The blog world is full of businesses that have jumped in with both feet, without knowing how deep the pool is. The majority of the time the mistakes are etiquette issues or just a general lack of knowledge in the space. Before you start to write a blog to promote your business here are just a few questions you need to answer/know. (perhaps these are a corollary to Jeremiah's list)
1. How long have you been reading blogs?
I don't know how many times I've said this, if you want to start a blog, start by reading other blogs first. The best answer for this question is 2-3 weeks at least. Reading blogs gives you an understanding of the tone and nature of the blogosphere. You'll also quickly learn what blogs are the authorities on certain subjects, which leads to...
2. Name the top five blogs in your industry/vertical?
I posed this question to a client today, they didn't have an answer, not good. Blogs are a conversation (getting tired of that line yet?), interaction with your readers and with other blogs is part of that dynamic. Knowing who are the key influencers and bloggers is absolutely necessary, which leads to...
3. Who writes them?
Relationships are key. You can't establish a relationship with a blog though. It's great that you know that blog X is the most influential blog in your segment but you need to know who writes it. Establish a dialog with that person. A good first start is via blog comments. But don't comment for the sake of commenting (that one's for Jeremy). Add something substantial to the conversation. By participating in the conversation you establish a relationship with the blogger, which leads to...
4. Do those five people know who you are?
If you need to communicate directly with a blogger will they immediately recognize your name on an incoming e-mail? You know how it works, in the mass of e-mail you receive you'll look at things from friends or contacts first. Having an established relationship helps with this. When you finally launch your blog and you want to 'get the word out' being able to reach out to your friends is very helpful. Case in point, the recent FPRA Blog Week event. Once we launched the blog I e-mailed a few friends and asked them to take a look and blog about it if they could. Quite a few of them have, traffic and awareness is building.
From here we can get into some of the planning and best practices for developing a blog, but that's for another day.
Update: Over at Talkshop Alexandra has some more thoughts about the planning of a business blog.
Visitor Comments
Josh, I sort of agree with your questions but not the way you've framed them. Absolutely the company should know who the "top five blogs in your industry" are but surely it's up to you to advise them on this.
And as to how long have you been reading blogs. It makes know difference. I've spoken to people who've "read" blogs for over a year but who wouldn't understand or have time to participate in conversations/engagement. They are passive readers. In contrast you can mentor/train somebody in a morning.
What I think you actually mean by your four points is that companies must understand what they are doing. That can be achieved in many different ways.
Posted by: Stuart Bruce, BMA PR | March 22, 2006 3:29 AM
Yes it can be achieved in many ways, but ultimately the client has got to get involved. You can only advise so far. In order for a blog to be true-to-form you can't keep advising a client....at some point they need to be able to stand on their own.
Posted by: Josh Hallett | March 22, 2006 7:20 AM