Many corporate blogs fail simply because they strike a wrong chord with readers. If you want to use your blog to increase traffic and sales and improve your relations with the public, it is vital to develop a technique that will allow you to talk to your readers, not at them. This is a very delicate balance for many companies and it can be tough to find the right voice for your writing. Often, corporate blogging can be a bit dull, but there are some techniques that you can use to engage your audience.

1. Allow comments.

One of the best ways to talk to your readers is to allow them the opportunity to talk to you. By encouraging them to leave a comment, you are opening a dialogue with them. Even if they don’t leave a comment, you’ve opened that door and shown that you are not afraid to interact with the public. Many companies make the mistake of not allowing their readers to comment and the result is a blog that is very cold and very static. More often than not, these blogs fail because they do not engage the reader.

On the upside, allowing comments can also help increase your pageviews. Many readers like to keep coming back throughout the day to see what is going on in a comment section. They become mini discussion forums for many and it is fun to keep up with events throughout the day.

2. Ask the reader questions.

One of the best ways to avoid talking at your readers is simply – don’t do it. Ask them questions in your posts, encourage them to interact with you and discuss what is on their mind. By asking them questions, your readers will not get the impression that your corporate blog exists only to drum up more business (even if this is the case.) Impressions are so important in blogging and you want to make sure you are giving the right one.

3. Include polls.

One of the easiest ways to involve your readers is to ask them to vote in a poll. Find a topic that matches well with your industry and create a poll around it. For example, if your site sells apparel for women, you can write a post about the fashion industry and the latest news about how many countries are no longer allowing size 0 models. As your readers what they think about this decision. This is a very easy technique that will engage your readers and it will help increase your search engine ranking since your keywords for that post will be included in searches about models.

These are very easy techniques that can be used in any corporate blog. If you’re having trouble with yours and you want to make sure you are hitting the right note with your readers, consider hiring a blog management company. They can help you craft the right kind of posts and build a strong foundation for your new venture.

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Originally posted 2008-07-04 05:49:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Business blogging is rife with benefits for those who utilize it properly, as it adds significant value to a company’s web presence, increasing search engine visibility and encouraging excellent and meaningful interaction from readers, driving an increase of traffic to your website in the process. But blogging for business is not always easy, because writer’s block does happen to everyone. The following list of business blogging ideas will help to keep you going, creating new and meaningful content for your business blog for a good long time.

1 -Email to Blog Post.

Take any email content that you have, and recycle it in order to create new blog content. If you are like most modern business owners, you probably do your fair share of emailing which can work to your advantage. Re-purpose some of your email content by turning it into blog entry material.

2 -Address reader questions.

Implement a method for your readers to type in their questions to you. Consider adding a small box or a small form to one of your sidebars. All a reader will have to do is ask their question and click submit, and you will receive the question by e-mail so that you can address it in your blog. When the questions relate to your business, your products or your services, not only will this facilitate communication between you and your readers but it also makes for excellent blog content when the questions are relevant.

3 -Keywords.

Use a tool for researching keywords like the one offered by Google so that you can identify the keywords and key phrases that best relate to your business. When you know what people are searching for, it can better help you formulate an idea for a blog post. These tools show you exactly what potential readers are looking for, saving time and effort in determining what you should be writing about.

4 – News.

Follow the media, because there is nothing that influences the behavior of internet searches the way the media does. What is currently being talked about within your niche or industry? Which topics are being regarded as hot topics? Why not talk about them in your own words by turning them into blog entries? For added effectiveness, create Google Alerts so that you can generate an endless stream of blog content ideas and other valuable writing material. Any time something is posted about one of your chosen keywords, Google will e-mail you to let you know. Can it get any easier?

5 – Look to yourself.

Look at your own company in search of blog entries and subject matter that you can write about. What kinds of products and services are you providing to the public? What are the most important components of those services or products. Break this up into various information entries and not only will you be posting search engine-valuable content, but you will also be informing your readers of the value behind your products and services.

In part 2 of this article we will touch on more exciting ideas for creating blog content for your corporate blog.

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Originally posted 2009-01-27 05:58:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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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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Originally posted 2008-11-07 05:35:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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