Archive for Blogs for Business

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Creative Commons License photo credit: smaedli

Using social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn are a good way to introduce yourself know to the people in your market niche.  But, in my opinion, somewhere along the line you should be drawing people to your blog.

As I see the progression, I would start out with Twitter. Why?  Because it is quick and easy to set up and start using.  It is also easy to find people in your market by using Twitter’s search and trending topics features.  Once you have started conservations with people (it is called social networking for a reason…be social!) you can start to ask questions and learn about your market.  You need to know what problems they have and what they need to solve them. 

Whatever you do don’t start trying to sell your products or services as soon as you open your account!  That will turn people off immediately!

Once you have a good idea of what is needed you can start offering advice to your community on how to solve their problems. This along with regular conservations helps to build trust which is essential. 

After Twitter comes Facebook.  Why?  Because Facebook allows you to be more expansive when addressing your market.  You aren’t limited to 140 characters for one thing.  You can also add audio and video as part of your educating process.

Other social media channels like LinkedIn, YouTube or podcasting can also serve to help establish you as an expert and build trust.  But again you should be getting people to visit your blog to learn more about you, your business and how you can help them solve their problems.

Your blog gives you the chance to go into greater depth about all the different facets of your business.  You can write posts that offer greater detail on what you do, you can do a video or if you are camera shy you can record a audio presentation.  You can even post photos.  And because blogs allow comments you can get instant feedback on your posts.  Comments also make it easy for people to ask questions and offer suggestions on improving your product or service. 

And of course, you can use your blog to lead people to your other social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Podcasts etc.

And finally your blog is an excellent place to direct people to your “money site” whether it be within your blog, another website or a brick and mortar store.

So make your blog the hub of your social media efforts.  Use your other social media channels to entice members of your various communities to visit your blog for an in-depth view of what you do and how it can be of benefit to them.

And remember it’s about them not you!

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Dec
09

Being Transparent

Posted by: The Blog Builder Guy | Comments (0)

I am a big fan of HostGator, which is a domain registrar and hosting company.  I’ve been using them for over a year and I am also an affiliate.  So if you get hosting from them I get a piece of the action (hint hint).  Shameless affiliate link  HostGator.

They have great support and good pricing which is why I use them and recommend them.  There is a point here, don’t worry!

A couple of days ago they had a post on Twitter saying they were going to be holding a live webinar dealing with their customer service.  So I tuned in to see what it was about.

Their customer service manager is Douglas Hanna and I swear I have socks older than this guy!  He hosted the webinar and started out by detailing the company size, sales, employees etc. all that corporate stuff. 

Next he started discussing customer service and he outlined all the positive points of their service backed up by various metrics.  And THEN he started detailing what he felt were the ‘bad’ areas of their customer service. I was shocked!  Here is the customer service manager telling, who knows how many people, that their service wasn’t the best in the world! Then I thought, here he is actually being honest with his customers and potential customers.  What a concept!!  “We aren’t perfect but here is what we are going to do about it.” 

Now let’s make a comparison to the business I talked about in a previous post The Power of Social Media and HostGator.  Here is HostGator telling the world that their service isn’t perfect and it needs improving and the other business doesn’t seem to care about their customer service and apparently isn’t doing anything to improve it.

One company is using Social Media in an honest and transparent way to educate and improve their business practices and hopefully their bottom line.  The other probably doesn’t even know they are being talked about in the Social Media space.

And the cool thing is that Social Media puts both of these companies on equal footing.  The small family business and the large multi-million dollar company are given the same power to reach their customers, open lines of communication, educate and counter any negativity.  One uses it to their advantage and the other well…who knows?  Kudos to HostGator and the other company…not so much!

Which company are you going to model yourself after?


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Oct
22

Blogging and Teenagers

Posted by: The Blog Builder Guy | Comments (0)

       Blogging  and Teenagers

   Every day blogs are created by people of all ages and from all walks of life, but when it comes to blogging, teenage bloggers are truly on the leading edge of the blogging. Because today's teenagers are the first generation to have grown up using the internet at every stage of their life, many adolescents have an almost inborn sense of how to use web technology to express their innermost thoughts and ideas. Older writers often experience a steep learning curve when they begin to blog, but most young people find that using a computer and blogging software feels more natural a mode of communication than writing in a diary ever could.

One of the reasons why blogs have become the "in" thing in the teen world and are growing daily is the fact that they provide a unique mix of visibility and anonymity. A teenage blogger can invite friends and peers to read their blog with a simple email and get attention or even praise for their ideas or skills.  Of course, with visibility usually comes the possibility of embarrassment, but it is possible to blog anonymously with a nickname and that negates a lot of the possible for humiliation. Many a blogging teen lives in fear that a parent or guardian will discover their blog, but by publishing under an alias a teenager can spill their secrets without fear of being traced.

Outside the blogging world, teen bloggers often have limited chances to be published. Magazines and journals are often reluctant to publish young writers who so not have as much credibility as writers with a lot of experience and credits to their names. This can discourage young people from writing or from seeking chances to publish their work. By blogging, young people can begin to gain a following of readers without first having to win the attention and support of an editor or publisher who may not be very interested in teenaged authors.

