business blogging avoid newbie mistakes,€¦ · if you do not have a business blog for your...

Woculus.com | Social Media and Technology for Business

1

Nuggets

&

Dominate the Web

>>> Greater Heights for Business

Business Blogging

Avoid Newbie

Mistakes,

http://woculus.com/


2

1 2

4 5 6 7

3

Table of Contents Introduction to Blogging, Social Media and Content

Marketing

Five Insanely Powerful Use of a Business Blog to Get

„Greater ROI‟

Four Ways to Build a Blog Community that Gets Lots

of Attention

Nine Ways to Create Content to Attract „Many

Targeted Eyeballs‟

Nine „Rules of Business Blogging‟ that Companies

Should Know About

Seven Deadly Mistakes of Business Blogging that You

Should Avoid

Conclusion

http://woculus.com/


3

1

Introduction to Blogging,

Social Media and Content

Marketing

The Internet grew at an extremely fast pace … faster than

electricity or TV. Eventually, the web wove itself into almost every

facet of human life.

The lifestyle of the modern man is now heavily tied to the web

through computers, smartphones, tablets and other mobile

devices.

Consumers now make purchasing decisions based on the

information they find on the web as well as the opinion of others.

When social media entered the scene and interactions on the web

was becoming more animated, many businesses were still

sleeping. The more alert ones quickly used social media to weave

themselves into the lives of consumers.

These are the companies that now have more information about

their consumers than their competitors.

What is Social Media?

Social media is essentially all aspects of the web that encourage

interaction among users.

Let‟s separate the phrase “social” and “media” for easier

understanding.

http://woculus.com/


4

Social simply refers to interacting with other people or among a

group of people, and media refers to any instrument of

communication like TV, radio and newspapers.

So, social media refer to sites that interact with their users

through voting, commenting, reviewing, rating etc. Social media

includes social networks (like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn),

blogs, forums, review sites etc.

What is a Business Blog?

Among social media platforms, one platform that small business

owners can easily start and promote their brands, serve customers

and still retain full control of the entire site is a blog.

“A business blog is a site, owned by a company, where they

regularly publish relevant information for a target audience

and interact closely with them”

A company‟s target audience could be other businesses or

consumers.

“Recent statistics reveal that small and medium sized

businesses who have adopted blogging have stories of phenomenal business growths and receive over 50% more

web traffic”

How Does Content Marketing Fit?

Content marketing is an old but increasingly important way of

converting prospects and getting more loyal buyers by creating and

http://woculus.com/


5

distributing relevant high quality information to a clearly defined

target audience free-of-charge.

Blogs are used to distribute these contents efficiently and

effectively.

The aim of content marketing is to create relationship with your

target audience by attracting, acquiring and engaging them

regularly and also get opt-in permission to send e-mails,

newsfeeds etc

Small business owners need to learn from P&G, Microsoft,

BestBuy and others who are using content marketing to get new

consumers and retain them.

http://woculus.com/


6

2 Five Insanely Powerful Use

of a Business Blog to Get

„Greater ROI‟

The rise of business blogs has been really amazing. Companies

that started business blogs for the right reasons and with solid

marketing models have achieved phenomenal results.

If you do not have a business blog for your company, it is probably

because you are ignorant of the great benefits.

Here are a few ways you too can benefit from having a business

blog:

1. More Business Visibility than Competitors

One of the greatest benefits of business blogging is greater

visibility on the web.

“With the right mindset, you will be able to emphasize the

strength of your brand and subtly acquire more qualified

leads”

When you blog about an area of interest to your potential

customers, prospects and present customers, you become more

visible (on the web) than your competitors who do not have a

business blog or are running their blogs wrongly.

2. Social Media and Search Engine Optimization Value

http://woculus.com/


7

Presently, two tremendously powerful places you can gain

potential customers are search engines and social media. They

drive qualified leads to businesses that are well positioned on the

web.

“Millions of people on the web usually go to search engines to

find information, and visit social media to interact with other

people about their problems”

If your blog is well positioned to solve their problems and/or

respond to their queries from search engines, you stand a greater

chance of converting more potential customers from the web than

your competitors.

Particularly, blogs are normally rated high by search engines

because of their use – providing the information that solves

searcher‟s problems. So, a well positioned blog will lead visitors to

your business.

