Entries Tagged 'comments' ↓
November 19th, 2008 — RSS Feed, bloggers, blogosphere, comments, social bookmarking sites, web traffic
Whether you are just getting started in corporate blogging, or you haven’t been paying much attention to other bloggers, the so-called “blogosphere” can be a little confusing. There are literally thousands, if not millions of blogs out there, and if you’re trying to network through them, the task can be a bit overwhelming. There are a few tips however that can help you learn to navigate successfully through the blogosphere.
What is the blogosphere?
It is a term that was coined to describe the intertwining of blog sites, the general atmosphere of the community and the fact that bloggers are really in their own little world. You can become a member of the blogosphere just by becoming a coporate blogger, but you’ll need to know a few things before you get started. Otherwise, your best efforts may just be shooting yourself in the foot.
The first place to start is understanding RSS feeds, and social networking sites. If you don’t have the basics down for these two very important items, everything else may be more complicated than necessary. Take some time to go through places like Digg.com, Technorati, and Twitter to see what is going on. Chances are, you’ll be able to come up with some great ideas for your own blog during this process.
Next, you’ll want to start thinking about setting up some great relationships with other bloggers. This has many added benefits, such as being able to write a guest post for another blog (or having someone do the same for you) and you’ll be building up some strong contacts that will help you increase your traffic and your exposure. Take the time to hunt down other blogs in your niche and start by leaving thoughtful comments in their blog section, making sure to leave your URL.
This is quiet marketing, but it can be very successful. Once you have your own little network built up through your contacts, you should find that your traffic increases as a natural result. This is particularly true if you are utilizing social networking sites to promote your blog.
Remember, you don’t necessarily have to promote just your blog. You can develop a reputation as a valued contributor by sharing good links with your network and involving them in your blog. Try to keep your promotion efforts as quiet as possible, to avoid being labeled as a spammer. People in the blogosphere have a very low tolerance for behavior like this and you can quickly develop a reputation that is very hard to shake.
Taking the time to become a valued member of the blogosphere is time well spent. This is your opportunity to develop yourself as an authority on your subject of choice, and to build up real relationships with your readers and with other bloggers. By reaching out to them and becoming an active participant in social networks, comment sections and forums, you can start to grow your corporate blog very quickly and with little extra effort.
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November 14th, 2008 — audience, comments, content, web traffic, writing style
Time and time again, if you are a corporate blogger, you’ve probably heard about the importance of compelling content. What you may not know however is what constitutes this type of content. If you’re not taking the time to craft posts that your readers will find compelling, you may be missing out on a great opportunity. Let’s take a look at a few ways that you can start utilizing these techniques to help increase readership and retain your audience.
1. What is the value of your post?
One of the easiest ways to determine whether or not you have a compelling post is by estimating just how valuable your post really is. Has the topic already been covered in thousands of different venues? Does the post contain information that will somehow help the reader accomplish something? Is your post thinly veiled promotion? Once you know the answer to these questions, you’ll be able to start working on developing content that is truly compelling.
2. How do your readers react to your posts?
If the answer is “I have readers???” you may have a problem here. If you are basically shouting in the wind and you’ve never had a single comment on your blog despite your best efforts to market it, chances are the problem may be a lack of compelling content. This is the type of post that gets people talking, sharing and will help you make the most of viral traffic.
3. Does your post somehow make an emotional connection with the reader?
This isn’t an easy task in many cases. Let’s say that the niche for your corporate blog is washing machines. It can be tough to find a way to make an emotional connection over an appliance. However, it can be accomplished. What do people really care about when it comes to washing machines? Overall price, functionality and whether or not it eats clothes are great stepping stones that can be used to emotionally manipulate your readers (in a good way.)
4. Does the post make your readers want to know more about you personally?
When you create compelling content, you create a relationship with your readers. Once they start writing you personally, you can be assured that you are developing a good audience that is engaged by what you talk about. You may not be writing hard promotional copy with your corporate blog, but what you are doing is building that friendship – the easy way.
Compelling content can be subjective, but generally, it involves an emotional response that is evoked in the reader, and that someone can benefit from, even in a small way. Whether it’s through laughter, tears, or a feeling of “I’ve been there too” compelling content is the secret to success with corporate blogging, especially when you are first starting out.
