CT Biz Blogs

Scenario #1: Imagine that you are a PR and Marketing guy, and you’re really into blogging. You and your co-writer (who writes a popular blog for a large software company) have decided to write a book about why companies should embrace blogging.

You want to build some buzz for this proposed book, you want to share your ideas, and you hope you’ll get some feedback, info, and advice as you write the book. So you decide to blog the book. On the blog, you write about the initial premise and finding a publisher. As time goes on, you ask your readers for suggestions for the book’s title for names of people to interview. You post your complete notes from interviews, and full drafts of your chapters, asking for help with corrections. As the chapters approach final form, you post them as well. Finally, you ask for people who might be interested in reviewing the bound galleys of the book, for final proofing and error-checking.

Sound crazy? Who’d buy a book when you can get it for free? Well, authors Shel Israel and Robert Scoble will find out how well it does in January, when their book, Naked Conversations hits the bookstores. It’s already got pre-orders with Amazon.com and a lot of word-of-mouth buzz. I’m betting that the book will do well.

Scenario #2: Imagine you’re part of a law firm offering personal injury services. You decide to have a blog about brain injuries, adding case studies, links to information about traumatic brain injury and articles about legal aspects such as guidelines for physician expert testimony. Also you have links to other relevant blogs, podcasts of presentations you’ve given, and guidelines for selecting a personal injury lawyer.

In a year, your blog becomes a rich resource for information helpful to existing or prospective clients, and your expertise in the area of traumatic brain injury is well-established. Anyone searching on Google for “brain injury lawyer” sees your firm as the top result.

Think it can’t be done in a year? Take a look at the Brain Injury Law Blog of Bruce H. Stern.

The Google results rank may have been done in less time, I can’t use the Google way-back machine to find out what was the #1 result in the past. (I first heard of this blog from Susannah Gardener’s book, Buzz Marketing with Blogs. This is a good resource for information and ideas.)

I hope these examples of ways to use blogging to connect with customers, build your business, and share your expertise will help inspire you and ignite your imagination. I’ll keep on the look-out for more examples, to give you some ideas on how blogging can help you and your business.

You could be an example, too.