Also by linking back to your website from blog posts, you will

increase the authority of your website on search engines.

3. Attracting Talented Job Seekers

If your business can succeed in assembling a team of bright

writers for your blog, it will positively impact your talent

recruitment system.

“With a business blog, your team will be able to share

expertise with your readers, and thereby strongly build your

reputation as a place for talented people”

Eventually, regularly churning out high quality blog posts will

show job seekers and recruitment firms that you are an authority

in your industry and thus attract more talented people.

http://woculus.com/


8

4. Increase Your Customer Base

Business blogging will build your customer base eventually.

“Business blogging is one of the cheapest tools to attain a

high level of authority despite tough competition in the

market”

It makes people fall in love with your business and talk about it

more often without gulping extra dollars from you.

When you develop a community of readers around your blog, they

become super fans, loyalists and brand ambassadors.

5. A Bag of Knowledge, Views, Feedbacks and Ideas

The quality and depth of information generated from a business

blog can be very amazing.

“A business blog can become your source for views on new

products or services, ideas on products to offer consumers,

and opinions on performing and non-performing products and

services”

Secondly because a blog is a source of user-generated data, it can

become a repository of rich, insightful information that will help

you serve your customers more appropriately.

So, business blogging is a very subtle but powerful tool for

business growth if done properly. Oftentimes, you can turn to the

audience on your business blog to get rich answers and solutions

to marketing questions.

http://woculus.com/


9

3

Four Ways to Build a Blog

Community that Gets Lots of

Attention

Companies that have good business blogs receive over 50% more

web traffic with proofs of phenomenal business growth.

The reason for their success is obvious. Business blogging costs

less and brings great benefits – greater business reputation, more

search engine visibility and ultimately increase the customer base.

There are four different business blogging models that other

companies have used successfully. You can adopt the one that

best suits your company.

1. Senior Executive or CEO Blog

This kind of blog is run by a senior executive in an organization or

the CEO. A senior executive or CEO blog strongly suggests a

business culture of openness, responsibility and trust.

With this kind of blog, a senior executive will be able to directly

communicate with a variety of people – customers, investors, job

seekers and relevant stakeholders.

Unlike other blogging models, a senior executive blog can be

updated less frequently (say once in a week), yet the executive will

succeed in creating close relationship with the stakeholders in the

business.

http://woculus.com/


10

2. Company Blog

Companies use this kind of blog to divulge relevant updates to the

public e.g. new products or services, change of staff, new office

locations and so on. A team or an individual is usually assigned to

handle this.

Usually, this kind of blog is not intended to be used to build strong

followership. It is usually a repository of past and present

information about the company.

3. Consultant(s) or Expert(s) Blog

This is the kind of blog intended to build a community of loyal and

regular readers.

“Experts blog normally reveals 'behind the scene' stories

intended to improve communication and loyalty of customers.

The theme of the blog is usually based on the area of

expertise of one or more experts in the company”

The expert(s) is required to write high quality posts to build the

reputation of the company based on his or her interests or

specialty in relation to the needs of the company‟s customers.

4. Product or Service Blog

This kind of blog is usually about a particular product or service.

“Companies use this kind of blog to promote specific products

or line of products or services by providing in-depth

information on their use and unique benefits to customers”

http://woculus.com/


11

This kind of blog is like a „customer care desk‟. It constantly dishes

out information to help consumers get the best from the

company‟s products and services.

These 4 kinds of business blogs are widely used by many

successful businesses. You should also adopt a particular model

for your business.

http://woculus.com/


12

4 Nine Ways to Create Content

to Attract „Many Targeted

Eyeballs‟

If your business blog is geared towards increasing ROI and getting

more qualified leads, you should consider running a “consultant or

expert blog”.

“This kind of blog is the soul of content marketing – creating

and freely sharing relevant high quality information to a well

defined audience for the purpose of establishing and

maintaining relationship with them”

Many companies find it difficult to effectively run this kind of blog

due to a constant lack of fresh insights on what to write.

If your business already has or intends to have a business blog,

here are nine ideas to help stimulate your creativity.

1. Success Stories or Case Studies

A success story can be written by a customer who has used your

product or service in a particular way and had great results. All

you have to do is edit and proofread before posting it.

Also, you can write about how your company or business was able

to solve a particular problem for a customer in form of a case

study.

