Dos and Don’ts of Blogging for Your Business

 

Blogging can be a great boost for your business, and it really doesn’t take much work or money at all. Businesses always have a general website that consumers and potential clients can visit for information. On these websites there are restrictions though, you can’t really grasp a culture  or personality from a structured website. If someone’s choosing between two businesses as to which to give their loyalty to, they want to know more about that company. That’s where blogs come in perfectly.

Blogs allow businesses to post daily about their interests, tips, and information; basically anything relevant to their company. Through these posts, their own personality as a business shines through. It’s highly effective for every business to start up a blog. But where to start? Here are some pointers as to how to effectively start your own blog.

 

Dos of blogging:

• Post regularly, at least once a day. People who are interested in the information you’re posting will want to keep coming back for more. If there is hardly ever anything new, people will stop checking back.
• Comment! People like to feel connected and important when visiting blogs. They like a personal experience. If someone comments on one of your posts, be sure to comment back to build that bond. Also go to other relevant blogs and comment on their posts to gain connections that way.
• Be an individual. Readers know that the company as a whole isn’t posting these daily blogs, they know it’s typically one or a couple people writing. So let those individual personalities show; introduce the bloggers. People are more likely to come back for a sincere connection with someone than come back to the face of a company as a whole.
• Vocalize your blog. People won’t know this new blog is out there until they hear or see it. Post the link to your blog or posts on all your social media outlets.

Don’ts of blogging:

• Don’t’ over advertise. Many people see the opportunity to advertise on your blog as a way to make money. Yes, it’s a great tool, but don’t overuse it. People don’t want to come to a blog that’s smothered in ads. Keep the ads simple and minimal.
• Don’t post for posting’s sake. Yes, above it was mentioned to post daily, but these posts need to reflect the businesses personality and interests. Know what the blog theme is and stick to that for the posts.

Hopefully these tips will help your business dive into the blogging world. Blogs are a great way to build further relationships with clientele and prospective buyers. You’re more than welcome to comment back on what works for your personal blog that wasn’t mentioned! Good luck!

Business Feature: Juice Nation

Taylor Richard is a key member of the family-owned business.

Not only is Juice Nation locally-owned, it’s a family-owned. And they make it their business to make every customer feel like family. Employees are rewarded for memorizing customer’s names and order preferences with contests and incentives.

This may be one of the reasons that Juice Nation has been successful. So successful that Owner Tameko Richard has never had to turn to paid advertising, but she does use social media. Juice Nation has a strong presence on social media with 1,187 followers on their Twitter and 768 likes on their Facebook. “I just try to make sure we have a presence and put information out there that people care about,” said Tameko. She tweets a healthy tip of the day, their weekly/biweekly frozen yogurt flavor, relevant articles, and daily specials or promotions. The store is also on Four Square, as Tameko reported surprise and confusion when a customer came in boasting, “I’m the manager of this place!”

Juice Nation’s products are made with no sugar, no syrup, whole fruit, and organic wheat grass (“I can’t keep wheat grass in the store,” laughed Tameko). The store also sells organic steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast, which Tameko raved about. They also sponsor a reboot program where customers consume only raw juices, fruit, or vegetables for either one, three, five, or seven days. Tameko said that one customer lost 80 pounds from doing two of the 60 day cycles.

Juice Nation participates in many community events from: golf outings, health fairs, Blue Cross events, even business openings. When they close down around the holidays, nothings is wasted– everything is donated instead. “We definitely like to do our fair share of things and like to give back to the community,” said Tameko.

Stop in soon to 111 Washing Square South in Lansing and try something new!

Is Your Business on Pinterest?

Pinterest may have started out as a hobby website, a collection of DIYs, recipes and fashion advice, but it’s advanced into another hot outlet for business growth online. So the question is, do you have your business on Pinterest? Well, the answer is, you definitely should.

Through the info-graphic shown above, there are tips and what not to dos, as well as stats to back up why Pinterest is quickly becoming another great source for brand expansion. The key to this technology age is to simply not fall behind. Stay active in the Pinterest phase, “Pinners” (people using Pinterest) will be more exposed to your brand the more active the brand is on Pinterest. Don’t go overboard, keep it simple; but upload pictures and re-pin relevant pins to your business.

