The Winehouse should be blogging regularly, but just what is a business blog for? Wainwright (2013) says: “A business blog is a marketing channel (just like social media, direct mail, email marketing, etc.) that helps support business growth. It does that by driving traffic to your website and providing opportunities for that traffic to convert in some way.” Every time a new blog is posted, a new page is created which can be indexed by search engines. As we know, good quality content on this new page will also help the site to be found, and keywords should be included naturally in the writing.

So, if content is key, what to blog about, and when?

  • Straight advertising: in-house offers and events e.g. Majestic Wine’s blog
  • National and international events/days, seasonal, wine regions e.g. Weavers Wines blog about the EU referendum or Butler’s blog about sherry
  • Local interest, VIP tasting events, features on radio stations, celebrity visits e.g. Butler’s blog about fundraising for a local youth club
  • Tasting notes, suggested recipes/wine pairings e.g. Wine Anorak’s blog about recent tastings
  • News/opinion on the wine industry e.g. Rude Wine’s blog about the supposed global wine shortage

There is no need to post lengthy blogs, or even to post every day. Quality is definitely preferable to quantity – a bit like wine, really!

Are there other reasons to blog for your business? Yes indeed, in fact there are nineteen reasons according to Dechay Watts. As well as the obvious marketing reasons, such as driving traffic to your site and creating a two-way conversation with your customers, she also mentions that it is fun, inspiring, practically free, and helps to focus on brand and products.

Yap et al (2005) have developed a ‘RUBRIC’ for business blogs which is intended for use by businesses working with their web developers and (though not specified) marketers:RUBRIC

Source: Yap et al (2005)

Reliability: this relates to credibility of the contributors, which has been researched by Johnson and Kaye (2004): “Blog users are likely to be media literate and know what sources they trust and do not trust.”Onishi and Manchanda (2012) agree that blogs are successful if they represent “a direct and valid source of information regarding consumer opinion for other consumers.” Notice the mention of other consumers – recognising the power of social media: consumer-sponsored communications, consumer demand for control over their media consumption, and their use of different types of social media, trends discussed by Glynn Mangold and Faulds (2009). Collier (2009) also suggests putting bios and pictures of contributors on the blog, and including an ‘About us’ section giving a way for readers to contact the writers.

Usability: concerns navigation, theme and overall look of the site. Where The Winehouse is concerned, I have already suggested that the Facebook page and the website itself look like they belong to completely different businesses, and the excellent tag line of Fluidthinking should be used on both platforms. This ‘U’ should also include SEO: keywords, tags, image optimisation, meta descriptions and internal links, some of which were discussed in my previous blog and all of which are covered by Steady Rain in their blog on SEO tips for bloggers.

Behaviour: Yap et al suggest that “a survey should be conducted to determine if the audience’s perception aligns with the corporate culture intended by the blog developers. When this behavior (sic) is inconsistent across all blog pages and/or posting entries, then the “idea” of the blog crumbles.” Allowing comments on the blog, such as Neidlinger (2014) suggests, would serve the same purpose and help build a sense of community.

Reflection: I think a better ‘R’ would be ‘Response’ as Yap et al actually advocate flexibility based on feedback from the blog’s audience. Sugar Rae suggests ways of researching who your target audience is in this blog and also shows how to work out who your competition is. Having this information at your fingertips will direct your blogging strategy and drive your editorial calendar (see below).

Information: must be current and relevant because “the main concept of a blog is its ability to be practically instantaneous in its postings. When this inherent blog characteristic fails, the website as a whole becomes ineffective.” Yap et al (2005). But perhaps a business could aim for the perception of being instantaneous: I would definitely advocate The Winehouse uses an editorial calendar, as recommended by Gray (2010): “Current events – having an editorial calendar is really a must… You can keep track of events that affect everyone like national holidays, but you should also include specific things, like the Daytona 500 for your racing website. You can also branch out and look for other non-traditional tie-ins (maybe a celebrity in your field is a contestant on Dancing With the Stars this year). By knowing what is coming and when, you aren’t living on the edge.”

Barone (2009) agrees: “Post quality will increase… by knowing what post will go live on which day, you’re able to spend time creating … content. Posts will feel more polished … and may actually make sense. You’ll also be able to create a more cohesive blog strategy because you’ll be looking at your blog from a few months out instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day rush. Post quantity will increase … when you put deadlines on things … they’re more likely to get done. Figure out how many posts you want to be publishing a month, set deadlines for each, and then do it.”

Creativity: a blog should ‘shine’, show ‘spirit’ and uniqueness, with a hook that keeps the customer on the website. I think it should also be well-written and grammatically correct, and blogger Sugar Rae agrees and recommends using Grammarly to check your post before you post.

Jim Blasingame sums up the reasons for business blogging simply in this short post (2014):

  1. Small business owners are experts on what they sell, how it’s used, the industry, etc.
  2. Customers want access to what experts know.
  3. Increasingly, customers expect a closer connection to experts.

