We’ve never had it so easy…

I’m not one to use punchy, attention-grabbing headlines, but couldn’t resist this time. What I’m referring to is that it’s never been so easy to “chat” with our customers online.  And while I have seen a similar sense of things in other areas of marketing – offline networking, for instance, I’ll stick with what I know for now…

So maybe I am mainly referring to those customers that are comfortable with using the web for business, but there are few of us now that don’t at least have access, and indeed if you give those less keen on all this “Interweb” nonsense  something friendly and simple to engage with, they will be glad to be gently introduced to how useful it can be.

I am talking about blogging, of course.  And within this I include Twitter – that micro-blogging system of 140 characters each time – great for quick updates, keeping people aware of what you’re up to – the uses are many and I’ll explore those with you another day.

The most successful business blogs are:

– easy to read
– short and sweet
– worth reading

Any blog that we read, and especially those that we then subscribe to, should:

– make it worth spending our precious time reading them
– be relaxed and in a style that appeals to your readers – your customers
– not be written in a voice other than your own

It’s yet another area in which you should apply your own standards – what do you actually bother reading and subscribing to?  Apply that thinking to your blog – put your reader, your customer, first – write with them in mind, but be yourself. People buy from people – we hear this a lot these day – a cliché indeed, but for a very good reason – it’s true!

So have a think about your blogging – if you’re really not sure if you can, or how to go about it, then have a chat with someone like Mark White – he does courses on Business Blogging.  You do indeed want to be realistic about what it can do for you (if anything) and how much time you can allocate – blogging is really taking off this year and finding its place as a valuable Internet marketing activity, and so essential to consider.

Have a read of Ian Lurie’s Conversation Marketing book – a wonderfully easy read and vital for anyone’s Internet marketing strategy.

Let me know if a chat would be useful – this may be something for a group live chat – I’ll set something up…