Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Bloggcasting - the social media high ground

Smart companies are embracing blogging strategies to deliver their brand messages to a growing audience that is increasingly sophisticated in their desire for media rich content.

Your customers can enjoy the immediacy of blogs and the accessibility to your company with their ability to interact with it. In a recent survey on B2B media solutions conducted by KnowledgeStorm and Universal McCann, 80% of respondents read blogs and 50% visited more than once a week. Also very interesting was their view that the authors of posts were more credible than traditional media.

Most B2B blogs today are pre-dominently text based. But owing much to public blogs, more and more B2B blogs are adding audio and video content to assist them in getting just the right brand message out there. I'll refer to this as Bloggcasting - sort of an extended podcast on a blog platform. One of the biggest opportunities for B2B Bloggcasting is the infancy of the media. While many corporations have blogs in their arsenals, the vast majority do not. This fact leaves the door wide open for you to claim the high ground.

Does this open the door to branding opportunities? You bet it does. With an ever-growing audience turning to blogs for their information, your company can take advantage of this phenomenon by positioning your brand as the leader in it's category. When audiences are more likely to trust what they read from you, it is a fabulous opportunity to encourage an interactive relationship with your audience.

Take for example a legal practice, by posting landmark decisions and industry scuttlebut, a lawfirm can successfully position itself as the number one source for information in a legal specialty. How that information can be delivered, is only limited to your imagination. The opportunities presented are huge in delivering the brand message to a larger audience in a consistent way.

If you embrace Blogcasting early on, you will set the bar for your industry. If you deliver quality content on your blog which is lovingly administered with fresh compelling content on a regular basis, you will be rewarded with a loyal following. Due to the fact they they choose what they read, listen to and view, your audience are more apt to retain the marketing messages targeting them.

Are you ready to address blogging before your competition gets wind of it? We all know that it is better to lead than follow.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've recommended so many people to start blogging. Not only does it position you as an expert in your field - you can also benefit from customers seeing you as a seethrough salesman.

With 70 Million Blogs out there at the moment (and a significant number of businesses embracing them), there's a lot of people backing this strategy too.

Ed Roach said...

I've had the same experience Rob. Have you had people wanting to hire you as a consultant to show them how to enter blogging? I had two requests last week alone. I don't have sufficient experience under my belt, (I'm no Yaro) but I think I will assemble a short "how to" get you started document that I can use as reference and offer that. It will at least get you up and running, allow you to check stats and take subscribers. From there, everyone within my sphere can grow together.

 
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