Marketing With a Blog is Powerful, But it Takes Time
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
In a very useful article for entrepreneur.com Jon Rognerud spoke to one of the Masters of Social Media, Brent Csutoras, a leading internet marketing consultant who primarily specializes in social media, viral and search engine marketing strategies. (See the full article here.)
I wanted to highlight a few of the many important points that Csutoras made in the interview, particularly in respect of the commitment that you are making when you take on a marketing strategy using social media such as blogging. It is very important to understand that these marketing strategies can be very effective, but they do take time and considerable effort.
“Social media is *not* about just bookmarking your sites all over the place and joining Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, and posting some “pitchy” links. I hope that’s not what you’re doing. Social media marketing (SMM) is serious business, and you must have the same attitude about everything you do”, Csutoras states.
If you read any of the books on blogging they all say that blogging is about authenticity. It has to be real and it has to be interesting. It is essential that the content on your blog is of good quality. Csutoras continues, “After strategy signoff, start by participating in the communities. Provide real and useful comments, no spam obviously. Do not try to game this; build your presence online over time”.
Blogs are a powerful medium to connect with your audience because they are a two-way process. Your audience can talk to you through them – you can have a conversation. That is why social media are so much more successful than a purely static website.
The important thing, Csutoras emphasises, is that you must “make your site social media-friendly. No funky popups or hard to read/use sites. Blogs are commonly used, but make sure it’s professionally designed. Lately, I’ve found that authoritative sites can and will do better–and even commercial sites. Think about this: “Where do you want to be sourced from?” Even unique content on a crappy site will not get the respect it deserves.” It … “can take a long time, but the results are worth it!”
These are very valuable ideas to understand if you are looking at social media to market your business, which is why we have set them out in our informational links. This is why we have set up Dude, Blog Your Business. We believe in the importance of a professionally designed blog as well as the power of this medium. If you think that a blog can work for your business then we are here for you.
