Use a Blog to Build Your Brand
Brand building is the only route to business success in the present global market scenario. Sales alone cannot make a business successful since they do not increase until the brand becomes a forceful tool that will launch the business into the big league. Brand building is a tough task needing an investment of a lot of time and money, and every step needs to be done right. Even then, something may hold back the branding initiative.
In such a scenario blogging may prove to be savior in helping in the branding exercise and making it successful. Blogging can help in various ways, some of which are discussed below:
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Why You Should Add A Podcast To Your Blog
While podcasting is much bigger than it was a few years ago, it’s still not as big as a could be. Many bloggers have yet to get into the art of podcasting. Some are shy and aren’t ready to take that next step, while others want to, but just don’t know how to take that step.
Whatever your reason may be for not adding a podcast to your blog, you may want to consider the benefits. Podcasting is not just a marketing tool, it’s also a way to set yourself apart from the competition and really get in touch with your subscribers. So before counting it out, take a look over these reasons why you should add a podcast to your blog.
Educate Yourself
Having a weekly podcast can be a great learning experience for you because you’ll get to learn about new topics from the people that you talk to and interview. What better way to expand your knowledge than by talking to experts in that area? Your new-found knowledge is also a great way of increasing your authority and establishing yourself as a great source and leader in your industry. You’ll be able to expound in greater detail on the topics that you cover on your blog and build more trust with your readers.
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Build Your Audience with Facebook and Blogging
Facebook and blogging, if both are done right, can be a powerful combination. Linking up your Facebook Page with your blog is a great way to get your blog readers more involved with your Facebook community, and it’s also a great chance to let your Facebook fans know what’s going on over on your blog.
It’s not difficult to link up your Facebook Page and your blog, in fact some of it can be set once and then will automatically continue to work for you. It’s just a matter of getting the pieces in place so that both your blog and your Facebook Page are communicating with each other and your people can easily connect with you where they are most comfortable interacting.
Let’s start with some things you can do on your Facebook Page.
Automatically Post Your Blog Updates
Every time you write a new blog post, you can have Facebook automatically publish that on your Facebook Page. This is a great way to let your fans know that there is new content over on the blog, and they can get a quick sneak peek to see if it’s something they want to check out or not.
All you need is a Facebook Page app that posts from an RSS feed. RSS Graffiti is a good example of one that is completely free and easy to set up.
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Blogging to a Higher State of Humanity
I love blogging. I really do. And what’s not to love about it, whatever the reasons behind it. No matter if people pick up blogging as a way to share their opinions with the world, get a side buck or simply keep a public or private journal, the end result is just the same. Those that invest time and passion in their blogging activities, those that stick to it through better or worse, I believe that those are becoming better human beings, reaching a higher state of humanity through blogging.
We have learned to love human contact once again
Remember the days without computers and internet? Remember the days when kids were getting together, playing in the streets, constantly looking for adventures in the urban jungle? Remember how everyone from child to teenager and adult was looking to group up, find new friends? That was the time before mIRC, IMs, Counter Strike, World of Warcraft, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. With time, we grew close to fewer friends. We learned to keep the close ones closer and draw a clear separation line between friends and casual contacts.
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Top 5 Most Annoying Blogging Clichés
The niche of blogging tips is a crowded one and no wonder it’s that way. Blogging is so “the new black”. It gives you freedom, the perspective of making a few (or more) bucks and why not, for some might be just a way to vent. So, what better way to reach a constantly growing and renewing audience than by providing tips on how they should blog. The problem is that sometimes bloggers in this niche forget to be original and get stuck in the same circle of clichés.
Let me take you through my personal top 5 list of the most annoying blogging clichés.
5. Content is king
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that reads this almost daily on some blog or Twitter. It gives me the feeling that people keep on discovering the wheel over and over again. We all know that content is king, but there’s so much more beyond that. How many or the articles you read on this topic go further into exploring the ways to give your content the deserved spotlight? My take is that without due promotion, aesthetics and a good network, your content is nothing but a king without a kingdom!
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5 ways to set your unique blogging voice apart
Nothing helps set a blog and its author apart and give them the visibility they need more effectively than a unique blogging voice, one that’s easily recognizable in each post you publish. Both general and niche blogs need their style to help them stand out. It’s an easy way to gain loyal fans, authority and reputation.
How exactly can you find your blogging voice and make sure it is recognizable in everything you publish? Here are a few tips:
1. Identify your blogging voice
Each person has their preferences for certain phrases, expressions, ways of building phrases or of presenting arguments. This personal style needs to be inserted into your blog writing and maintained throughout each post. You need to experiment to first come to understand which is your blogging voice, otherwise you’ll just stumble around blindly, picking up influences from who ever you might think is hot and popular at a certain point. It has to be your inner voice, not a fabricated one, as its being genuine will make it easier to maintain. It will be something that comes naturally when you write, not a forced tactic meant at setting you apart that you might overlook when getting into a topic you’re passionate about.
