The online marketer has to realize this sea change and adapt. Blogs are not a direct marketing medium nor are they e-mail for the web. They are relationship tools through and through. Relationship denotes mutual interests and sharing. Blogs are social tools and communities of people form around blogs that in turn reach out to other blogs that also have communities around them.
Marketing messages must share and provide value to a social network or community of social networks in order to be effective. This only way to crack the credibility barrier is the demonstrate credibility through participation. Participation helps with word of mouth and the socialization of your message.
There is no doubt that blogging is the most effective means of communicating a message online at the moment. The opportunities for reaching new audiences with your brand, product or service are phenomenal. When you enter the blogoshere or World Live Web you must understand the medium. Blogs are open source all the way and that means open communication by all.
Cracking Credibility
Credibility among social networks is an essential success component and beginning bloggers must understand that. When you open a dialog you need to speak with credibility. Do not reason within yourself that rushing to market with your products and a blog will automatically net you income. Blogs are not a set it and forget it marketing tool that will attract windfall search engine traffic, customers, and sales.
When you consider the cost of blogging and the return on your investment, the ROI of blogging is phenomenal...BUT...it comes at a price.
But doesn't everything?
The price is that you must commit to a relationship that will require ongoing attention. Blogs will amplify your message and your reach in a powerful way and at near zero cost when compared to other means of reaching a market with your message. But the price of relationship is the need to continually connect with your market and develop your social network in order to build an authentic and authoritative voice that can be trusted.
This is an extremely important message to receive and digest for newbie marketers and newbie bloggers especially. You cannot approach blogging thinking you will set a up page and sell tons of items. You have to properly prepare a message that helps carry your product to a targeted niche audience.
Creating a compelling sales page will certainly net you sales. Creating a compelling conversation around your brand, products or services will net you mind share and mind share will always outperform a single sales page or product over time. Mind share gives you permission to offer your entire range of products or services again and again because you've established a trusted relationship.
What I am trying to say really? I am saying that you will need to cultivate a longer term dialogue and that if you are not prepared to do so your blog will NOT work for you. Blogs are expected to be informative and frequently updated resources and communication tools.
Are you passionate enough about your product or service to maintain an informative and frequently updated blog about your product or service?
I would offer that more often than not people aren't prepared for that responsibility. This applies to the quick cash seeker or one minute marketer looking for the instant cash grab. For them, a blog would be too much to handle in trying and get the first sale for that first product. To approach blogging in this manner is a rather opportunist and short-sighted view of how a blog can be effective for a business or entrepreneur.
This highlights one reason why blogs are so effective. They can only be successfully maintained by people who are passionate about their topics and businesses and are committed to authoring for their audience on a long term basis. The result is credibility.
When you care about your topic or business you will know your topic or business, learn more about your topic or business and share from your topic or business. You will communicate and inform with an authentic voice and that will add to your credibility as you continue to author great content which adds value to your audience and your market at large. You will grow your knowledge so that you can grow your audience with frequently updated content that provides high value.
Blogs require passion and commitment. Something that business owners and entrepreneurs have. Marry them to a blog and you have an explosive mix for online success.
Why Internet Marketing WILL Change
Internet marketers will have to change their messages as consumers continue to exercise control and influence with blogs. As social networking tools, blogs ferret out the wheat and chaff among messages in the marketplace. The good is filtered from the bad. Products and services will be tightly associated with the voice and reputation of its creator as measured in the blogosphere.
There are 3 important changes impacting online marketing messages with add the measure of reputation that will be closely associated with the effectiveness of some marketing messages.
1. Self-Disclosure.
2. Evaluation Criteria
3. Peer Review
Self-disclosure will require that marketers drive some degree of transparency into their market niches. They will have to become more accessible and approachable. They will need to reveal more than a sales letter or sign-up box. They will have to be active thinkers and active participants in their markets.
In a age where reputations and credibility can be measured in links, words, and semantics it will be important that marketers begin to stream their messages into the blogoshere.
Evaluation criteria will compel marketers to participatory action because consumer markets are themselves talking to each other and evangelizing the products and services they are connected with and like the most. Marketers must see the importance of getting consumers talking and sharing their products and services.
This is important because blogs allow others to easily "Google" your brands, products, services, and name to find out more information about them during the evaluation criteria phase. Blog content has high importance with Google and what people write about and publish in blogs will rise to the top of search engine results pages. These results will serve as a testimony about you.
More people are now also searching blog directories like Technorati which is a real time search engine that specializes in tracking the conversations, links and growth of weblogs.
What are people saying about you? You cannot control what others say but you can influence others and establish you own voice. When people use tools like Google and Technorati to find your products or learn more about what others are saying about your products, you want your personally initiated discourse to come back in those search results. Weigh in with your voice and your views. Part of the evaluation criteria will be to find out if you are participating in your markets.
Another part of the evaluation criteria are links. The old way was to Google back links to a web site. The new way is to use a service like Technorati and to view which blogs are linking to you and what they are saying about you when they are linking to you. This is very powerful. Create good content and great discourse then others can easily evaluate in whole or in part what other people are thinking and saying about you through referral links.
Peer Review is the chatter of those in your same niche. Most likely and complimentary product or service. Bloggers are an extremely generous lot who love promoting good content. When others in your niche can refer to you on a specific topic or theme related to your niche this impacts your marketing message by adding additional credibility.
Conclusion
Cracking the credibility barrier is necessary and required to be effective in reaching markets with your blog. You can't publish pure marketing messages. Bloggers will check the facts and verify your content. Honesty is the best policy when you blend your business with your blog.
Building credibility with a blog requires a willingness to develop a real relationship with your market. This is a commitment that can reward you immensely if you have the passion and persistence.
As you approach your market you need to provide some level of self-disclosure. You don't have to reveal private or personal things about yourself. However, you do have to share and communicate on a more personal level. This cannot be done with pure marketing pieces.
For example, I was at Bob Parsons blog and I was reading a post entitled How GoDaddy Got It's Name. This was a fantastic inside story about Go Daddy.
I think his blog is a great example of how a business is using blogs to connect with its customers and promote the brand and the same time. Bob Parsons is the founder of Go Daddy Software most notably associated with as a popular domain name registar.
I've been a Go Daddy customer for domain name registration for awhile. They offer lots of software but I was mostly skeptical of their hosting plans for some reason. It had a sense that the hosting service was an after thought and a good add-on for domain services. Little did I know how important their hosting services are and the investment they make in their business and infrastructure until I started reading Bob Parsons blog.
The post Bob Parsons published about how Go Daddy got their name was fantastic read. Bob does a great job of balancing disclosure, information and interesting content that is valuable and connects with customers. He seems very accessible and personal. And you know what? At the end of the day, Go Daddy sticks in my mind. He has a share of mind for his brand. Very good case study. I recommend you visit his blog.
Peer review can be in the form of links and as well as comments that help establish you as a trusted source when they (your peers) themselves are trusted sources. This doesn't mean A-listers only. Every blog can't have A-list visibility but it does have its own social network which can certainly help influence your credibility.
These are some reasons why marketing messages will change but it also means that adapting to these changes requires that you start learning how to blog.
