Month: April 2016

Blogging can be a fantastic marketing opportunity for businesses, but small businesses especially often lack the time and/or skill-set to generate high-quality content for publication. Moreover, even if one could publish such content, what would be the benefits to their business? Would the extra hassle be worth the reward?

What’s the fuss?

Branscombe, (2007) argued that blogs are a suitable resource for sharing information and collaborating, due to the simplicity in setting up a blog and then publishing it. Blogs are adaptable, they can be created (and removed) relatively quickly, whilst also being matched to the way a business works as the business evolves. You should take a look at these 10 reasons to start blogging…

A strong social media presence derives from unique content and regular activity. This can be achieved by sharing interesting content by others online (for instance articles, journals etc.). However, by generating your own industry topical content, further benefits can be recognised. Not only can these blog posts be shared on and effectively integrated with other social media platforms, as aforementioned this will lead to an increase of traffic to the business website. Additionally, you will have already generated content which can be used in mass communication to a focused audience, for example an email newsletter. The content from the blog can be compiled into a snippet of topical, relevant industry information and distributed accordingly.

Blogging also provides another interesting angle for a business; skill and expertise. If utilised correctly, a blog is brilliant way to establish a business as an expert in the industry. By providing unique and contemporary content, knowledge and know-how within that industry can be demonstrated to the reader. This will lead to not only the creation of a trustworthy rapport with the reader, but also will increase the likeliness of generating new, relevant business leads. This interesting video details some of other aspects of business blogging:

Moreover, the info-graphic below also highlights some of the key points mentioned above. Although specifically addressing the US, it serves to demonstrate the core benefits of a blog for a business from market research:

What are the finer points?

It is clear that if one was to blog on their own company website, search engine traffic to that site will increase. The more content that is added to the site will result in a greater number of pages from the domain which are indexed in search engines. Consequently, organic search visibility will improve whilst overall website traffic will increase.

‘Inbound links’ are links which come from another website to your website, (Kolowich, 2014). This is important for SEO. A blog can create high-quality inbound links which accumulate through others, such as journalists, bloggers or authors, when these contributors cite your blog content in articles of their own. This in turn can generate referral traffic back to your own company, (DeMers, 2015).

A blog also increases the chances of ranking for long-tail keywords, another important aspect of SEO. By having more content (in the form of a blog), the more chances you will have to rank for less common phrases, but those phrases often come with a higher chance of conversion for business. Long-tail keywords are more niche per se, and often less competitive than generic keywords such as “sports trainers”. An example of a long-tail keyword would be; “How to become an Estate Agent”; a quick google search of this example shows some interesting results:

The links in the above image are Ranks 1, 2 and 3 respectively for the search term “How to become an Estate Agent”. Divulging further, Rank 1 – “Reed”, is Alexa ranked as the 143rd top site in the whole of the UK and the No.1 UK employment agency website. Conversely, Rank 2 – “National Careers Service”, is an official government site. Most noticeably, Rank 3 – “Property Personnel”, is an SME. Despite being an SME however, for the mentioned long-tailed keyword search they rank astonishingly high; just below two organisations which would have substantially more resources than an SME.

But why does this matter?

The above example illustrates that offering uniquely generated content in the form of blogging, specifically catered towards a relevant and appropriate audience, can organically enhance a business’ SEO. This can prove invaluable, as it enables an SME for example, to gain exposure and reach against (sometimes at the cost) of larger organisations whom have substantially greater resources; particularly with regards to finances and time.

If utilised and adhered to correctly, blogging can be a powerful marketing tool for a business!

 

References:

Branscombe, M. (2007). FT.com site : ONLY ON FT.COM: The power of business blogging. FT.Com, , 1. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.brighton.ac.uk/docview/229088960?accountid=9727

DeMers, J. (2015). The Top 10 Benefits Of Blogging On Your Website. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2015/05/28/the-top-10-benefits-of-blogging-on-your-website/3/#35e3a5997793 [Accessed 25 Apr. 2016].

Fishbein, M. (2014). 10 Reasons You Should Start Blogging. [online] The Huffington Post. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-b-fishbein/10-reasons-you-should-sta_b_5326353.html [Accessed 24 Apr. 2016].

Kolowich, L. (2014). What Is an Inbound Link? [FAQs]. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/inbound-links-faqs [Accessed 23 Apr. 2016].

