Continued communication
It’s great to sustain conversations – specially with your clients and employees. writeclick lets you engage stakeholders through continuous, periodic communication and build more goodwill for your brand.
How:
- We focus on blogs, newsletters, e-zines, and social media – friendly and non-intrusive communication formats to connect with readers.
- We update them with fresh content – your readers have a reason to come back.
- We nurture them into engaging channels – you talk to your stakeholders and they talk to you.
The results:
- You sustain conversations over a period – engage stakeholders for longer.
- Regular communication builds better brand recall.
- Fresh content (through blog posts and e-zines) helps your website climb higher in the search engines.
Why continued communication?
Many individuals and enterprises face this question, and when peers and competitors say “aye,” or “nay,” with conviction, finding the answer becomes even more difficult. Here are a few pointers and arguments to help understand why blogs are important and how you can gain from them.
The growing reach of blogs
Blogs became popular in the pre Facebook and Twitter days and have still managed to retain their rightful place in the web 2.0 communication explosion. Initially hailed as a tool for self-expression, they soon became a strong communication medium for those who wanted to connect with an audience regularly.
So, who’s blogging?
Well, more like who isn’t? Businesses and enterprises are. Individuals are. Artists, bankers, CEOs, and government agencies are…you get the drift. Some blogs are written by individuals while others rely on multiple authors to add steam.
Which brings us to the next question: what are they getting out of their blogs?
Consider these facts.
According to Royal Pingdom* (an uptime monitoring service for websites and servers), in 2010 there were 152 million blogs on the Internet; an increase from 126 million in 2009. (*Original source: BlogPulse)
Technorati, a blog search engine, which was tracking about 4 million blogs in October 2004, was tracking over 70 million blogs in April 2007. This had dramatically risen to 133 million blogs indexed (since 2002) in September 2008.
Today, blogs cover different topics – from travel to technology, from marriage to money management – and are often a primary source of information. Websites such as Mashable or TechCrunch are powered by individual blogs and have millions of views a month.
Most business communication is related directly or indirectly to one goal: further sales, boost business. Blogs play a key role in supporting it.
According to a Hubspot 2010 report, blogs and social media were a rapidly expanding category in companies’ marketing budget, and were one of the low cost channels for lead generation. In fact, companies that focused more on inbound marketing (blogs and social media) could lower the cost of lead generation by almost 60% compared to those focused on outbound marketing. The report also stated that customer acquisition through blogs is directly related to frequency of posts. The more frequently you post, the better your chances of acquiring customers.
Blogs also help with other business goals.
Sharing information. For companies who need to regularly communicate about their products and services, blogs are ideal. With a planned approach, the blog platform can become a valuable repository of information, tips and tools to share with current and prospective customers. Take a look at the official Google blog. Apart from posts about work, company culture, and so on, the Internet giant uses the blog to share insights about its products – how they help you and how you can use them better. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Building relationships and encouraging feedback. Today’s enterprises don’t just aim at selling a product or service. They look at building relationships with customers and the extended stakeholder community. Blogs facilitate this process as they support conversations and feedback. Let’s consider the example of the Starbucks blog. The conversational, friendly voice of employees comes through clearly making it easy to connect with them. One post in particular deserves a mention. It announces their logo change (http://www.starbucks.com/blog/looking-forward-to-starbucks-next-chapter). The comments received should help the top brass know what their customers like or don’t like.
Crowdsourcing ideas. Smart ideas are all over the place and today’s smart companies are keen on tapping into the collective creative power of the masses. But how do you talk to the masses and urge them to share their ideas? Through your blog. Playstation does just this. A link on its blog space asks people to share their ideas to help improve the PS gaming experience. http://share.blog.us.playstation.com/
Bolstering recruitment. Traditional recruitment channels are now sharing space with online media. And blogs play a key role in helping recruiters by creating a positive image of the company as a workplace, by giving potential candidates a sneak peak of what to expect, and also by just talking about open positions. Accenture, known for its online recruitment efforts, has blogs that focus on careers and recruitment, apart from industry-related ones. http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/blogs.aspx
Enterprises do have their reasons for blogging. What about individuals?
Most people begin blogging to give their thoughts a voice. It’s an easy way of sharing ideas and views. Some merely talk about personal experiences; others provide interesting views and commentary about different topics, helping the blog attract more eye-balls.
