How to Blog Effectively to Market Your Small Business

, , Comments Off on How to Blog Effectively to Market Your Small Business

0On Thursday 24th June 2010 Beth Schillaci, President and Founder of VillageWorks Communications, an entrepreneur was the guest for a small business Tweetchat. A tweetchat is a conversation on Twitter where participants connect the conversation by searching for keywords known as hashtags and respond to them. This Tweetchat had the #smallvolution hashtag for following Tweetchats.

There was such great info in the chat and here is a summary of the questions and answers from the participants.

What should small businesses consider when looking to start blogging?

  • When thinking about blogging, companies should think about goals first. What info you want to share and who will blog
  • Content creation  -getting in habit of looking at daily business from blogging perspective (@eyeinfo)
  • Reasons to blog: Thought leadership, education, seo, branding, customer service and event promo
  • The blog is the hub or center of your business community, usually. Another key reason to maintain a blog w/social links (@CreativeSage)
  • Your biz blog is also a content mgmt system- tag, archive, categorize, track posts/comments, RSS, objects…(@loudoun)

How important is adding some branding/personality to your small biz blog?

  • I think customers love to see/hear the personality of a company (@bethschillaci)

Are there pros/cons to a single person blogging versus a group of people participating in the blog, esp. for small biz?

  • A group spreads the responsibility but best for 1 person to be the main point of contact
  • small business with a single blogger time constraints can be tasking
  • A group I work with has spread it across 12 people to lessen time commitment. #smallvolution One person is main editor
  • You can also invite Guest blog posts from customers and associates to help make it a multi team of bloggers (@shashib)
  • Having your own blog is a great way to promote your message and position as a thought leader/expert
  • A group spreads the responsibility but best for 1 person to be the main point of contact (@bethschillaci)
  • Blogging helped me find my inner author, never published before, finding it challenging, fun, rewarding @eyeinfo

How do you generate blog post ideas?

  • @bethschillaci questions left in comments on other blogs (or yahoo answers etc) make great blog post topics.
  • Honestly try to tie pop culture to Smallbiz – Ex: http://bit.ly/dd8gK5 (@kikscore)
  • This is huge: 6 Tips to Instantly Improve Your Blog by @lisabarone via @Smallbiztrends http://bit.ly/9GSCQ7 (@TJMcCue:)

If multiple team members share a blog, how do you maintain a voice/tone?

  • Voice can vary by author but overall goals should be shared by the group

Should SEO be a top consideration when starting a Blog?

  • SEO is a great goal but for a business blog, I feel that producing content that is useful to the reader is most important (@bethschillaci)
  • SEO should be a constant consideration for your blog, but content is always King. SEO is a tool.
  • Creating content that is useful to the reader only helps SEO. The two cooperate, not compete. (@bencookNS)
  • Mix up your blog posts with video, pictures, and audio some times. (@bethschillaci)

How do you find the right blog for your interests?  I have tried goggling but not sure I really am finding what is out there

  • blogsearch.google.com/ good place 2 start
  • maybe the first step is to search for blogs  in your field and comment there

What is the most effective frequency for blogging – daily? Weekly?

  • Blogging weekly is hard but keeping an editorial calendar might help.
  • Reports say the more the better. I’m a fan of quality over quantity. No less than once a week.
  • If it’ s just U blogging, try 2 post once a week consider posting a photo w/a short tag line as a  post when stretched 4 time

Any recommendations for ways to promote a new blog, gain an audience

  • Promote new blog by commenting on other blogs, linking  other social accts add to email signature
  • Remember when adding RSS to your blog, also offer subscription by email. Feedburner is great for this (@bethschillaci)
  • Negative comments can definitely be good for generating conversation (@bethschillaci)
  • I want my blog to be secondary to my content.  So, I actually want a link to my blog on my main website. (@YaoTyus)

How important are niches, to blogging?

