multiplies your ability to better serve your market.
A few days ago I was talking with a new client. In our brief conversation regarding the social media strategy for his green industry business, he casually mentioned a specific concern that was the inspiration for my previous post on managing negative comments on the Web.
That post generated a surprising level of interest, on a weekend no less, which reminded me to share with you how I use my blog for its highest use. While I have previously written about what you should blog about, today I will give you specific methods that you are probably familiar with, but that you may not have developed into a productive blogging strategy.
Listen
Your prospects and customers are a rich source of information that can help you serve them better – provided you are willing to take action. Your customers presumably share the same issues, concerns, and problems. Yet, only a few of them will truthfully open up and share their feelings with you. This is one of the challenges with direct-selling.
One generally underused means of acquiring this information is through online surveys. You may be able to get more reliable feedback by experimenting with acknowledging the participants identity and keeping them anonymous. Compare the results and the response rate. Then compare those results with what your clients are telling you in casual conversation.
One reason I am an advocate of comparing and tracking is that it is easy for a small business with a generally small client base to make false assumptions. It's easy to assume the minority of vocal clients represent the whole. It's also easy to assume all of your clients will tell you the truth. Why would they lie? A couple of reasons include protecting your feelings and their ego or reputation.
Have you ever had a client tell you how good you are and then switch to a competitor without warning? Often the reason is you were not listening. Or you did listen but didn't take action.
Take Action
Use your blog as an extension of your conversations to show your clients how you can solve the problems you believe are the most relevant. If it is indeed a relevant problem, you have now enhanced your credibility in a number of ways. You have demonstrated you are a listener who takes action, and you have provided proof of your capabilities to other customers who may share that same problem.
This may even result in previously silent customers stepping forward to acknowledge your wisdom, which builds your relationship with them, and every other customer who happens to be reading.
Learn
Your blog provides you with incredibly valuable information that you cannot get anywhere else, and certainly not at the low cost of free. The beauty of blog analytics is they are more likely to be valid because the audience is invisible They have no reason to give you anything other than the unvarnished truth. Look for spikes in your traffic and analyze the heck out of them. Then look for patterns with the posts that created those spikes.
When you are blogging, you are not going to hit the mark as often as you you will wish. This is why it pays to blog as often as possible. I find that I consistently score well with every 3 to 4 posts, and exceptionally well about every 7 or eight. That means I hit a home run nearly every week, which may be every year or so for the undisciplined blogger. The simple lesson is you have to both listen and take consistent action.
All of this may seem to be tedious, and it can be. What keeps me interested is the thrill of the hunt. I love the challenge of helping my customers and those future customers in my market. If that is tedious and boring for you, then maybe you should switch from the marketing department to something more exciting like accounting. 
Photo Credit: Zoltan Papp
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