Chris Baggott's Guide to Blogging

I read a blog post that made the following statement about Corporate Blogging:

"Social media in general, and blogs in particular are about attraction, not promotion."

Exactly right. Except it overlooks that the vast majority of that attraction comes through search engines. Embracing that reality and you begin to recognize that you really don't have 'readers' you have 'seekers'.   Seeking what? Seeking a solution to whatever they were searching for.

So how does that reality adjust your content strategy? Well it should get corporate bloggers focused on the problems of the customers and the solutions you provide.   Does this sound promotional or helpful?   If I'm asking a vendor for help (what I'm doing when I search) I'm going to be disappointed if they are not talking about their products or services or similar situations where they helped people like me. Does this sound too promotional?   Let the data tell you. Too much of this Social Media conversation is taking place based on opinion not data.

Additionally, I'm going to be disappointed if there is no clear call to action. When someone is trying to solve a problem, they want to get to the solution and move on.   They are not looking to subscribe or become regular readers...this is a myth. Focus on attraction and conversion.   The visitor will be happy and your business will be happy.

Focus on three metrics: first time visitor %, Bounce Rates and Click Through rates.   These are the three things that will tell you if you are a successful business blogger.