I recently, through Friends reunited, caught up with a very very old friend. When I knew her she was still a school girl but now is married to a fireman, has three children and also owns her own manufacturing company.
So clearly a hugely busy person, so how does she have time to bring up the children, run her business and be part of a couple? How does anyone who runs a business find time to benefit from really benefit from what the internet can offer?
The Internet offers huge opportunities to both engage and maintain your relationship with current customers and develop new prosperous relationships with a wider audience.
The company website is dead
You may ask why someone who is involved in developing company and organisations websites would say something such as ‘The company website is dead’. I am not sugesting that Johnson & Johnson or Procter & Gamble should close down their websites. What I am saying is that both small and large companies need to look beyond their website to social media to engage with a wider audience.
A company or any organisation who only looks and develops their website is like a shop keeper who forgets to open the shop door in the morning and doesn’t see the customers passing by because they cannot get in – or a call centre that only provides its phone number to a small percentage of the potential people who could call it [and possibly buy something!].
Why is blogging so good
Good blogging can really provide your audience with useful information, help them learn more about you and your organisation and demonstrate a human side to what otherwise may just seem a corporate block.
Search engines love blogs, they often trust the information more than company websites and by having content on other platforms such as this (wordpress) it means that when individuals search for information that you are writing about within the same place they blog they will find you – and what is great is bloggers are more likely to engage in a conversation on-line and thus create more content.
Business blogging do’s….
Write frequently (once a week (pref) or month good – once a year bad)
Write with an audience in mind and provide useful content
Be open to, and not scared of, criticism – you can always demonstrate how good you are by writing a post about how your responded where your organisation failed
Business blogging don’ts…
Promise to do something on your blog and not do it
React bad to criticisms online – do not be defensive
Write purely sales content and marketing messages
So my friend has started blogging, and I trust she will write some insightful information. Her first blog asks Why don’t people want to save money… hopefully some will be saving money with her soon.
Christopher Wellbelove DL 