Mike Frichol offers the following royalty-free article for you to publish online or in print. Feel free to use this article in your newsletter, website, ezine, blog, or forum. ----------- PUBLICATION GUIDELINES - You have permission to publish this article for free providing the "About the Author" box is included in its entirety. - Do not post/reprint this article in any site or publication that contains hate, violence, porn, warez, or supports illegal activity. - Do not use this article in violation of the US CAN-SPAM Act. If sent by email, this article must be delivered to opt-in subscribers only. - If you publish this article in a format that supports linking, please ensure that all URLs and email addresses are active links. - Please send a copy of the publication, or an email indicating the URL to [email protected] - Article Marketer (www.ArticleMarketer.com) has distributed this article on behalf of the author. Article Marketer does not own this article, please respect the author's copyright and publication guidelines. If you do not agree to these terms, please do not use this article. ----------- Article Title: How To Use A Blog To Improve Your Business Author: Mike Frichol Category: Communication, Tools and Resources, Tools and Resources Word Count: 632 Keywords: blog,blogging,social media,internet marketing,business marketing Author's Email Address: [email protected] Article Source: http://www.articlemarketer.com ------------------ ARTICLE START ------------------
A 'blog' (contraction of web log) is a type of website that provides a continually updated journal or communication of 'posts' from the blogger (source) to an audience (subscribers or followers) over the Internet. Personal blogs are the most common, providing a continuing diary or commentary from an individual to whoever may interested. Corporate or Business blogs are either private (internal company distribution and access only) or public to whoever is interested. Blogs are a core part of Web 2.0 and Social Media Internet technologies. Blogs provide the audience with capabilities to comment on individual blog posts and engage in a written dialog with the blogger and between themselves. Blogs typically focus on a single topic reflecting the expertise or interests of the blogger. While many personal blogs have small followings and work fine for the individual, there is no reason to have a business blog unless you can attract a sizable audience of followers. The purpose of a business blog is to draw attention to your business via the valuable and useful information on your blog. The only way you're going attract an audience of consequence for your business blog is to write about something that interests the type of customers you want to attract. The blog provides you with another channel to attract customers to your business. Let's take an example - assume your business is auto parts recycling - you dismantle scrap vehicles to reclaim the usable parts to sell. You have a website with great information about your business and catalog of available parts. Let's assume that you have a big interest in rebuilding classic cars from recycled scrap vehicles. You could write a blog about tips, techniques, guidance, ideas, etc. related to rebuilding classic cars. You know there are 100,000's classic car enthusiasts and you could attract some of them to your blog if you provide valuable information. You can now subtly market your auto parts recycling business to these people reading your blog, creating a whole new audience of potential buyers for your business. The possibilities are endless, but it's not a matter of throwing something out and seeing if it sticks. Business blogging is a high potential marketing tool if you develop viable business and marketing plans covering the various aspects of your blog strategy. Taking action for your business: * Blogs open up a whole new marketing channel to reach your existing and/or new audience of potential buyers for your business, using a different medium. * Stay focused on one topic. Thoroughly research potential topics related to your business that a relatively large audience would be interested in following. * You must have solid expertise and experience in your chosen topic. If not, your audience will see through the facade and never materialize or leave after a short time. * Provide valuable information that will benefit your audience and keep them coming back. * Post regularly - at least one per week. * Keep blog posts to a reasonable length - 350-500 words is typical. * Make an informed decision on the blog system (WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, etc.) before you start. Make sure the blog system you choose will work for you long term. * Don't change the URL (Internet address) of your blog - you'll lose your audience and search engine indexing. Use your own domain for your blog - e.g. blog.yourcompanyname.com or www.yourcompanyname.com/blog. Although only 81 (16%) of the 2008 Fortune 500 companies had a public facing blog as of March 2009, adoption rates for smaller companies and technology businesses are much higher. As social media becomes an integral part of business communication and customer conversations over the next several years, we should see increasing and more effective use of blogs and other social media tools. Mike Frichol is founder and principal of Marketance (http://marketance.com/) which provides advice, guidance and tutorials for businesses to get more customers and sales with Internet Marketing. Their free weekly newsletter helps businesses get better results from marketing on the Internet. ------------------ ARTICLE END ------------------ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
