How to engage your customers – and get your blog noticed

Way to reach your customers

Way to find out what your customers want

Way to connect with your customers

Way to “sell” without seeming like you’re selling

Blogging grew from Weblogs

Weblogs were way to share links

Computer programmers used them with their friends

This was late 1990s

Blogs started as a way to “share information”

It’s not really a diary

It’s not meant for the solitary voice

It’s meant for conversation

Famous New Yorker cartoon from 1993 gives mistaken impression of the web:

That was then

Didn’t get web

Works best when your readers don’t realize you’re doing it

Your blog should not feel like advertising or a news release

Your blog should not talk only about your product/service

Your blog should be fun to read

People are super busy

People don’t really care about your product/service

People want information/entertainment

People have lots of choices on the web

Vifredo Pareto (19th century Italian sociologist)

The law of the vital few

20% of the blogs get 80% of the traffic

Most blogs won’t be in that 20%

You can still make money even if you’re not in the 20%

Web is a niche market (not a mass market)

“Mass of Niches” (Jeff Jarvis at CUNY)

Goal isn’t to reach everyone with your blog

Goal is to reach the narrow group of people who really, really want what you have to sell/provide

Hyper-interest

Emphasize your niche or niches

Don’t try to be everything to everyone

You’ll be nothing to no one

Try to be something to a select few of highly interested readers

Read

Read other blogs in your niche

Read news stories related to the product you’re are selling

Read your competition’s blog

Say something

“It’s the content, stupid.”

Don’t just link

Add value

Link:

Link to blogs about the same topic as your blog

Link to news stories about the same topic as your blog

Link to your competition

Web interactions are based on “generalized reciprocation.”

Idea from Harvard University sociologist Robert Putnam, who wrote “Bowling Alone.”

It means: I’ll help you out on the Web because I have a sense that someone else – maybe not you – will help me, too.

When you link to another blog, others might link to yours

You’re showing your readers that you’re plugged in

You’re making it easier for your readers to find out what interests them

The more blogs that link to your blog, the better it is for you

Google’s search algorithm sees your blog as more important if a lot of people link to you

That means your blog will come up higher in a search result

More people will see your blog

Idea from Chris Anderson, editor of “Wired”

When you link to other blogs, you give them some of your reputation

When other blogs link to you, you get some of their reputation

If people see you as having a good reputation, they are more likely to: Link to your blog Comment on your blog Tweet your blog Promote your blog on other social media, such as

Facebook, Digg, etc.

Better reputation means more blogs readers=more customers

Add a blogroll to your blog

Blog roll is a list of blogs your like

You confer reputation currency

You gain reputational currency

You increase chance that blog will link to you, comment on your blog

Get personal

People care about a person

Use your real name

Use a real picture

Be human

Studies have found:

People judge online credibility of companies based on

Whether company reflects who they are Whether people they know like company Whether company seems lasting (not fly-by-night) And whether they would feel comfortable

interacting with the company’s blogger

(Source: Study by S. Yang & M. Kang)

Web has evolved from authority model to a reliability model

People used to go to a Web site because they thought it was authoritative (WebMD)

Now they gather input from several sites, blogs and see if advice jibes

(Source: Lankes, 2008)

If your potential customers like your blogger, they are more likely to like your company and your product

And if they don’t like you’re blogger, they are less likely to buy from you

Make it easy for readers to reach you

Provide “About Me” page and FILL IT OUT

Provide e-mail address on main blog and on About Me page (Don’t make people hunt)

Keep profile short and to the point

Rule of thumb:

80% of your company blog should be about your company, your product

20% should be about other things of interest to your potential customers

Don’t fall into the Me, Me, Me trap

Nobody really cares about your product

Nobody really cares what you have to say

Unless you’re relevant and interesting

The best company blogs don’t seem like company blogs

Talk back Remember: Blogs started as a way to share

information with friends

Blogs should be conversations with your readers/customers

Create a welcoming place

Studies have shown that people like blogs where they feel more similar to the other commenters

Answer comments quickly

Moderate comments

Deal with trolls

(Source: Kalyanaram, S., & Sundar, S., 2006)

Go to other blogs related to your product/service Comment

Engage

Join the conversation

Builds your reputational currency

Borrow from other’s reputation currency

Make life easier for your readers/customers (not you)

Short text (250- 750 words)

Subheads to break up text

Simple sentences

Link to background information

Embed video right on the blog

Keyword load

Stickiness Darren Rowse at ProBlogger:

“A sticky web site is one where a first time reader arrives and finds it difficult to leave.”

You get little benefit from people who“bounce”

From Rowse: Create invitation to subscribe to your blog

Add a subscribe to comments feature

Blog regularly

Highlight most popular posts

Quantify how many people read your blog

Millions of blogs out there Why should readers pick yours?

Computer science theory called the Technology Acceptance Model says: People use technology that’s useful, convenient,

and that they have a positive attitude toward

Duh, right?

Is my blog useful to its target readers?

Is my blog easy to find?

Is my blog easy to read?

Would I read my blog if I didn’t write it?

Aggregate

Offer readers context not just content

Do the searching for them

Aggregation is your friend

Provide links to other blogs, web sites, news stories of interest to your readers/customers

They come to you – not to them

You gain from their reputational currency

You gain traffic from their content

Brainchild of Guy Kawasaki

Doesn’t make content

Just aggregates it to make things easier for readers

Magazine shelf of the web

Get connected

Join blogging circles

List your blog on services, such as Technorati

Promote your blog

Tweet your blog

Put your blog address on your business cards

Millions of blogs

Need to let people know what’s unique about you

Remind people (in a nice way)

People are busy

Be consistent

Make blogging part of your routine

Set aside specific time each day (week) To blog yourself To read other blogs To comment on other blogs To promote your blog

Consider it a priority

Readership don’t grow themselves

You’ll get out of it what you put in

Garbage in; garbage out

More posting leads to more potential for traffic

Daily posting is a good goal at first

Step 1: Read

Step 2: Say

Something

Step 3: Link

Step 4: Add blogroll

Step 5: Get personal

Step 6: Talk back

Step 7: Make life easy

Step 8: Aggregate

Step 9: Connect

Step 10: Be consistent