Entries Tagged 'customer trust' ↓
October 28th, 2008 — RSS Feed, content, customer trust, social bookmarking sites
If you are putting together an RSS feed for your corporate blog, you may be wondering what way is the best way to deliver that RSS Feed. Should you use full text so that your subscribers can read the entire post in their feed reader without having to click on any links, or should you use a post excerpt so that readers are forced to visit your corporate blog for the rest of the story?
If you subscribe to RSS feeds that relate to blogging or internet marketing subjects, then you will probably discover that the full text feed philosophy is the one that wins a lot of debates on the subject. On the other hand, you may have noticed that many popular news sites like ESPN, AP News and CNN are using the excerpt method instead. Some of these news sites only display the headlines in their RSS feed and do not show any of the story until you visit the actual website. So which method is the right method for your corporate blog?
The real answer to this question is that the best method is whatever best suits your business model.
For example:
Major news websites and sports websites have the same business model that they have always used. The more people they have reading their articles and content, the more they can end up charging for advertising. For this reason, their primary objective is simply to drive people into their websites so that they can retain the highest readership numbers possible to reach the highest possible advertising rates in the process. By offering only a short excerpt or only a headline forces the reader to either click to come in and read more, or to move on.
Is this how you want to regard your readers?
One of the number one goals for most internet marketers and bloggers is to gain the trust of the largest possible audience. Your readers are not only potential customers, but they are also your supporters. Because it is so difficult to obtain high readership numbers, doesn’t it make sense to try to retain your readers at any cost? Most people like to read all of their websites in a single place which is what RSS aggregators are really all about. If you make reading easier for your readers, they will appreciate it more than you realize.
Does the monetization strategy for your corporate blogging effort depend on attracting viewers to your website? The excerpt feed method may be best if you depend on people actually coming to your website, but it takes a lot of traffic to make a living in this manner so you should not necessarily depend on it.
Another consideration to make is this:
Does your website have enough authority to draw people in just based on headlines or small excerpts alone? Even if you are an authority in the field, it is unlikely that your blog has gained enough experience, credibility and exposure to rival the attraction websites like CNN can generate. You should not hold anything back from your readers, so give them everything that you can in your RSS feed. If you give your readers exactly what they subscribed to, you will benefit from an increase in RSS subscribers, more posts getting bookmarks on sites like Digg, Delicio.us, Technorati and StumbleUpon, more viewer comments, and more viewers talking about your blog in theirs.
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September 18th, 2008 — content, customer trust, engaging ideas, post design, public relations, search engine, video
Although video content is lauded and championed as the future of the internet, there is still a lot of dissension over whether it has a place in corporate blogging. While there is no one clear answer to this, there are a few benefits that videos can bring, as well as a few downsides. Let’s look at each of these to help you determine whether or not your corporate blog can benefit from the addition of video.
Benefits
1. Increased interest.
If you have quality video content, this can only interest your readers and encourage them to keep coming back. Video content sometimes does a better job of getting your message across, and if you are producing your own videos, you’ll be getting the benefit of extra face time.
2. Increased consumer trust.
This really only applies if you are starring in your own videos. By putting a face with the posts, your audience will start to feel more connected with you. This is a double-edged sword however. If you are stiff in front of the camera, it won’t work well. If you’re a naturally engaging personality however, there are a lot of benefits to posting videos.
3. Taking advantage of viewer comprehension.
Text based comprehension is historically pretty low. That’s why advertisers usually rely on television or radio, since it takes advantage of visual and auditory senses. By providing your blog visitors with video postings, you will be able to take advantage of all three mediums, audio, visual and text based learning.
Downsides
1. Poor quality.
You should only post videos if they are high quality and enjoyable. If your videos have poor sound or the picture is distorted, it gives the impression that you are too cheap to get a good camera and sound system. This is not an impression that any company wants to give the public. If you’re going to do it – do it right.
2. User generated content.
If you are considered putting up user generated content, such as YouTube videos, you run a lot of risks. They may not be professional and they may provide yet again, the wrong impression of your company. Even if a video is the most viral creation ever made, that doesn’t mean it belongs on your site.