You’ll be building a reputation as a corporate blogger that can be incredibly useful in the future, no matter what industry you may be working or writing in.
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November 7th, 2008 — RSS Feed, comments, customer feedback, engaging ideas
As readers become more involved with the blogs they frequent, a new form of communication is becoming prevalent – interactive blogging. There are a few ways to look at this and determine whether or not this form of interaction is right for your corporate blog and your readers. When used properly, interactive blogging can be a huge weapon in your arsenal towards building better relationships with your customers, but it can be a double edged sword.
First, let’s look at the most common form of interactive blogging, using your posts to answer reader questions. This commonly occurs when you have someone leave you a question in the comments section of your blog, frequently asking for more information on a certain topic. Now, if one person asks this question there is always a chance that there are more people that want to know the same thing.
You can use these comments to determine what your readers really want to know. If it’s a good question, consider writing a blog post that will answer it. If not, you can keep focusing your energies on your regular posts. However, it is a good idea to let your reader’s dictate what you will be writing about – at least to some extent – since this can help you develop a stronger reader following.
The second form of interactive blogging takes your comments section to a whole new level. This is where you encourage your readers to contribute on a regular basis and the comments section may even start to look a bit like a message board. This is another powerful tool that can benefit corporate blog owners.
First, you’ll be getting the benefit of having your readers return throughout the day to keep tabs on the ongoing conversation. You can also set up an RSS feed for your comments to make this easier. Second, you’ll be increasing the amount of page views you have as well as the opportunity to attract new readers through word of mouth advertising, and through search engine indexing.
Interactive blogging does have a catch though, as we mentioned above. If you can keep tabs on your readers and avoid having flame wars, or nasty comments, it can work quite well. However, if you let it get out of hand, you’re only asking for trouble. On one side, you’ll have readers that will wonder where you stand on the issue if you don’t take care of a problem, and on the other hand, if you take quick action and delete problem comments, you may be cast as against freedom of speech.
The easiest way to take advantage of interactive blogging is simply to set some ground rules, make them clear, and then stick to them. If your readers know right off the bat what they can and cannot do with your interactive blogging elements, there will be a lot less confusion and a lot more interacting going on. Try it for a week and see how your corporate blog changes.
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September 23rd, 2008 — comments, content, customer base, goals, planning
As with any task, developing effective habits can mean the difference between success and failure. Many first time corporate bloggers don’t take the time to develop good blogging habits and as a result, they don’t do as well as they should. Here are some tips to help you get into some good habits that will pay off.
First, you need to set a specific time for blogging every day. It doesn’t take that long to write one post, and you should be able to set aside fifteen to thirty minutes of your day for this. By setting a specific time, you’re also helping your readers to learn when they should be checking your site for new content.
Next, it is vital to take the time each week to come up with a topic list. This can be very beneficial on the days where you don’t feel as creative. You’ll have that topic list to fall back on and it won’t be as difficult to come up with something to blog about. Try to find topics that are engaging and related to current events for the best results.
Now, it’s time to expand this step even further. In addition to your topic list, it is a good idea to keep a file of interesting things that you come across that are related to your blog. Whether it is a news story, another site, or something that is connected with your company, bookmark it or save it to a special file. You’ll have a wealth of topics and information at your disposal. Whenever you find something interesting put it in there and keep building this file up.
If you are facing a tough week where you will not have a lot of free time to devote to your blog, write ahead. Write out your posts for that week over the weekend or during some free time and you’ll be all set. Then, all you will have to do is post them each day, which only takes seconds. This is a great method to ensure that your blog won’t fall by the wayside, no matter how busy you get.
Lastly, it is also important to take the time to interact with your readers. This can be done after work or whenever you have a free minute. By getting into the habit of carrying on conversations through comments on your blog, you will be building up a strong readership that is connected to you.
The most important factor to a successful blog is a corporate blogger that is willing to take the time that it takes to be successful. From spending extra time developing new topics, to posting, to promotion, you have to be willing to give it your best shot. By getting into good habits early on, you will be able to fall back on these when you get busy, or when you may not feel like posting that day. Once it’s part of your routine, you can ensure that your corporate blog will never fall by the wayside.
