Poking the bear. Tips on blog marketing.
A colleague once told me his theory on aggressive PR as what he called, “Poking the bear.” He felt that some companies were well position to take an aggressive approach to their competition and could be very successful with this strategy, while others would essentially be poking the bear - causing the bear to react and attack ferociously. Small businesses should mind this example, and be aware of their capability to survive an attack on the bear. It might not be the best strategy for everyone.
This idea applies in a different way to blogging, and specifically blog marketing. Blogs succeed when the readers participate - commenting, sharing, digging, and leveraging network effects to spread the word. If you think about who the bear is in the scenario, I believe it is your blog’s reader community. They can make or break you, and getting them to participate is sometimes a little tricky. So if your blog’s audience is the bear, how am I suggesting you “poke them?”
Insight participation…elicit a response…REQUIRE they react to what you’ve written. If you want your readers to participate, your blog (especially when it’s new) will need to ask for their ideas. Don’t use polls, place the question right in the blog post and ask for comments. Challenge the status quo and sometimes, even challenge what you’ve written before (nothing gets a reaction faster than being one of the few people who are openly willing to change your mind.) Sometimes bribery works, too - offer a prize to the best comment.
Community works because it’s a multi-way communication channel - but far too often blogs, especially business blogs, fail to ask questions. Can anyone show me a blog that does this REALLY well? Post it in comments please!
Tags: Blog Marketing, Blog Promotion, blogging-community, busines-blogging