Become a Brand Blogger

One of the quick keys to success as a blogger is picking a topic or company is popular but doesn't get a lot of blog attention and making it your own.

From Television Shows to Specific Companies to hot Local Topics, a blogger can turn themselves into the "goto" blogger for a specific brand merely by being someone interested and interesting.

Jeremiah (the Web Strategist), is interested in picking a brand and making it his own. An acquaintance of his, Rob Safuto, blogs about Marriot, and has struck up a conversation with the Marriott people with his posts. It's a great strategy, both for traffic and for media mentions, and every blogger should think about incorporating brands they like into their posts.

Is it shameless linkbaiting? Sure, but discussions about a consumer's view of a brand are exactly what the web-surfing public is hungry for. It's the whole purpose of searching a brand on the web, from hotels to software to book titles. We want to know what someone who is "just like me" thinks about a product. A good business blogger can quickly become both an asset and a detraction for major brands.

Picking a brand doesn't have to be your sole topic. Some very successful bloggers choose a topic they have an interest in and add it to their blogging mix. Heather Hamilton, a Microsoft blogger who writes about marketing, wrote reviews for "The Apprentice" television show because she loved the show. The posts built up traffic and her personal brand, but that was a side effect of her talking about a show she was interested in.

I'll be moderating an ERE panel on recruiting blogging with Heather in April - she'll be getting a question about the Apprentice and her posts, but don't tell her;)

Brand blogging is powerful because it fulfills the promise of blogging. Average people talking about their likes and dislikes. And if it brings you a few more clicks and eyeballs, well, that's the very definition of a win-win.