A lot of companies we talk to already know they want and need to start a blog. "But we're waiting," they say. "We don't know what to write about and we don't want to start the blog until we know we can maintain it."
First, I want to say, stop waiting. You're losing valuable time. Don't sit back and let your competitors and your customers do the talking for you. Don't get left out of the conversation that has already started.
I also want to point out that a blog is not a newspaper. It doesn't need to go through dozens of edits and approvals, it doesn't need to be perfect. A blog is a way for you to engage in a real, informal conversation with your market. If they want to read the same old stuffy marketing fluff, they can go to your corporate website.
Finally, a blog is not just about you, you, you. If you don't know what to write about, ask someone else. That's right - you don't have to stick yourself in a dark corner and type through the night, coming up with brilliant answers to difficult questions. You do not have to - nor should you - isolate yourself in the blogging process. A blog is about engaging in a discussion with others, so why not involve them right there in the article.
Some ideas:
- Interview a thought leader or peer. Hear and share what someone else has to say on a relevant topic.
- Invite your peers, customers, prospects to write a guest post.
- Have a customer share a success story (as long as it's not product-related).
- Propose a question. You don't have to be all answers all the time. Initiate a conversation on your blog. Chris Brogan does this a ton and his blog is hugely successful for it. (In this post, he even goes so far as to ask his readers what he should blog about!)
By including other people in the blogging process, you both lighten the load on yourself while also making your blog more engaging and interesting. You also get the added benefit that whomever you are engaging will likely promote the article to their network, expanding your blog's reach and audience.
Hopefully now the thought of launching a blog is a little less daunting. But if you're still wary, you should check out our classic articles:
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This weekend I took a flight out of town, and took a cab to the airport. I have an odd hobby of chatting with cab drivers to get a feel for what is going on wherever I am and get a different perspective on the world than I usually get from the web2.0 and business crowd I usually hang out with. But this conversation was not what I expected. This cab driver was all over social networking and web2.0. Let me share some pieces of our conversation.
Web 2.0 Quotes from a Boston Cab Driver
- I got a new 3G iPhone because I am in my cab all day and it is like a laptop for my cab.
- I use Classmates.com a lot to catch up with people from school and find old friends.
- I forgot my phone today and I am going crazy without it. Usually I am chatting on MSN with my friends all day.
- The new Apple store in Boston is beautiful, I love it. I love everything Apple does.
- Have you heard of Hi5? I am from Cape Verde and all my friends are on it. I have also met new people there. It's great.
- Have you gone to AppleRumor.com? I always check it out to find out what new stuff Apple might e doing.
- I can live without TV. I cannot live without the Internet. I am addicted to it.
I am not totally sure what this means from a marketing perspective. But, I think one thing that it means is that more of your target audience is online and using social networks than you think. Many marketers might assume that if you are targeting cab drivers that you would not use social networks, blogs or search engines to target them. I think my cab driver would disagree.
Have you found any unexpected people using social networks? Who are they? Leave a comment below.
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I had a chance to talk to Leigh Anne Wallace who blogs at TheB2BLead and got her perspective on blogging for business and what she has learned from her experience.
Here are some of the things we chatted about in the video:
- The domain or URL of your blog is important. Read this article about the best options for a business blog URL.
- Blogging is a great way to build thought leadership in your community, and can lead to speaking opportunities.
- You can have your customers write for your blog.
- Blogging is a good way to build a relationship with individual people in your market and is a good lead nurturing tool.
- Updating your blog on a regular basis keeps your readers more engaged.
- Take your blog articles and re-use them as part of your email newsletters.
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I've been getting this question more and more lately, as Twitter becomes more and more mainstream and the business benefits of Twitter are more and more talked about.
First, a word of caution. When engaging in any social media, you want to do so authentically - it will involve a fair amount of your participation, both give and take. Your first step once you join Twitter should probably not be to go follow 1,000 people. First of all, you very possibly might not be able to due to recent limits set by Twitter. This act seems kind of spammy, and that's the last thing you want to do in social media. You should aim to let your community grow organically. That said, there are a few things you can do to get started.
The first thing you absolutely have to do once you sign up for a Twitter account (though you can do this before signing up for Twitter, but you won't be able to do much beyond this), start monitoring who and what people are saying about your company. Go to Search.Twitter or Tweetscan (it may be worth it to use both, or even additional Twitter search engines, as they don't all pick up on everything) and search for your company name, your executives' names, perhaps your competitors' names. You'll see all the recent tweets that mention that name or phrase. What's also great about these services is you can subscribe by RSS to this thread so you'll be able to keep tabs on new posts about your company. When someone does talk about your company - respond, favorite the tweet perhaps if it's favorable, and start following the person.
A very close second most important thing to do once you're on Twitter is to actually engage in the community. If you want people to follow you, you need to give them a reason to. Post interesting tweets, respond to others (see first point above). As noted in my word of caution, you want to be an authentic participant in the community. One of the wonderful things about Twitter is that you have to opt-in to receive someone's updates (follow them). So, you need to think of ways to warrant a follow. I've been pretty impressed with Whole Foods in this regard. I started following them, though I'm no Whole Foods nut, because of their interesting tweets like "TOTD" (tweet of the day), and interesting food-related tweets like plugging food festivals across the country.
Those are really the two most important things you can do on Twitter. But, if you're still interested in ramping up your Twitter following, here are a few additional ideas:
- Go back to Search.Twitter and search on more general phrases that relate to the audience you're trying to reach. Subscribe to those updates and respond/follow as appropriate.
- Check out the directories, like Twellow. Twellow is a directory of Twitter users categorized by industry or interest. There are a few other cool services, like Twubble and Twits Like Me. ReadWriteWeb posted a great article on these services here.
- Follow those who follow you. People like to feel like you're listening to them and that they're engaging in a two-way conversation with you. A follow-back is a great way to set that environment.
- Check out who your followers are following. They are likely interested in similar topics, and are a natural extenstion to your existing network.
One more thought to consider before you get going: Will you be setting up a company Twitter account or will various employees have personal Twitter accounts (or both)? At HubSpot, we recently launched our company Twitter account @hubspot that a few of us monitor and update. There are also a bunch of us who have our own personal accounts, including our CEO, CSA, VP Marketing, and lots of others from across the company, including myself of course. The question is which brand you are building up - your corporate brand, or your personal brand (which in turn contributes to the company brand as well). I like the mix of both, though a lot of marketers may not have the bandwith to support more than one Twitter account. Either way, the first thing you must do after reading this post is to reserve your company's name on twitter before someone else does.
If you want to see some companies out there who are doing a great job on Twitter, check out Zappos or Whole Foods. If you want to see a full list of companies on Twitter, check out the new Social Brand Index (and it wouldn't hurt to get listed there, too, while you're at it).
Have you had any luck building a following for your company on Twitter? Do you have any additional techniques that worked for you? What have you learned from other companies on Twitter - good and bad approaches? Leave a comment and let's discuss.
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If you're spending any time using blogs or social media to promote your business, you should be reading Chris Brogan's blog.
Chris is one of the wisest guys there is on these topics and he's constantly sharing the things he's learning with his blog readers and his Twitter followers.
Chris will be part of a top-notch line-up at the Inbound Marketing Summit here in Cambridge, MA, on Sept. 8 (there are less than 55 tickets left, so sign up now if you want to come).
I got a chance to speak with Chris earlier this week at the Affiliate East Summit in Boston, where I asked him how should businesses start using social media? Chris said, start by listening:
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