3. Not as discoverable.
Video posts will not be indexed by search engines the same way as text posts, so you are losing out on the opportunity to take advantage of more keywords. The key to beating this is to have more than just a video in your post. Write an introduction with keywords and commentate on the video. If necessary, provide a transcript to get more keywords into the post.
With the right approach, video is a great thing for a corporate blog. You just need to take the time and money to produce high quality videos and utilize the right posting structure to make sure that they get indexed. If you’re not ready to do this, it is best to wait and make the most of your blog the way it is.
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August 18th, 2008 — advertisment, customer trust, goals, public relations, reputation
In today’s current business world, the media is more savvy than ever and so are consumers. This has led many companies to adopt a full disclosure policy on their corporate blogs. Is this policy right for you? Let’s look at a few of the upsides and downsides of full disclosure.
Upsides
1. Public perceives your company as honest.
Everyone loves it when a company owns up to mistakes, takes the high road and is brutally honest about their business deals. It is always refreshing to see a company that is willing to take that risk to be more open with the public and share what is really going on inside.
2. All press is good press.
Blogs that deal with full disclosure typically get lots of traffic and they are able to quickly generate a lot of buzz. This is really only useful if there is a way to turn what they are talking about into a positive light, but overall, when it comes to getting attention, full disclosure usually gets the job done.
Downsides
1. Is brutal honesty always the best policy?
If your company just took a major financial hit, does the public really need to know about it? One of the main problems with adopting a full disclosure stance is that it can really hurt you when things get tough. It’s one thing to say that the company is going through a rough patch, it’s quite another to get into details. This hurts your bottom line, and if you have investors, they may not appreciate your honesty with the public, especially if it affects your stock prices.
2. Bad reputations take only a few seconds to make.
It can take years to build up an image of corporate responsibility, but trashing your company’s image can only take a few seconds. Full disclosure often means talking about things that put your company into a decidedly unflattering light. If you feel your company can rise above that, terrific, but some companies never recover after a blogging disaster.
Weighing All the Options
Now that we’ve gone over the good and bad side of full disclosure, it’s time to get really serious and think about how it could affect your company. Do you have investors? If you do, this is probably not the best policy for your corporate blog. The risks far outweigh any benefits.
Is your company fairly new and so far scandal proof? In this case, then a full disclosure policy can help build a solid reputation around your company and present it in a good light. You may change your mind however the instant the first bad piece of news hits the press.
Lastly, what do you want people to think of when your company name comes up? If you don’t want the latest blogging fiasco to be at the tip of everyone’s tongue, a little mystique is probably a good thing. Blogging is a balance, and it’s up to you to decide how much information you want to reveal.
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August 11th, 2008 — brand awareness, customer feedback, customer trust, product awareness, public relations, publicity, web traffic
If you’ve been hearing a lot about the corporate blogging trend and wondering how you can make it work for your company, there are specific reasons that having a blog is very important. It really is worth the extra effort that goes into the creation and management of the blog, and you will have a whole new means of reaching out to consumers. Let’s take a look at just a few reasons why most companies need to have a corporate blog.
1. Provide the public with a human face for your company.
Most consumers view corporate entities as faceless behemoths that don’t care about the little guy. One of the easiest ways to dispel this myth is to reach out to the public via a blog. Personable posts and interaction with the public go a long way towards building your brand and attaching an image that your company really does care. Just make sure that you always use this feature to your credit and not against your company. It is as vital to learn how NOT to blog as it is to learn how to blog.
2. Open up the horizon for new customers.
In today’s internet world, it is all about discoverability. Whether you are looking for local or global business, blogging is a powerful platform that can make this happen. Most of the time, the discovery process is organic, through searching and through social networking avenues. This means that you don’t have to do any extra work to achieve discoverability, beyond posting and the proper promotion of those posts.
3. Build a stronger brand.
The key to brand recognition is getting your brand out there in the public eye as often as possible. The old fashioned method of doing this was quite expensive and it was difficult for smaller companies to play on the same field as their larger competitors. The blogging trend has changed this completely and allows for companies of any size the ability to get their name out there every single day.
