The Why, What and How of Blogging

Added by Jacob, over 2 years ago.

View Comments (5) | Leave Comment

Are you hip to the benefits of new technology, or thinking about installing a CD Player into your Stagecoach? I promised the theme of this year's blog would be ‘Efficiency', and threatened it would likely start with a technological flavour to educate and entertain a non-business geek audience. What better way to begin a series of blog posts than with a look at blogging for business?

Why?

Interaction. Whether it's sharing the inner workings of your business, developments in your industry, or just communicating with clients and contacts, Blogging allows you to create a dialogue with clients, associates, and the broader online community.

I've heard of that, but exactly what is it?

Blogging is often thought of like an online journal or newsletter, where you can regularly share your opinions or relevant information through your website. The length of your ‘posts' can vary - these might be brief thoughts or well-researched articles.

A blog is usually separated from the website in that it gives readers, through a comments section or discussion forum, an opportunity to give their thoughts or ask further questions. By entering a dialogue with readers you can gain valuable market information.

Regularly updating your website in this manner encourages more visitors and repeat visitors, and is understood to help with your ranking on search engines such as Google. Useful information shared through your blog may also attract links from other websites, drawing visitors and helping with Pagerank.

OK, and how can I make this work for my Business?

First, get clear on why you have a website in the first place. Decisions - the length and tone of your posts, their frequency (will you blog twice daily, once fortnightly or somewhere in between?) and who in your business will write and put their name to the blog posts (may be more than one) - should reflect the overall purpose.

You can draw interest to your blog through other communications, such as client newsletters, and by reminding staff and associates to check regularly or subscribe. You can also draw attention by reading other, related blogs and leaving comments with a link to your site - just be sure your comments add value or risk being considered spam.

Linking from your posts to useful articles on other websites and blogs (known as link-love) can also let people know you exist and may lead to return links. For a great example, see my post from our recent Client Conference. There are 33 links in this one blog post - 18 are internal (eg, links to other Shirlaws articles), and 15 point people outside our site.

Sounds great - what else do I need to know?

Expect your first few months of blogging to be a little lonely, without too many comments. This is an exercise that takes time, and the return on Blogging involves longer-term investment.

Continue to write relevant posts that add value to the community, and people will read them and come back for more.

Have I missed anything?

Comments

There are currently 5 comments about this blog.

Jacob Aldridge, about 1 year ago

It's a fair question Matthew, and I'm glad you found my blog on which to ask it. I was amazed a few years ago when I noticed the @ symbol on an old typewriter keyboard - for me it had always been ubiquitous with email addresses. While the history of the symbol isn't clear (see Wikipedia)it appears to have been used most for accounting purposes (12 apples @ $1 each) where it meant 'at' or 'at the rate of'. When you see it in front of names or places, substitute the word 'at'. @ least, that's for now - Twitter growth may change that again!

MTOakey, about 1 year ago

I wonder if anybody can answer a question I have... When blogging, why do some people put an "@" before a persons name or the name of a place? It does not make it a link, and it mostly does not make sense phonetically as in: "Joe Shmo is up and heading to @Mainstreet Childrens Dental, with Pudgy and Hannah" What is the purpose, meaning or use?

shep, over 2 years ago

Jacob, As a CD playing stagecoach driving novice I found your article informative and practical. Thanks

Jacob Aldridge, over 2 years ago

Hi Tagmotion - I checked out your site, and recommend others do the same to see just how "regularly updated" can look, feel, and work effectively. A blog (and yes, it does need comments or its just news) is one of many ways to do this. Thanks also for the emails.

Tagmotion, over 2 years ago

You're right, Jacob...."regularly updating your website (via a blog) helps with your ranking on search engines such as Google". www.vervofinancial.com, a kind of text and video blog updates stockmarket info 3 times a day. And it's knocking off the big media sites, banks and stockbroking houses with page 1 Australian search results on Google after only a short time in existence, for competitive search terms like 'new IPO', in one of the most competitive categories (business and finance news). The constant updating of content and creation of new pages has a lot to do with this success, as does the use of internal links to boost the rank of the key pages. While getting external sites to link to you depends on others agreeing to do it, the smart use of internal links to boost pagerank is something every site owner can do easily. Check out the Vervo site to see how we're using the footer on every page to do it.