One of the unwritten rules of the social Web is that content should not be overly self-promotional. In fact, publishing content on the social Web that is entirely self-promotional is one of the quickest ways to ruin your blog and your online reputation. If you want to have a chance at building a successful business blog and grow your audience in order to build your brand and business, then you need to dial back the sales pitch on the social Web.
The reason for this is simple. No one cares about you. Instead, they care about how you can help them or add value to their lives. The key to social media marketing success is engagement and interaction. No one will want to interact with you if all you ever do on the social Web (including on your business blog) is talk about yourself.
Think of it this way — if you were at a party talking to another person and that person spent the entire time talking about himself, it’s unlikely you’d want to continue talking to him. In fact, you’d probably want to escape and stay away from that person for the rest of the night and in the future. You don’t want the online audience to feel that way about you! Therefore, your business blog content should be primarily non-promotional. [Read more…] about Business Blogging and the 80-20 Rule – No One Cares about You
Business blogs are amazing indirect marketing tools, but they also provide a medium for businesses to communicate specific marketing messages and generate both leads and sales. While it’s absolutely true that your business blog content should not be overly self-promotional, it is acceptable to publish some self-promotional content in an effort to boost leads and sales as long as that self-promotional content adds value to the user experience on your business blog.
One of the topics I often discuss in my books, to my clients, and at speaking engagements is the value of a business blog not just as a tool to create conversations, build relationships, and develop brands, but also to increase search engine rankings and visitors to a business Web site.
Anyone can start a business blog, but not everyone can be successful as a business blogger. That’s because writing for a business blog is different from any form of traditional marketing or business development. Instead of self-promoting and selling on your business blog, you need to focus on dialogue and relationships in order to find success.