What You Need to Take Note About a Corporate Blog? By Alex Liu

Starting a corporate blog is definitely a very powerful choice to grow a business. Blogs are very good tools when it comes to word-of-mouth marketing, effective communication with market, following up, branding, creating customer loyalty and others. However, there're some 7 crucial points you need to take note for a successful corporate blog.

1. Objectives

What are the objectives for the blog? Is it marketing, communicate tightly with the market, announcing products or events, building relationship with customers. If corporate bloggers are blogging just for the sake to join the corporate blogging trend, the blog will loses its attractiveness. I used to own a blog and advertise it heavily. I couldn't understand why visitors are not staying until I realize my blog have no objectives and people don't find it attractive.

2. Readers

Who will read your blog? Who are you targeting? You can write your blog for the market you are in and the customer who you want to follow up with. However, you need to make it clear because your blog will filter readers who are targeted. If you are writing to your customers, customers would find the blog attractive because the blog looks like specially made for them. Besides knowing you are writing for customers or the market, you need to understand your readers. When you blog about your readers problems, pain and questions, they will find the blog even more attractive.

3. Who Is Writing

You need to show your readers clearly about who is writing the blog. What is his position in the company? Clearly defines what will he writes about the company. Don't use the word 'admin' to write blogs. It doesn't sound personal but too official.

4. Design

How your blog is designed is very important. Besides making the blog easy to read, navigate and beautiful, you need to create a unique design that explains to readers what is the blog about. People judge a blog with their feel and experience. Before they start reading, they will look at the design first. If they find the design is bad, they will judge the contents are low quality before reading. Since most internet users surf many websites everyday. So if the design tells them this is not what they are looking for, they will just leave. Your blog's design tells everything about your blog.

5. Writing style

Some corporate would still prefer to make each blog post official to announce events and new products. That's fine. Writing in a conversational style with some personality makes readers feel listening to someone talking rather than reading a newspaper. Conversational style allows you to build strong relationship with your readers. However, make sure your writing style is consistent. Don't switch your writing style. I read many blogs which announce new products and events. They are doing fine.

6. Follow Up

Make sure there's a method to follow up your readers. Encourage them to sign up RSS. RSS is a tool to follow blog readers. You could use autoresponder services too. Every time you update your blog, use the 'broadcast' function to tell your readers you updated your blog and remind them to come and read. This helps building strong relationship with your readers.

7. Comment Policy

Blogs are allowed to comment on. Your readers can give you their comment about your blog and blog post. However, there're people who intent to destroy your blog or people who want to advertise their services. They will give bad comments that impact your blog and readers negatively. Set a policy for your comments. Make sure you delete those harmful comments and reply to comments that contribute to your blog.

Hope you get a big picture about the key points to have a successful corporate blog and start enjoy blogging.

The Use of Blogs in Promoting a Business By Kat Nocom

Business entrepreneurs can promote their respective companies through weblogs. With the advent of advance technology, more and more people are making use of the Internet to search for specific products and solutions. With this, businesses maximize the full potential of online promotion through the use of blogs. Here are a few things that must be done to benefit from other blogs, and from creating a company blog.

Blog Commenting

Searching for quality readers can be done through blog commenting. Leaving a valuable opinion on a specific blog post will interest targeted readers, and encourage them to view your site. It is also advisable to focus on particular business-niche-topics on other blogs, to gain exposure from people who might be interested in a specific product or solution offered by your company. Moreover, continuous interaction among bloggers can increase the possibility of promoting a company's website, weblog, and the company itself.

Posting Reliable Content

It is important to regularly maintain a blog through posting quality article contents. The articles must be informative and useful for specific readers. For companies that aim to target small businesses, marketing tips can be incorporated on the company's weblog. On the other hand, for business firms that cater to design and photography, they can include articles about design tips, and post attractive photographs as well. Blog owners must design their blog by using appropriate theme or customizing an existing blog theme. It is also recommended to put a feedback section on a blog to gain response from readers and visitors.

