On Monday we talked about 10 ways that you can increase comments on your company blog. This is an area that a lot of blogging companies need and want help with.
But at the end of the day, how does averaging 5 comments per post versus 3 comments per post REALLY help your business? How does your business benefit from having more comments on your company blog?
This is a VERY important question, and one that your boss WILL want to know the answer to.
So with that in mind, let’s think about some of the ways that your company could benefit from having more comments on its blog:
1 – More comments increases the chance that more people will read the blog
2 – As the blog gets more readers, it will likely get more subscribers
3 – Traffic will increase, and incoming links likely will as well
Now this list is great, but we still need to work these benefits of comments back to your business’ bottom line, or at least get a bit closer.
But before we go any further, let’s back up and address WHY your company is blogging. What is the main goal?
Is the blog being used as a customer service tool? If so, then you want more comments because they gives you a better chance of interacting with customers on the blog, and helping them.
Is the blog being used as a tool to increase or improve your online reputation? If so, more comments can still benefit, as long as those comments are part of a positive interaction for the reader.
Is the blog being used as a tool to increase online awareness? If so, more comments could increase the chance of getting more incoming links, which increases your search rankings, with leads to greater online awareness.
The bottom line is that you can’t just say that ‘our company blog needs more comments’. You have to tie the need for more comments to a LARGER goal for your blog that ultimately satisfies a larger BUSINESS goal.
For example, do you REALLY want more traffic do your blog, or do you want your blog to send more QUALIFIED traffic to your website, IOW customers that are READY to buy from you? If so, you need to pattern the experience on your blog, so that it encourages this type of behavior from your readers.
At the end of the day, is your boss more likely to want to see 5 comments per post, or five SALES per post? If you want your boss to get excited about you getting five comments per post, then you need to be able to show her how getting 5 comments per post is going to directly or indirectly lead to five SALES per post.
The cold, hard business reality is that ‘the conversation’ still has to lead to ‘the sale’, or at create obvious value for your business. The more you can do to tie ‘the conversation’ back to ‘the wallet’, the more your boss will support your social media efforts. And if you need some help getting a solid blogging strategy in place that benefits your business, please email me so we can discuss how I could help your company.