You can look at each post you make as getting one step closer to becoming a household name. Readers rely on bloggers like never before and this is an incredible opportunity that your company should be taking advantage of.
4. Increase overall visits to your site.
As your blog readership expands, you’ll find that your site traffic will increase as well. If you’re hosting your blog on your site, this is natural, but you’ll also notice that your regular pages are getting more attention. As your blog gets indexed by search engines, it will be much easier for new customers to find you and you will notice an increase in overall visits. These are targeted visits as well, which means that they are worth a lot more than the average ad campaign can bring in.
These are just four simple reasons that blogging can work for any company. To get help with your blog to make sure it is a success, consider working with a professional management company that already knows the ins and outs of successful corporate blogging.
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July 21st, 2008 — brand awareness, customer trust, search engine, web traffic
If you are trying to get more consumers interested in your products and your company in general, you may want to consider adding a corporate blog to your website. These are quickly becoming very popular and thousands of companies have found that they are an incredibly effective means of adding new customers and improving the relationship with existing customers. Here are a just a few reasons that a corporate blog can help your site and your company.
1. Increased overall traffic.
Whenever you add new content to your site on a regular basis, you’ll be able to give your visitors that much more to look at. As you continue, they’ll want to keep coming back to see what you’ve added and you’ll notice a surge in your traffic. Blogs are usually published daily or every few days, so you will have many opportunities to keep your customers coming back. As a bonus, the more time they spend on your site, the more likely they are to buy something
2. Increased Search Engine Rankings.
One of the top reasons to add a corporate blog to your site is that you will increase your chances of getting a higher search engine ranking. The more content you add, the more keywords you’ll have at your disposal and you’ll increase your chances of getting higher up in the rankings. Every day you post you’ll be able to have those new pages indexed so it becomes easier for new customers to find you. After a few weeks of publishing your new blog you should notice that your traffic picks up as a result of your new search engine rankings and listings.
3. Increased customer confidence.
A corporate blog allows you to build a relationship with your customers. They’ll see that there really are people behind the façade. If you properly manage your blog, it is a powerful tool that can really engender a whole new level of trust with your customers. They will see you as a trusted resource and be much more likely to spend more time at your site and to buy more of your products.
4. Increased brand awareness.
The result of all of this time spent on your site and the availability of your content means that you will have a much better shot at building a strong brand and maybe even becoming a household name. With time, you will be able to build a very strong brand that is instantly recognizable.
To make sure that it is recognizable for the right reasons, it is a good idea to think about using a blog management service that can help you avoid missteps. These companies can assist you with SEO and attracting new readers to your blog as well as the process of daily management and important advice to keep your blog on track. This is a must if you have never blogged before and you want to make sure that everything goes smoothly and without a hitch.
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June 30th, 2008 — customer feedback, customer trust
One of the biggest problems of any company is managing relationships with its customers. It may sound cliché, but it’s true that customers are the “life blood” of any company. You want to keep your customers happy, but you also want them to be thinking about you.
Excite your customer
Most corporate websites are about as interesting as watching grass grow. Would you come back day after day to a site that only has product listings and some basic information about the company’s location and founder? Of course you wouldn’t.
Your corporate blog should be your voice
People expect to see a little individuality on a blog. I want to do business with someone that has a personality - someone with a pulse. A corporate blog gives them that. It gives the ability to see that you are making advancements products. The words you use show customers that you are knowledgeable about your product and that you are a leader in the field
A corporate blog can solicit feedback
Many companies pay to run focus groups. Certainly focus groups have their place, but why not augment your information gathering by asking readers of your company blog? It’s free - it’s easy - and it’s so much better than those e-mail surveys that everyone deletes.
A corporate blog can build product awareness
Marketing a new product is always difficult. With so many companies releasing products every day, your product might get lost in the fold. Your customers only have so much attention, you need to do everything you to grab and hold on to that. Since corporate blogs are faithfully read on a regular basis, they are a very cost effective way to keep customers aware of your product.
