168
Marketing DeMystified
Using Blogs in Your Marketing Strategy Blogging is among the newest marketing sports and an effective way to move up your site in search engine rankings. Blogs offer a 24/7 contact opportunity, and have equalized the public relations playing field by giving even the least likely contender an opportunity to play journalist. By creating your own blog, where you can post your news, share thoughts and opinions, and invite others to opine, you can connect with untold numbers of Web visitors at no charge. And you will have the potential to brand yourself in yet another forum. At http://blogsearch.google.com, you can search for blogs by your topic of interest. Technorati (http://technorati.com) is another search engine that tracks and ranks blogs, by category. This site publishes original content (e.g., blog reviews, breaking news, trend pieces, keyword-tagged articles, and opinion-focused posts) if your article is timely, news focused, interesting, and well written. Blogging on Technorati can help you build expert status and promote your brand, as all articles accepted appear on the site’s RSS and Twitter feeds and Google News. Wondering when and where you should blog? Blog when you have news, want to share thoughts and information, or seek to sway the opinions of others. You can start your own blog or type your thoughts into an open blog someone else has set up on a relevant topic. Decide on the purpose of your blog, and honor it by giving readers a reason to come back. Starting a blog is easy. You can set up your own blog for free. But to make sure it works for you, optimize the impact of your communications with appropriate keywords, phrases, and metatags and alt tags. Alt tags provide text in the background of a photo or space area which enables a search engine to read and interpret a description of the image or area. Visit http://wordpress.com, or http://moveabletype.com, and you can be up and running with your own blog in under an hour. Post news and comments on your blog and other blogs that target your target audience. Your blog can position you as an expert in your field, or it can position your firm as an expert resource. Post only information that adds value to your brand. As you focus on adding value for others and becoming a trusted resource, you will develop a following that adds value for you.
Getting Noticed It’s not enough to be on the Web. People need to know you’re there and seek you out as a resource. Do this to boost your blog’s ratings: • Update content frequently. • Write on topics that your target market is likely to search for. • Leave your blog address when you post on other blogs.