BLOG MARKEING

Abstract: Businesses have to react positively to big ideas and to new technology.
They must also make up for lost time should they, initially, prove a bit slow off the
mark in seeing the potential of technological breakthroughs Blogs are growing day
by day at very fast pace and companies failing to market their products or services
on web can lag behind others who have already started. This study gives the
importance of blogging. Corporate blogs can help companies to develop higher
levels of engagement with consumers but, more importantly, they create knowledge
capital which can be mined for information that a firm can use to its advantage.

Introduction: This study covers the importance of blogs, their types, rules and
strategies which should be followed while writing a blog and their pros and cons. It
also gives some light on modern blogging techniques including micro blogging. Once
considered an almost low-life form of internet activity (which in many people’s hands
it still is), blogging has become a mainstream resource of information.

Literature: A nod from a trusted blogger can result in considerably higher sales for
the recipient. Trusted figures in industry, popular product reviewers and critics often
maintain blogs where they provide information about their experiences with some
products and services. Readers tend to trust these reviewers and critics more as
they are often unbiased. Businesses, however, do pay popular bloggers to review or
mention their products. Examples of popular technology blogs that provide a lot of
product reviews include Engadget and Tech Crunch. Consumers will always want
content that is relevant to them, ideally something that strikes an emotional chord.
Social Media Today is a moderated b-to-b community that brings together some of
the industry's best-known commentators (Brian Solis and Rohit Bharghava to name
a couple) alongside social media bloggers, marketers, PR and media professionals.
The community-building ethos of the site means that, once registered, participants
can post their own blogs, create their own profile, leave comments, and connect
direcdy with other members Tech savvy population of the world is increasingly
reading blogs before buying a product or using a service. According to Trent
COLWELLBlogs or “web logs” originated as simple online diaries. Bloggers posted
about their lives, hobbies and literally anything else that was on their minds. Blog use
quickly exploded across the Internet and there are millions of blogs discussing every
possible topic.Blogs give useful information about any product or service to its
readers hence they can decide whether to buy that product/service or not. According
to John HuckInformation sharing plays a key role in bicycle culture, and cyclists
participate in this through traditional media, such as the magazine Momentum, as
well as more actively through online technologies, such as:
. mapping (e.g., www.bikely.com);
. vodcasts and tutorials (e.g., http://bicycletutor.com);
. blogs (e.g., www.howtofixbikes.ca); and
. discussion forums (e.g., www.bikeforums.net). Blogs of companies market their
product or service and some blogs give reviews and ratings to various products or
services, here people not even read reviews but they can also give ratings to a
product or service. Like people who want to download new free software look at sites
like www.filemapper.com .
The importance of virtual connectivity can be understand as In addition to providing
time- and place-independent meeting places, technology use is proposed to
enhance experience-based, active learning. For example, Gillentine and Schulz
(2001) found that students exhibited higher levels of involvement when using on-line
roleplaying. Howard, Ellis, and Rasmussen (2004) concluded students perform
better when they use hypermedia technology. Because technology affords a sense
of privacy, students may be willing to accept higher levels of social risk than they
would in face-to-face discussions (Alghazo 2006). As students become more
engaged in the discussion, they feel a greater sense of connection to the course and
the associated material (Copper and Selfe 1990; Ku 1996).

What exactly is a “Blog” and who exactly is a “Blogger?

Blog marketing is the term used to describe internet marketing via web blogs. These 
blogs differ from corporate websites because they feature daily or weekly posts, ofte
n around a single topic. Typically, corporations use blogs to create a dialog with cust
omers and explain features of their products and services.
Many organizations use blogs with their user community. This allows them to share a
nd preview product features, functions, and benefits before the products are release
d. Blogs are an excellent way to gather feedback and to make sure products meet th
e needs of users. Blogs have become the next generation marketing tool to corporat
e websites which merely post collateral and do not provide any interactive feedback. 
Blogs arealso supplementary to a User Group. User Groups happen annually for exa
mple while blogs provide users constant daily and weekly feedback.
Blogs are Basic websites which are updated Regularly. They act as a Private news i
nterface for any Company / Website. With regular updatesbeing handled by the com
panyexecutive team, product marketing, and product strategy teams. The need for fr
esh content on the web makes the Blogs a preferred destination for Resources. Blog
s have been focused as a primary platform for Marketing

A blog is a powerful text content written on web media to influence a particular group
of audience and a blogger is a person or an organization with strong thoughts or
beliefs which he/she is able to convey to masses by means of a blog. A blog has
immense power; it can praise a company to increase up to great extent. Companies
like Dell have achieved a lot through blog marketing and in a tech savvy era blog
marketing has emerged as a great marketing strategy.