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September 22nd, 2008 — audience, comments, money, revenue, statistics, web traffic
Is this thing on? If you are starting to feel like you are blogging to an empty room, or your posts are accompanied by the sound of crickets, it’s time to start focusing on whether or not you are reaching your audience. There are a number of methods that can be used to determine whether you are getting hits, but this does not provide the true picture. When it comes to reaching your audience, this pays off in terms of new site visitors, more sales and better word of mouth. So, how you can tell if you are reaching your audience? How can you improve your blog to accomplish this? Let’s take a look at some great techniques.
1. Measure by sales.
One of the best tests to see if you are reaching your audience is to create a test post. For this example, we’re going to use a corporate blog that has an online store that sells cordless phones. The test post is going to cover the differences between phones with 5.8 mhz, and 3.0 mhz. Inside the post is a link to discount cordless phones with the appropriate link title.
Float a post like this out there and monitor the reaction. If you move a couple products, you’re starting to get there. If nothing happens, you need to figure out what is going wrong.
2. Measure by reader participation.
When you create an emotional connection with your readers, they can’t help but want to communicate with you. Are you getting more emails after certain blog posts, or more comments? Figure out which kind of posts evoke the most response from your readers and then stick with the format that works. It will make a big difference in how you reach your audience.
3. Measure by traffic.
While you can’t use this all the time, traffic spikes can help you determine how well certain posts do and what may be wrong with others. For example, let’s say that you do a post on the top ten reasons why cordless phones are useful. You put it up and notice that you have a lot of traffic coming from Digg or Reddit. This means that one of your readers thought enough of the post to submit it to these sites and that it is garnering attention.
If you don’t have analytics softaware installed on your blog, you need to add this right away. You can use this software to find out where your visitors are coming from as well as which posts perform better than others. Once you have this down, you can begin focusing on what your readers want to read.
When it comes down to it that is the whole point of this exercise. To reach your audience, you have to give them something that they want to read. To do that, you’ve got to do a little testing to see what will work and what will not. Once you know, you will start to see a big change in the amount of traffic you get and the amount of reader participation.
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September 17th, 2008 — comments, goals, keywords, links, networking, search engine, statistics, web traffic
If you have ever felt like you were blogging to a wall, you know how difficult it can be to engage your audience. During the first few weeks or even months after starting your own corporate blog, there are going to be dry periods where you are writing for a handful of people. This is the most frustrating period and many bloggers pull up stakes. However, if you can begin writing more effective posts, you will start to see an increase in readers.
So, how do you that? There are many ways that you can gauge the overall effectiveness of your blog. We’re going to look at the two most important ways and provide tips on gauging and improving your effectiveness. Let’s get started!
Reader Effectiveness
This can be a tough one to gauge, at least at first, but you can learn a lot if you take the time to do your research. You will need to make sure that you have analytics software installed on your blog (Google Analytics is one of the best and it is free). This is going to be one of your main tools when it comes to figuring out how you are impacting your readers.
There are three main ways to gauge whether or not you are reaching your readers:
- The amount of comments left on your blog
- Whether or not your traffic starts to climb
- How many links you are getting from other sites
All three are vital to your corporate blog – but it’s not always easy to improve this area. First, start by including your audience in the discussion. Ask them direct questions, encourage them to leave comments, and keep up the conversation with them. Little by little, you’ll notice more interaction and your blog will begin to pick up steam.
Search Engine Effectiveness
While the results from this can be a bit slow to realize, you should start to see something happening if you are blogging effectively for search engines. You can gauge this by:
- How high your Google Page Rank is.
- How many new links you have coming in to your blog
- How well your blog does in results pages
- How many people are entering your site from search engines (see analytics)
If you are using keywords and not seeing your blog anywhere in the search results for that keyword, there is something wrong. Either you are picking keywords that simply have too much popularity, or you are not using them the right way.
Density is vital when it comes to keywords. You’ll need to include the phrase in the title of your post, in the first and last sentence and throughout the post. A good rule of thumb is to shoot for 2 to 3% density on your keywords or phrases. This will make a big difference.
