By Jan Carroza
This is a popular topic in discussions with clients lately and I’ve noticed it around the Internet: talk about blogs versus newsletters. It’s like Facebook Fan Pages versus LinkedIn Company profiles. You do both. Take advantage of multiple ways to reach your audience the way they want to interact.
In traditional advertising this is the reach and frequency discussion. We’re using multiple vehicles with different audience size and makeup each with multiple messages getting to our prospects where they choose to see us.
So What are the Appropriate Tones for Blogs and Newsletters?
To me the newsletter is something I expect to get on a regular basis, maybe once a week. I expect a more corporate tone with a more structured presentation. I’ll use Darren Rowse as an example. He rewards his loyal newsletter recipients with news, opportunities and both early and discounted previews of services and products that educate and offer opportunities to share and learn with others. We get summaries and features before everyone – essentially special treatment. I’ve been getting these for 6 months. I expect a lot of his newsletter audience are beyond the beginner stage. So the content is targeted beyond beginner.
Voices of Your Blog
Darren’s blog on the other hand tells me that a lot of this audience is beginning bloggers (dead giveaway: The Tag Cloud.) He features his weekly video post, a lively way to give and get the personal touch. To me, the blog is more personal. Many companies, such as Mashable, allow a variety of bloggers who are shown as the authors of a given blog post. Some companies mix it up. They’ll use The (company) Team to genericize the voice of a blog post in addition to authored ones.
Determine Your Audience and Your Content Will Follow
Back to why folks come to Darren’s blog. They are looking to learn. Hence the attention for the nuggets every newbie would gravitate to. So we see a big service that the blog provides. So sit back and divine what you can share that’s of value. What you blog about will constantly be changing. But your blog becomes a library of all your blog posts in categories that can be searched on by your readers. Over time you can see what they gravitate to and continue to morph your message.
Offer Delivery Options
I get to choose how I receive my newsletter or blog. I can have it come into a Reader on a feed or as an email. When Denise Wakeman did a poll, she discovered that folks were 50/50 feeder to email. We’re choosy about our choices. She’s already added mobile as a choice so head’s up on the trend!
So don’t choose one over the other. Do both! But plan the focus, tone, content to be unique and complementary and delivery to be flexible.
@social_dynamics
Tags: blog posts, Blogging, categories, Darren Rowse, Denise Wakeman, feed, Mashable, mobile, newsletter
