Have a word

Over the last decade blogging has become increasingly popular, with an estimated 409 million people reading 17.6 billion pages on Wordpress each month during 2014. In simple terms, a blog (derived from the phrase “web log”), is a website, where you write content on a regular and ongoing basis, much like a diary. Entries are written in chronological order and new content shows up at the top of the page, so your visitors can read what’s new. They can then comment on it, or link to it, or email you, (if the content is interesting enough and relevant). A typical blog will contain text, images and links to other websites, blogs or related media. More recently the concept of “vlogging” or video blogging has become popular with a younger audience who have neither the time nor the appetite for reading, thus blogs have become aural and visual experiences enjoyed by audiences through sites such as YouTube.com.

BUSINESS BLOGS

A blog is whatever you want it to be – but most are personal to the author, containing a mixture of a diary of events, opinion posts and research links. In recent years there has been an expansion in the prevalence of so-called “business blogs” – a corporate tool for communicating with customers or employees to share knowledge and expertise.

BENEFITS OF SETTING UP A BLOG FOR YOUR BUSINESS

• Blogging is a low-cost alternative to having a web presence via a bespoke company website. It offers a quick and inexpensive method of getting your company’s name on the internet.
• Blogs can help to position you and/or your company as experts and leaders in your industry. In fact, marketers who prioritise blogging are 13 times more likely to enjoy positive ROI (Hubspot 2014).
• Blog software, provided by a number of companies, is usually easy to use. You simply type in your thoughts/opinions/observations, link to relevant resources, and at the push of a few buttons publish to your blog online.
• Blogs are interactive in nature, making them very popular. At the end of each entry you will usually find a link that allows anyone to add their own comments to the blog. This allows your existing customers and potential new ones to make comments about your products (if say you have an online shop) or services or ask you questions to help them in their buying process.
• Blog updates are indexed and listed very quickly (sometimes within a matter of hours) by search engines and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news feeds.
• Having a blog gives you a great source of content to refer to through your social media accounts, such as Twitter and Facebook, allowing you to reach a very wide audience with your expert knowledge and services.
• People are often more generous with adding links to your blog (rather than your main website), if the content is good, especially within their own blogs. More links means more traffic and better search engine rankings.
• Blogs are a powerful tool for marketing and promotion. They are often full of links and are more keyword heavy than standard articles, so are often highly ranked by search engines. Plus, the entries are short, this makes them easy for your customers to read (and you to write), so they are more likely to come back daily to see what you might have to say on that day.
• Blogs don’t have to be just written words and can incorporate “podcasts” (audio files) or “vlogs” (videos) for auditory and visual learners, as well as simply incorporating pictures within text content. Such variety provides content for people who prefer to consume content in other formats, allowing you to reach a broad audience demographic.

HOW TO SET UP A BLOG FOR YOUR BUSINESS

First, you need to think of a theme for your blog. In other words, your blog could be about your personal experiences in the aesthetic industry. It could be about your company’s products or new services, or your thoughts and opinions about issues related to this industry. It could also be a place where you regularly find and list new resources to help others in your field. Whatever your chosen theme is, you want to offer something that your website visitors would value, so be sure to stick to a theme and be original.

Then you need to get your hands on some blogging software. You can choose to create a blog that is housed on another site such as Blogger.com (which is owned by Google™ and provides a simple blog developing and hosting service), or you can host it on your own web server. If you already own a website, we would recommend the latter since the links that are created by others pointing to your blog will contribute to your website’s search engine rankings. If the blog is hosted on a third party site, you won’t be able to benefit from this. This is because the links are attributed to domains, so a link to MyNewBlog.blogspot.com gives a link credit to blogger.com and not to your domain or company website. If you don’t already own a website then using a blog hosting service is ideal.

There are many popular and reputable blog services around nowadays including Wordpress.com and Wordpress. org (pricing and customisation packages differ), Tumblr.com and even direct through Google+, to name a few of the most well known. Next you’ll need a database to link your blog up to. The database will store the blog entries, amongst other things and will be on or connected to your web server. If you are unsure as to whether you have a database as part of your current web solution, or you don’t know how to link a blog to it, you should be able to contact your web design and hosting service for help. Once you have a blog set up on your domain (for example www.MyClinic.com/blog) and you’ve linked it up to a live database, you can start blogging. Generally speaking, in the manor of a diary, each entry is also a day. So you can write a new entry every day if you wish, or simply whenever you find that you have something you want to include. The new entry will show up on the blog at the top, moving older entries below it. In the same way that you publicise your website URL on everything that you do, you can similarly publicise your blog address.

Submitting your blogs to blog directories and RSS feed directories is another way to get extra traffic – do a search engine query for “submit blog to RSS feed” directories and “submit blog to blog directories” for some useful solutions. Although it is a good idea to invite anyone to comment on your entries – you should ensure that they are moderated to avoid any defamatory remarks. This means that you have to approve any comments to your blog before the post goes live. You’ll save yourself a great many headaches and time by choosing to monitor the comments in this way. Ensure that whether you use a blogging service provider, or you decide to host your blog on your own web server, that you use a statistics package to track traffic to your site so that you can measure its effectiveness.

SUMMARY

Blogs are a great way to author content and share your knowledge and insights with other people, whilst increasing your personal reputation in the industry as well as the businesses you run. If you have never visited a blog before, I would recommend that you read lots of different types of blogs to learn more about them. Go to your favourite search engine and type in the word “blog” and the subject you’re interested in, for example, “Botox® blog”, or “blog breast implants”, or “cosmetic surgery blog”. You’ll find lots of examples of blogs that way. In addition, I would recommend that you visit these examples of well-established blogs related to the aesthetic industry: www.beautyinthebag.com/wordpress, www.realself.com/blog and www.consultingroom.com/blog. If you do decide to launch a blog, it is worth noting the points below that have been proposed in a Blogger’s Code of Conduct; published on www.wikipedia.org (type in “blogger’s code of conduct” in the site search).

1. Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.

2. Label your tolerance level for abusive comments.

3. Consider eliminating anonymous comments.

4. Ignore the trolls (people who deliberately try to provoke arguments with others by the comments that they write).

5. Take the conversation offline, and talk directly, or find an intermediary who can do so.

6. If you know someone who is behaving badly, tell them so.

7. Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say in person.

Blogs have become a vital differentiating tool for Google and other search engines when it comes to ranking web pages on results pages. If you don’t already have a blog, I would encourage all businesses to keep a track on the evolution of business blogging within the aesthetic market place and seriously think about incorporating it into your marketing strategy.

Ron Myers is a director of The Consulting Room™, The UK’s largest aesthetic industry information website. He also co-owns an aesthetic clinic called MediZen, and is involved in distribution of miraDry and HydraFacial with business partner Martyn Roe.