1. Allow comments.

One of the best ways to talk to your readers is to allow them the opportunity to talk to you. By encouraging them to leave a comment, you are opening a dialogue with them. Even if they don’t leave a comment, you’ve opened that door and shown that you are not afraid to interact with the public. Many companies make the mistake of not allowing their readers to comment and the result is a blog that is very cold and very static. More often than not, these blogs fail because they do not engage the reader.

On the upside, allowing comments can also help increase your pageviews. Many readers like to keep coming back throughout the day to see what is going on in a comment section. They become mini discussion forums for many and it is fun to keep up with events throughout the day.

2. Ask the reader questions.

One of the best ways to avoid talking at your readers is simply – don’t do it. Ask them questions in your posts, encourage them to interact with you and discuss what is on their mind. By asking them questions, your readers will not get the impression that your corporate blog exists only to drum up more business (even if this is the case.) Impressions are so important in blogging and you want to make sure you are giving the right one.

3. Include polls.

One of the easiest ways to involve your readers is to ask them to vote in a poll. Find a topic that matches well with your industry and create a poll around it. For example, if your site sells apparel for women, you can write a post about the fashion industry and the latest news about how many countries are no longer allowing size 0 models. As your readers what they think about this decision. This is a very easy technique that will engage your readers and it will help increase your search engine ranking since your keywords for that post will be included in searches about models.

These are very easy techniques that can be used in any corporate blog. If you’re having trouble with yours and you want to make sure you are hitting the right note with your readers, consider hiring a blog management company. They can help you craft the right kind of posts and build a strong foundation for your new venture.

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Originally posted 2008-07-04 05:49:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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1 – The hits that you attract to your website will be more qualified.

By providing interesting content on your site through your blog, you can reach a much larger audience. Post links to your website and when readers follow these links, you will know it is because they are actually interested in what it is that you are offering.

2 – You can increase your return on investment, or ROI.

By showcasing your new products and including information in your blog, your readers will easily be driven from your blog onto your sales pages or into your catalog of products. The more people who click on your site, the more sales you will be able to realize. Marketing really is a numbers game, and blogging for your business really can help.

3 – You can increase your ranking in search engines.

If you use the best keywords and long tail phrases in your blog entries, you can significantly increase your search engine ranking. Search engines are looking for fresh content above all else, and blogs certainly do provide it.

4 – You can develop a stronger connection with your readers.

By creating an open means of communication with your readers, you can develop a rapport or a relationship with them. They will appreciate the information that you are giving them, including tips, advice, updates and product information, and you will benefit from the relationships that drive sales in the long run.

5 – You can create better relationships through communication on a two way basis.

Allowing readers to respond to your blog posts with comments and questions will give you an even better opportunity to develop strong relationships with current and future customers. Make sure that you respond to them to develop this communication.

6 – You can establish yourself as an expert or authority in your line of business or your industry.

Your blog will let you offer valuable information that your audience is looking for, and this will allow you to showcase your expertise to all of the world. This is an excellent way to gain the trust of both current and potential customers as well.

7 – Blogs are one of the most cost effective methods of publishing online.

Blogs can be set up for very little cost, and do not require a programmer in most cases. Some blogger hosts are completely free and will set the site up for you. In other words, a blog can cost between nothing and approximately $10 a month; a cost effective option consider the profit potential.

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Originally posted 2009-02-23 05:37:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Let’s go over a few things that have no place on corporate blogs:

1. Company Rivalries –

If company X has stolen your customers/clients/ideas, your blog is not the place to air that dirty laundry. Company rivalries may be interesting, but at the end of the day, the participants just end up looking foolish, or downright nasty. It is best to take the high road when you are in the midst of a problem like this and keep the dirty laundry where it belongs. Your corporate blog should always present the best possible public face to the world, and that face should not look petty.

2. Bad News –

While there are some instances where full disclosure on a blog can benefit a company when there is bad news, if you are not versed in the art of communicating bad news and putting a good spin on it, it does not belong on your blog. Once again, we come to the public face of your company. Your blog is the place for positive news, not for “the sky is falling and we are all going to be homeless.” Keep the bad news out of your blog, unless there is absolutely no way that you can avoid addressing a problem.

3. Inappropriate Humor/Graphics/Videos/Sound Files –

Viral videos have exploded on to the scene and although many are truly funny and you may want to share them, they have no place on a corporate blog. Bottom line – if you wouldn’t tell a joke, show a video or graphic to your 98 year old grandmother, it doesn’t belong on your blog. You may think it’s funny, 99% of your readers may agree, but it’s that 1% that can tank your company. Always keep it clean, and avoid running the risk of tarnishing your company’s image through inappropriate content.

