The Social Media Marketer

Need Help With Your Company Blog? Try These Tips

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A company blog is very likely a good idea for your business. However, having a great company blog is definitely a very good idea. Check out the following tips to help you improve the quality of your company blog and increase your customer base.

Make it Relevant:

• Your social media blogs should accurately represent all aspects of your company and should relate to your industry. Have different people from various departments write blogs about their part in your business. Include CEOs, advertising executives, sales representatives, administrative people, and people in your manufacturing department; all these people represent your business.

• If, for example, your company sells kitchen cabinets you might write a blog about the different types of wood available, or the hinges. Have your designer write a blog, and the person who operates the planer. You might include a blog about organizing the contents of those cabinets. Or protecting and preserving the wood. These may not directly be what your business sells, but they relate to your field.

• The "organization" blog may be outside your realm of expertise, but that is not a problem. Find guest bloggers who will share their expertise with your readers. You can even ask customers to write an article to include in your social media blogs.

• Build credibility and establish your blog, and thereby your business, as the expert resource for information concerning all aspects of your field. Become the go-to place for finding anything important related to your business.

• Your social media blogs must be aimed at your audience. Your content will be different if your audience is builders of multi-million dollar homes or the do-it-yourself home kitchen remodeler.

Make it Interesting:

• Establish the overall tone of your business’ voice. Is it lighthearted, or philosophical? Serious or fun? Whatever you decide, make sure it is an accurate reflection of your business and then stick with that voice. A variety of topics will make your social media blogs interesting; but a variety of attitudes will be unsettling to your readers.

• Guest bloggers can also add interest and draw in new readers. And open discussions will also generate additional interest and bring readers back to see what is coming next.

• Everyone loves a real-life story. Did your cabinet business get its start in your great-grandfather’s garage? Was the incentive for your kitchen organizer the misplaced turkey baster that one Thanksgiving dinner? Real-life stories can add a human touch that is important in connecting to your readers.

Make it Attention-Grabbing:

• Your headlines must be strong enough to grab the reader and pull them into the rest of your social media blogs. Offer some sort of benefit if the reader continues past the headline.

  • Cabinets Add Thousands to the Value of a Home

  • Protect Your Investment For an Additional Twenty Years

  • End that Clutter Now!

• The first paragraph must clearly illustrate that benefit. A real-life example is the best way, if possible. For example, with “End That Clutter Now!” have before and after pictures of, “Karen F. saves two hours each week she previously wasted searching for items in her kitchen.”

• Beyond the headline and the opening benefit explanation, the page layouts of your social media blogs should be easy to skim. Break up the blocks of text, leave white space, have sub-headings that offer more benefits. If you can say it in 25 words, don’t use 100. Add pictures, graphs, or charts if relevant.

• Remember the average person’s attention span when browsing the Internet is very short. You have to grab their attention immediately.

Make it Believable:

• Your headline is, “New Kitchen Cabinets Will Make You a Gourmet Cook.” Not very believable and your reader is thinking, “Yeah, right,” and moving on to another blog.

• Not only do your headlines and contents need to be believable, your social media blogs pages do too. Make sure your blog pages include information such as how long you have been in business, endorsements, awards, certificates, training – anything that adds to your credibility. Demonstrating you are a professional business and are serious about your service will go a long way in making your blogs believable and therefore trusted.

• Encourage discussion on the topics within your social media blogs. A willingness to discuss and listen to differing opinions will add to your believability. Respond to each commenter personally and encourage more communication. If you demonstrate you believe in what you are saying, other people will believe, too.

Your social media blogs should be the main focus of your social media marketing plan. They usually rank higher in search engines, and people love to read blogs.