Business Blogs and blogging offer a strategy for increasing your brand, opening a new marketing channel for new products and services, creating a dynamic means for providing customer service and support, and making attractive company press releases.
Debbie Weil (2006) suggests that blogging enables companies to influence opinion, tap into their expertise with ideas and clear thinking of their key areas.
She describes a blog as "a Web Log, an easy to publish Web site, which is written in an informal, conversational style by many social bloggers, who use an edgy voice and dish out uncensored opinion and spread information that is not necessarily accurate"
Blogging for me started on the
Ecademy platform in April 2005. Ecademy is a successful business and social network, which is largely UK based though international. Through Ecademy I have gained friends, collaborators and contacts. Ecademy enables real conversation both in person, by phone and online. Ecademy has also gained me business.
I too started off as a dumb blogger with an edgy voice, effectively failing to express myself in the broadest sense of the word. I have been misunderstood in my communication, partly because, for me, as for many entrepreneurs and business people, there is a hesitancy to accept that online blogging is anything than a bit of fun, whereas in reality it is an important marketing communications channel, a must for any business be it corporate, SME or small.
In my business I collaborate with
Maurice Watts, the marketer. He is a marketing consultant who works with companies on a range of strategies including communications and blogging. Whilst I liken him for the UK to what
BL Ochman is to New York City, and
Toby Bloomberg to Atlanta, Georgia, Maurice doesn't see himself as anywhere near so grand and will probably be very embarrassed by the comparisons.
However, I was confronted with a damaged reputation from a series of blogs I posted, where I had meant to make various helpful points and suggestions but was, in the event, misunderstood because
bloggers can get dyslexia. Equally I was pursuing a blogging strategy that I believed followed "Guru Guidelines" but which turned out to be extremely annoying to many members of the blogging community concerned. My reputation was suffering and I was facing dire consequences.
Being faced with a major problem, I knew I had to get a really good marketer, who understands the blogspace, to work with me to get me, and my blogging, back to stickiness and attractiveness.
Money was not the decider.
Maurice Watts came with a glowing reputation from
Warren Cass, the man who created Business Scene, and
Karen Purves, the Managing Director and Business Coach at Answers Forte, who mentioned how she had worked together with Maurice to develop a marketing communications strategy for a national charity in very tight timescales. Not only that
Thomas Power said, "Get Maurice......"
Maurice has been advising me on: - how to put blogs together, how to find and refine content, how to add value for the readers, effective timing and frequency, and how to ask the right questions from my audience and potential customers. (He keeps reminding me that a network is not really a marketplace but is more like a source of reputation, recommendations and referrals - equally important in business but requiring a radically different communications and strategic approach)
Bloomberg cited in
Scoble & Israel (2006) attributes blogging to a key marketing tactic, where a customer can get closer to a brand than talking with the CEO. She goes on to say, that companies who do not include blogging as part of their integrated marketing plan will miss out on significant opportunities because blogging creates stronger customer relationships.
Holtz & Demopoulos (2006) described other benefits from a business blogging strategy as:
- Opening a new marketing channel for products and services
- Reinforcing the company's brand
- Creating a dynamic means for providing customer service and support
- Making company announcements to which people will pay attention
Toby Bloomberg has worked a lot with the
Gourmet Station blog, which has turned the brand into a success, this is of particular relevance to those in the hotel and catering sector.
Our blog questions at
CateringPage are:
- Do you want more customers in your restaurant?
- Do you want more clientele in your hotel?
- How would you like to be recommended by others through word of mouth referrals?
Why not contact us for more information, more advice on marketing strategy and blogging strategy.....
Our support team are available on Tel. UK +44 (0) 20 8432 6450 USA (+1) 415 992 8021- Email: service@cateringpage.com
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Warm regards, Lawrence Perry, Managing Director of
Catering Page, Serving the Hotelier with Image, Visibility, PR and Website Solutions. . And advising you on Outsourcing to the Philippines
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