Who Reads the Blogs? A Case of New Blogger Blues
In responding to my recent post, Rainmaking Problem #2: The Next Level of Blogging, Mel Lester raised several questions that reminded me of how I felt in my early blogging days. (He wasn’t really singing the blues, but I liked the way the title sounded, so I kept it.) I will give my answers to his questions. If you disagree or have something to add, please comment below.
Who reads the blogs, especially new ones? Are they mostly other bloggers, as the comments to early posts seem to suggest?
I don’t know for sure. I believe that early audiences are made up primarily of people you have notified of the blog and other bloggers. Bloggers are more interested in blogging and other blogs than are most people, so they are more likely than non-bloggers to come across yours. Capturing a few of these as regular readers helps grow the blog because they are likely to mention your blog in theirs and to link to it. This brings in more readers. Early on, you should be targeting other bloggers for this reason. More acuratelly, you should always be targeting other bloggers for this reason. So, for example, you can comment on other blogs on yours with trackbacks to them.
Do buyers of your services read blogs?
Probably not, especially in its early months. This is even more likely to be true, if your buyers are extremely busy people. The older they are, the less likely they are to read blogs.
In that case, is blogging an effective means of connecting with them?
Like other marketing tools and techniques, blogging is most effective if integrated into a larger marketing effort. Your buyers are more likely to see your blog, if you send them an email with a link to a post of interest to them. If you can get your posts published in on-line newsletters, more people see them and some will be attracted to them. Assigning posts as required reading in your training programs also reinforces your blog’s importance and its availability as a resource. Through these techniques, readership grows little by little. Good content speeds up the process.
Bloggers I talk to cite the value of blogs in making it easy for prospective clients to find their firm when using search engines. (See The News from India: Blogging to Sell Professional Services and More News from Down Under: How Shawn Callaghan Blogs for Fun & Profit )When I search on Google for “management of AE firms,” for example, the first page includes references to Zweig White, PSMJ, Sullivan Keiss and others. Your firm is found at the bottom of Page 3, in listing number 40, which isn’t bad. If I do a blog search, it comes up on Page 1, listing number three, which is great.
None of this demonstrates the superiority of blogging over other routes to market. Whether your time is better spent on it or some other activity, I don’t know and wonder, myself.
October 29th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Good stuff, Ford. I don’t think I entered the blogosphere with much different expectations than what I have experienced so far. My questions were really more oriented towards future potential. While my blog clearly targets A/E firm managers, I still question whether it will ever attract a great deal of attention from that audience. Anecdotal evidence suggests they simply don’t spend much time reading blogs.
But as you noted, there are other benefits to blogging that make it worth continuing. Here are the most apparent ones to me so far: (1) It has helped me generate more content. Blogging has fewer restraints than writing articles, so I’m writing more than ever before. Plus I feel more compelled to write on a regular basis in order to keep my blog active. (2) I have long made generous use of internet content (my own and others) to keep in front of clients and offer them regular helpful insights and information. More created content presents more opportunities to help in this manner. (3) As you noted, the blog has definitively boosted my web presence. I have read that Google tends to favor blogs over websites. My own experience certainly seems to support that conclusion.
Anyway, thanks for taking up my questions. I hope others will benefit from the discussion.
Mel
October 29th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Mel:
I am writing more than ever, too, because my blog sits next to me all day, saying, “Feed me! Feed me!”
Thanks for the questions and the comment. I bet you know more about blogs than I do. I never knew what a meme was, until you told me.
Ford Harding
October 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I’ve definitely found that doing blog posts comes easier than writing larger articles - but that the posts can be repurposed and can form the kernel of decent articles later.
To be honest, I’ve also found that blogging about topics helps me clarify my thinking on them too. Even bloggin in area I thought I had “sussed” has highlighted gaps in my knowledge, understanding and maturity of thinking.
And, of course, blogging & commenting to can lead to great contacts with wonderful people you jut wouldn’t get to talk to any other way.
Ian
October 30th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Good points. Blogging for bigger service firms can give younger, less seasoned professionals an oppty to be heard inside and outside their firms. This can be a helpful way to keep up morale, shape a firm’s culture, attract/retain staff, etc.
A PR maven once told me that many reporters blog. Makes a lot of sense. So blogging - particularly the cross-blog-type activities - can help build valuable, win-win relationships that can be leveraged at a later time.
While I haven’t done this, I’ll bet a google search combining “blog” and “search engine optimization” could yield some nice learning nuggets.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Ian:
Absolutely. Writing always helps clarify one’s thinking, because ellipses and faulty logic are more obvious than when we speak. Blogging is especially helpful in two ways. First, it’s short format forces us to be concise about big ideas, and second the format allows us to take up small issues we otherwise would never have time for. Cumulatively, those small ideas can have big impact.
Practice improves our prose, too.
Steve:
This is a fresh idea to me. Do you know any professional service firms which have used blogging to boost their younger people this way? It certainly makes sense.
Ford Harding
October 31st, 2008 at 9:38 am
An example? Well, here’s one that only kind of fits. The blogging part is just a portion that serves larger purpose. I’ll e-mail you a 9/16 NYT September story (Stuart Elliott) on a “pop-up” version of Porter Novelli called Jack & Bill.
Porter Novelli is a leading PR agency, owned by Omnicom, with over 100 offices globally.
Jack & Bill is made up a group of younger professionals within Porter Novelli. Very cool idea. Part of what they’ll be doing includes blog. The following is from the story:
“One goal of Jack & Bill is “showcasing our digital-media expertise,” Ms. Rosenberg said, services “that we may not always get to do for bigger clients.”
So Jack & Bill has a microsite, or special Web site; a blog; and a channel on YouTube. The pop-up agency also has presences on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.”
Interesting example that’s worth checking out. Enjoy!
November 1st, 2008 at 9:24 am
Steve:
Cool! I should have guessed it would be a creative communications firm that got there first. Porter Novelli is a good firm. Thanks.
Ford
November 6th, 2008 at 5:13 am
I would gently disagree with your answer to “Do buyers of your services read blogs?” which was:
“Probably not, especially in its early months. This is even more likely to be true, if your buyers are extremely busy people. The older they are, the less likely they are to read blogs.”
I think these days young and old prospects will read your blog if it’s integrated into your website or linked from your website before they pick up the phone and call you or send you an e-mail. I think this “window shopping” allows them to get a better sense of what you would be like to work with.
Now I agree that this is not lead generation in it’s purest form, but I believe a good blog will reinforce someone’s preliminary decision to give you a call after doing a little more research. I personally have had prospects tell me that they enjoyed reading my blog and it was one of the reasons that they decided to contact me.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Sean
This is an excellent point and also reassuring. Thanks.
Ford Harding
November 25th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Hello Ford,
I just wanted to add to this blog, that, age is not something that can be measured as to who is reading a blog (unless its an early parenting blog; but a business blog could be anyone 20+). Case and point, I am reading your blog and am only 23 years old (I think I found out about this blog on a Business Know How blog).
Cheers,
Christopher