Rarely do I drop what I'm doing to read a newsletter article, but that's what happened when I came across Elge Premeau's Using Blogs to Attract Attention (Without Having Your Own) in the RainToday newsletter. Premeau accurately points out that while writing your own blog is hard work, promoting your company, product or service through blogs doesn't have to be: "60% of bloggers have not updated their blogs in the last 60 days...So, why not tap into the audiences other blogs attract (presumably the blogs that are updated more frequently) and participate in the blogosphere without doing the hard work of creating and marketing a blog?"
Premeau recommends commenting on popular (and relevant to your business, obviously) blogs as a way of getting exposure and demonstrating your own thought leadership in your field without making the commitment to your own blog. She helpfully provides advice on how to find relevant blogs to comment on, track them, and write appropriate, productive comments.
Commenting is a great way to start a relationship with influential bloggers. Once you have that, it's much easier to reach out to ask them to write about your product or service, or even offer to write an expert guest post for their blogs.
At the least, you should probably be monitoring the most influential blogs in your industry to follow their commentary on your industry, markets, and possibly your company—just as you would monitor relevant trade publications and industry analysts. But whether your blog strategy starts with tracking, commenting, or outreach, Premeau's article provides an excellent guide to finding and monitoring key blogs in your area of interest.
She also writes the eMarketing Strategist blog, which I'll be adding to my favorites.
*****
Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom
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