Talking to your users
How do you talk to your users?
Because when you have a business blog, that’s what you are doing. Talking to your users.
But are you really talking to them? Or are you writing to them?
It’s an important question to ask yourself when optimizing your blog for your clients or potential clients. I often see blogs that are obviously written professionally, but so painfully evident is the fact that they don’t know how to talk to their readers.
They simply write to them. In that holier than though tone, filled with really big words they think are impressive. Really it does not impress your users much. In fact, many studies show that it’s just the opposite when surfers read a site. Lots of times they feel like they are being talked down to, rather than understanding the message you are trying to pass on to them.
One good method to use for your business blog is to record your thoughts you intend to post about prior to writing the post on your blog. If you have employees, do a little role playing with them, pretending that they are a client and you’re trying to sell them. If you own a bricks and mortar company, picture it as if you were speaking to someone right there in your office, not writing a letter to them.
Because that’s what many blog posts end up becoming. A letter. A form letter. And we’ve all read one of those and know exactly how we respond. Not well. At least I don’t.
Nope, when I end up on a website that I’m thinking about doing business with, I want to relate to the post and the author. When I do finally push the button and buy their service or contact them or follow through with whatever call to action they are trying to get me to do, I want to feel like I already kind of know the person on the other end.
I want to feel comfortable.
And your readers do too.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:04 am
You make some good points but your blog is a paradox. You say business blogging should be like a conversation and I agree whole heartedly. However, when Ihave a conversation with someone, even if it’s by reading what they have to say on a blog, I want to know who’s talking to me.
No where on your blog could I find your name, or anything about you, or what makes you an expert. What’s up with that?
This is the most common mistake people make when they start blogging. Please, could we know something about who’s talking here?
All the best, Patsi
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:57 am
Yup Patsi, you nailed me on that one.
Here’s why, to be very honest. This site is one of my newer sites, and it’s actually still being developed.
We should have the front end of the site done in the next few days, as well as the additions to the blog. All of which will make it more clear as to who we are and what we do.
But to make sure you know that I’m not just blowing smoke at you, here’s some info on me.
My name is Chuck Crawford and I’ve been developing websites for over 13 years now. I own many sites and work with home based business startups and large corporations to optimize their search engine placement.
We also do a lot of consulting.
I started in the early 90′s building affiliate websites, which is one of my areas of expertise.
My office is in McAllen, Texas.
And you can call me personally, any time:
(559) 761-0910
Sorry for not having all the pertinent info more accessible on the site. I really do try to practice what I preach and I do want my users to know I am.
To be honest, we’ve nabbed some really excellent search phrases much faster than I could have possibly expected and our initial traffic (in less than two weeks) has been out of this world. Not an excuse, I know, but I normally advise my clients to start blogging on the site while it’s being developed in order to begin the saturation process and traffic building as soon as possible, which is exactly what we have done with this site as well. Obviously it works, sometimes faster than I expect…
Anyway, keep checking back with us. We do value your readership and hope you continue to participate here. I promise you that we will have a much friendlier site up in the next few days.
Thanks Patsi, and by the way, I love your blog.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:52 am
[...] other day one of our readers busted me out in one of my posts. Mostly because I had not added the front end to the site yet and [...]