Blog About Blogging

I just had a fairly heated discussion with a colleague about why someone writes a blog. I’m talking about a business blog here, not a personal one to network, find a job, vent about an issue, or just share a challenging journey. The genesis for the debate we had was related to a blog this individual wrote for his company about an industry meeting he attended. He often runs his writing past me as a sanity check and proof reader basically. And also to come up with clever titles for his blogs. 

In this latest instance, I struggled to find the purpose of his dissertation and suggested he needed to understand who he wanted to influence with what he was writing; essentially what was the purpose of his words and who would he like his audience to be. Simple, clear writing, even about technical topics, is a good approach in my view to engage readers.

His response was, “The purpose of a blog is to get people to come and read it.”

I parried with: “No, the purpose of a blog is to get people to come back and read what you have to say repeatedly because you have proven yourself to have significant ideas and comments about a subject that matters to them.”

Ultimately, we may have been saying the same thing. In the course of a blog, the writer can demonstrate, among many things, his knowledge, expertise, ability to entertain and inform. A possible by-product of the blog, if you are representing a company, is that readers will look further into your company, its products or services via a search or your website to learn more because they have connected with you on a personal level.

It should never be a straight out product promotion, although many are. That’s what advertising is for, as well as your website and brochures. Since I’ve been in the marketing game for quite a long time (read: before the Internet), I liken a blog to a signed article where trade book editors typically cut out any attempt to blatantly promote your product. The point of a signed article, somewhat like a blog, is to share knowledge and insight about a specific topic. But as in any self-publishing endeavor, you get to use your own voice, be informal if you like and even entertaining.  You’re the final editor. And hopefully what you write is worth reading.

LinkedIn Leads: Lessons Learned

Any worthwhile lead generation activity takes work. Usually a lot of it. And it can take a lot of time. First, build your database of individuals who can benefit from your product. And keep adding to it. You can do this through traditional marketing like webinars, direct/email campaigns, or purchased lists. But beware of lists as their data is often outdated and inaccurate. At one company where I worked, we employed three data verifiers to call people on a D&B list to validate information. For a small company, this is a pricey undertaking. Building your own list is going to be the best option.

Second, use social media (my preference is LinkedIn), to open up even more channels and broaden your reach to build relationships with people who you couldn’t meet anywhere else. Here are a few ways to do that:

Research LinkedIn Groups that have a relevant mission and members that would be most interested in solutions you offer. Once you join (and often you need to be accepted by the group leader), you can review the members, their titles and interests through discussions taking place.

Participate in those Group discussions where you can add valuable insight. You can begin to build your reputation, and your company’s in the process, as someone worth reading. Do not promote your product here.

Start discussions or lead them to information (including your company’s blog) that demonstrates your knowledge and value in your solution area or industry.

Invite contacts to connect with you. They can be those you’ve met or scanned at a show or conference, as well as those from an event’s attendee list.  Do the same with those who have attended one of your webinars. I keep track of those I’ve invited to connect on a spreadsheet to track progress and avoid duplication.

Tag connections to form “special” targeted groups. Once a contact is a connection, I tag them on LinkedIn assigning them to specific groups usually based on industry, company or area of interest for future communications.

Communicate useful, non-promotional information. This can include general information from trade publications or communities, event or webinar invitations, blog posts, including your own company’s blog since that should also be informative and non-promotional.

By the way, you can create your own company’s Group on LinkedIn and invite customers, prospects and employees to join. But be prepared to spend time creating useful content to make their visit worthwhile if you want to keep them coming back and engaging with you. Monitor and respond quickly to requests to join. Large companies can devote a full time resource to this effort. Smaller organizations who don’t pay attention to this risk losing visitors, and worse, good sales leads.