What are the key reasons driving individual blogs?
Establishing a connect. If you want to connect with a bigger audience, blogging provides a strong platform. From sharing your thoughts on a topic to wishing people well, to giving them a chance to peep into your life – a blog does it all. This is one of the primary reasons why individuals – from celebrities to the struggling writer – blog. While on the topic of celebrity blogs, Amitabh Bachchan’s efforts deserve an applause. The senior actor makes regular posts talking about everything from movies to monsoons. It’s as close as it can get to chatting with him. http://bigb.bigadda.com/
Building a brand. It’s not just enterprises; individuals too need to work at creating and enhancing their value as brands. A blog makes this easier, as it provides the much-needed space to talk about your strengths and achievements. It also gives you a chance to talk about your work. Dr Ivan Misner, a reputed networking expert, uses his blog to share his expertise about networking. A brand in his own right, he has been the driving force behind the global networking organization, BNI. Check out his blog at http://businessnetworking.com/
Building a business. Blogging is serious business. Bloggers have used the medium to take the first step towards creating their own enterprises. One of the best examples in this context is that of the TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington. He began blogging in 2005, and his work has resulted one of the most popular sources today for online media content. http://techcrunch.com/
Finding opportunities. Some people blog about topics related to their sphere of work or topics they are passionate about. Such blogs often establish their expertise, bringing their way more opportunities as valued resources associated with a topic. They are approached to write books, speak at conferences, and endorse products. Technorati’s annual State of the Blogosphere 2010 report has a section dedicated to how people have monetized their blogs and how they generate revenue through it. http://technorati.com/blogging/article/how-technology-traffic-and-revenue-day/page-2/
Now that we know how blogs can help with different goals, here’s a quick look at factors that can make a blog successful.
Periodicity. One of the key factors defining a blog is its periodicity. There are many blogs that begin with a bang, but loose charm when the posts become random and irregular. It’s essential to make regular, periodic posts to keep the audience interested. Following a blog calendar may help too.
Variety. Since a blog needs a continuous stream of posts, blog writers and managers have to think of how to bring in variety in the content, even if the blog is focused on a single topic. Repeated content can put off regular visitors, robbing the blog off a steady readership.
Writing style. A blog is often an expression of personality – either of the company it talks about or of the person writing it. So, it’s necessary to have a writing style that is in sync with this personality. The style could be conversational, witty, journalistic or merely straightforward. It’s necessary to stick to it to add to the brand image and consistency.
Images and illustrations. A good design can add to your blog and make it attractive just as a cluttered and crowded one can take away from it. Apart from paying attention to the blog design, it is good to use images and illustrations to perk up the posts. They draw the reader’s attention and also prevent the blog from appearing wordy and dull.
Personal touch. Often, blogs that have a personal touch strike a chord. This is because warm, personalized communication scores more than a general message created for the masses. Adding a personal touch could be through using anecdotes and sharing experiences, addressing the reader as ‘you’, and asking them to share what they think or feel about a topic.
Increased traffic. Some measure the success of their blogs through increased traffic and visitors. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), RSS feeds, social media shares, search engine indexing, and participation in conversations can all draw more readers to a blog.
When there is so much to be gained from a steady blog, creating regular posts for it becomes important. While many enterprises and individuals write their own posts or get in-house writers to work on it, here’s why outsourcing can help.
Consistency. Often, in-house resources have multiple tasks to complete. Writing for the official blog is only one of them. When the list of tasks becomes long, blog posts take on low priority and are skipped. This disrupts a regular schedule. An agency on the other hand has the primary task of writing for the blog, and is more likely to ensure continuity.
Professional approach. Blogging needs a professional approach just as much as any other communication task does. Outsourced writing brings in this advantage. Apart from periodic, regular posts, an outsourced approach can result in greater variety of content, more ideas, and a defined plan to give the blog its due importance.
Frees up internal resources. With outsourcing, the internal resource tasked with blog writing can use the time to focus on other jobs. Instead of becoming a task crammed into some spare time, blog writing gets more focus, while the pressure on the in-house team reduces.
Additional reach. Agencies focused on writing blogs have the necessary experience and expertise to make the blog work for you. Along with their writing skills, they bring to the table tips and tricks to help you reach a larger audience and keep your blog aligned to overall business goals.