Five Steps to Launching a Successful Brand Blog

Selecting the right communications channels is essential to establish a successful digital presence for your business. A brand blog will enable you to share news and insights with your current customers in a flexible format while allowing new customers to find you more easily. Once company goals are established for the blog, several strategic decisions must be considered for a successful launch.

Create your communications strategy and brand voice

What is your expertise? Start sharing it! Business owners often never realize just how much material they have to work with. Day in and day out you are creating new solutions, handling customer requests and learning a little more about your industry. Your blog should provide value for your readers while displaying your expertise.

Long Form vs. Microblogs

Select a format for your blog. Traditional long form blogging enables you to post your thoughts with as much depth as you like. Microblogs tend to be more visual with quick pieces of information. Microblogs have grown in popularity over the past few years and Tumblr is among the most popular platforms for this format. Long form traditional blogging can take place on a microblog, however the format is not always ideal if you are posting multiple assets within each post. After selecting a format and a platform, take advantage of each platform's plug-ins and tools to ensure your posts are easy to find within the community and organic search.

Make everything search engine friendly

Search engine visibility is a key advantage to posting content through blogs. Wordpress has several great plug-ins to increase your blog's visibility. Tumblr has extra fields for selecting each blog post URL and tools for promoting your content within the Tumblr community. Once you select your blogging platform, understand which features will help others find your blog.

Google TrustRank is increasingly becoming an important factor for search engine visibility. Google has been placing emphasis on the value of social media content and sharing. Create author pages for everyone posting content to your blog and learn how to properly use the "rel=me" tag. The SEO recommendations can go on and on.

Blend seamlessly with the rest of the brand website

Utilize all brand touch points to promote your new communications channel. Your website, Facebook, Twitter, email list and in-store signage should all cross promote each other. Your customers consume media in different ways, so they should be able to easily locate whichever is their preferred medium.

Community Commenting - Pros vs. Cons

Once your blog is up and running, focus on cultivating an active community. Comments from your community can often provide some amazing insights and perspectives. Enable comments as long as they add value to your content. If your industry or company attracts a high volume of negative comments, consider excluding a commenting system and direct readers to a channel where you are more comfortable interacting.