jones huyett Partners

We’re all being told we should market our brands through social networking. But before you rush to put together a Facebook Fan Page or become engaged in Twitter there’s one very important first step you should consider – a blog.

Social networking without a blog is like watching a football game on mute. It would all be very exciting, if only you knew what was going on. A blog is the voiceover to a company’s social media efforts. It provides details and insight that can’t be achieved by relying solely on services like Facebook and Twitter. And here are several more reasons why should you have a blog:

1.) Blogs humanize your brand.
Unlike a television or radio spot, you’re not interrupting someone’s programming – they are coming to you for information. This gives you the power to influence the tone of the conversations about your brand. It also allows you to post about your team and work environment, showing your audience a new, friendlier side of you. This builds trust and relationships (aka Brand Loyalty!). It also opens a line of communication for you to learn even more about your customers, clients, and prospects.

2.) Blogs improve your brand’s search engine rank.
When you Google your industry and city, where does your company show up in the search results? Are you in the top five … or on PAGE five? Having a blog can help your search engine optimization (SEO), which will push you closer to number one. It’s another place to link to your company website, and the more links going to your website the higher you’ll show up in search results. It’s also a great place to provide content about your industry – which gives you LOTS of keywords that will make you more easily searchable.

3.) Blogs give your customers a more complete – and individualized – picture of what you offer.
Having a blog lets you give details about what you do. For example, if you’re a travel agency who also sells luggage, you might do a blog about packing tips. Then you casually mention that with luggage that can be purchased from your company, it’s easy to pack everything you need for your trip. Link that back to the luggage section of your website and your audience will feel your advertising was provided for THEIR needs. After all, it was their choice to click and learn more.

4.) When you do Social Media, your blog unifies all your efforts.
What you post on your blog can then provide relevant content to post on your Facebook Fan Page. Your Facebook Fan Page is also a way to promote your blog which ultimately promotes your website, which promotes your brand! Same with Twitter. Your YouTube account allows you to pull content for your other social networks – and the list goes on. Regardless of which social media venues are best for your brand strategy, they can all help promote your blog, which promotes you.

5.) Blogs are easier to frequently update than your main website.
(BEWARE: Geek Speak ahead) It’s not always quick or easy to update your main website. There’s so much information, where do you start? With a blog, it’s expected that you will only post a little bit of information at a time, which makes it easier to post more frequently. That said, the more frequently you’re posting information the more spiders are crawling you. A spider is software that crawls the web in order to provide up–to–date data. How does this affect you? The more frequently you update your site the more your site attracts these spiders, resulting in higher search results.

So before you score a touchdown you need to pull plays from your playbook. In social media, your playbook is your blog. So get started creating those plays so you’ll be sure you’re prepared to bring the heat in the game of Social Networking.

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Filed by the Partners at 11:07 am under Search Engine Optimization, Social Media
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