There are many types of blogs out there in virtual world and they are growing very
rapidly. Few types of blogs are listed here:-

1) Instructional blogs: These blogs Instruct readers to perform a task. They give
the instructions on how to perform a particular task. For example people who
like to tweak their computer visit sites like www.overclockers.net .
2) Inspirational blogs: These blogs provide inspirational thoughts to the readers.
3) Personal blogs: These blogs are most widely used by common man. These
are personal blogs of an individual in which he/she conveys anything which
he/she thinks should be told to the readers.
4) Corporate Blogs: These blogs are used by companies to get in touch with
their customers, let them know about their new changes and most importantly
get their feedback. This type of marketing done on the blog by various
companies is called as Blog Marketing. This type of blog is the main emphasis
 of this review paper. Blog marketing is turning out to be an important aspect in
marketing strategy.
5) Private Blogs: These blogs are not open to all viewers, in turn these are open
for only limited people whom the blogger wishes to view it. For example blogs
for friends, for family, for company employees etc are some example of it.
6) Review blogs: Blogs which give reviews about any product or service fall
under this category. These type of blogs are increasing day by day and
people are taking much interest in reading them too because they give useful
information regarding some product or service so people before buying any
product or a service read their review first. This type of blogs affect marketing
of companies to high extent and companies should get positive review of their
product or service, if not they should improve.
7) Lists – One of the easiest ways to write a post is to make a list. Posts with
content like ‘The Top Ten ways to….’, ’7 Reasons why….’ ‘ 5 Favourite ….’,
’53 mistakes that bloggers make when….’ are not only easy to write but are
usually very popular with readers and with getting links from other bloggers.

• Interviews – Sometimes when you’ve run out of insightful things to say it might be
a good idea to let someone else do the talking in an interview (or a guest post). This
is a great way to not only give your readers a relevant expert’s opinion but to
perhaps even learn something about the topic you’re writing yourself. One tip if
you’re approaching people for an interview on your blog – don’t overwhelm them with
questions. One of two good questions are more likely to get you a response

Micro blogging

These days micro blogging has also emerged as a new revolution in blog marketing.
Blogging sites like twitter are growing at a very fast pace. The reason behind growth
of micro blogging is that they are very easy to use and hence changes or new
updates can be easily notified through micro blogging. They are not exhaustive as a
normal blog hence users find it easier to check on a regular basis. Twitter has given
a new name to micro blogging as “Twitting”. Above all the most important reason
because of which twitter is growing so fast is that it is easy to update on a real-time
basis. Firefox addons like twitter bar have made twitting even more easy. Now to
compete with twitter even big companies like google have added a new mini blog
feature called as Buzz. This feature is added on google mail called as gmail.
Although google have now started realizing the importance of blogging but email
brands like hotmail had this feature of having blogs along with email long back. Even
yahoo is trying to cope up with this but they are a bit lagging behind in this race; their
new version of yahoo mail is too heavy for many customers to use. Still I believe
Buzz has a long way to go to beat twitter which is based on an open source engine.
Cons:-
Blogging without the right mindset is perhaps one of the worst things you can do
when blogging.  Let’s say you work for a large company and you tend to share a lot
of knowledge with your customers through the use of blogs.  This is a good thing,
until you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.

1) A blog can be used as a legal document against your company.

2) Too many negative feedback can defame your company.
3) Hard to update it on a regular basis. No one would like to visit a blog if
updates are done too slow so regular updating is necessary.
4) Blogs can lead to privacy concerns.