Social Media is essentially a modern day phenomenon. The ease of inter-connectivity and reach it provides is nothing short of astounding. Now, a person or business can go viral online within hours; for all the right reasons or more dangerously, the wrong ones. Take British Airways for example, whom were on the receiving end of a ‘promoted’ tweet seen by thousands, outlining their alleged poor customer service.

For an SME, it is arguably very important to effectively manage and harness the available Social Media platforms, for instance Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. But why? Why should one invest limited time and resources into such thing when other aspects of a business could be focused on? Social Media can be an extremely powerful tool if used correctly…

Why does it matter?

Inevitably the resources available to an SME compared to a multi-national are significantly lower. However, one of the main attractions with Social Media is it’s availability. Essentially free to use (when not promoting content or sponsoring posts), anyone can set up an account almost instantly and start broadcasting their goods and/or services. Moreover, this can be harnessed in a way whereby a business, whether that be an SME or in fact a multi-national, can adopt their Social Media platforms for a great number of things; such as marketing, gaining publicity or managing customer relations.

Evans (2011), defined Social Media Marketing as a practice in which businesses seek to engage consumers in the online social locations which they naturally spend time. The accessibility of amalgamating a Social Media platform into such a tool is an attractive proposition for an SME with limited resources, allowing the business to increase not only levels of engagement, interaction and connection with customers, but also overall traffic to the platform used and/or company website. The Guardian have written an interesting article, providing examples of how small businesses have used social media to enhance their growth.

What do you need to take into account?

Despite the benefits of an effectively managed Social Media presence, there are a number of important factors to take into account. To begin with, it is important to note ‘relevance’. Does an SME whom specialises in recruiting really need to be active on Instagram? Would this not be deemed as essentially a waste of time? Likewise, it could be unlikely that a small restaurant needs to focus the majority of its efforts on the LinkedIn platform. As aforementioned, the somewhat limited resources possessed by an SME need to be used efficiently. Resultantly, a lack of experience, expertise, time and focus can contribute to inappropriate or ineffectively managed social media accounts, with sometimes damaging results; demonstrated in this article (Warning: contains some strong language). A good example of relevant and also effective engagement with a correct audience however, can be seen below:

The above example illustrates an SME which specialises in recruitment. They have used the LinkedIn platform as a means of communicating and reaching potential clients. Notwithstanding, the topic is in the relevant field and interest of the business’ target audience. The views, likes and comments may not seem substantial compared to say that which can be found on some Facebook articles, but the engagement is highly relevant to what the SME is offering. Prompting discussion and interest surrounding a certain topic (or issue) provides a unique two-way communication with the consumer, whereby they can offer their own personal views and opinions about the subject. This can be highly beneficial; especially if it can enhance or improve the business in anyway – (not to forget that this is all at relatively low cost if not outsourced).

How is it actually used?

Evidently however, it is important not to focus one’s efforts on social media platforms which will offer little reward or benefit to their organisation. The video below explains how SME’s can use Social Media in their Marketing Strategies, highlighting the purpose of such a strategy, combined with the benefits and drawbacks it brings:

Social Media, when used appropriately and effectively, can be a wonderful tool for substantially raising brand awareness and reaching out to consumers; especially for an SME. It goes without saying though that this is easier said than done and is unlikely to happen overnight. Some barriers of mastering Social Media platforms are as simple as lack of understanding of the platform (for instance the correct use of Twitter hashtags) or even an overall lack of ability whilst using ever-changing technology. It is important to remember however, that there are many resources available freely online, combined with different avenues to take such as outsourcing; if necessary. This insightful article covers the top 10 reasons why SME’s fail at Social Media – a vital read on your path to Social Media Mastery!

References and Sources:

Curtis, S. (2013). Twitter user buys promoted tweet to complain about British Airways. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/10283117/Twitter-user-buys-promoted-tweet-to-complain-about-British-Airways.html [Accessed 16 Apr. 2016].

Evans, D., (2010). Social media marketing: the next generation of business engagement. John Wiley & Sons.

Goldfield, A. (2012). Why Many Small Businesses Fail at Social Media. [online] Social Media Today. Available at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/why-many-small-businesses-fail-social-media [Accessed 18 Apr. 2016].

Moth, D. (2013). The top 16 social media fails of 2013. [online] Econsultancy. Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/63901-the-top-16-social-media-fails-of-2013/ [Accessed 16 Apr. 2016].

Niven, R. (2014). How small businesses are making the most of social media to grow. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2014/apr/16/social-media-smes-growth [Accessed 14 Apr. 2016].