Business and Blogging

Are You Communicating?

by Laura Spencer on March 10th, 2008

Does your business blog reach your customer?

Many business blogs totally fail to reach and engage their intended audience. For these blogs, there is just no real customer communication happening. Don’t let your business blog be one of these!

It’s true that some businesses are afraid to face their customers, but that’s not the best way to do business. It is better to allow open communication than to try and avoid facing problems. Avoidance will only cause problems to fester.

Here are five tips to make sure that your business blog reaches your customers and potential customers AND that it becomes a channel of communication.

1. Don’t hide your business blog’s URL. If you have a corporate website, make sure that it contains a prominent link to your company’s blog. Print the blog’s URL on your company’s stationary and business cards. Encourage your company’s employees to read the blog and talk about it to their contacts.
2. Don’t close comments. Your customers and potential customers can’t communicate with you if your comments are closed. If they don’t comment, then you can’t answer. It always amazes me when a company starts a blog and then closes the comments. Blogging is supposed to be a conversation, and it takes two to have a conversation.
3. Know who your customers are and go where they go. No matter what type of product or services you are selling, chances are good that there is already a community of your customers and potential somewhere on the Internet. They may be in a forum. They may be clustered around a popular blog in your industry. They may be using a popular (or not-so-popular) form of social media. The point is: find out where your customers are and go there.
   
4. Promote your business blog. Depending on how much of an investment you have in your company’s blog, you may want to consider advertising it in order to draw in new traffic. SEO can also help bring traffic to your blog. Make sure to consider online and unconventional forms of advertising along with traditional advertising.
5. Consider hiring a professional community or social media manager. If your company can afford it, then hiring a professional community or social media manager can really pay off. Not only can this individual oversee your business blogs, but they can also ensure that your company has a presence in the right social media. (Note: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is a part-time position and assign this responsibility to your receptionist to do in her “spare” time. Nine times out of ten, it won’t get done.)

Some other notable posts about business bloging or social media:

• From Jason Falls at Social Media Explorer, Think Customers, Be Brave, Succeed in Social Media - An forward-thinking arena management company is blogging and using social media. (This is exactly the sort of thing that we like to read about here at Business and Blogging.)
• From Andy MacDonald at Blogging Tips, The Secret to Successful Blog Promotion - Some specific traffic-building tips for your blog.
• From Patrick Schaber at The Lonely Marketer, A True Story About a Chair - Great true parable about the real meaning of communication. This post ought to be required reading for anyone in business.

So, I’ll ask it again: are you communicating? If the answer is “no,” then what’s holding you back?

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POSTED IN: Blogging, Corporate, Small Business, Social Media, Social Networking