3 Steps to Business Blogging Success on the Internet

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Trying to attract sales on the Internet? Business blogging and social media is an effective way to make it happen. Step one is to know how to use it.  Simplicity is the key at first. There are 3 steps to effective Business blogging and social media.

Connect. Converse. Share. 

Connect

The first step with any social media strategy is going to be collecting and connecting. You want to start by attracting prospects, potential customers and contacts and essentially building that base. This one is pretty obvious. You can’t converse or share unless you have someone to converse and share with.

Here’s an example: I run a business and I have a lot of connections. Over the last 15 years, I’ve built up even more online. About a year ago, I connected with a fellow named Doug. I didn’t know him, he just found me on Twitter and started following me. I thought, “okay, Hi Doug,” followed him back and left it at that. We connected.

Converse

The second part is conversing and this is really going to depend on the medium. The tone of conversation on LinkedIn, for example, is drastically different than the tone on Twitter.

So, find a way to talk to this audience that’s both appropriate and engaging. And remember, the verb here is “converse,” not “speak.” Social media is a two-way street.

And what about Doug? Well, a week later, Doug replied to one of my posts with a great question. I retweeted it, responded and we started talking. It turns out that Doug’s a pretty cool guy. And so, we conversed.

Share

Doug was asking about blogging for business, so I referred him to an article on my blog. What do you know? I have some expertise to share.

Let’s say you’re a musician. What should you be doing with social media? Sharing your music. Now, let’s say you’re an accountant, what should you be doing? Sharing your accounting expertise. The point being, you don’t have to be a rock star to share your talents. If you have experience in a field, then start blogging about it and start sharing it. (As an added bonus, the more you share, the more you’ll learn, and the more of an expert you’ll become.)

Sharing is really linked into conversing and it’s also a great way to reach out and attract more connections. Why? Because those connections want your expertise or talent. In the end, this creates a nice feedback loop.

Today, Doug’s both a friend and a client. Not everyone you connect with, converse with or share with is going to become a customer, obviously. But Doug is one of several clients who “found” me this way. So, yes, lead generation and sales can be done online, but you need a strategy

And it doesn’t get much simpler than: Connect. Converse. Share.

Paul is the President of Professional Blog Service. PBS works with clients making strategic investments into business blogging, social media and search engine optimization.

What is a Conversion Point and why do you need them on your Blog?

Your boss wants to know, why should we have a business blog?

Blogging and social media can be a tough sell to your boss. After all, most corporations are afraid of really talking to their customers online. They could say something bad. Most initiatives can fail because they do not follow one simple rule, use conversion points.

Let’s talk about conversion points. These beauties are a feature built into all well structured business blogs that create immediate transactions, sales or leads. They can be as simple as a well-placed button that says, “Buy Now” or “Get the White Paper.”

One Step or Two
A great conversion point lets the customer make the transaction without leaving the page. This makes it simpler and faster for the consumer to buy—and what’s faster for the consumer is faster and potentially more profitable for the business owner.

A next-best option is for the conversion point to lead the customer to the shopping cart or form. While it takes more time and effort on the consumer’s part for the sale, it still results in a sale.

The Obvious

Before we get started with them, 78% of our own clients’ pages don’t have a conversion point. That means that 78% of these pages DON’T SELL. And if your page doesn’t sell, how do you make money?

Every page should have at least one conversion point. Better yet, let’s make a rule. Every page should have a minimum of one conversion point. Try to make the conversion point that lets the customer stay on the same page. If this is impossible, lead them directly to the shopping cart or form.

Make it as easy as possible for the consumer to purchase your product, and they will. You can't measure the success of your blog, if there is nothing being converted.