Business Blogs & Crowdsourcing
Digital Marketing • 1st Apr, 16
When you’re running a business blog, you’ve got to keep things relevant. You don’t need to be told that – it’s basic stuff for anyone managing, well, anything related to business or blogs. Sure, you’ve got to be unique; but unique doesn’t mean esoteric. And if you’re going to stay relevant, you’ve got to sniff out current stuff.
Of course, only you can decide precisely what you ought to be keeping an eye out for; even if we knew the precise nature of your business, your blog, and your target audience, it would still really be down to you to decide precisely what sort of subject matter would fit best. But whatever it is, it’d better be current – and it’d better be from more than one source. Remember, your business deserves to be represented by a blog, not a glorified retweeting service; and your readers aren’t going to stick around if all the stuff their friends are Tweeting about is on other blogs – especially if you’re an up-and-comer or a newbie in the blogosphere. There’s a whole hoard of those, and most folks’ patience with them tends to be limited.
And to that end, you’ve got to crowdsource like mad. Again, we can’t tell to precisely what to crowdsource from; it’s all down to what you, your business, and your blog are about.
But it’s got to be more than just snatching headlines from blogs that share your tags or show up near you on Google. You’ve got to hunt – to look in places that don’t focus on your area of specialisation. Places like Tumblr blogs, lesser-known subreddits, and offline magazines – places that offer you the chance of catching the first whiff of subject matter that has the potential to grow into a solid talking point or an enthralling series of blog posts, and offer you the chance to snag it before every single other blog in the entire industry has covered it already. Of course, you’ll have to do some digging; but with the right Tumblr tags and subreddits followed, your chances are a helluva lot better than they might be otherwise.
But really, the most important crowdsource – cheesy as it sounds – is your readers.
Really, now. Set aside the time to read through the comments posted to your blog, the remarks on social media posts that link to it, or the emails sent regarding the blog. You’ll have to do some sorting, of course; but once you’ve cleared away all the bots and the embedded image macros, there’s a very real chance that you’ll find some genuinely helpful, constructive suggestions. If nothing else, you’ll come to realise just what your more dedicated readers (you know, the ones that read enough of the article to make a coherent comment about it) prefer. We’re sure you’ll agree that they deserve that much consideration.