If you are using keywords where there are already millions of results, fine tune your approach. For example, instead of real estate, you can use the keywords Montana Real Estate. Focus on long tail keywords as well to start building up solid results.
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September 10th, 2008 — comments, engaging ideas, statistics, web traffic, writing style
If you’ve decided that you are going to allow readers to comment on your blog, there are a lot of benefits that you can reap. In addition to increased page views, comments allow you to build up a strong relationship with your readers. They can be very beneficial, but it may take a little while before you start seeing comments. Although writing engaging material is the best way to encourage reader participation, there are a few other tips that can be very useful.
1. Ask your readers a question.
This is one of the easiest ways to encourage more comments on your blog. Ask your readers a question that is pertinent to your post and ask them to leave their responses in the comment section. This can be a double edged sword, but when properly managed, you can do quite well. Just remember, if you don’t want to hear the answers, don’t ask the question. Go for questions that are not vitriolic to avoid excess controversy that could harm your company.
2. Run a contest.
This is probably the most blatant method, but it does work. Try running a contest for something that you sell, or a really great gift that will get a lot of attention. You’ll want to extend the contest for at least a week for the best results. Let your readers know that you’ll be picking a winner from among those that leave comments on your blog. The key is finding a gift that people will really want, since that will increase the likelihood of getting better comments and more participation.
3. Leave your own comments.
If you get a comment on your blog, it’s very important to respond to that person in the comments section. You can start a whole dialogue there and your visitors will go away with a brand new impression of you. By taking the time to answer a question or thank someone for their opinion, you are letting them know that you care about your readers. This helps them develop a stronger relationship with you and it will benefit your business in many different ways. Take the time to get personal and you’ll definitely see an increase in readership.
4. Make commenting easy for your readers.
Most of today’s blogging platforms have made it relatively easy for people to leave comments, but there are still some issues that may keep your readers from using the system. You need to make sure that it is incredibly easy to leave a comment. While asking users to register before they are allowed to leave comments can be helpful, it generally makes it more difficult and time consuming. It’s best to do away with this step. Your readers will be more likely to leave comments since they won’t feel as though they are giving you too much personal information. Today’s internet users are savvy and they care about the information they share, and if you don’t require this step, they will feel much more comfortable leaving a comment.
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August 27th, 2008 — bloggers, comments, content, goals, marketing, networking, public relations, publicity
A corporate blog can be an incredible promotional tool, but it can also be used for networking purposes. Nearly every company can benefit from networking and much of the current internet community has been built on the back of social networking. How can you take advantage of this trend and put it to work in your blog? Here are just a few tips to get you started.
1. Make a list of all the related blogs in your industry.
Let’s say that you manufacturer tools and you want to reach out to possible customers that could be using your tools. It’s a good idea to do some research and find all of the different blogs out there that are owned by companies that could benefit from your products. This is definitely time well spent. Create a list of all of their blogs and subscribe to their RSS feeds. Keep track of what they are posting about and start reaching out to them.
2. Leave comments on their blogs.
One of the best ways to get noticed is by leaving a comment on their blogs. Keep it complimentary and professional and make sure that you use your company name and the address of your company’s blog. This is an easy way to open up the lines of communication and it only takes a few seconds. You’ll be able to reach out to companies all over the world using this method and you’ll be building up relationships that could pay off in the future.
3. Schedule a blogging event.
One great way to get the attention of other companies is to host an event that could include them. Get creative and think of different types of events that would suit your industry. Invite other corporate bloggers to attend. If necessary, find a way to host a special expo or something that is somehow related both to blogging and to your business. You’ll be able to get a lot of press and the coverage will only help increase your business.
4. Reference their posts in your posts.
If you want to give someone a corporate shout out, don’t be shy. They’ll probably be honored that a) you read their blog, and b) you thought enough of their post to reference it. This is can be used by doing a trackback, or simply by including their URL and some quotes. However, this should only be done if your post is complimentary and serves to buttress their own point. They’ll feel like you are an ally and they will be much more likely to reach out to you as a result.
These are just a few simple means of utilizing the power of blogging to increase your networking reach. Give it a try and see how many new contacts you can come up with in a week. Don’t forget to keep cultivating and looking for new opportunities. New corporate blogs spring up every day and there is a world of opportunity out there just waiting for you.
