Marketing Profs

It wasn't supposed to be like this. After hearing all the buzz about blogs and how popular they are becoming, your company decided to dive into the blogging waters. But that was months ago. And even though you've posted a few times, your blog has gotten little or no comments, and only a handful of visitors a day!

Before you give up and decide to pull the plug on your blogging experience, let's look at some ideas for revitalizing you blog so that both you and your customers can benefit from it.

It's Not About You

If your company blog isn't getting the results you were expecting, start by examining your blog's content. Consider how your blog is positioned: Are you using it as a selling tool, or as a tool to communicate with your customers and provide them with engaging information?

Many companies make the mistake of focusing almost exclusively on the products and services that they provide, thus replicating information that can be found on the company's main website.

Blogs are powerful communication tools, so the content you provide on your company's blog should be engaging and should encourage feedback from visitors. Instead of endlessly blogging about your products and services, give readers information that helps them with satisfy their wants and needs.

Consider the blog for VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) startup Jaduka. Its blog doesn't focus on Jaduka's VOIP products and services; the blog writers instead focus on social media and emerging communications technologies. The writers do blog about their products and services occasionally, but that's not their focus; they focus on giving readers relevant information that that can find helpful.

You Can Talk to Me

Engaging content will lead to comments. And how your company handles these comments will go a long way toward keeping your blog healthy and vibrant.

First, is your company moderating comments? Many companies choose to moderate comments to ensure that spam, as well as comments containing profanity or abusive remarks, isn't posted on the blog. If your company does choose to moderate comments, you must make sure that you approve these comments as quickly as possible. If users notice that it takes a few days for their comments to be posted, they may stop commenting altogether. Also, visitors tend to read those posts that have more comments—so the quicker you can approve and post comments, the more likely that post will receive even more comments.

Make an effort to not only reply to those readers who leave comments but also go to each commenter's blog and leave a comment their in turn. This is a great way of both saying "thank you" to visitors who leave comments and encouraging a first-time commenter to become a regular reader of your blog.

An additional benefit of reading the blogs of the people who comment on your blog is that you will gain better insight into your customer's interests—not only about the types of products and services they look for but also on how to tailor your blog's content to appeal to your readers.