Of course, you care that your readers consume, converse and participate in your blog venture. Read on we tell you more about this challenge.

You are a chartered accountant, investment counsellor, real estate agent, lawyer, engineer, or venture capital professional. Have you decided to blog or participate as a c-level executive by contributing to your corporation’s blog? This post might just answer some of the questions you have but never dared to ask about social media, blogging and the web.

The last post in this series addressed four critical questions:

- First steps on the way to build brand while blogging like a pro

Here we focus on three additional issues (critical questions 5 – 7):

- consumption (people who read your stuff and subscribe are consumers of your content)

- communication multiplier (social bookmarking posts communicate to the world about your quality content)

- participation (fellow posters, guest bloggers, people leaving comments to your post)

The above are the circles marked 5, 6 and 7 in this figure ComMetrics.com framework for measuring blogging success

Sometimes it all seems like a delicate balance between getting noticed and pretending not to care. Unfortunately, it can be spoiled by something as common as a crystal-beaded bodice. So who spoiled the effect of wearing these fashion boots on the picture to the left, you be the judge.

If you cannot see the image, check here: wanting to get noticed but not seeming to care much.

Fair to say, however, that all three women wear these boots with jeans the way they do in the hopes to get noticed. To succeed and get noticed there are some questions you must ask yourself. We also provide you with objectives you must achieve for getting your corporate blog positioned.

4) Why is blogging not about you but about your target audience?

This one benefited from:

Kami Huyse calls it the Golden Rule of Media Relations

Having subscribers is important, so is visitors to your blog but it also means that you have to be sure that these are members of your target audience.

So when talking to this reporter about your blog, will your target audience read the article printed in the more traditional media? Kami Huyse’s advice is to talk less to the media but more to the people who you want to take action.

So is it worth to spend 3-hours with a reporter (it usually takes me five since I also have to read their draft and make sure I made not any mistakes … called correcting errors) or should you instead prepare another blog post that is of great interest to your audience?

Many readers just consume but they consume carefully by reading most if not all your posts. In the process, you raise awareness about the issues and may achieve a certain level of credibility in the eye of your target audience.

Goal 4 => Write and publish quality content that your blog readers want to consume = read – sounds easy but it is hard work.

5) How do you assure that your blog is part of the ‘conversation multiplier’ phenomenon?

Incoming links are consumption (see above). However, we can judge backlinks as the result of others deciding your post as being interesting. Hence, they placed a link from their website to your post. In turn, the link is a multiplier and spreads your knowledge and insights to others.

Social bookmarks are also a multiplier. They have the ability to push vast quantities of visitors around the web at the drop of a hat. While they throw a lot of traffic your way for a short time, you may still be able to attract a few more subscribers to your feed or newsletter report. Social bookmarking this post with a service called Stumble Upon
makes it easy for others to find.

If a post gets popular the traffic does not last long – but in the process, you just might retain some extra new readers. Other bloggers may also link to you giving you more of these all-important incoming links to your post. Naturally, this helps with Search Engine Optimization.

Goal 5 => Getting a post on Digg – see another ComMetrics post once every 2 weeks or having your blog mentioned in a Wall Street Journal piece (maybe 2 x this year?) is a good way to spread your knowledge around.

6) How can you be sure that participation level for your blog will make your cash register ring?

Besides conversation multipliers, another important factor to consider is reader participation. This can come in various ways. One example is when we receive reader comments by somebody sending us an e-mail or one of our clients talking to us over a cup of coffee about a post we had last week.

Others define participation as a metric. One divides the number of posts by the number of comments made. So if you have 10 posts with one comment this is supposedly worse than 10 posts with 20 comments. Naturally, the comment from your client over a cup of coffee that just signed another contract with you does not figure in the above statistic.

The example shows that one must be careful with the participation factor as addressed here. For instance, comments are not comments. A comment – great post peter, keep up the good work – is a comment all right. Unfortunately, how much value does it. Yes, it might bolster your ego but so what?

As well, your target audience in your country (see left blue rectangle in this figure of ComMetrics.com framework for measuring blogging success – control variables you must care about) may not be as interested (e.g., no time, shy) in leaving comments as members of a younger audience might, such as U.S. teens.

Goal 4 => when have you talked last to one of your customers or a potential client about on of your posts that might help her? Talk to one this upcoming week because this conversation and her feedback could make your cash register ring. Stay tuned, we bring you more.