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I posted earlier this month about automated blog spam and ts impact on the blogoshpere. So i thought i would do a follow post about legitimate comments and the benefits that they provide.

I feel that this is a significant issue because I believe that most businesses that blog truly misunderstand that blogging is really a community. When I’m in front of new prospects, I tell them that blogging is kind of like instant messaging, however it has a slight delayed effect and what you write is virtually never forgotten. I relate it to instant messaging because blogging is a two way communication medium. It allows those that share or disagree with your beliefs to challenge or divulge their opinions and emotions. Most mediums lack this ability, so to appreciate blogging as a whole, you should embrace the fact that this wonderful medium has the ability to create relationships regardless of where you reside. In fact, thats what makes Social Media so attractive and widespread.

To engage in the blogging community and reap all the benefits, I suggest that you take a step back and read what others in your industry are writing. (For ideas in your industry, you can check out our Business Blogging Directory) I think you will find that there are many inspiring writers that share your same beliefs, but also may offer a different point of view that will sharpen your overall senses. If you come across such a gem, don’t click the back button. Instead, give a couple of cents as to what inspired you or why you firmly disagree to the thought in question. I’ve had the pleasure to meet many bloggers that simply have reached out from comments or e-mails that have eventually become business friends. These are the same kind of customer advocates that most businesses ultimately want to achieve, except that it happens in cyberspace and are actually easier find. When you do truly connect, i think you will find this to be an actualizing event because most of us are looking to “connect” through an entire lifetime.

The Best Tip for Great Comments That Build Relationships
Remember when you went on your first date and the best tip you got was “to be yourself?” Same thing holds true here. Great comments on blog posts come from the heart and not for any reason on that. If you are out just trying to build links to your website or get your brand noticed, I would suggest to find another avenue because your strategy is likely going to be short lived. Sure, you might get a couple comments past newer bloggers, but the ones that really care about what they write, know the difference between wanting a link or engaging in conversation.

Blogging is a great social medium. However, businesses that simply regurgitate press releases, articles, and other worthless junk are likely never going to get the bigger picture. If you really want to reap the benefits from blogging, look at it from a community point of view and i promise that great sustaining relationships will follow.

A new study of business blogging by Forrester Research revealed which the Wall Street Journal recapped is that most businesses aren’t reaping the rewards from blogging. In fact, they concluded that most business blogs are “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion.” As a major advocate of business blogging and co-founder of the largest business blogging portal on the net, I wanted reflect on this study and share with you some insight.

First, here are the raw numbers:
70% of corporate blogs stick to business or technical topics
74% rarely get comments
56% simply regurgitate press releases or other already-public news
53% of B2B marketers say that blogging has little or no significance

As I’ve been following business blogs for the last 3 years, i can say with a good degree of confidence, that I agree with the above study. Most of the blogs that have been submitted to us for review (which i can honestly say that i personally have seen over 20K myself) resemble the above statistics. However, most of the time, these blog owners aren’t using their blog in the typical way a real blogger would, in that they are looking for a fast buck and not focusing on content, But whats truly interesting from this particular study, is that nearly 20% of the blogs surveyed were from fortune 500 companies with likely the “deepest pockets” to formulate solid strategies. Although this may seem unfortunate for the business blogging community at first, it’s what I believe to be really a function of the disparity between high-level management and understanding how this social media is used.

To put it short, its easy for larger companies to jump at the opportunity to participate in high-buzz technologies with little understanding of how the technology is used. Why? Because high-level management are the ship steerer’s and not the technology strategists. They understand the general importance of these new media’s and want to partake. After all, who wouldn’t want to be on the leading edge?

The general problem however, lies within the overall execution. Upper management is used to providing the macro strategic direction, but lacks the expertise to leverage the medium.

Whats to do then?
First, there are a ton of positive reasons to blog including a hefty ROI. So don’t get discouraged from the above numbers. Secondly, if you really serious about how to use a business blog for your company, there are a couple of options:

1. Hire an expert business blogger in your industry. Chances are, these guys already exist, since our directory alone has near 500 industries that it tracks
2. Hire an online marketing agency (like ours….wink…wink) to work with your marketing department and formulate your blogging strategy for success
3. Encourage & motivate your marketing department to “champion” social media (because this is likely just the tip of the iceberg)

I was once told that “when companies or individuals are faced with issues that they don’t know how to handle, they do what they know how to do,” which usually isn’t the best solution. So I purposefully left out the “spruce up the old blog trick” out of the above equation because unless you have a significant knowledgeable on-board resource to do so, this strategy will likely fail. Thus, i highly recommend employing one of the above solutions as this will significantly increase your chance for success.