Here is the link to signing up for a Pinterest account.

https://pinterest.com/join/signup/

Quick Stats to LinkedIn

With the continuing advancement in technology and social media accounts, it’s crucial to stay up to date with everything that’s out there. Businesses need to jump on every opportunity to get their name and brand out there. LinkedIn is advancing and expanding into a dominating social media outlet for professionals and businesses. Through the info-graphic shown above, people can see the stats to prove that LinkedIn is a powerful tool to be used.

Whether using LinkedIn for personal use or for business use; these stats are useful. Following brands and companies on LinkedIn can give you updates to all their new information at a live time feed. It’s a great resource to have for expanding your company and to get your name out there. Expanding your network will only further benefit you in the business world from both a personal and business standpoint.

Helpful Facial Cues for Business Deals

Business Feature: Dublin Square Irish Pub

Eric Allchin and Rick Sauer

Eric Allchin, General Manager, and Rick Sauer, Assistant General Manager, don’t have a defined social media plan for Dublin Square. But what they’re doing is certainly working.

Dublin’s Facebook page currently has 2,449 likes and grows every day. The managers both post to the page frequently. “We have shards of a plan– we use it to advertise our tap list, our brew crew beer, our tap takeovers, and we also advertise any major event that we’re doing,” explained Sauer.

In the last month, Allchin has started using Facebook’s paid promotion feature.”It’s more exploratory than anything else,” he said. A status update about the Darkhorse tap takeover reached over 5,000 people.

Sauer and Allchin plan to expand their horizons and begin utilizing Twitter as they already have a profile set up with over 200 followers.

The changes at Dublin Square aren’t just occurring online; big things are happening in the kitchen as well. More food is being made entirely from scratch, currently all of the desserts and soups are entirely homemade, and local products are used when possible. Sauer said that the meat for bangers is now brought in from Mert’s Specialty Meat of Okemos and that they are looking to use more of their products in the future.

The managers plan to use their social media connections in order to inform customers of the exciting developments ahead. Stop in soon to check it out!

Business of the Week: TechSmith Corporation

 

TechSmith was founded in 1987 by William Hamilton, who remains the company’s president to this very day. TechSmith is located in Okemos, Michigan and provides innovative software for personal or professional every day use. They have seven products that range in capabilities from taking screen captures, to screen recording and managing consumer content.

TechSmith is a local business and puts a lot of effort into community relations as a way to stay connected to those in the surrounding areas. Today, Friday, October 26, TechSmith hosted customers as well as MSU students at their weekly (Friday) catered lunch event. They do these events to show customers around the facilities and to establish/maintain positive consumer relations. MSU students get the chance to come out and see the ins and outs of the company and interact with local professionals in an informal setting. (The lunch was catered by Grand Grillin’ this week.)

TechSmith also works with different organizations in the Lansing Community in promoting science and technology as well as participating in charity events.

One employee said, “We are not solely a business, we are a part of the community and take that responsibility seriously.”

 

 

Decker’s Coffee Co.

Decker’s Coffee, located at 220 S. Washington Square in Lansing, is a funky, upbeat coffee house. Owner Jessica Decker opened the shop in May 2007, and takes pride in offering fresh coffee from Arabica beans. What makes this coffee shop really unique is the art that is displayed throughout it.

Jessica Decker, Owner of Decker’s Coffee Co.

When Jessica opened Decker’s Coffee, she had good friend Bob Rose make her a few pieces to display. Now, they feature approximately twenty artists, who range in age and style. The featured art ranges from paintings, to photos, to sculpted work. All pieces hanging on the walls are up for sale.

Decker’s Coffee does not do much advertising outside of their social media use; they have a Facebook, Twitter and MySpace account that they use frequently. They also donate gift cards and food to local events to promote the coffee house as well as help the local community.

Decker’s Coffee is putting on an event next Thursday- Decker’s Coffee Co. Halloween Art Show & Party. The party features live music, food and snacks, local artists and a raffle. The party will be held from 7pm until 11pm and MBC 402 S. Washington Street, down town Lansing. They encourage you to attend, and be sure to wear your scariest costume!

How to Video: Creating a Mobile Site

 

We mentioned last week how important it is for businesses to have a mobile website; here is just one way to create one using one of many programs.

Hootsuite: Voted best by LSJ Media Blog Followers

 

63.64% of participants in last week’s poll, “What’s The Best Social Media Manager?” voted for Hootsuite. In response to these results, here is a tutorial on Hootsuite and why it is beneficial for businesses to use in relation to their social media accounts.