SOME of the most widely read blogs on the Internet, especially those that cover social media news and trends, happen to come from leading marketers. Today’s web-savvy marketer understands that not only is blogging part of the larger social media movement, it’s truly a way to communicate stories that might not otherwise be told in an authentic, personal voice.
This columnist believes blogging is hugely important in marketing. Bloggers have become the major content providers across the Internet. But even beyond all that, blogging creates a dialogue around specific topics, dialogue that is archived in real time. That is a huge resource for marketers who want to know how their products, brands or services, or whatever it might be, are perceived.
Even better, we as marketers have the opportunity to separate in the communities that exist around blogs. So in addition to letting us know how we are perceived, blogs can let us shape that perception in the context of a platform that people find credible and they are engaged with.
As I dig further, a good blog means not just polished writing, but also thoughtful writing. I know a lot of gossip blogs are very successful, but they’re really only worthwhile insomuch as the gossip is actually (somewhat) accurate. And there are fake bloggers and ghost writers. These people are all around, if you know what I mean. Readers will often be skeptical of blogs because they sense that the content isn’t anything more than a rehashed press release. These bloggers center all their content around product launches and promotions.
According to Forrester Research Inc., only 16 percent of corporate blogs are trusted, which represents a challenge for marketers who want to use blogging as a medium to showcase their internal leaders. I believe marketers have a real role to play in supporting bloggers. That support can come in the form of advertising, of course. But it can also come through providing them with relevant information or unique insight.
When I look at women bloggers in particular, I can envision blogging becoming a major new professional avenue for them—especially women who need to stay at home. These women have audiences and they have (true) credibility. I think it’s both inevitable and appropriate that revenues flow to them. And frankly, that is something I as a marketer and as a person want to be a part of. It’s good for the brand in terms of promotion and reputation.
In my opinion, this will be good for the economy as it will be among the biggest emerging small businesses of the future; and it’s good for society to offer women new opportunities to control their own economic lives.
There are some points that separate the good blogs from the bad. If I had to highlight one feature in particular, though, it would be for allowing, creating and encouraging dialogue to happen within or around the blog’s content. The point is that the best blogs actively facilitate true engagement with their content.
Maintaining consistency—however it is defined—is crucial. Good blogs don’t need to engage their audiences every moment of every day, but when their audience expects some form of content to engage with, it is there for them to find. Some good blogs don’t allow readers to comment on posts, but most of the best ones do.
I’ve been encouraged by my trusted industry colleagues to start a blog and on how easy it is to create a pretty sophisticated blog. There are a lot of great tools out there, I was told, and I think it’s important to take a step back before anyone dives into the tools and really consider whether you are prepared to create a blog in the first place.
As I was reviewing some blogs, there are a number of foundational steps that need to be taken such as developing clear policies around content and comments and being prepared to receive critical and sometimes even extremely negative feedback; you have to be thick-skinned. Understanding your audience is the most important, and also the most difficult.
Granted, I don’t think you need to fully understand your audience before you launch your blog. You probably can’t ever fully understand your audience, since, if you’re doing things right, it will be constantly changing and evolving. But, you would at least want to have a good sense of who your target readership is and what those folks are looking for in terms of value you can provide before you launch. And what a lot of beginners don’t realize is that even with a premium theme, your blog is still going to require a bit of setting up. Most premium themes just don’t look good out of the box.
Is blogging important in terms of marketing? I think the benefits are enormous. It brings in new ideas from across the organization and holds a mirror up to ourselves and our operations. These benefits are relevant to the marketing function, of course, but also to any function in just about any organization.
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Bubuwit Squeaks
THE GOOD WRITER
When asked, how can you determine any other characteristics of outstanding creative people? This guru says, “The first thing that makes a good writer is that he avoids the cliché. He avoids the cliché in his speech, not just in his writing. He is careful not to use the hagridden figures of speech in his conversation. If he has a figure of speech that pops out of his mouth, it is more likely to have some kind of originality in the phrasing of it, or he won’t use a figure of speech. Another mark of a good adman (not just writers, but everybody connected with the creation of the ad): He is a widely read person.”
What if he had a son who wanted to get into the ad business, what would he tell him? “Assuming he had writing talent? Well, I would say there are relatively few occupations today in which you can have more hours of happiness than writing advertising copy.”
