In the past decade, online tools have caused the idea of engagement to grow in popularity. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets are the primary tools used today to engage customers. Although we’ve seen companies realize the importance of engagement through social media, they do not always put forth an effective strategy that considers their end goal and ROI.
Companies see that retailers are on Twitter, so they are too. Or they see that their competitors have Facebook accounts, so they must have one also. Throw up a blog and get social—it’s as easy as one, two, three, right? Wrong. “Copying” your competitors will never yield positive results. Engagement through social media is a long-term strategy, and it requires time and investment in planning, executing, and tracking the engagement campaign. The ROI from these social media strategies won’t disappoint—as long as you take the right steps.
If you’ve attended social media-related seminars or conferences, you must have heard at least one person mention how easy it is to create a blog. There is some truth to this, since creating a blog is rather straightforward. However, merely creating a blog will not bring you a return on your investment.
It’s great that you have a blog, but how focused is it on the topics that are important to your customers? What value will customers derive from it, and how will it lead to a conversion? Is the blog created to achieve a greater ROI by engaging customers, or does it serve another purpose? Are any visitors even reading your blog? You must answer all of these questions to create an effective strategy for a successful blog that is measurable and gives you a positive ROI.
You may want to achieve a number of goals with your blog. Most companies want to see some sort of ROI as a result. For example, some companies may create a blog simply to get links and increase their online visibility. They are using their blog as a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Other companies like to use their blog to engage customers and interest them further in their offerings. For instance, a clothing store may use a blog to feature specific clothing brands or lines to highlight their availability or special offers. It may offer tips on how to dress and the right makeup for specific outfits. This type of blog is used to “create a community” around the company, thus creating more loyalty, which yields more engaged customers.
The more time a user spends on your blog or the more pages he views, the more he is engaged. With blogs, you should track:
The number of comments visitors leave
The number of RSS subscribers using RSS readers
The number of email subscribers to the email feed
The number of email subscribers to different discussions
The most important issue to consider before creating a blog is the time involved. Time is required to plan a blog (topics, goals, writing) and to execute it.