One thing that corporate bloggers need to be aware of before they write one word is that in the blogosphere, a post is forever. It’s not just about weathering the storm that a bad post can cause for a week. Thanks to search engines, caching, linking and copying, a bad blog post will live forever.

Before you write anything, think for a minute if you will be proud of that post in a month, a year, five years. Chances are, that’s how long that post will be around. If the answer is no, write something else. Always take the high road and your company will benefit.

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Originally posted 2008-10-22 05:29:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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1. What is your demographic?

This is actually quite important when it comes to writing your blog. A younger crowd is going to want to see a blog that is more fun and integrated with social networking features, while an older crowd may feel more comfortable with a more staid blog. It will really depend, but these are some wide guidelines to help you. If you don’t know your demographic, it’s best to shoot for the middle of the road when it comes to style and the types of features that you offer on your blog.

2. How do you plan to find new readers?

Once you know your demographic, this will determine how you go about attracting new readers to your blog. For those under 35, promoting your blog on social bookmarking sites such as Digg will deliver your audience to you. However, these readers are very savvy and don’t appreciate over commercialized posts. You’ll need to learn how to walk that fine line between that and getting your message across.

Other readers can be reached through a PPC ad campaign targeting keywords that are well suited to your blog. This is a little expensive and most companies prefer not to have to spend money to promote their blog, but this is a good method. A secondary choice would be to release a press release detailing what your new blog will be doing.

3. The third option is just to let your readers discover you through search engines.

This will take the longest amount of time when it comes to building up your readership and it is a bit hit or miss. You’ll need to be very patient if you’re trying to grow your blog using only this method and you may never have the results you’re looking for.

The best bet is to combine all of these marketing tools into one to help you target your key audience. Once you’ve done that, word of mount will help you continue to grow your blog. Remember that you’ll need to keep writing compelling content if you want your audience to stick with you. A blog management company can assist you in writing posts that will get attention and they are also very useful when it comes to promoting your blog and handling the every day tasks that are associated with it. If you don’t have a lot of time to devote to building your blog’s audience, this is a very good solution that works well for most companies, big or small.

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Originally posted 2008-07-10 05:05:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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1. An About Page –

This is a vital step that simply cannot be avoided. This is your chance to establish yourself or your company as an authority and promote your services. While this should not be turned into a sales letter, it can still serve to give your visitors an idea of who you are, what you do, and why they should be reading and listening to you. Without an about page, you are completely missing out on that opportunity of building authority. You might be surprised by how many people actually do read the about page on a blog – and you don’t want to miss out on this.

2. A contact page –

Simply asking your visitors to connect with you via comments, or occasionally posting an email address is not enough to establish that link with your readers. At the bare minimum we recommend adding a contact form that can be filled out by your visitors. No one wants to deal with spam, but if you’re not giving your readers a chance to reach out to you, once again, you have missed the boat on a very powerful opportunity. You can add your physical address, phone number, fax number or anything else you may need to make it easy for your readers to contact you.

3. An update page –

Sometimes blog posts aren’t enough to promote a new service, but a news page is. Consider keeping one page set aside for news and updates and feel free to get a little more promotional in here. Your readers will expect it since it is quite common and it gives them something to be excited about to. Don’t miss this great promotional opportunity!

4. Extensions, Plugins and Widgets –

If you are on Twitter – you need to let your readers know if you want them to follow you. There are numerous similar services out there that will help you connect with your readers and build strong relationships. You can easily add these to your blog with the use of extensions, plugins or widgets. Most are free and will display the latest updates you’ve made. Just keep this in mind when you are tweeting, since these will be published on your site as well. No matter what social media service you’re using, it should be integrated with your corporate blog for better results.

These are just a few extras that can be added to your page and when combined, they present a powerful force that you can use to continue extending your blog’s capability and reach, as well as helping you promote your company more effectively.

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Originally posted 2008-11-24 05:17:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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In order to get the benefits that a company newspaper can bring, without the downsides, you can begin to use your corporate blog to fill this position. By including your employees in your blog’s news, they will feel more a part of the company and they will want to share the posts with their friends. Everyone likes feeling like a star, and a blog is a great way to share news, promote friendly competition among employees and keep everyone updated.