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Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive
As promised a while back, I’ve finished editing the Corporate Blogging Guide in PDF eBook format. So, today I give you the chapters you’ve had the chance to read online plus a whole new chapter (8. Technical aspects) and some bonus tips to guide you in your corporate blogging adventures!
How to download the eBook?
In order to download the ebook, all you have to do is to subscribe for free to Blogsessive’s RSS feed (if you haven’t done so until now) and you’ll find the download link at the end of each article in the feed.
eBook preview and contents
Here are two screenshots of the book’s cover and the contents page:
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Halloween Special: Don’t be afraid to blog!
Happy Halloween folks! As you might have noticed, Blogsessive has changed its “clothes” on this special occasion. Don’t worry, the nerd will be back tomorrow, when Dracula “leaves the building”.
Now, since this is a special occasion, the topic for today’s article has been inspired by a comment I received on part 6 of the Corporate Blogging Guide:
I think we all start our blogs worried people might not like us and when they do, we don’t want to change for fear of losing readers. I’ll take experiments to stagnation any day.
David Walker
The moment I read David’s comment I knew he made a really good remark. It is fear that keeps us in place. It is fear that keeps us from “spreading our wings”. We abide all the rules and all things that we know for sure will work and hope to be the next blogging “rockstar”. But, do you really believe those “rockstars” we all follow are there because they are copycats? Because they follow rules? Or might it be possible that they are the ones creating new rules? Might they be the ones revolutionizing the concepts?
Do you want to be a better blogger? Then…
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Corporate Blogging Guide (3): Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning
So, did you ask yourself if a blog is the right thing for your company? Is it a solution that will boost your business instead of being a resource consumer? If so, it’s time to find out what options are there in terms of positioning a corporate blog.
Each company has its specific communication needs. Based on said needs and other established targets, a newly launched company blog can help achieve specific goals, such as:
- Becoming an alternative, and dynamic method to publish content;
- Positioning employees as thought leaders and experts in their respective fields;
- Building a community around a company, product or service;
- Boosting sales;
- Encouraging customers to send their feedback;
- Speeding up customer service;
- Gaining you exposure through both new and traditional (print press, radio, TV) media;
- Positioning you as a trendy company that keeps up with new technologies;
- Becoming and effective channel for crisis communication;
- Supporting your HR efforts by offering an “alternative” look at your team and thus attracting new job applications;
- Helping your company rank higher for specific search phrases and attracting new backlinks.
It’s highly recommended to establish a set of complementary goals. If a company manages to focus on and reach its main goals, the adjacent targets will also be achieved at the same time.
Here are a couple of examples of complementary goal sets:
- Building a community + boosting sales + attracting feedback
- Positioning yourself as a thought leader + building a community + gaining media exposure
Other chapters of the Corporate Blogging Guide
Chapter 1: Introduction to Blogging
Chapter 2: Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Chapter 3: Setting up Goals and Blog Positioning (current)
Chapter 4: Types of Corporate Blogs
Chapter 5: Blog Editors & Editorial Policy
Chapter 6: Blogging Tips to Get You Started
Chapter 7: Blog Performance Tracking Tools
Corporate Blogging Guide (2): Critical Questions Before Launching a Corporate Blog
Not all promoting and marketing techniques yield results in any given situation and likewise blogs aren’t always the best solution. In certain cases, a blog can become a useless investment, or worse, a way to boost the already negative view the audience has on a company.
Before launching a blog, each company needs to ask the following questions:
2.1. Is the blog a necessity or just a whim?
A company’s decision to launch a blog may be based on obvious advantages generated by the freedom of communication and by its being given a human touch. Considering these advantages or failing to do so, we still run into situations where a company chooses to launch a blog because of reasons such as:
- Our competitor X has launched a blog;
- It’s trendy, any teen has one. Why can’t we have one?
- We want to look high-tech / tech savvy.
In theory, none of the reasons above is a real obstacle, given it’s associated with and supported by other factors such as having the necessary resources to create and maintain a blog or a positive or neutral image in the market.
2.2 Do you have the needed resources to launch and maintain a blog?
Unlike classic company website, blogs keep consuming resources.
Blogs imply costs. Be it the technical side – design, development, hosting, be it hiring an experienced blogger to maintain it and publish fresh content, a blog needs financial resources.
Blogs take time. It takes time to create and publish content; it takes time to research, write posts, update them and maintain the blog. And for any company with a sense of business, time always means money.
Blogs need dedicated personnel. While there are quite a few tools to render content publishing automatic, the best results in corporate blogging are harvested by those publishing customized content, created by their own people. Are there people in your team who can maintain the blog? If not, do you have enough resources to bring in someone new?
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