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While many independent manufacturers’ representatives and their principals have already created a solid social media footprint to communicate with customers, others have yet to venture into an area that’s a complete mystery.

That’s why Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time, by Mark Schaefer and Stanford Smith, has arrived at just the right time.

Schaefer and Smith, who have created blogs for everything from Fortune 500 companies to small retailers, schools, government agencies and nonprofits, define blogs as “…the content engine driving the social web. In addition to providing a unique voice of authority, they (blogs) are undeniably critical to any digital marketing initiative. Even if nobody reads them, blogs are a powerful contributor to search engine optimization efforts, creating PR opportunities, and providing a platform in a time of crisis.”

With those words serving as a foundation for what blogs are and why they should be used, the authors move on to offer readers (and prospective bloggers) an examination of “the essential traits and blogging skills that everyone possesses to some degree.” First they examine the traits needed for a successful blogger:

• Tenacity — “It takes time to find your voice, to connect with your audience, to learn how to appropriately build and promote your blog, and to write in a manner that connects with busy readers.”
• Passion — “If you’re not passionate about your subject matter, you’re on a short road to failure.”
• Flexibility — The authors urge prospective bloggers to not be afraid of change. “It’s not unusual to start down one direction and then end up someplace else!”
• Consistency — “Your customers need to be looking forward to hearing from you on a regular schedule.”
• Courage — For anyone not familiar with writing subject matter for others to read, the authors note that it takes courage to “…put your ideas out there for the world to see,” “…to be vulnerable,” and “to push that ‘publish’ button.”

While the book, which is a relatively quick and easy read, offers clever chapters with titles such as “Yes — You Can Blog” and “The Minimum Viable Blog,” there are two chapters of particular interest to independent manufacturers’ representatives: “Why Your Business Should Blog” and “Attracting Readers.”

As to why an agency should blog, the authors emphasize that blogs “offer the most potential value to most businesses” and they maintain that blogs often serve as the starting point for a business’ social media strategy. The obvious question that immediately comes up, however, is what should be written about? Thankfully, the two authors provide a quick lead in to that answer when they list direct and indirect sales, sales support, brand awareness, public relations, crisis management and search engine traffic.

The second chapter of interest to agents is “Attracting Readers.” Schaefer and Smith urge business bloggers to stay away from typical press releases, product announcements and award mentions. They maintain that if that’s a business’ content “then you are talking to someone other than your customer.” At the same time, they steer ownership of a blog to a company’s marketing department “since in the end we view blogs as being a customer acquisition and service platform, no matter the size of your organization.”

Perhaps the area of greatest interest resides in this chapter when the authors detail what they maintain are easy ways to attract readers to a company’s blog. Among those easy ways are:

• Give away your best — Blogs often serve as a customer’s introduction to a company. As a result, it’s advisable to “set the goal of giving away the best information possible to your blog readers.”
• Add your blog to current marketing efforts — Always search for ways to place your blog address on current outbound advertising and communications.
• Contribute to other publications — Determine where your audience gets its information and contribute articles, columns, etc., to those locations.
• Get active on your readers’ social channels — Devote time to learning where (social media sites) your audience spends time getting its information about your subject.
• Use savvy, simple search engine optimization (SEO) — This is the process of making tweaks to your blog posts to ensure that search engines rank them highly.
• Host guest bloggers — “If your blog is steadily increasing its exposure and popularity, position on your blog is a way to expand their audience.”
• Join and sponsor conversations — People with similar interests aren’t meeting physically; they’re getting together via social channels. “This is an exceptional way to find people who might be interested in you and your blog.”
• Reward your readers — Determine ways to reward loyal readers by leaving a return comment, visiting their blog, and searching for ways to encourage them to return to your blog.

There’s much more covered in the book (e.g., developing content, how often to blog, should the writing be outsourced, what to do when negative feedback occurs) than could possibly be mentioned in this column. But just as blogging can serve as an entry into the world of social media communication, so too can this book serve as an entry to the world of blogging.

Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time, by Mark Schaefer and Stanford Smith; published by McGraw-Hill, 144 pages. Available on Amazon.