2. How-to Articles

http://woculus.com/


13

These are thorough in-depth articles intended to guide your

customers in specific areas or subjects.

How-to articles are meant to help your readers solve a particular

problem or use your product or service more judiciously. The

articles do not necessary have to be directly related to your

business, but it has to be of interest to your consumers.

3. Pictures of Events, Products and Services

Pictures generally attract many people. When you attend an event,

feel free to upload a few photos and explain what you were doing

at those moments.

Sharing the pictures of your role with your audience increases

your bond.

4. Links to Other Important Sites

To provide full value to your consumers, once in a while you can

write a list of other valuable articles, sites or blogs that are useful

to your consumers.

5. Personal Perspectives

Sometimes, you can decide to write your personal perspective on a

recent development in your industry. Based on your experience

and expertise, you will be able to provide rich insights that will

benefit your readers.

6. Results of Polls

http://woculus.com/


14

If you have a good number of readers on your blog, you can do a

content-related survey, contest or poll.

For example, you could ask your readers to write a short piece

about a product, a subject or answer a question. Then, ensure the

winner is rewarded and announced to the public.

7. Interviews with Industry Leaders

Another idea is to interview other successful people in your

industry.

Look for someone your customers will like to know more about and

interview the person.

Because this can be quite demanding, you should limit this to

once in a while and should be very selective about who you

interview.

8. Resource Collection

If there are free or paid resources on the Internet (or anywhere

else) that will be useful for your consumers, make a list of them in

a blog post for your readers.

9. Bulleted or List Posts

This is really important. Internet surfers are always drawn to lists.

You can look for a previous how-to article, break down the points

into lists and link back to it.

In all you do, remember your aim is to maintain a community of

loyal readers who need or may later need your products or

services.

http://woculus.com/


15

5 Nine „Rules of Business

Blogging‟ that Companies

Should Know About

If you have decided to delve into business blogging as part of your

marketing or PR efforts, you need to maximize the use of your

blog.

Many companies make grave mistakes that affect their blogs. For

example, using official tone on your blog can be counterproductive.

A blog is meant to create bonds of friendship, and sounding formal

may hinder this.

Let‟s consider some business blogging best practices. These rules

of business blogging will guide you through building a solid team

of bloggers for your business.

1. Create a Focus for Your Writers

You need to provide a definite focus for your business blog. This is

very good for your team and readers.

“Your focus should be reflected in the name and theme of the

blog and emphasize the core strength of your business. It is

advisable to choose a theme that you are knowledgeable

about and your customers will find useful”

Then, develop some guidelines and tips to help your team write

with minimal theme diversion and grammatical blunders. Let them

know the types of comments that should be approved. Suggest

topics, posting times, writing tips etc.

http://woculus.com/


16

2. Select Your Team of Bloggers Carefully

Because subject matter expertise is very important in business

blogging, you need to select a group of people who can write well

and match them to their interests. Also consider the social

influence of your team members during your selection process.

3. Allow Individual Personalities to Shine through Blog

Posts

“Blog is a core aspect of social media, and blog readers want

to converse with real people and not brands”

So, allow your bloggers to post with their own names and respond

to comments, questions and suggestions. This will eliminate

monotony and improve audience engagement.

4. Make Your Blog a Repository of Opinions and Analysis

Your experts probably have strong opinions about certain issues.

As long as they do not conflict with company‟s values, let your

experts write about their opinions and analyze industry trends.

This will help you create an archive of rich, insightful contents.

Instead of seeing your blog as a marketing tool, see it as a

customer support tool where your customers need to come and

learn all they need to know.

5. Expect and Respect Critics

Since your business blog is putting you in the limelight, criticisms

may come from consumers, competitors or former employees. It is

wise to handle them cautiously.

http://woculus.com/


17

“See them as opportunities for improvement and feedback on

your brand”

6. Be Social

Allow your readers to bookmark, share, and comment on your blog

posts. It will surprise you how much they can promote your blog

contents if you give them all the tools they need.

In addition, try to respond to their comments, and answer relevant

questions on your blog posts. It is not okay to leave your readers

hanging.

8. Publicize Your Blog

Ensure you promote your blog the same way you promote your

website – online and offline.

Include your blog address on your website, social network pages,

emails etc. Also get your team to promote the blog in all their

engagements.

