A Small Business Owner’s Lessons from BlogWorld

Some basic rules about effective marketing never change and one of the most important is to get your message in front of the right audience. What has changed is where your audience is. More than 346 million people read blogs daily, and your customers and prospects are among them. However, according to Technorati, there are more than 133 million blogs and 70% of those bloggers blog about brands. With that much competition for readers, it may seem hopeless to get customers and prospects to notice you in the blogosphere, but there are ways to make sure that your message doesn’t get lost in the noise.

Last fall, I attended BlogWorld & New Media Expo, a large conference for bloggers and social media enthusiasts in Las Vegas. There were a lot of presentations at the conference that offered great advice regarding blogging, and following are some important tips that came out of the conference that can be useful for business owners struggling to start or maintain a blog:

When blogging, speak in your own voice. Make sure to use your own voice and don’t be stodgy. Make it personal. Take a look at the “Running a Hospital” blog. The blog is written by the CEO of a large Boston hospital who talks to his audience as if he knows them personally. It is an engaging blog and makes you feel as if you would go to this hospital if you needed medical care because you know the person in charge.

Connect with your audience. At one of the sessions, the speaker spoke about Best Western’s blog called “On the Go with Amy.” As you’re reading, you will find that you connect with Amy and want to know where her next adventure will be. Smaller companies can use personal stories to connect with the audience, as well. In my blog, I include educational stories about social media, public relations, and marketing. To get people to come back, I also include personal posts and guest blogs from experts in the industry. This boosts my audience figures because I am constantly changing up the topic and drawing from a wider community. The more people I get to come to my site, the more engaged they become and the more they tell their friends about it. After a new entry is posted, I microblog it to all of my networks, from Facebook and Twitter to LinkedIn and Plaxo.

If you are at a loss for blog content ideas, research topics that you can write about with insight. For example, if you are blogging about finances, see if there are any new regulations that you could blog about. You may also consider tips to offer your readers or reviews on new products on the market. Read blog posts and if interesting, repost on your blog. You can also search through YouTube and paste your favorite video on your blog site. I’ve even seen some bloggers just use a photo from Flickr as their daily entry.

Write in an informal style. Blogs should be written as if you were speaking to someone. They should be conversational and engaging. Use simple language, be creative, and have fun.

Be clear about sponsorship. If you sponsor or are being sponsored in any way, or are receiving anything free in return for blogging, you must, according to the new Federal Trade Commission law, disclose this to your audience. I was given a ticket to see KÀ, a Cirque Du Soleil show, when I was at BlogWorld. When I reviewed the show, I said up front that I was given a press pass to attend the show.

Blogging is changing the way people receive information and may prove to be no more of a fad than television and radio. While blogging may be here to stay, it will constantly evolve as technology evolves, making it crucial to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to trends in blog communication.