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9 Tips For Turning your Blog into a Marketing Tool.

Image above of the Southwest Blog as a means to connect with customers via Dirjournal.com

Social technologies are now being utilized by companies to effectively reach their consumers. More and more organizations are seeing the favorable returns of utilizing social media through discussion forums, social networks and blogs. Blogs are means to get across your customers and can also be a means for you to find out what consumers have to say about your products or services. If you would like to engage in a dialogue with your customers, then creating a blog will prove to be an advantage for you. If you see that your company is ready to get into the blogosphere, remember to start with people you want to reach, and your objectives or what you would want to accomplish. This way, your company will have greater chances for success as you implement the strategy and technology that suits your objectives. Here are some suggestions to help you build that effective blog:

1. Listening to your consumers is the first step. Before you get into the world of blogging, you need to listen and hear what is being said in the blog arena. You can do this by monitoring various blog posts from other companies similar to your industry, from competitors, different experts, and influential groups or persons. You can also choose to hire brand-monitoring services such as Nielsen BuzzMetrics or TNS Cymfony to help you out.

With blogs, you also have the advantage of listening to raw and authentic consumer feedbacks and opinions online. This allows your company to listen intently to your clients and consider the value of these comments. However, it is not suggested that you take everything and do all that your consumers demand. It just means that you need to incorporate ideas that enhance your goal and that you respond to your consumers in a way that is authentic. It is also important to remember that company-customer relationship requires a two-way dialogue. As you listen and respond to consumers, customer trust and loyalty is also built.

2. Have a specific goal for your blog. You must be able to determine the goal that you have for your blog. It can be focused on making an announcement on a new product or new improvements on your product, providing support for existing customers, responding from news or story from a consumer, or making consumers know that your company is concerned of their needs.

3. Develop a plan on how your blog will work. If you have a small company, you can choose to have one author for your company blog. But if one person doesn’t really have enough time to post content on a weekly basis, having other people assigned to make the post will do. You also need to decide on whether you’ll have a single company blog or a policy wherein blogging can be shared to many employees or different blogs.

4. Learn to create quality blog contents. Having quality blog contents can allow you to engage your audience more effectively, enables you to create a material that is relevant and timely, and also adds value to your conversation with your customers. Moreover, you can get information from recognized field experts to put more weight on your blog content or use multimedia contents that can add appeal and keep peoples’ attention to your blog posts. Generating content takes time and a huge commitment. You must also be able to provide non-biased contributions as you dialogue with your customers.

5. Develop a process for editing your blogs. Evaluating your blog posts is as vital as posting them. You need to indicate who may review and evaluate your posts, and who may help you edit these posts before you post them online. Bear in mind that this needs to be a swift process because you would sometimes want to respond and post on events and news items quickly.

6. Design your blog and the corresponding connections to your site. Decide how and whether you’re going to feature your blog on your company’s homepage. It will all depend on how vital you want your blog to be with your company’s image. How you design your blog and how it is linked to your site will give your consumers the idea of how official your opinion is.

7. Develop a plan to market your blog. You can promote your blog in several ways like using press releases, emailing your customers to introduce them to your blog, or even buying words on the search engines. You just need to take note that your goal is to have a conversation with people. Another way is to learn where your target groups gather to discuss your industry and products. Research on special interest forums, other blogs or industry-related social networks. These cyber hang-outs will enable you to identify new markets and find centers of influence as you observe their discussions and media postings relevant to your company. Incorporating links to blogs in your post and posting a comment on them can also help lead consumers back to you. In addition, you can also use your company’s name and products in titles and texts in your post to make it easier for your blog to be searched by search engines.

8. Keep in mind that blogging is not the same as writing. Contents in social media are immediate, informal and would require you to respond quickly. Therefore, you need to be updated with new developments especially those that are related to your industry. The emphasis and the goal is more on getting an informed opinion while it is still fresh.

Don’t be intimidated about comments because these can definitely start a dialogue with your clients. Many corporate blogs use moderation, evaluating comments to make sure irrelevant discussions don’t spoil the blog. You should be able to look into this as well, even if it takes your time. You can also delegate the task of monitoring blogs, responding to and moderating comments to keep the consumer dialogue active.

9. Always go for honesty, truth and authenticity. People who read blogs expect it to be an authentic report of a person’s opinion. This means there is a need for you to respond as real as possible. There may be situations in the future that may be inevitable and can bring your company in not-so-good terms. But then again, you have to do what is called for and deliver honest replies to consumers. Companies that respond with honesty and earnestness often lift their credibility.

Generally, if you want to have a good reputation online, truth, honesty and authenticity is a must. To be authentic is first having an understanding of who you are and these include your values, mission and character. Secondly, it means speaking from these truths. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association or WOMMA created an ethics code which was based on consumer respect and used fundamental ethical principles. The ethics code emphasized honesty of relationship, honesty of opinion and honesty of identity. This means you need to say who you’re speaking for, say what you believe and never to obscure your identity. By being true, honest and authentic, customers who trust you will become more loyal to your brands. However, the risk of exposing your flaws can open the door for more attacks. Being authentic also doesn’t mean that you please everyone. As a company, it’s better not to promise something to consumers and eventually break it.

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