Read the following excerpt from my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Marketing Handbook’ to find out how writing a blog for your business can help you communicate with your customers…
A blog simply consists of web pages made up of certain characteristics, the standard structure of which works as follows.
One person (or maybe a small group of people) is responsible for “making posts”. These posts may be full articles, or small news updates, tips or any other content that may be of interest to the intended audience. The content can include words, images, video and audio.
The most recent post is shown at the top of the main blog page, with older posts pushed down the page to make way for the new content as it is added.
At the same time as being added at the top of the main blog page, each post is also added to the blog on its own separate page. This page, known as the “post page” or “permalink page” typically includes the post, as well as any comments made by readers of the post.
Posts are usually archived by category and date, and can be accessed in the future through a series of category and date links.
Not only is a blog an excellent way of establishing a meaningful dialogue with your customers, the content will also help increase your exposure at Google and other search engines.
The individual post pages of your blog will be added to the search engines’ indexes, providing more and more opportunities to be found for more and more keyword phrases, and any links that others set up back to your posts will enhance your importance in Google’s eyes.
A word of caution if you are considering launching a blog. Writing and maintaining an active blog is quite a commitment and many have started with good intentions and an initial rush of enthusiasm only for the blog to come to a grinding halt once the initial energy peters out.
So if you are thinking of starting a blog, make sure you have the time and the commitment to keep things going for the long term.
Most importantly, a successful blog is about content. If you are passionate about your subject matter, know what you are blogging about, and can position yourself as an expert in your field, then you will be able to build a following and dialogue.
This comments functionality doesn’t need to be restricted to a blog. For example, many news sites provide the ability for readers to make comments on the article, and this commenting functionality is common to many social websites like YouTube and Facebook.
If your content is likely to engage your readers in a conversation, you should consider adding a comments feature to such pages on your site, whether you write a blog or not.
There are a number of free sites where you can set up your blog including Blogger.com (powered by Google), LiveJournal.com and WordPress.com. Alternatively, you can set up free blog software like WordPress on your own server.
To read more, you can purchase my book ‘The NZ Small Business Superhero’s Internet Marketing Handbook’ by clicking here.
