Metafocus – Online Marketing

I recently attended a Web 2.0 Seminar through Business Link which was designed to show how Web 2.0 could be used successfully for businesses large and small. Unfortunately it didn’t go into a lot of depth about how exactly companies can do this so I thought I’d have a go!

Here’s the first installment – How to use blogs for your business – or Blogs are like Goldfish!

1. Choose the right platform
There are a few obvious choices out there for blog platforms including Blogger, Wordpress and TypePad but which one should you go for. My advice would be to choose the one that best suits your personal preference in terms of layout, content and flexibility for the project in hand. For example, I use Blogger for my personal blogs and Wordpress here for the Metafocus blog, as I need more flexibility for work but speed at home.

2. Have something to say
If you are purely using blogs as an SEO tool, you’ll soon run out ot ideas! The main reason for a blogging is to share information, links or opinions so make sure that you have something to say. If you find yourself struggling for ideas, here are some tips:

a. rather than write one large post once a week or fortnight, break it down into digestible chunks which you can serialise over the next few posts/days/weeks,
b. talk to others in your business such as Customer Services or Sales, to see what your customers or future customers are particularly interested in right now,
c. research the market using tools such as forums, Twitter or Delicious,
d. enlist a guest blogger from time to time to help keep things fresh

3. Make time to work on the blog – blogs are like Goldfish.
Rather than wait until you have some spare time (!), make time to work on your blog regularly even if it is just a short blog post once a week. Blogs are like goldfish – they need to be fed regularly to keep them healthy. Now you can leave them for days on end if you have to and they will survive, but they won’t flourish unless you look after them…

4. Enjoy it!
Although it may seem like a burden at times, blogging can and should be fun. It gives you the opportunity to put your opinions out there for everyone to see and to invite feedback. Don’t get caught up in the loop of just using blogs for SEO, have some fun with it too. After all, it’s all about personality.

So there are some of my ideas and thoughts about blogging, a practice which I think is really important for every business but also something that anyone can have a go at and get involved with.

What do you think?

Rich