Blogging is an Open Conversation that Requires Participation

Blogging and its many aspects has become one of my favorite topics to explore and to blog about these days. I am investigating all the techniques of blogging, how to build blogs, ways to promote them and especially looking at their unique aspect as a communication tool. Blogs are conversations. In my research, I look for outlets on which to share my insights and to gather other information from other writers who talk about blogging. It is a quest.

One source for finding many interesting write ups about blogging is in article directories. Recently, I visited one and found an article that zeroed in directly to the topic that I have been touting my horn about lately. That topic is participating in blog conversations. This is extremely important for many reasons that I won't need to repeat because the article I am reviewing went into such great depth, I'll just reiterate and link their article.

Participating in blog conversation covers aspects of this marketing technique in a very unique way. The author talked about the passion for blogging while keeping in mind that you are speaking to an audience that includes your customers, your clients, your readers, your friends and other endless possibilities. This article calls this form of "blog conversation" the art of getting "customer evangelists". That is a different label for communicating with a customer based audience. I find it refreshing. This label caught my attention because I love creative writing and any thing that veers away from the drab and usual will keep me reading.

From what I read, customer evangelists are considered a "powerful tool to brand your products". This author went on to describe this technique by citing Ben McConnell and Jack Huba, authors of an article "Creating Customer Evangelists" written by this pair in 2002.

Using words like "passionate" and "empower" to describe the product branding method in this essay invoked images of action and emotion that carried both the article to a level surpassing the written page into a place that I could relate to it in the real world. Writing with emotion and sensory stimulus takes any article from the flat line page to 3 D reality because your mind can embrace the feelings and the imagery while reading. This article about blogging as a conversation is very well written.

The opening began with the idea that participation breeds passion. That was a powerful statement to begin dialogue that remained active instead of passive. Reasons to use their technique were given, then bullet points were provided listing the benefits of employing the blog conversation method to assist in getting and keeping customers. It was easy to read and to follow because of the list style simplicity.

The in depth part of the article came in the latter half. Points such as creating trust and becoming a thought leader followed the whole crux of the customer evangelist highlight of this conversation. The author explained the origins of the thought leadership concept then described how this concept can be used in today's business world. It was wrapped neatly with the closing remarks about transmission advertising by comparing it to the active participation technique utilized in blog conversations in this growing internet social network marketing world that is rapidly evolving. Blogs are the voice for today.

I would return to this article to try out the techniques outlined in getting customer evangelists and I will look for more articles on this topic.

Posted in: blogging