As you can see pros are far greater than cons hence blog marketing is emerging
as a new era in marketing strategy which require less inputs and give long term
benefits to a company. Hence if you have not started your own blog then you
should do so as soon as possible, your competitors may have already started.

There are some rules and strategies which corporate bloggers follow:-

1) Only truth should be written in a blog. As blogs are written content and is not
like a television advertisement which gets over in few seconds, a single lie or
bluff can end you to court and the person who sued can present written proof
against your company.
2) A blog helps getting feedback from customers; some may give positive
feedback whereas some angry customers can give negative feedback too.
You should not delete a negative feedback because hiding a problem never
 actually solves it but in turn it increases it. Hence angry customers should be
handled tactfully.
3) No spamming should be done on blogs and any spam written by someone
else in feedback should be removed.
4) You should not disclose information about your future products or services too
early before their release because your audience may not be just your
customers, it maybe that your competitors are also keeping track of your
updates and doing so may lend you in a loss.
5) Know your target audience and write accordingly.
6) Use a good search engine optimization to increase visibility of your blog. If
your blog isn’t visible to your target audience then it is not solving its purpose.
Last but not the least, you should ensure to update blog regularly otherwise your
audience will lose interest in it

Blog Marketing Strategies

Regardless of your product, blogs can be an integral part of a marketing strategy.

This doesn't necessarily mean running out to start one. There are other ways to
harness this fast-growing medium's power:

 Gather market intelligence. Monitor public buzz to determine how your

brand and close competitors are faring. Knowing where, why, and how you're
being trashed (or praised) in a public forum allows you to respond
appropriately -- and quickly. Any angry customer or disgruntled former
employee can launch a blog at no cost. They may even get higher search
rankings than your brand.

 Engage bloggers by commenting on key business topics. Read blogs

related to your product or company to understand the blogger's perspective
and audience. Strategically respond to postings to initiate dialogue. More
genuine that a PR pitch, this approach can also help correct misinformation.

 Advertise on blogs to reach influencials, target a niche audience, or

extend a media buy's reach. Though only about 25 percent of Internet users
(about 32 million) currently read blogs, they tend to influence other's thinking.
 Blog lines readers check an average of 20 blogs daily. Informal BlogAds
research shows blog readers are high consumers of expensive, well-
researched content, such as The Economist and The New Yorker. "Blog
advertising can engage an important niche," says Morra Aarons, Edelman VP,
"enabling you to reach a critical market segment or to broaden the impact of
your marketing spend."

Blogs vary in size, approach, and ad opportunities. You can advertise directly
on a blog that reaches your target market or through an advertising network
such as BlogAds or Pheedo.Banners and text copy must be contextually
relevant. As users visit often, it's important to change ad content frequently to
prevent impression fatigue. One option is create a dialogue with a series of
related ads.

 Humanize your company with corporate blogs. One or more employees,

the CEO included, may blog. Corporate blogs require a level of transparency.
As a result, they may not work for all types of companies. Corporate bloggers
must have access to, and support from, senior management, PR, and legal.

Build business or brand by connecting with consumers. Both small businesses

and major corporations can use blogs to build closer relationships with their
customers. Best Buy created the entertaining Slothmore Institute. The only
connection to Best Buy is the sponsored ads.

References

Ahuja, V. and Mercury, Y. (2010), ‘‘Corporate blogs as e-CRM tools – building

consumer engagement through content management’’, Journal of Database
Marketing and Customer Strategy Management,Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 91-105, ISSN
1741-2439.
Alghazo (2006) “ blogging – a successful marketing tool” Journal of marketing
management, vol.4

Costa, M. (2010), ‘‘Building a community is key to brand development’’, Marketing

Week, Vol. 33 No. 35, pp. 22-6
Copper and Selfe 1990; Ku 1996 “ new techniques of customer retention” Journal of
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Tsiotsou, R.H., Rigopoulou, I.R. and Kehagias, J.D. (2010), ‘‘Tracing customer
orientation and marketing capabilities through retailers’ websites: a strategic
approach to internet marketing’’, Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for
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