3 Ways To Keep Your Blog From Dying

Admit it, your company blog is not what you hoped it would be. You thought that having a company blog would separate you from your competitors and make you look all high-tech. You were even hoping that your clients would tune in and check it out just to see what’s the haps with their favorite business to patron. You put it in place, you announced it on your site, and then you waited for the flood of traffic and faithful mob to soon follow.

But then it hit you like a truck with no brakes on a hill; WHAT DO I WRITE ABOUT??

I bet you put some press release type of stuff in there to get it started. Maybe some informational pieces about the industry you’re a part of. But then the flow of possible content screeched to a halt and the blog is about as lonely and useless as a slam dancer at a polka party. So let’s think creatively about how to get some life back to this potential funeral.

The Power of Video

We’re a finicky bunch out here on the web and we demand to have our information served to us a certain way. Video has become the platform that entertains and serves as a marketing piece. Little effort is required by the viewer to understand what’s going on, and they can feel involved (on a voyeuristic level anyways) with the events unfolding in front of them. Let me give an interesting example that was totally accidental and somehow increased traffic on a new site I just released.

One of the people who had contracted me had decided to post up some videos on Google Video so co-workers could have a look at how stupid they acted after getting a few drinks in them at the employee Christmas party. They had added in a link back to the website I had just made, uploaded the videos and forgot all about it.

I log into their analytics account the next morning and was floored; in a matter of 11 hours our traffic went from a total of 21 people the day before to close to 450 by 8am. This video may have not been the best example for the quality of the company, but it did increase traffic and they did get some leads from it. Why? All of a sudden, we were more human than before and not just peddling our services like everyone else.

The point is that incorporating links to a video from your site, and from the video back to your site is beneficial either way.

Going To Industry Events

This may sound like something either incredibly mundane or just not even worth mentioning, but this is how you’re going to raise the bar on the quality of your blog. A part of the company website is to show the public that you are knowledgeable and active in the industry you represent. it’s that whole “trust” thing you keep hearing so much about.

One thing that is getting popular is to have some of the company’s people at one of these events to “blog live” as speakers do their thing followed up by the usual Q&A sessions. Send a 2 person team to the event; 1 armed with a tape recorder and a camera while the other has just a laptop. One records so corrections or additions can be supplied to the blogger who tried their best to transcribe everything that just happened. Whenever pictures can be taken, do it! They gotta work fast and have this event ready to be broadcast on your company blog as soon as they can get to an internet connection.

Your customers will be pretty impressed with this because it does show how serious you are about the industry, and your competition will be jealous because they didn’t think of it first. The early bird gets the traffic.

Humor is your friend

I can’t stress this one enough, but it’s paramount to the “stickiness factor” of your blog. If you make someone laugh early on, then you can keep their attention because they want to laugh again. I’ve seen bloggers write about some of the stupidest stuff in the world, but it was funny and I read it from start to finish. AND I wanted to come back for more.

Every post you write, no matter what it may be about, needs an edge. For example, one of my favorite bloggers in my blogroll is Lisa Barone from Bruce Clay, Inc. She’s smart, sassy, knows her stuff and always gets a great chuckle out of me everytime I read her posts. Humor works wonders, even for the most cynical web surfer.

To wrap this up, I figured having a quick run-down of do’s and don’ts would be good;

DO’s

• Link back to whatever source you got information from
• Mix up your article with fun, education and some self promotion
• Take advantage of chances to cross link to other pages in your site
• Take advantage of chances to link out to authority sites
• Leave the possibility of conversation open, so you can get some feedback

DON’TS

• Always carry a pessimistic or negative tone about your industry
• Don’t disclose negative things about past or current clients
• Bore people to death with overly technical details
• Expect yourself to have something to write about everyday

On that last item in the Don’ts list, I will expand more on that in the next article and some more bloggy goodness. Till next time…

Sphinn This Twitter This Stumble This Trackback