Business Blogging is a trend that has been implemented by businesses worldwide both large, medium and small. For many, blogging has helped take their business to a new level, grow online presence and even increase market share. For some however, blogging has created a negative impact, or at least become a time sucking machine that remains impossible to manage and maintain.
So what are the rules for business blogging? What is best practice? What types of businesses should blog and what are the positive and negative effects of entering the blogging world? These questions and their answers vary greatly depending on the goals of the business and their industry. This is perhaps why some business blogs succeed and some fail, because as with everything in business, a little planning goes a long way!
Really, every business could have a blog if they chose to, there's nothing to say that business blogs are wrong, just that if not implemented correctly, blogs can be a waste of precious time and resources and add little value to the business.
Initial Planning Process for Business Blogging.
The first step toward a positive business blogging experience is the decision making process before the blog is initiated. Several points need to be analysed for each business to outline a clear plan for their blog. These points include:
- What is the goal of the blog?
- Who is the target market for the blog?
- Who will manage the blog including writing?
- Will comments be allowed and be replied to on the blog?
- What subjects and topics will be discussed on the blog?
- Is the blog for customer interaction or search engine optimisation purposes?
- How often will posts be made to the blog?
Initiating a Business Blogging Plan
Once the initial plan has been laid out for the business blog, it is vital that the plan is followed as decided, but at the same time remains flexible. Planning who will write the blog posts is largely affected by what the goal of the blog is. Some considerations may be, if the goal of the blog is to introduce customers to business staff and processes, that many staff members may be involved and have a personal profile within the blog. On the other hand, if the blog is to be largely informational it may be easier to use a generic profile.
It is important to decide how often the blog will be posted to and do this failry regularly. Generally once every week to two weeks works well for most business blogs. This is true also if the blog is being used for search engine optimisation benefits. Pre planning is also advisable if only one or two staff members are involved in creating posts for the blog, ensure that there are pre written posts for when those staff are away or on holidays.
Allowing comments on a blog is vital if the goal of the blog is to interact with customers. The internet and it's users are becoming more and more interactive, reading about a business is not always enough, but the ability to comment on information or posts by the business is much appreciated by many customers who like to feel their voice is heard. Another consideration in this is not only allowing customers to post comments within the blog, but also replying to or acknowledging those comments.
Set out a posting plan for the blog, this will assist with making sure that the desired topics are covered by the right people at the right frequency. By planning out all topics to be covered and when they should be published, the business owner or manager can maintain control over the blog without having to be constantly involved in the process. This list must also have some flexibility and allow for extra posts to be made in case of hot industry news or other topics that may arise unexpectedly and be well suited to blog posts.
Using a blog for search engine optimisation purposes is often recommended. When a blog is implemented for this reason, the use of keywords is one of the most vital considerations. Keywords should not be overused (otherwise called keyword stuffing) but each post must be planned to focus on one or two relevant keywords while containing useful and well written information. If posts are not written in a useful and relevant, logic manner, not only will people not want to read it, the search engines will also disregard the writing and it may in fact damage search engine rankings instead of improving them.
The Final Business Blogging Considerations
Analysis of blog performance is key for any business. Tracking the positive or negative effects of the blog is essential to understand if it is achieving the initial goals that were planned out. If a business does not find blogging to be a positive experience, then discontinuing the blog should be considered.
Revisit the original blogging plan and outline, discuss SEO rankings and staff and customer satisfaction with blog results and continually monitor if business blogging is positively or negatively effecting the business and just as with any part of the business, make decisions based on the most desired outcome.
Loreena Walsh - Loreena Walsh is a Small Business Owner, Wife and Mother, with a passion for Australian travel. A busy life is a happy life! Running 2 ...
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