Google says 80% of its searches are informational and the rest are navigational and some are transactional. Also it points out that every year more than 25% of the keywords typed by users are new, which have never been typed by users before. Google also has 55% market share as per comScore report.
Therefore according to this we analyze that most users searching on search engines are basically looking for information which they may use it to make offline decisions. This is an opportunity for the companies to provide user awareness and education to equip/empower them with required information to make a decision.
A website presence is basic essential of any company, at the same search engine visibility is very important for this both SEO, SEM becomes necessary. Just as a public relations is to offline media, SEO is to search engines.
What is Blogging?
Blogging is personal opinion dashboard of an individual to express his/her views, opinion or suggestions to the world. Many people blog about their work, personal life, hobby, related interests etc.
Blogs can be created on any freely available blogging system such as Blogger.com, Wordpress.com and many more. Every blog has a feed which can be subscribed by users who can read your posts from their personal feed readers. Also people can post comments on the posts.
Advantage of Blogging
In an offline comparison, you would express your views, thoughts (all types political, personal, business etc) to few close friends and relations. Your expression of thoughts may not have had an impact on your friends but certainly have counted as word of mouth marketing.
Porting the similar analogy to online scenario, your ideas on your blog my have an impact to an information seeker who has landed from a search engine & who is reading your posts.
Many users who visit a website may not be able to find all information or may not have complete trust in what you say. They may be looking for additional information from another user, who may be available on social networks or blogs.
Providing additional information on your blog about the company, its policies and products gives an excellent way to build trust with users and convert an information seeker into a customer.
Google always sets an example in every aspect of online marketing. Google has a blog for its each & every product & service it has launched so far. This gives Google an excellent way to communicate to users in casual and user friendly fashion. Also this provides a platform to provide comprehensive information about its products to end users. This gives them tremendous scope to gain confidence among users and ensure their user base community grows. My belief is that popularity of users & webmaster community has greatly increased only because Google maintains extensive communication about its products through blogs, forums, usenet groups etc.
Apart from the official blogs, there numerous personal blogs that are maintained by company employees such as Mattcutts, Avinash Kaushik and other such people. They promote the policies and procedures of the company through their personal blogs.
AOL product manger talks about the new home page on his personal blog, Avinash Kaushik talks about Google Analytics new interface on his personal blog. The information provided here were very useful to end user and builds confidence and therefore brand value.
Companies must demonstrate the way to blogs by first indulging themselves actively into blogging & social networks before they expect the users to blog about them. This is the simple basic principle on which user activity, habits & behavior on internet are transformed. Practice before your preach. This is after you have a excellent product with very good technology.
How Online Companies should blog?
A) Blog about products that are displayed online,
B) Blog about website features & enhancements & every product on website.
C) Blog about policies, procedures, payment systems
D) Blog about FAQs, and user activity
E) Blog about happy customers, happy users, use photographs, videos etc.
F) Participate in popular forums; solve problems/ grievances posted by users.
G) Increase your presence wherever your target users are located online.
H) Encourage your employees to blog about the company and its policies to send out positive signal to end users.
This would definitely build more confidence into your customers as well as turn information seekers into potential customers. This is a big boost to your brand as it increases your popularity in the online community.
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