Gain a Following with a Company Blog
by Elana Birnbaum - July 20th, 2010 10:44 am
You can’t deny that blogs are everywhere – but few sites have really answered the question, “Why Start a Blog?” The reasons for blogging go well beyond just a sort of “online diary” or news outlet. In fact, scientists have actually discovered that blogging regularly may be good for your health! A study mentioned in Scientific American noted that “besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery. A study in the February issue of the Oncologist reports that cancer patients who engaged in expressive writing just before treatment felt markedly better, mentally and physically, as compared with patients who did not.”
Beyond “Feel Good” Blogging
Sure, blogging might make you feel better, but there are a host of other reasons to start a blog. Blogs help you to reach out to your customers and clients while building a loyal following of people that will return to your website time and time again for new information. For example, you could share helpful tips, tell people which products are “in” this month – and provide links where to buy them. The ECommerce Partners blog gives readers insights on e-commerce trends and shares ways to make your advertising perform better. This type of “sticky” content – so called because it keeps users glued to your site longer – helps build a virtual relationship and increases brand awareness and loyalty from consumers.
Blogging is a Two Way Street
The old era of broadcast communication is over. The concept of “buy this, it’s the best” simply falls on deaf ears. Because online shoppers have multiple options available to them, including review sites and shopping comparison engines, they’re more likely to see for themselves whether your product is “the best”, and buy according to the results they read, rather than taking your word for it. That’s why blogging is often a two-way street ; you can send out information to readers and they can (optionally) leave comments or feedback below each post. What’s more, because blogs are in reverse chronological order, the most recent news, sales or announcements will always be featured at the top of the page and above the fold where they’re more likely to be noticed.
Make Yourself Heard!
There are several great blogging platforms available that make it easy to start building a loyal following – and you don’t have to have any programming or web design knowledge to use them. The best part is, they cost nothing to use and many web hosts can install them for you automatically.
- WordPress – The most popular blogging platform, WordPress is available in two versions, a self-hosted one which gives you the ability to host the blog yourself and get more control over your blog’s design and functionality, and a WordPress-hosted version which gives you a subdomain such as yourname.wordpress.com to work with (although you can point your existing domain to your wordpress.com site). Wordpress comes with thousands of plugins that you can use to further customize your blog, such as plugins to improve search engine optimization or link your blog to social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
- Blogger – Google’s jump into the blogging foray, Blogger lets you set up a free blog with a subdomain of yourname.blogspot.com (though like with Wordpress, you can point your domain to your Blogger blog). Several designs to choose from and an incredibly user-friendly interface make Blogger one of the most popular blog platforms available online. If you already use another Google service like Adwords, Adsense or Gmail, you can use your Google Account email to create a blog on this network.
- Blog.com – A WordPress-style clone, Blog.com allows you to point your domain to a free blogging space or choose a subdomain such as yourname.blog.com. It includes over 30 beautiful themes to give your blog a professional look without the need for a designer or programmer.
Keeping Your Audience Up-to-Date with RSS Feeds
Another benefit of blogging is the use of RSS feeds. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are a simple way to stay updated when you want to follow and read many different blogs. Today, the most popular browsers include Feed Readers and you can optionally get updates to your favorite blogs via email. For blog owners, the best part is that there’s no extra work involved in setting up an RSS feed – it happens automatically when you write new posts in your blog. Be sure to submit your blog to FeedBurner for even better results.
Real Time Results on Google
Google has incorporated real-time search for many blogs – WordPress works very well for this. Simply put when your blog is set up correctly, your blog posts will appear on Google as soon as you publish them!
There you have it – lots of great reasons to create a blog. Start one on your website today and add fresh content on a daily or weekly basis to keep your site up to date. It can only help you to build a following, capture search engine traffic and brand your company across a vast network through the use of RSS feeds and services like FeedBurner.
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