t just about boosting today’s sales, but about cementing a place for your company within your industry and within your customers’ lives.

About Britt Reints:

Britt Reints is a freelance writer and professional blogger. She provides SEO content for blogs as well as SEO copy for corporate websites. This may include revamping existing web pages or producing original content to supplement your current SEO strategy. Past and present clients include WalMart.com, MyMove.com, Orbitz.com, Online Schools Today, and a myriad of medical websites. Samples are available upon request.

Britt specializes in producing content that is both search engine and people friendly. She’s best known for having a relatable voice and creating content that sparks engagement.

Follow Britt on Twitter or click here to view her website.

If you loved this post, why not share it on Facebook?

If you like this post, you might also like:

Professional Blogger Shares All About Successful Blogging: Part II

Michelle Salater — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:30:00 +0000

If you missed Part I of our interview with Mir Kamin, professional blogger, please click here to view the post.

For Part II of this exclusive interview, see below:

4. How can a company utilize their social media platforms and blog hand in hand to increase exposure and express an accurate brand message?

The most common thing I hear about blogging, Twitter, and Facebook from companies is, “We already have [a blog, Twitter, or Facebook] so we don’t need [a blog, Twitter, or Facebook], too!” The beauty of social media is that it all works together. Some of the people who follow you on Twitter don’t read blogs. Some of your blog readers don’t use Facebook. Some of the folks on Facebook have never heard of Twitter.

Each platform is allowing you to reach people you might not otherwise. And the synergy between these platforms can create more dialog, too, when you have users who interact with you in multiple places. For example, say you post a new entry to the blog, then link to it from Facebook and tweet the link. What you’ll start seeing is that some people comment on the blog, but others start a discussion on Facebook, and still others are talking to you on Twitter. What you’re doing is making yourself more accessible; you’re reaching everyone and giving them the option to talk back on the channel that they like best.

Take it one step further. Now you have the opportunity to engage more often, in ways best-suited to those different channels. You have something fairly meaty to say, you blog it. Want to offer loyal customers a special bonus? You put something on Facebook. Have a quick thought that amuses you or read an article that really resonated? That’s a tweet. (And when someone tweets about your company, being able to respond quickly is a great way to demonstrate commitment to your base, too.) As long as it’s all about what matters to you and your customers, suddenly you’re engaging in all these different ways, but the message is always the same: We want to talk to you. Customers love knowing a company cares about what they think.

5. What three tidbits of advice would you offer to small business owners who are new to blogging?

Get help if you need it. I promise that it can be most costly to recover from a social media misstep than to get some seasoned guidance right out of the gate. There’s no shame in saying “We’re not sure what to do and we want to do it right.” Even a few hours of consulting can mean the difference between a focused marketing push and wasted time.
Pretend it’s a cocktail party. What do you do at a party if you want to be a good guest? You talk about things that interest you, and you listen to what other people have to say, too. You ask questions to draw people out. You don’t touch on controversial topics (until you know someone better, at least), and you don’t deliver a monologue. You try to get to know people and discover your shared interests. And that’s what your blog should be like, too.
You don’t blog to sell more, you blog to solidify your company’s image. I’m not saying that blogging won’t lead to an increase in sales, because if you do it right, it probably will. But what you need to be thinking of to make it worthwhile is that this is a project to introduce yourself to the community, to expand who knows you and who you know, and to boost your good karma. Companies that start blogging in the hopes of immediate revenue results are disappointed and give up. This is a long-term commitment that will pay off, but you have to know you’re in it for reasons beyond sales. It’s about engagement. There is no more powerful marketing tool than being able to show your customers, “We care about the same things.” That’s what blogging (and other social media involvement) gives you.

About Mir:

Mir Kamin has been blogging professionally for over half-a-dozen years, managing both her own award-winning blogs (personal blog wouldashoulda.com and shopping blog wantnot.net) and providing various freelance support to clients big and small. She takes on single article assignments, from-the-ground-up blog content creation and audience building, and everything in-between.

Mir is known for her conversational style, ability to infuse any topic with wit, and reliable production of engaging content.

If you like this post, you might also like:

Do You Have What It Takes to Run a Blog For Your Business?

Michelle Salater — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:30:26 +0000

In an effort to provide you with the best blogging tips and advice from acclaimed blogging and web design experts, we are spotlighting our talented and knowledgeable Love Your Blog vendors in our Love Your Blog series over the next month.

Today, we interview professional blogger Mir Kamin on what it takes be a successful business blogger.

As a professional blogger, Mir Kamin is savvy, knowledgeable, and knows what it takes to be a successful blogger. Mir Kamin is skilled in showing small business owners how they, too, can create a business blog that increases exposure and profits.

Below is our exclusive interview with Mir:

1. What are a few common misconceptions that small business owners have about blogging?

I think many small business owners feel like they can’t afford to blog, either in terms of time or money. What they’re missing, in that assessment, is that even though you may not be able to find an easy way to measure the ROI, investment-wise it’s one of the most cost-efficient ways to strengthen your brand and put a human face on your company. Similarly, even business owners who feel they can afford it often wonder if it’s “worth” it, because they’re viewing it as an advertisement avenue rather than a brand-building avenue.

And either way, the nice thing about blogging is that it’s accessible to everyone; it’s an extremely inexpensive and easy way to broaden your reach and get your brand out there.

2. In your opinion, how does blogging fit into a company’s overall online marketing strategy? Is a blog one of the most important marketing materials a business could have? Why or why not?

I make a point of explaining to clients that their blog is marketing, but it’s not advertising. That distinction is important. Advertising is when you say “We do X, and we’re better than the rest for Y reasons.” Marketing (ideally) is both more subtle and more relatable; it’s a company’s chance to say, “This is who we are, and what we care about, and what we have in common.” While a company certainly doesn’t have to incorporate blogging in their online marketing, again, it’s an inexpensive and easy way to put a human face on the company and make potential patrons think about their organization as one that’s run by fellow citizens of the world rather than a faceless, soulless corporation.

So is it one of the most important marketing materials? Only if you want a simple way to build community, goodwill, and customer relations. (Hint: Yes.)

3. You frequently lecture about branding. How important is it for small business owners to have a blog that is in line with their brand message and how can they achieve a blog that accurately portrays their brand message?

The bottom line is that you have to know who you are before you can accurately introduce yourself to others. Hopefully your company has a mission statement and there’s some genuine heart and enthusiasm behind that, and then it’s a simple matter to translate that passion into an online conversation with potential custom ers. Now, the biggest mistake I see companies make is deciding that staying “on message” means turning their blog into an ongoing ad for their products / services, and that’s 1) not really a blog and 2) boring to read. Staying on message means that you talk about the things that you are passionate about, and which you believe matter to your customers, too.

It’s easier to achieve than most people think. Step one: Talk about what matters to you. Step two: Listen. Step three: Respond. Repeat as necessary.

About Mir:

Mir is known for her conversational style, ability to infuse any topic with wit, and reliable production of engaging content.

Stay tuned for Part II of this post!