Hosting a Contest

Blogs can also be used to run daily or weekly contests, a great means of keeping customers coming back to a particular website. A contest trough blogs is a great low-cost alternative for paid online advertisement. The contest must be aligned with a specific event or product line. The rules must be clearly defined so that interested people will be able to know if they're qualified or not. Through holding contests, companies can gain more traffic for their website or weblog. Furthermore, a sample of specific products offered by a certain company can be offered as prize for the winner.

Taking advantage of the opportunities provided by other blogs can increase online traffic for a specific weblog or company website. Moreover, there will be more online readers and bloggers who will be interested in viewing a company's website or weblog.

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How To Use A Corporate Blog To Grow Your Business By Dana Prince

Do you need a blog for your business? Can the blogosphere really do all that much for you?

Many corporate websites for companies large and small today have a blog attached to their website. A blog is a fantastic tool for doing multiple things. It can drive traffic, get you more customers, increase customer satisfaction and improve your SEO rankings.

First, it helps you communicate with your customer. If you have a voice, you don't appear to be a nameless and faceless corporate entity. Customers like dealing with people and a blog helps your customer feel like they are buying from a real person. It gives you a chance to share information and news with your customers. It's a great vehicle to drive information to your client base without pushing information at them too aggressively. They choose to read your blog and choose to find out about your company. They can also choose to comment and they can help spread the word. Blogs get syndicated and people do social bookmarking with them as well. Your blog is ideal for viral marketing!

SEO and the Corporate Blog

A blog does great things for your SEO (search engine optimization). Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Altavista love blogs and will often index them faster than websites. Linking a blog to your website can increase the number of links out there and increase your website relevancy in your niche which can doubly impact your PR. How? It can impact your public relations and your page rank!

Your blog should be optimized for your keywords just as much as your website is in order to attract the right audience. Blog posts should give value to readers and encourage participation. You can also use your corporate blog to announce contests, special discounts and to get feedback from your customer base.

How do you manage your business blog the right way?

If you don't know that you can keep the content fresh and write it in a way that will bring you the right traffic and get you the right SEO value, hire a professional blogger. A professional blogger can work closely with you to ensure that your blog provides maximum benefits to your business.

Blog Marketing: 7 Small Business Blog Topics

Web logs, or "blogs", have invaded the small business community. Just search Google for "small business blog", and you'll get over 7,000,000 results. Blogs offer an opportunity to communicate in a casual atmosphere with your customers, often for free. Once small business owners are convinced of the promotional power of blogs, they often struggle with the next step: what to write about. Or they don't blog about the right things to most effectively promote their businesses. Use the following list of topics to help guide your blogging efforts, and never worry about "Blogger's Block" again!

1. Keep an eye on what other small business owners/bloggers are blogging about, and link to related material in your own blog. Include your own thoughts on the topic, agreeing or disagreeing with the original poster.

2. Post excerpts/tips from a book or Special Report you've written (then link to where your readers can purchase/download it! That's a key marketing concept: make the customer aware of a product or service, convince her she wants it, then advise her where to get it. You can do all that on a blog.)

3. Post links to positive reviews and/or media coverage for your book/products/services.

4. Create your own version of an Editorial Calendar to combat Blogger's Block. An editorial calendar can keep your blogging on track throughout the week: pick a topic to cover for each day of the week and stick to it. That way, you always know what topic to write about on a given day. Figure out what works best for you -- choose certain topics for each day of the week, a certain category to post in, or a certain type of post format (interview, top 10 list, etc). Or if you plan to blog only three times a week, decide to blog on upcoming events on Mondays, company news on Wednesdays, and give a project idea on Fridays.

5. Post a review of the latest resource book – your "insider insights" can help position you as an expert in your field. Or consider reviewing a book that is not marketed to your industry, but has valuable applications.

6. Mention mainstream newspaper and magazine articles that relate to your field. Show how it is making an impact on general society. Provide your own commentary, then link to where readers can get more info on your books/products/services.

