Your blog no matter the industry (human resources or not) tells a story where you set the rules sharing strictly business quips or industry tips or even more personal stories giving your consumer a behind the scenes point of view what makes your business different and original from the rest. Blog’s first made their appearance in the 1990’s and were first used as online diaries for engineers and techies. Over the last 20 years the blog has evolved from online diary to essential business tool that gets to the heart of the matter – transparency and the human component in business.
The purpose, content, and information shared on your blog will largely depend on the audience you are targeting, your business’s intended purpose, and your competition. A blog not only allows you to reach new as well as existing customers in different ways, but also provides your businesses chance of being found when someone is searching on the internet. Called SEO or search engine optimization, web crawlers from search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo comb the internet searching and evaluating content making it easier to provide search suggestions and results based on the keyword combinations that people search. While SEO should be an important part of your blogging strategy, your first priority should be creating great stories and content that relates to your current customer base.
These stories are more about your area of expertise and less about the product you sell. Consider your blog to be like a newspaper article where you can share your expertise driving better quality leads to you through thought leadership, word of mouth, and community both offline and online. Blogs are short stories normally between 250-600 words. In the blogging world, you make your own rules opting for video blogging or photo blogs to tell your business or personal story. These subtle sales techniques focused on quality content, unique insights, and thought leadership develop a sense of trust that leads to a long-term relationship that goes beyond the sale. Eighty-eight (yes 88%) percent of blog readers in the US, trust the information they receive from blogs and over 50% of blog readers have made a purchase because of a blog article or recommendation.
So instead of making a sale you are creating a community of fanatics who are passionate and connected about your product, services, and the community you have created. Through your digital storytelling, you have created an army of happy customers, readers, and friends who are quick to share your content to their friends and their friend’s friends, and their families too. The end result is through the stories you share through your blog, you are able to establish strong relationships not just on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn but you are able to offer your customers and potential customers something your competition can’t – transparency, creativity, and an honest point of view.
Blogging. The Digital Story Tale.
Blogging isn’t a science. It’s a gut feeling and a point of view that makes your business or organization stand out among the rest. Tell your story with a digital story tale blog and take your business to new places.
Consider registering for HR Marketer’s upcoming webinar on September 22nd where I’m a co-presenting along with Kevin Grossman for “Storytelling. What Really Sells Social” at 12 PM CST. It’s free and of course it will be fun. As always, you can visit ToolBox HR, my free resource on social media for the Human Capital Industry including HR, human resources, and recruiting.