Between the fact that blogs provide young people with a chance to show off their impressive technical skills, to gain visibility without compromising privacy, and to build a readership for their writing without having to jump through the traditional hoops of the publishing industry, it is little wonder that there are so many teenagers with blogs. For some teenagers, blogging is a very social act that allows them to meet people with similar interests from all over the world. Many a blogging teenager has discovered that having a blog  is a great way to explore self-expression and, often, to win positive feedback from new friends.

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Learn About Blogging and Blogs for Business

Blogs, also known as web logs are all the hot right now.  Many people have a blog, and some are even making money wit;h them. The big question is: How are they doing it? What makes using a blog such a great way to earn money?  First you need to know that a blog is a lot bit like an online journal or diary if you will.  You can make posts to on just about anything that you want and then publish it for the whole world to see. If you are new to blogging, it is a good idea to do so just for fun in the beginning, so that you can get the  hang of it.

Once you have become familiar with blogging and have the gotten used to the format, you will be ready to try and make some blog money with it. As a beginning business blogger, you will want to take it slow and easy.  You will need to make a plan and do things according to the plan. That will help keep you from getting overwhelmed with it and giving up.

The single most important thing that you need to do is find a niche to blog about. A niche is a specialized area of knowledge that can be something that you know, want to know, or want to learn. You don’t have to be an expert in that field but it’s important that you at least have a strong interest in it. But the more you know, the better. The niche can be whatever you want it to be. It can be as complex or as simple as you want. Think about something that you know and love or something that you want to learn about. You will come up with a niche that will be perfect before you in no  time.

Now that you know what your blog will be all about, you are ready to get down to get started. First of all you want to decide how often you will update your blog. Will it be daily? Every other day? Maybe even weekly? Whichever you choose, make sure that you don’t miss posting your updates. Once you start getting readers to your blog you want them to know that tey can depend on you for fresh content. They will want to know how often to come back and visit your blog for the latest information. If you post like you say you will, you will end up with a large readership that will stick with you.

So now that you have a niche, and have decided how often your will post to your blog, it is time to do some marketing. First, you need to get back links. Back links are essential and they mean that other websites and blogs are linking to you. There are a number of ways that you can get these important  links. You can surf the internet and find some forums that are in your niche and  post comments on other them that are relevant and leave a link behind with your comment. You can also ask friends and family if they will put links to your blog on their sites. Both work and they both count as links that you need to your blog.

Are you going to try using your blog for business? If  you are, you are going to find that promoting products or services in your blog is a great marketing technique that you can use as well. People do it everyday and make lots of money from it. Whether it is affiliate links, or your own products and services that you are promoting, you are going to find that a home business blog is one of the best ways to get the word out and let people know that you are using a blog for business. Marketing from your blog has never been easier.

With all of the internet marketing ideas that are out there for the business blogger, it is really hard to have a blog fail when you implement the ideas correctly. Make sure that you ping your blog every time it is updated, and work on building those links as they will make a huge difference in your search engine rankings.

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Blogs for Business

Blogging has come to be considered a highly effective marketing tool. You can easily create awareness of your product and get clients and customers to interact with each other. And not only customers, also those who are relatively new to your product get a platform to ask questions and clear their air about your product.

Moreover, it also increases your website rankings because the blog is constantly being updated, commented on, and discussions are always going on. Because of its sheer activity, the rankings improve, creating more awareness of the product.

The following are the pointers based on which you can blog about your product:

• Never make the blog post too long. Less is more. It must be well written. Long posts tend to get dreary and they are not ‘catchy’ enough for people to sit and go through them. Oh yea, spelling counts!

• Update regularly. Since you don’t need to write long posts, that is not much effort. Ideally, blog 3-7 times a week.

• Be entertaining where required, everyone can do with some light hearted humor, without being derogatory.

• You need not stick only to text. Video and photo blogging are  catching on fast and are interesting ways to share your thoughts and make your videos and photographs well known. Plus Google loves videos and photos and they will help you get ranked higher.

• Be yourself. Do not to ape, imitate or copy someone else’s personality or content. You want to build relationships with people and the best way to do that is to be yourself.

These are just a few tips on using Blog for Business.  There will be more to come.  If you have anything to add please do so!


Categories : Blogs for Business
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Oct
15

What Is a Blog?

Posted by: The Blog Builder Guy | Comments (0)

blog builder, blog setup A blog (short for weblog) is a great tool to express your personal thoughts, opinions and to share family news.  Here are a few of the uses that have evolved for blogs:

Personal Blogging: a great way to share all the exciting events in your life with your friends and family.  After all who doesn’t want to see the latest pics of your cat?   You can express your personal views on politics and current events if you want to. And you can encourage others to add comments on your posts thereby developing a dialog with them. 

Blogs for Business: Blogs are an inexpensive way to market your business on the internet. You can promote special sales or new products.  The blog can also be used as an educational tool to explain why a customer should use your products or services.  Blogging is also great way to build a relationship with your customers. From time to time add something personal so they get to know you as a person as well as a business entity. People would rather buy from someone they know than a stranger.

News/Journalism:  Most of the popular news organizations have blogs on their website where the news personalities express their personal opinions on current events.  And of course it also promotes the news organization by getting readers to their site.

Topic Specific Blogs:  Do you want to know about gardening?  There are blogs for that! Do you want to know how to rid your dog of fleas?  There are blogs for that!  There are blogs for just about everything you could imagine and probably a few you don’t want to imagine!  Great resources for information and products to solve your problems.

 

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