Brand building with blogs
Long gone is the perception that bloggers are socially marginal computer geeks holed up in their parents’ basements. Today, bloggers are company presidents, business leaders, and innovative thinkers. They are moms sharing experiences, and community builders sharing advice. The common thread between these vastly different audiences is that they are eager to share their ideas, their expertise and their experiences. That’s the beauty of blogging – anyone can do it. Here are a few reasons why you should:
1. It was long believed that the Internet would be the downfall of social interaction everywhere. The reality is that online conversations are bridging gaps and bringing people closer together than ever. When you choose to be part of those conversations you interact with an ever-growing community, you increase awareness about your company, and perhaps most importantly, you tap into honest and unfiltered discussion about the brands that matter to you.
2. It’s not tricky - check out easy platforms like Wordpress or Movable Type. Start small – don’t commit to posting something every day. That’s just too much pressure to keep up. Start with once every couple of weeks and go from there. You’ll find that the more often you write, the more topics you’ll find to write about – especially if people are commenting on your posts. You might also consider sharing blogging duty with others in your organization like we’re doing. That way you get a wider variety of thoughts, opinions and levels of experience you can share.
3. Putting yourself out there is ok. There is an inherent fear of asking people to read your thoughts/opinions and giving them an opportunity to comment on them. What if someone disagrees? What if they don’t like what I say? The fact is – if they take the time to disagree or challenge you, they care about what you say. And that’s a good thing.
4. People are already talking about you. And they are probably sharing their thoughts with their family, friends and anyone else who will listen (or read!). It’s time to be present in the conversation and contribute. Be sure to do others the favour of commenting on their blogs as well. It gets your name out there and also increases the likelihood that they’ll do the same.
5. Blogging is good for search engine optimization because Google likes new content – help people find you by putting pen to paper (fingers to keys?) every so often.