Like Robin Williams in Jack, web logs have grown up at an extraordinary pace.  From their primitive and lack luster inception in 1997 to today’s technologically savvy and ever-changing web, blogs give the impression that they are an elder member of the online society.  In truth, though, blogs are merely a young teenager finally beginning to reach a full stride at 14 years old.

With that said, and similar to a true 14 year old, there are a vast number of personalities a single blog can present; organizational or corporate, genre, and personal.  So, how can you and your business take full advantage of the overall blog progression?  Take a look:

Corporate Blog – For All Your Marketing Purposes

It’s no surprise that this has become one of the largest blog personalities in today’s extremely competitive corporate web-o-sphere.  Each company is looking to promote their public appearance in every way, shape and form online, and a blog is one of the most efficient means of accomplishing that goal.  So, how can you maximize the marketing effects a corporate blog?

  • Press Releases — Why wait for your local papers to publish your press releases when you can publish and promote them immediately on your website?  Now, I’m not saying to refrain from sending your information to the papers, but you can also take full advantage of quick publications and a wide range of reach with your corporate blog.
  • Sales & Promotions — The days of flyer distribution and the over-solicitation of your promotions, you have a unique opportunity to effectively spread the good word of your sales and promotions through blog publications.  With the collection of current clientele e-mail address as simple as asking, you have an extraordinarily efficient means to an end with the distribution of your sales and promotional material.
  • Clientele Updates — Does your company, like almost every other business, rely on word of mouth for your reputation?  With a blog, you don’t  have to wait for news of your updated portfolio to spread; you can simply update your blog with the good news and let the RSS feed (and e-mail subscriptions) do the rest.

Genre Blog — For All Your Tips & Strategies

The second largest personality of blogs, but one that did not truly start to evolve until public/personalized website statistics came to fruition in early 2000.  However, even though this is a type of blog that is rising in popularity, it is one of the more difficult to create content primarily because business choose to also market through their tips and strategies.  So, if you are going to choose to stick to a genre blog and keep the marketing separate, keep in mind the following:

  • No Spam — Have you ever read an awesome article that gives you outstanding advice that you can implement tomorrow, but it turns into an all-out inquisition to gain your business?  Kind of disheartening, right?  Would you still send your business there?  Probably not, but you need to remember your content needs to stay informative and not spammy.
  • All Benefit — What makes you (and the rest of the world) read through articles?  It’s simply the WIIFM effect – the What’s In It For Me rule.  If you provide unmatched benefit to your readers, they will come back to learn more and consequently frequent your business.  So, to get the most out of your genre blog, focus on the benefits for the readers.
  • Straight Content — Some blogs that venture into the genre personality tend to also include banner marketing, shared marketing space, and other forms of monetizing their content.  However, this detracts from the overall feel of your blog and needs to be controlled if you decide to take this step.  Remember to focus on the content and not the marketing as the content will drive the financial compensation more than distracting banners and advertisements.

Personal Blog — All You Need to Know About Me

Personal blogs are a fantastic way to share your everyday happenings with the world.  While this is the least popular blog personality for businesses, there are still several small to medium sized companies who venture into this realm.  The hard part with this area, though, is finding ways to spin the personal happenings of a day to day routine into beneficial information for your readers so they follow your every movement.  With that said, if you can establish the following focus areas, you will have a great start to maximizing your personal blog for your business:

  • Every Step You Take — Why is it that people love to gander and gasp about the tabloids?  It’s simple really – they love to read about their favorite celebrities everyday hiccups, successes, and mundane routines!  The only way those celebrities got like that, though, is through publicity of what their normal lives entail.  So, document every step throughout your day/week/month/year with utter detail to maintain full transparency between you and your readership.  This will allow a high level of trust to form as well as a sense of belonging with your company.
  • Every Move You Make — To stay on the topic of celebrities, I love to keep up with which movies are being made by certain celebrities (Adam Sandler, Will Farrell, and several others to be more specific).  This small infatuation that I have with following their movie-making career is driven by the fact that they promote their current works.  Think of yourself as one of those celebrities and let the public know about your every move – your significant hires, fires, tremendous successes, and even horrible failures.  Once again, the common theme revolves around total transparency and trust.
  • They’ll Be Watching You — Today’s human nature is to be somewhat voyeuristic with the evolution of social media outlets like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other online social networks.  So, take advantage of knowing that you will be followed by someone (hopefully someone within your target demographic) and you can establish yourself as a viral entity from that point on.  That said, everyone will notice and watch some aspect of what you do online so make sure you give them plenty of opportunities to “watch” (a.k.a. follow and interact) with you and your business.

In summary, there are three distinct personalities that blogs have assumed (personal, business marketing, and genre).  There is, however, no firm line between the three which also allows you to change directions or provide all three to your audience.  For more information on how to maximize a company blog, leave a comment below or contact us today.

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If blogging is something that you are interested in but don’t know how to get started, contact us today to schedule your free marketing analysis.

Sources:
“The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing”-E-Book
SlideShare.net
Image Source: HubSpot, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing”, E-Marketer.com