Before you jump in and start making your corporate blog into an internal newspaper, there are a few things that you should remember:

1. Ask before using last names.

A lot of people prefer not to have their full names splashed all over the internet. You may not realize it, but if other sites are including your RSS feed, your posts are appearing all over the internet. Always ask permission to use an employee’s last name, or err on the side of caution and use first names only, or their first name and last initial. They will know who you are talking about, but your readers won’t. In today’s environment of identity theft and cyber stalking, last names should be avoided.

2. Always remain professional.

Sure, it’s a fun company newspaper, but the general public will have access to it. Unless you are going to password protect the posts for your internal news, you will need to keep that veneer of professionalism up at all times. It’s one thing to be lighthearted and fun, it’s quite another to veer towards being unprofessional. If something has the potential to be spun in a way that is negative towards your company, don’t publish it.

3. Be wary of posting photographs.

A lot of companies like to use photographs on their blogs to let the public know that there are real people working for the company. This is terrific, but you should always remember point one above. Never use last names to identify people in a photo. The public doesn’t really need full disclosure, they’ll be able to see the real people – they don’t need their names. Again, with the threats to people’s safety, it is best to err on the side of caution.

These are just a few things to remember before adding this option to your corporate blog. Remember, if you don’t want the public to know something about your company – don’t write it! Always keep the fact that news can be twisted in front of you while you are writing your blog.

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Originally posted 2008-08-26 05:40:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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First and foremost, you should enable users to post comments, and your company should take the time to respond honestly and in full to user comments. While the blog is a podium for you to get your message out, it should also have a Q and A section to it, otherwise your blog will fail in the ether of corporate blogs. Answering the questions and comments that your users provide will ensure that your customers feel that you have a genuine interest in their opinions regarding your product.

Secondly, blogs should be in a conversational voice. Every post you make could be geared towards selling a product, but don’t make it sound like a commercial or copy for the product. Rather, you should make the piece have a real voice behind it. You can provide tips towards using a product, discuss upgrades to the product, give an insider perspective regarding the company, and many other posts which seem like natural conversation. Do not post blog entries as though you are a sales man; post entries which make you seem like an extreme fan for your company and its products.

Another aspect to watch for is whether your blog is providing a transparent look into your company, or whether it appears as though it is a filter piece of corporate propaganda. This is a very difficult aspect to gain control of, given that any large company will have a large legal department using black sharpies on every piece of copy. This ends up back at the same idea as before, you blog should be personal. It should be written from the customer’s perspective, as if they had open access to your company. Not only will you garner additional customers this way, but the ones you have will have much more trust in your company, and that means more customers.

Do not assume that if you post content on a site where users can comment, that you are blogging. That is a poor way to start and shows an indifference towards learning how to properly utilize the education available to you. Reading other blogs is the best way to truly understand how to setup your blog and how the posts should end up sounding. This also has a real benefit if you go to other blogs and comment and participate. This demonstrates that you have full interest in the consumer.

Finally, do not expect users to give you any real information on their own. Instead, gear posts towards asking your customers for their input. Making them a part of the creation process will not only give you valuable market research, but customers gain great confidence in a company when they feel that they are a part of the process.

All of these tips will ensure that you are utilizing your blog to the fullest potential. It is not a difficult prospect, but rather one that should should be approached from the consumers perspective, not the PR department’s.

Photo Credit: 1

Originally posted 2008-12-18 05:21:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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• Quick and Dirty Tips for Effective Corporate Blogging, pt 2 This is part two in a series about tips for good corporate blogging. We touched on three tips in the first part of this series - Now here are another handful of tips for your consideration. - 4 - Keep each piece of content short, simple and concise to get......
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The blessing of blogs by Bill Gates came during a keynote speech that was given during the Microsoft annual CEO summit, which was held at the Microsoft campus which is in Redmond, Seattle. The speech served as a canter through many of the forthcoming technological developments that business bosses need to know about, according to Bill Gates and Microsoft. The speech covered new wireless technologies, mobile phones, RFID, digital cameras and broadband, and all of the uses that can be gleaned from each of these vital technologies that businesses need to stay at the top of their game.

Bill Gates also made a point to dwell on the concept of blogs. He said that although blogs began primarily in the technical community, and even though they have much broader social implications now, they can also be used and taken advantage of by businesses as well. Bill Gates believes that blogs hold great advantages over older forms of communication and means of communicating and staying in touch like websites and e-mail. E-mail messages tend to be imposing, and they can easily miss out on key people that need to be included. Gates also noted that websites can be a problem as well, because they demand that visitors return regularly in order to find out if any changes have been made to the site, and websites require regular updates to avoid allowing them to become stale.