7. Blog about upcoming book signings, appearances, classes, workshops, seminars, articles, sales/promotions, etc. Describe what you're excited about, who you expect to see there, what topics you're going to discuss, and where people can go for more information. If you're blogging about a seminar, post a screenshot from your PowerPoint to lure people in.

Can a Blog Help Promote Your Small Business? By Lauren Hobson

You may find it a bit surprising, but blogs are turning out to be a very effective method of promoting your business on the web! Not too long ago, lots of people thought of blogs as little more than a tool for teenagers to journal every mood swing online. But today blogs have become quite mainstream, and people from all walks of life are embracing the technology and finding value in using blogs, especially for business purposes.

So what exactly is a blog, anyway? A blog (short for “web log”) is basically a simple web site with an interactive format that allows users to “post” comments and add new information (entries) to the site. This interactivity is really what differentiates blogs from other web sites. Blog entries are typically posted in reverse chronological order, with the oldest information appearing at the bottom of the page and the most recent information at the top.

There are blogs on almost every topic imaginable, and businesses are finding that having a company blog helps them communicate with customers, get better search engine rankings, and attract a much larger customer base. Here are a few highlights of how a blog can help promote your business online:

- Search engines LOVE blogs because the content is being updated constantly, resulting in higher search engine rankings for your business.

- Niche visitors are more likely to discover your business because blog entries can be very specific, often containing words that might not otherwise be in your web site text. This will attract customers that would not have otherwise found your business!

- Blogs can be organized by topic, making it easy for readers to find topics that interest them.

- Blog entries continue to bring in web traffic 24/7. Like many other forms of marketing on the web, blogs provide content and links that act like ripples in a pond – they continue to be shared, indexed, and published all over the web long after you have finished doing the work.

- Information on your blog can be easily distributed directly to your readers with an RSS newsfeed. RSS feeds automatically notify your readers whenever new content has been posted to your blog.

- You can differentiate yourself from your competitors with your blog. You may even find that your competitors don’t offer this type of interactive communication with customers, which gives you an excellent opportunity to stand out.

So if you’re looking for a low-cost marketing strategy that can help extend your reach, improve your search engine rankings, and give your business an edge with customers, then you may want to consider a blog!

How a Business Blog Can Boost Your Credibility Factor By Denise Wakeman

When creating a business online it is extremely important to build and market your online brand. In fact, if you have a business, it is a necessity in this day and time to be online with that business, no matter what your business is, because that is where people are going to find information. And the first step in marketing your business online is creating your online brand. This is what starts you off on the right foot in gaining credibility.

One of the best ways to create and to monitor your online brand is by creating a business blog. What it does is it helps you establish your credibility by demonstrating your expertise, and it helps boost your visibility in your niche, which helps you become known. And the more visible you are, the more credibility you actually have, because when people see you everywhere, they think: oh, this person knows what they're doing; they're an expert in what they're doing, so I believe them.

Now of course, it does boil down to what you're putting out there too. You have to make sure that what you are putting on your blog is excellent content, that it reflects what you do for a living, and you are providing ways for people to contact you and get more information.

Keep in mind that a blog is a place to share and to go deep into what you do so people get a better sense of who you are. And by doing that you're constantly demonstrating your expertise, you are establishing yourself as a thought leader in your field. This helps build trust with that community of readers who then very often become fans of what you do.

A fan is much easier to convert to a client or a buyer, so you want to make sure you're controlling the conversation about you, and the best way to do that is on a blog, because it's your content put out on your schedule about your expertise, and all of that is going to build this body of content that gives you massive visibility and credibility.

It is a process and yes it can take some time to complete and begin seeing results, but once you do you will continue to reap the benefits in your business for years to come. One of the pros of the Internet being a "forever" forum where information is permanent once put out there is that you can benefit from your information being available for all time. This will help to strengthen you brand and build your business in the long term.