Blogging to Reach Your Buyers

In chapter 17 of the text, New Rules of Marketing & PR, I came across some excellent tips for blogging. According to the book, blogs are now a mainstream vehicle for organizations to get their ideas into the marketplace and are a form of real, authentic communication (page 237).

Before Starting a Blog

First of all, you need to decide on exactly who you want to reach. One should choose a topic that they are passionate about, but also one that generates followers. By choosing a narrow subject, there is room to expand and attract even more visitors (page 238).

Blog posts serve as excellent content for search engines to index because each post is very specific. Blog search engines such as Technorati help people find blogs that they might be interested in. Since, a new blog is created every second of every day, it is important to blog competitively if you want it to be successful. One way to make your blog stand out from among the rest is by writing a niche blog about a less common topic in which there are few other related blogs (page 239).

For my blog, I wrote about a topic that is relatively less common: Electronic Dance Music. Since I am passionate about this genre of music and I have only seen a few blogs about the topic, I decided to write about it.

The Business of Blogging

As for businesses, the text states that it is better for organizations to establish policies about all communications rather than focus on only new medium (blogs). Unethical practices should not be tolerated and employees should be aware of potential issues such as transparency, privacy, disclosure, truthfulness, and credit.  There is even an ethics code online created by The Word of Mouth Association for those who are unsure about the “rules of blogging” (page 240-41)

The author explains that when people comment on your blog, even negatively, it is a good thing. According to him, debate is one of the best indications of a well-read blog. Another tip is to encourage people to contact you. By involving other blogs and bloggers, you become a true participant in the online community. This can be done by linking to other blogs and leaving comments (page 244). 

One of the best takeaways from the book is as follows: once you are fully committed to blogging, it is important to make your blog personality shine through with links, images, photos, and other add-ons (page 245). 

While it takes time to build an audience for your blog, you can let people know it’s there by creating links to your blog and mentioning it on social media platforms. Be certain to post on topics of interest and use important phrases people are searching on. By understanding search engines, you can reach audiences directly and eventually generate enough requests that you don’t need to actively seek new clients (page 246).