BizSugar.com › Public Relations › The power of bloggers to promote your product

For small businesses that can't afford a lot of marketing, the blogosphere offers a cheaper alternative. Businesses of all types and sizes are focusing on the power of bloggers as opinion shapers. But harnessing that power is particularly important for small-business owners who don't have the money to create name recognition with big marketing campaigns. By connecting with the right blogs, small businesses can generate buzz around their products and services and increase sales dramatically.

The first step for any business that wants to use the blogosphere as a marketing tool is to identify blogs read by members of its target market.

It's easy for any business to find relevant blogs using searches on sites like Technorati.com or Blogsearch.Google.com, says Dave Taylor, author of a technology-help forum and blog, AskDaveTaylor.com. Other resources include social-bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us and StumbleUpon.com.

Another way small-business owners can get noticed is to contribute to the conversation on relevant blogs.

"If you become an active participant on my blog by commenting on a post or writing something on your blog and linking to mine, I am going to notice," says David Meerman Scott, an author and speaker who writes a blog on online marketing at www.WebInkNow.com. The blog's readers will notice, too. "Participating and adding to the conversation establishes your name and company as an industry leader," says Mr. Scott.

Some online-marketing gurus say that, in many cases, posting comments on blogs is crucial to earning a mention from their authors.

"Getting a blogger to write about your company before you participate on their blog is like asking a person to marry you without a first date," says Denise Wakeman, co-founder of the Blog Squad, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm that advises businesses on how to use blogs as part of an online marketing strategy.

Others say personalizing a pitch can sometimes win a mention without participation in blog discussions. Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo recently co-authored an online book called "Getting to First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook." To promote the book, they played to the romantic angle of the title by sending personal, hand-written letters asking 10 influential bloggers to review the book.

They enclosed each letter in a sticker-studded, perfume-scented pink envelope. In each letter, they included the address of a Web site set up just for the recipient, where the blogger would find a two-minute video message from the authors welcoming him or her to read the book. The idea was a hit: Almost every blogger wrote about the experience.