Thursday, August 30, 2007

How to Drive Traffic, and Thoughts on Corporate Blogging by SCOUT

Ask and ye shall receive.

I asked Stephen Turcotte of SCOUT Corporate Blogging a few questions and look at what he wrote about corporate blogging and driving traffic. This is all excellent advice.

Thanks, Stephen.

Yehuda

4 comments:

Gavin Schmitt said...

Scout's concepts for generating traffic and a relevant place in the greater community are wonderfully intuitive. Take 8 for example: opening dialogue with other people in your community is human nature ( anyone interested in their own topic automatically would seek out there peers ), but how many people go off and do it -- and keep with it?

As a reader with an agenda (I own a company, looking to tap this for social-marketing power), I find this equal parts exciting and maddening… I feel I understand most of the principles as a writer (even if I do not employ them as often as I should), yet I do not feel like I have the time (or topic) to implement it on my own. For example, while I maintain what could loosely be defined as a blog on the Robot Martini website, it generally just a receptacle for the graphics, submission reports, and tester notes found on my desktop (material to inform consumers), and not really a personal outlet for my opinions. I also feel like completely focusing it on my opinions and personal interests would be to ego-centric from a company perspective… doubly so because I only design a small number of the games the company sells. Does that make sense?

As always, thank you for the excellent post

Yehuda Berlinger said...

Gavin,

A simple corporate blog which is a dump for company news serves its own minor purpose, which is keeping Google interested. Google likes to see websites which are constantly updating.

But a blog designed to gain traffic is something else entirely. For that, you have no choice but to work at it and provide something of value to your readers. It doesn't have to be about you, per se. It could be about the state of games in the world, or about robots and martinis.

And all the other non-blog aspects of engaging customers. Hence why I'm confident that my services will be of long-term value to a company which is willing to pay for them.

Thanks for enjoying and commenting.

Yehuda

Stephen Turcotte said...

To pick up on Yehuda's thought. Figure out what you target audience cares about and focus on that. The content you create should be designed with the reader's interests in mind. A great example of this is Stonyfield Farms. They sell yogurt but let's face it, no body is searching the web for tasty organic yogurt. Rather than blogging about their products, they’re blogging about things that their target audience (parents and organic types) cares about. In their blog Baby Babble, they may talk about a recent study about nutrition and a child's brain development. That will attract a parent who may then become exposed to the brand in a feel a sense of goodwill towards the brand for providing that info. See more here. I hope the link not too long. http://www.scoutblogging.com/success_study/blogger_interviews/stonyfield_farms_chris_halvers.html

Yehuda Berlinger said...

Thanks again, Steve.

Yehuda