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Blogging All the Way to the Bank
Tired of the word "blog" yet?
Well, probably not, since you're currently reading one. But the ups and downs of life in the blogosphere (and is it a sphere, after all? I've always envisioned it as more trapezoidal) have been more apparent than usual this week, with headlines screaming about everything from Barack Obama wearing traditional Somalian garb, to what the deal was with Gary Busey on the Oscars red carpet.
If your company doesn't have a blog these days, you're probably being looked at askance by your colleagues, friends and family. Just as beggars in olden times were forced to wear signs reading "Unclean," you might as well be wearing one reading "Unblogged."
But just throwing a blog up there isn't going to win you many fans either. "With any kind of social media -- blogs, customer reviews, what have you -- you need to keep on top of it," says Lisa E. Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer.com. "If people are coming to visit your site, and there's no new posts for the past month, they're going to realize that your company is not all that involved with it -- and they may go elsewhere."
Gotta Have A Blog At All Costs! may be the motto at your company, but you also need to take into account what you're trying to achieve. Simply tweaking your press releases, or noting that the recent hiring of a new CMO "really means a lot to our team," isn't going to win you many converts. Instead, take a good hard look at some of the other blogs out there, including your competitors'; see what you think works, what doesn't, and how it can be applied to your company. (For examples of other strong, informative blogs, take a glance at what's listed under "Blog Roll" on the Think Customers front page.)
Yes, there's a lot of noise out there. But there's also some value, as Joshua Micah Marshall found out this week when his talkingpointsmemo.com political blog won a George Polk Award for legal reporting.
Now, you may not win an award for your blog. But you might just engage with your customers in a new way.
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