You can also add your blog address to your business cards and

mention it in public programs.

9. Track Everything You Can Track

Monitor your traffic, referrals and top posts. You can use Google

analytics to track these important metrics on your blog.

With time, you will also be able to improve on your guidelines and

blogging techniques based on your findings.

Lastly, learn the art of writing compelling titles for your blog posts.

There is an easy way to do this:

http://woculus.com/


18

“Every time you read or see a title that caught your attention,

copy the title and save it where you can easily access it e.g. a

notepad. Secondly, visit some of the best blogs in your niche,

copy the titles of their most popular posts and add them to

the list.

The next time you are writing a blog post title, use a

modification of one of the titles in that list”

Teach this to all your writers and your blog posts will attract more

eyes!

http://woculus.com/


19

6 Seven Deadly Mistakes of

Business Blogging that You

Should Avoid

Blogging is no more an option for modern businesses. There has

been a dramatic shift in the lifestyle of modern man due to an

escalation in number and functionality of mobile devices.

“The modern man spends a lot of time surfing and interacting

on the web through PCs, smartphones and tablets”

The companies that have the most successful business blogs use

their blogs to build reputation, get followership, pass important

information and engage their consumers.

Unfortunately, a business blog does not become successful unless

it is run the right way. Following are 7 mistakes made in business

blogging that you should avoid.

1. Writing for the Company Instead of Consumers

It seems right to project your company and push out all the

available information about your company. Unfortunately, web

users are just seeking for ways to improve their lives.

This need of web users is what businesses should leverage on –

Write for the target consumers, and ensure your posts are tailored

towards helping your readers get information or solve a particular

problem.

2. Focusing on a Fragment of Your Consumers

http://woculus.com/


20

If you focus on a fragment of your consumers, you will lose the

ones outside that bracket.

This is easy to control - Let the context of your write-ups speak to

all your readers.

The context of your posts is very important in business blogging.

You need to appeal to the interests of the range of customers you

have by finding a balance (the context) that appeals to most of

them.

3. Writing for Other Reasons Aside Educating, Informing

& Entertaining Consumers

Instead of writing for your company, it is very important that you

write to educate, entertain and inform your target audience.

When you write about your industry or trends, do it such that it

answers the questions in the mind of your consumers.

4. Lack of Personality

Blogging is an aspect of social media, and your readers are very

much interested in who is doing the talking, the person‟s

designation and how qualified the person is to write on that topic.

So, let individual personality and passion shine through each blog

post in the interest of the company.

5. Lack of Perspective

Each blog post should project the perspective of individual writers

and not an ambiguous or general identity.

http://woculus.com/


21

Instead of replicating your website contents on your blog, it makes

better sense to showcase the personal perspectives of the

individual writers.

6. Inadequate Subject Matter Coverage

In blogging generally, subject matter expertise is very important. It

is usually advisable to write about a single aspect of a big story

instead of including other areas that you are not sure of.

7. Fear of Striking Out

Most businesses are afraid of striking out with their own opinion.

One thing to remember is that, striking out reveals that you are

convinced of your stance.

However, this should be done with some caution in order not to

jeopardize your business reputation.

Business blogs are currently being underutilized by many

businesses. If you can optimize its use, you will be on your way to

beating the competition.

http://woculus.com/


22

7 Conclusion

Business blogging is here stay; if you haven‟t been maximizing its

use, there‟s no better time than now.

Having read this guide, bear in mind that rushing pre-maturely

into blogging is not advisable. Take time to plan everything we

have discussed. Be sure that you are ready to dedicate real time

(not spare time) to blogging.

Starting a blog is easy and cheap, but maintaining a blog requires

time, effort and money. However, the returns of a well-managed

blog are enormous.

About the Author

Ayo Oyedotun is a freelance

writer, blogger, and digital

media enthusiast.

He started woculus.com in

February 2011 to publish his

findings on how companies can use

social media and technology to

drive business growth.

Now, he partners with businesses

to deliver high quality contents to their target

audiences.

Ayo can help you create first-class contents (or

any other content marketing piece) to get

qualified leads and turn them to customers.

Contact Ayo at [email protected] or call him on 234

- 805 -392-8069

http://woculus.com/

http://woculus.com/

business blogging avoid newbie mistakes,€¦ · if you do not have a business blog for your...

Documents