  • A niche allows you to focus your blog more easily. For business blog, stick with your business niche.
  • People with tighter niches tend to do better with attracting audience and advertisers (@bethschillaci)

Do you recommend WordPress over Blogger?

I like self-hosted over free blogs. Better control, better customization no changing terms of service. (@bethschillaci)

  • I prefer #WordPress & recommend using it on your own domain. Keep the link juice you attract! ( @skitzzo)
  • Recommend WordPress more customizable, better built-in SEO, thousands of great plug-ins, helpful community (@creativesage)
  • yes use WordPress, also have to ensure blog hosted on your web domain for max exposure (@andrewsmith1443)
  • Hosting your blog on your site (yoursite.com/blog) means links to the blog will help your entire site’s rankings. (@bencookNS)
  • When setting up your self-hosted blog, add comment spam filter and analytics (@bethschillaci)
  • Most of the blog templates that I see seem to have a set format that is blog centralized. (@YaoTyus)
  • You don’t have to have the blog on home page. My site www.villageworks.net is built on WordPress (@bethschillaci)
  • Have you looked at Joomla? It is a comprehensive CMS and very powerful.  (@lavanyad)

What is SEO ?

  • SEO is the art of getting your site to rank higher in searches. It stands for Search Engine Optimization. (@benCookNS)

Any good examples of small biz blogs?

  • Here’s an example of a local, small business blog from @smartdogu http://smartdog.typepad.com/
  • A great example of small biz blog success is @eyeinfo http://eyeinfo.wordpress.com
  • Here is on http://bit.ly/c4lLEy

I have been blogging for a while now but am still not very clued up on how to monetize effectively

  • Monetization can be done several ways. @problogger is a great resource for monetization (@bethschillaci)

Is there recommended developer or type of person or resource for finding a website develop

  • Ask for referrals from people that have sites you like. (@bethschillaci)
  • You need to find someone you are comfortable with.  IMO the more nerdy the better- look for less sales, more nerd. (@ckieff)

Any tips on what to avoid when blogging?

  • People sometimes fear negative comments. I say B prepared, have comments policy & open them up 4 comments. (@bethschillaci)
  • Try to avoid constant selling. Provide information that educates and resonates with your audience. (@bethschillaci)
  • Social media and blogging do not live on their own. Integration is key (@creativesage)
  • SM strategy works best if it’s integrated with your entire bus. dev, mktg, PR & CRM/SCRM, rather than just in sep. parts. (@creativesage)
  • Tie it all into one message and take it to where the audience is. (@creativeSage)
  • We sometimes get hung up on each detail, not seeing the whole context enough. Multiple channels.. (@Creativesage)

How important is it to use photos and/or videos when blogging? Where can I get free or low cost images?

  • I like to use a bunch of photos if possible (under a cut).  I take most of my own. (@bethschillaci)
  • I blog you blog everyone blogs. What gets readers back? Multi-media content does  (@lotajune)
  • Add media to your blogs- if you write a recap of this tweetchat here is a picture for you http://flic.kr/p/8cZZ2M (@shashib)
  • Research all the different Creative Commons licenses before using Flickr pics. Some are not for biz use. (@ckieff)
  • I come back to a blog if it’s interesting, intelligent, and has personality. Multimedia doesn’t really matter. (@jesshibb)
  • Take your own photos if at all possible. If you look for photos on Flickr, make sure you respect copyright/CC. (@jesshibb)

I blog at http://lavanyad.com – used to do so frequently but have lately lost my mojo.

  • I’ve had the same problem, here is what I did to help http://bit.ly/aRl2fI (@bethschillaci)

Here is a question that needs another chat or for you readers to comment and point us to more resources .Any suggestions for technical step-by-step set-up  process for new bloggers?

The article was possible only because of the excellent discussion and conversation by the participants of the #smallvolution tweetchat . Thank you.

More in: Twitter

[“source-smallbiztrends”]