12 Nov 09 Blogging for Success…

Blogging is a great way to promote your meeting and event planning business. It is a one of the best ways to get your message out, post by post. You can also announce events, get feedback on past events, and connect with clients and vendors.

Anyone who maintains a blog can tell you that it is not always easy to come up with regular, interesting posts.  Many good blogs fall by the wayside for this very reason.  

But the importance of blogs should not be ignored.  A study from BlogHer, a women's blog network, found that 42 million women in the U.S. alone participate at least weekly in social media of some type.  Although Facebook was first on the list, blogs are the second choice with 23 million women visiting blog sites regularly.   They tend to spend more "quality" time reading blogs that are relevant to their job and industry.

For bloggers, that's a real opportunity to build a strong readership by developing and maintaining a blog that develops a loyal following.

If you decide to setup a blog for your meeting planning business, here are some tips that may be of help:

1. Catchy titles – having a title that jumps out from the page can gain you more curious readers
2. Quality content – the content must backup the titles.  You need to provide quality information that is interesting and useful for your readers
3. Update regularly – establish a schedule for your blog posts.  Having a regular schedule of posts lets your readers know that your blog is active and alive.
4. Respond to comments – aside from spammy comments, it is a great thing when people comment on your posts.  It means they are not only visiting your site, but reading your posts, as well.  Responding to their comments shows you care about what they say – even if it is on the negative side.
5. Read other blogs – if you read enough blogs out there, you'll get a good idea of what works and what doesn't.  Also, by following blogs related to your industry, you can stay on top of events, news and issues important both to you and your readers.  You may also gain ideas for future posts on your own blog.

Tags: Blog, Bloggers, Blogging, Catchy Titles, Curious Readers, Event Planning, Indust, Job, Meeting Planning, Nbsp, Quality Content, Readership, Reason, Second Choice, Success, Time Reading, Wayside