How to Use Blogs As an Online Promotion Tool

Although rubbished earlier as being nothing more than vehicles for people to channel their frustrations and daily ramblings, blogs today are an indispensable tool for the marketer and growing business. Your blog can say a lot about you, your company, and the products you offer because they serve as extensions of your brand's or product's personality (in the case of businesses) or as extensions of yourself (private blogs).

Blogs are a force to reckon with when it comes to online promotion, case in point - Lifehacker, and what it has done for thousands of previously never-heard-of-but-now-oh-so-popular programs such as Rainmeter.

Read the following to help mold a positive perception of your offerings and to communicate with the very people who will matter most to your business:

§ Generate traffic to your blog: 

Blogs do get picked up by search engines, but that in itself takes some time for them to do so; not to mention that you may end up disappointed after Googling your blog and seeing it on the 53rd page of the search results. It is essential that you pull all the right stops in getting all the blog index websites like Technorati and good ol' Google to pick up keywords and meta tags contained for quicker indexing.

Use SEO websites to get those search engines pick up your posts and updates to grab more eyeballs. Also add Stumbleupon, Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter buttons to your blog to get more folks interested.

§ Email and RSS: 

A blog is worth nothing if it does not include an email subscription and RSS feed feature. Both allow existing as well as potential customers to keep in touch with you, ask you questions and get the opportunity to check out what they've missed via an RSS feed reader or just simply viewing your blog posts in their mailbox. It cannot be stressed how important connecting with your target audience, being approachable and generating goodwill is for your business.

§ Grab some attention: 

Give away free samples to frequent visitors. Also, conduct contests and special 'promos'. These would serve as 'test runs' to actually gain valuable feedback and suggestions from people who are willing to try out your product. Go 'out there' and let people gauge whether there is any room for improvement.

Conduct polls, post video demonstrations and add rating features to your blog. Start Q&A sessions, post an FAQ link that directs them to your website and resolve doubts by taking part in discussions. Individuals are spending their valuable time in visiting and checking out your space, so treat them like you would any 'expert' and be open to new ideas and inputs so you can use this first hand information to boost your sales.

§ Complement your blog with Twitter: 

Use Twitter updates to send multiple, concise messages to the community and make announcements, post new offers, send online coupons and give people real time updates about your business.

§ Blog advertising: 

If you don't have the time or inclination to be bothered with a blog, use the platform to advertise your product. Most research findings have shown blog readers and visitors to be an important part of niche markets; a huge majority are well read people and users of 'new products'. This is an opportunity for you to tap into this segment and substantially broaden your market base.

It would be a great thing if you also utilized the web's most popular blogging tools to become an efficient blogger. Remember, blogging is about PR as well, so don't overlook the platform when it comes to crisis management and reinforcement of a positive image for you and your business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Carrie_Langstroth/379885