I think it is interesting that the academics’ opinion of what a good business blog should look like and contain marries with that of the bloggers and business owners themselves. All of the advice and opinions I’ve looked at are generic and not aimed at specific markets, and so The Winehouse should be able to incorporate them in its first foray into blogging. I just need to make sure there’s no inadvertent wine blagging! Remember the importance of credibility!

References:

Barone, L. (2009). Why you need and Editorial Calendar for your Blog. [Online] <http://outspokenmedia.com/content-strategy/blog-editorial-calendar/> [Accessed 25th March 2016]

Blasingame, J. (2014). What is a blog and why should small business care? [Online] <http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimblasingame/2014/03/03/what-is-a-blog-and-why-should-small-business-care/#3ca0ad6a24bd> [Accessed 21st April 2016]

Butler’s Wine Cellar (2016). The great sherry blog. [Online] <http://www.butlers-winecellar.co.uk/blogs/news/51706501-the-great-sherry-blog> [Accessed 22nd April 2016]

Collier, M. (2009). Ten elements every company blog should have. [Online] <http://mackcolllier.com/ten-elements-every-company-blog-should-have/> [Accessed 21st April 2016]

Glynn Mangold, W., and Faulds, D. J. (2009). Social media: the new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizons. Vol. 52, pp 357 – 365

grammarly.com (2016). [Online] <https://www.grammarly.com/?affiliateNetwork=sas&affiliateID=313242> [Accessed 21st April 2016]

Gray, M. (2010). How I create and manage a WordPress website. [Online] <http://graywolfseo.com/tools/how-i-create-and-manage-a-wordpress-website/> [Accessed 25th March 2016]

Johnson, T. J., and Kaye, B. K. (2004). Wag the Blog: How Reliance on Traditional Media and the Internet Influence Credibility Perceptions of Weblogs among Blog Users. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. Vol. 81, no. 3, pp 622 – 642

Majestic Wine (2016). New wines. [Online] <https://www.majestic.co.uk/new-wines> [Accessed 22nd April 2016]

Neidlinger, J. (2014). 10 reasons you should be using blog comments. [Online] <http://coschedule.com/blog/blog-comments/> [Accessed 24th April 2016]

Onishi, H., and Manchanda, P. (2012). Marketing activity, blogging and sales. International Journal of Research in Marketing. Vol. 29, pp 221 – 234

Rude Wines Ltd, (2013). [Online] <https://www.rudewines.co.uk/blog/global-wine-shortage/> [Accessed 22nd April 2016]

Steady Rain (2016). How to optimize blog posts: 8 SEO tips for bloggers. [Online] <https://www.steadyrain.com/digital-clarity/blog/entryid/1267/how-to-optimize-blog-posts-8-seo-tips-for-bloggers.aspx> [Accessed 25th March 2016]

Sugar Rae (2015). Grammarly review. [Online] <https://sugarrae.com/reviews/grammarly-review/> [Accessed 18th April 2016]

Sugar Rae (2013). How I Create a Strategy for a New Blog or Affiliate Site – Part 1 (Identifying the Demographic) [Online] <https://sugarrae.com/affiliate-marketing/create-strategy-new-affiliate-blog-website/> [Accessed 18th April 2016]

Wainwright, C. (2013). What is Business Blogging? (FAQs). [Online] <http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-business-blogging-faqs-ht> [Accessed 18th April 2016]

Watts, D. (2015). 19 reasons why your business should be writing a blog. [Online] <http://www.sproutcontent.com/blog/19-Reasons-Why-Your-Business-Should-Be-Writing-a-Blog> [Accessed 21st April 2016]

Weavers Wines (2016). EU referendum. [Online] <https://www.weaverswines.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=eu+referendum> [Accessed 25th March 2016]

wineanorak.com (2016). Recently tasted wines. [Online] <http://www.wineanorak.com/trecent.htm> [Accessed 22nd April 2016]

Winehouse, (2006). [Online] <http://www.thewinehouse.co.uk/> [Accessed repeatedly]

Yap, R., Muirhead, B. & Keefer, J. (2005). Blog RUBRIC: Designing your Business Blog. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. Vol. 2, no. 11, pp 53 – 59

Other useful resources:

Gray, M.  (2010). How to use tags on your blog or website. [Online]<http://graywolfseo.com/blogs/how-to-use-tagging/> [Accessed 25th March 2016]

Sela, R. (2015). 50 reasons why you should start bloggiing and only one reason why you shouldn’t. [Online] <http://www.marketinghard.com/articles/108/50-reasons-why-you-should-start-blogging-and-only-one-reason-why-you-shouldnt> [Accessed 21st April 2016]

Wainwright, C. (2015). Why Blog? The Benefits of Blogging for Business and Marketing. [Online] <http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/the-benefits-of-business-blogging-ht> [Accessed 18th April 2016]