In today’s world, your customer is asking for these things from the companies she does business with. If you are able to provide them for her, she’ll keep coming back.
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June 23rd, 2008 — advertisment, customer base, customer feedback, customer trust, search engine
One of the best reasons to give corporate blogging a try is that it has the potential to really help you grow your business. If you are just establishing your online identity or if you are trying to actively increase your customer base and your sales, a corporate blog can make a big difference. There are many different ways that this type of communication can result in more sales and a larger customer base.
First, you’ll be adding content on a regular basis that covers a wide variety of topics. This means that there will be more content for search engines to index and more keywords used to ensure that you land in the top spot. This makes it much easier for new readers to discover not only your blog but your company as well. By taking the time to really work on a blog and publish it regularly, you can dramatically increase the number of visitors that your site sees every day.
Next, a corporate blog adds a level of humanity to any site. Many consumers perceive corporations as cold entities with little concern for the common man. By putting a name and a face to your company you’re creating a relationship and showing that there is a heart behind that business exterior. This is very effective at building up customer trust and is useful when you are trying to project a certain image for your company.
A corporate blog can also be used to connect with readers and get their feedback. While allowing comments on a blog can be scary, they are a great way for your customers to get their thoughts across. You’ll have a bird’s eye view of what your customers really want and this is a lot easier that relying on a focus group for the same thing. If you are concerned about allowing comments on your blog, you can always set them to moderation to avoid having any controversy erupt.
Lastly, a corporate blog helps you announce new products and specials - if you do it in the right way. Try to steer clear of blatant advertising and find ways to incorporate your announcements with current events. This helps you gain some powerful advertising that doesn’t cost a dime.
When you’re ready to start your own corporate blog it is important to make sure that you know how to handle it. It is much easier to hire a professional that knows how to run a corporate blog and keep it going in the right direction. You can actually end up saving money with this approach and you won’t have to worry about diverting company resources away from your other projects.
Corporate blogs can be powerful and effective but they do need to be managed properly. By working with a professional, you can ensure that your company will avoid common blogging pitfalls and you will be able to achieve the results discussed above as well as many other benefits.
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June 18th, 2008 — customer base, customer feedback, customer trust, public relations
One of the biggest issues in the corporate blogging world is whether or not you should allow readers to comment on your blog posts. There are two main schools of thought to the issue, basically yes and no. However, we believe that it is important to allow your readers to interact with you, and comments are one of the best ways to do this. You just need to make sure that you are handling the issue correctly for the best results.
First, you should make your decision about comments at the beginning of your blog and then stick with them. Don’t flip flop, allowing comments and then changing your mind. It will give a bad impression of your company and make it seem as though you are trying to hide something from the public. That’s not the image you want to project.
Next, you should think about allowing some not so flattering comments on your blog. No one likes controversy, but the fact of the matter remains that it can increase your page views. Don’t be afraid to allow some bad comments on your blog, just as long as you can answer the issue calmly and appropriately. Obviously, if a comment is just vitriolic and damaging, you should not approve it, but sometimes, bad comments and your response can lead to greater reader loyalty and they will want to back you up.
We’ve mentioned approving comments because we believe the best of both worlds in blogging is to allow comments, but on a moderated basis. This means that all of the comments will go into a queue where you can read and approve them. This is much safer and helps cut down on comment spam as well as people who are just looking to start trouble. It takes a little bit longer, but you will be able to have a lot more peace of mind.
Next, you’ll want to set some ground rules for your comments and make sure that you enforce them fairly. For example, you can state that no profanity or hate speech is allowed, and that some posts may not be approved based on their overall content. If people know this going in, you can cut down on the amount of people that are screaming censorship.
You’ll never be able to please all of the people all of the time, but allowing comments on your blog can be very good for your company. In fact, sometimes the blog comments can be more interesting than the blog itself in some cases. You’ll also be able to increase your page views as your readers keep coming back throughout the day to follow the comment thread.
Used wisely, comments are very powerful and can be beneficial to your business. You may want to hire a blog management company to help you with this process so that you can free up your time to actually work for your company instead of having to babysit your blog.
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