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August 19th, 2008 — Buildify, comments, public relations, reputation
If you have decided to allow comments on your corporate blog, it is a good idea to start mapping out how you will handle certain situations now, before they actually happen. Sooner or later, something will come up with your readers and it is very helpful to have a planned response all ready to go. Let’s look at how you can steer any comments into the right direction.
First, let’s cover what would happen if you are dealing with an event in the media that is not particularly flattering to your company. It’s a good idea to craft an official response to any comments that may come up on this issue. You may also want to do the same in a blog post, addressing the issue and finding a way to spin it in a positive direction. There is always a way to turn something bad into something good, and your honest efforts will be appreciated by your readers. In fact, you may even find that they are behind you instead of against you.
It is also a good idea to work on responding to incendiary comments with a level head. This is a trap that can ruin many a corporate reputation. There are people out there that live to leave nasty comments on blogs and some will just keep going back. Instead of ignoring those comments, or engaging the person in a heated discussion, craft one simple response that addresses the main points and leave it at that.
At times, it can be difficult to deal with comments and often, many people wonder why they allowed them in the first place. However, it is never a good idea to suddenly remove the ability to leave a comment on your corporate blog, especially if you are going through a public issue. This gives a very bad impression of your company and makes it look as though you have something to hide.
It may not be the easiest thing in the world, but if you are allowing comments, you’re going to have to stick with it and weather the storms. You do have some options when it comes to handling those who consistently leave negative comments or those that bring absolutely nothing to the discussion but flamewars.
Most blogging applications have a feature that will allow you to block certain IP’s from being able to leave a comment. This can be a real lifesaver when you are trying to steer comments in a positive direction. Find out which person is responsible for the nasty comments, ban their IP and go about your business.
Alternatively, you can require registration on your site before someone can leave a comment. Most people who live to start flamewars and irritate others will not go to the trouble of setting up an account. If they do, you’ll have their email address and more information about them, which is very useful in this situation.
When handled professionally, comments can add a lot to your blog, but always remember to be positive and cool under pressure.
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August 12th, 2008 — RSS Feed, blog design, comments, social bookmarking sites
If you’re ready to get into corporate blogging, you need to make sure that you are going in with the right attitude. There is a big difference between starting an okay blog and starting a stellar blog. You are in this to succeed, so you need to make sure that you are using the right techniques and mindset to accomplish this. Mediocrity is never a good thing, and in blogging, this is particularly true.
In order to make sure that your blog stands out from the competition, attracts readers and gets noticed, there are a few techniques that you can use.
1. Design is very important –a blog that is hard to read will not be read.
It is just that simple. While you need to match your blog’s design to that of your site, you also need to make sure that it can be easily read. This usually means a white overlay for the blog text using a black font. It may be visually boring to the design oriented, but it is easy to read. Less is more when it comes to designing a corporate blog. Make sure your logo is visible and that there is a strong visual link between your site and blog, but always make sure that the text is easy to read.
2. Use the right technology – there are many new tools out there that make blogging even easier.
These include social networking links as well as RSS feeds and management tools. The best blogs use a mix of these tools to help increase readership and get a better idea of how their blogs are doing. Corporate blogs can use these tools as well. You want to make it easy for your readers to enjoy your blog. This means going the extra mile to make sure that you do have an RSS feed, that it is easy for readers to share your posts and that they can easily find everything on your blog.
3. Comments should be encouraged – the whole point of a corporate blog is to shed that stiff corporate image and become personable.
Most blogging applications allow readers to leave comments. You should not turn this feature off. There are a few risks in allowing the general public to leave any sort of comment on your site, but you can head these off at the pass by instituting simple rules and sticking to them. For example, do not allow swearing or defamation in comments and remove any that break the rules. Use a moderation feature that will let you approve comments before they go live to avoid flame wars and embarrassing situations for your company.
These are just three simple ways that you can make your blog truly stellar. For extra help, it is a good idea to work with a company that specializes in managing corporate blogs. They can assist you in the creation of a blog that will be professional, fun and noticeable.
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