However, according to Gates, these problems can be solved by using blogs and RSS feeds, allowing viewers and readers to know whenever a blog has been updated. What blogging and these notifications are about is making it easier for people to communicate with one another. The ultimate idea here is that you should be able to get the information that you want, when you want it. Many Microsoft employees have already embraced these concepts, as there are more than 700 Microsoft employees who are currently maintaining corporate style blogs in order to let people know what they are working on. Microsoft does not currently make any of its own blogging tools, though it is largely expected to move into this industry very soon, pitching it into even sharper competition with Google, AOL and other companies.

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Originally posted 2008-12-08 05:48:04. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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First, let’s cover what would happen if you are dealing with an event in the media that is not particularly flattering to your company. It’s a good idea to craft an official response to any comments that may come up on this issue. You may also want to do the same in a blog post, addressing the issue and finding a way to spin it in a positive direction. There is always a way to turn something bad into something good, and your honest efforts will be appreciated by your readers. In fact, you may even find that they are behind you instead of against you.

It is also a good idea to work on responding to incendiary comments with a level head. This is a trap that can ruin many a corporate reputation. There are people out there that live to leave nasty comments on blogs and some will just keep going back. Instead of ignoring those comments, or engaging the person in a heated discussion, craft one simple response that addresses the main points and leave it at that.

At times, it can be difficult to deal with comments and often, many people wonder why they allowed them in the first place. However, it is never a good idea to suddenly remove the ability to leave a comment on your corporate blog, especially if you are going through a public issue. This gives a very bad impression of your company and makes it look as though you have something to hide.

It may not be the easiest thing in the world, but if you are allowing comments, you’re going to have to stick with it and weather the storms. You do have some options when it comes to handling those who consistently leave negative comments or those that bring absolutely nothing to the discussion but flamewars.

Most blogging applications have a feature that will allow you to block certain IP’s from being able to leave a comment. This can be a real lifesaver when you are trying to steer comments in a positive direction. Find out which person is responsible for the nasty comments, ban their IP and go about your business.

Alternatively, you can require registration on your site before someone can leave a comment. Most people who live to start flamewars and irritate others will not go to the trouble of setting up an account. If they do, you’ll have their email address and more information about them, which is very useful in this situation.

When handled professionally, comments can add a lot to your blog, but always remember to be positive and cool under pressure.

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Originally posted 2008-08-19 05:14:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

• Getting Into the Corporate Blogging Habit As with any task, developing effective habits can mean the difference between success and failure. Many first time corporate bloggers don’t take the time to develop good blogging habits and as a result, they don’t do as well as they should. Here are some tips to help you get into......
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• How to Gauge Web Traffic to Your Corporate Blog There are actually a couple of different ways that you can effectively gauge traffic to your corporate blog, each giving different answers and filling in a slightly larger piece of the puzzle. If you are writing in a corporate blog and you want to get a good feel for how......

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1 -Email to Blog Post.

Take any email content that you have, and recycle it in order to create new blog content. If you are like most modern business owners, you probably do your fair share of emailing which can work to your advantage. Re-purpose some of your email content by turning it into blog entry material.

2 -Address reader questions.

Implement a method for your readers to type in their questions to you. Consider adding a small box or a small form to one of your sidebars. All a reader will have to do is ask their question and click submit, and you will receive the question by e-mail so that you can address it in your blog. When the questions relate to your business, your products or your services, not only will this facilitate communication between you and your readers but it also makes for excellent blog content when the questions are relevant.

3 -Keywords.

Use a tool for researching keywords like the one offered by Google so that you can identify the keywords and key phrases that best relate to your business. When you know what people are searching for, it can better help you formulate an idea for a blog post. These tools show you exactly what potential readers are looking for, saving time and effort in determining what you should be writing about.

4 – News.

Follow the media, because there is nothing that influences the behavior of internet searches the way the media does. What is currently being talked about within your niche or industry? Which topics are being regarded as hot topics? Why not talk about them in your own words by turning them into blog entries? For added effectiveness, create Google Alerts so that you can generate an endless stream of blog content ideas and other valuable writing material. Any time something is posted about one of your chosen keywords, Google will e-mail you to let you know. Can it get any easier?

5 – Look to yourself.

Look at your own company in search of blog entries and subject matter that you can write about. What kinds of products and services are you providing to the public? What are the most important components of those services or products. Break this up into various information entries and not only will you be posting search engine-valuable content, but you will also be informing your readers of the value behind your products and services.

In part 2 of this article we will touch on more exciting ideas for creating blog content for your corporate blog.

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Originally posted 2009-01-27 05:58:58. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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