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RESEARCH PAPER
ON
BRAND ENGAGEMENT: BUILD ONLINE
IDENTITY VIA BLOGGING
AUTHOR:
DEEP MATHUR*
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
SURESH GYAN VIHAR UNIVERSITY
CO-AUTHOR:
DR. KALPANA RANDHAWA
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
SURESH GYAN VIHAR UNIVERSITY
ADALYA JOURNAL
Volome 8, Issue 12, December 2019 383
ISSN NO: 1301-2746
http://adalyajournal.com/
Abstract-
One of the latest innovations currently having an impact on public relation is BLOG. Blogging is a very popular marketing tool of today’s era because it allows people to Interact with each other and with the company as well. Blogging is a search engine optimization (SEO) tool because search engines like Google and Yahoo know that a blog is frequently updated with content or visitor comments, their spiders visit blogs frequently looking for new content to include in their index. Visitors subscribing to a blog's feeds in order to stay up to date with content that's being posted on subjects that interest them. There are many types of blogs, differs not only in the type of content, but also in the way that content is delivered or written. Some blogs are such that which indirectly influences the mind of consumer’s towards buying the product. Weblogs have become increasingly popular over the last two years, spreading gregariously to all spheres of the net: private, academic, cultural, professional and commercial. This paper will elaborate over the different types of blogs and building of an identity via blogging. Keywords- Marketing tool, Blogging, Search Engine, Beauty blogs, visitors, weblog
1-Introduction
Brand engagement is an emotional commitment to a brand. It’s more than brand awareness; it is loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing. Brand engagement is important both internally and externally. Building the brand internally and obtaining employee engagement with the brand helps to further solidify and build the brand ultimately improving the brand for image. Social media has given new meaning to word-of-mouth marketing and the ability for consumers to interact with brands on new levels and build relationships in new ways. Brand engagement goes hand in hand with customer engagement and engaged customers
Branding is all about establishing your business or your brand in this competitive market. Branding is the solution of all brand related activities. Identity is important for any product in today's competitive marketplace. We are concerned with the creation of a long lasting impression among consumers and improving product sales and market share
Build online identity via blogging
Internet identity (IID), also online identity or internet persona, is a social identity that an
Internet user establishes in online communities and websites. It can be considered as
an actively constructed presentation of oneself.
A blog is also known as Weblog. It is a personal online diary or a journal which allows
you to share your thoughts and idea , you can add video, games, pictures, music, you
can read comment visitor left on your blog. You can do all these things without the need
of any programming knowledge.
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Blogging is the act of writing and posting content on a blog (a Web log or online journal) or
posting comments on someone else's blog.
2.2-Steps for building online identity via blogging
Most of businesses conduct social marketing campaigns (even those with an active blog) often
underestimate the importance of effective blogging. Instead, most companies tend to focus
their efforts on social media platforms, such as Face book and Twitter, in the mistaken belief
that these sites themselves hold the key to engaging customer loyalty
Whilst it is true that social media platforms are indispensable for building networks and
connecting with audiences of potential consumers, they can also be quite limited in terms of
the content they allow companies to post. Even more importantly, while social sites give access
to a broad audience, blogs allow businesses to cultivate engaged and targeted audiences. To
take advantage of this understated marketing resource, here’s how to get the most out of your
business’ blog:
Find your blog Niche
Invest in content
Make it personal
Consistency and variation
Sell more by selling less
A network web
2-Review of literature
Blogs have been used by organizations for everything from revolutionary marketing and attacking the competition (Barbaro,2006. Lyons, 2005.), to creating identification with publics, sharing scientific break thoughts and knowledge management (Dearstync, 2005. Saulny, 2006. Sccko,2005). Blogging is rapidly becoming as pervasive as the internet itself but almost no critical analysis on blogging has been conducted. Little discussion in public relations has examined the many claims made by practitioners and Pundits about blog being powerful .Using blogs as a way to influence individuals and publics is one of the most frequently mentioned characteristics of blogs by public relations professionals (cf., Edelman &Intelliseek, 2005; Neilson Buzz Metrics, 2006). Allowing or encouraging visitors to an organization’s Web site to participate in how online news and information is framed is possibly the greatest strength of blogs and the feature of the most importance to public relations practitioners. Research on framing and agenda setting has shown that the ability to control what individuals see, is the first step to controlling what people think (Baran &Davis, 2000; Cohen, 1963; Iyengar & Kinder, 1987; McCombs & Shaw, 1976).
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Interest in blogging has increased dramatically in recent years. blogs can be described as a form of personal, easy–to–manage Web sites with content presented in reverse chronological order (Schiano, et al., 2004). Bloggers are also described as influential agenda setters. For instance, blogs have been found to have influence on media coverage of politics (Ashbee, 2003; Sweetser, et al., 2008; Wallsten, 2007) as well as facilitating communication among individuals) and organizations (Kelleher and Miller, 2006; Sweetser and Metzgar, 2007). It follows from these observations that the blog as a form of mediated human expression and blogging as a human activity is of interest to academics from a variety of scientific disciplines. Although research projects are interested in various aspects of blogging are rising , few articles have looked at blog research in a cumulative manner. As far as we know, no major review of methodologies, research topics and disciplinary perspectives in blog research seems to have been undertaken .Marketing activity, blogging and sales. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 29(3), 221-234.
3- Objectives of study
The objectives of this study are as follows:
Whether blogging is effective in building online identity
Whether online blogging is effective in driving traffic toward your website
The effectiveness of micro or macro blogging
The most effective platform for commercial blogging
Social influences role in brand engagement
To study major drivers of bogging
4-Methodology
This study is an exploratory research that give an insight into the trends that has Increased the creation of online identity and the purchasing through blogging. The research has been carried out in two stages. In stage I, literature review has been done to study variables impacting on creation online identity via blogging. In second stage, data were gathered by primary data collection method through questionnaires and secondary data collection. An exploratory questionnaire has been designed on parameters concerning consumer’s blog choice, companies’ blogging’s awareness and a survey has been conducted to study the scope to which companies and consumer’s psychographics has an impact on blogging. The technique of sampling used in this study was non-probability convenience sampling
method because it was a feasible alternative, due to the limitation of time, costs, and
conveniences in order to find adequate respondents.
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5-Limitayions of the study
Although there are some few limitations to enlist, but as we know every research work carried out has to face some limitations; The limitations of this research paper are as follows:
Some companies think that Creating online identity via blogging is not the only way to promote or market their products
Blogging is not sufficient for company to connect or reach its costumers
Luck of money and time
Luck of respondents
Difficulty to get proper answer from respondents
Building an online identity via blogging is still a taboo for some people
6-Data analysis and Interpretation: The questionnaire has been distributed to 50 respondents; the information collected can be Depicted by the following graphs and tables.
Q.1- Factors driving traffic to blogs
Appearance of Blogs
Popularity of blogs
Trend awareness
Attractive Deals
16
36
28
20
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Interpretation- The above pie charts depicts that popularity of blog is the major driver of
blog traffic.
Q.2- Popularity of blogs among customers
Beauty Blogs
Fashion Blogs
Business/Corporate Blogs
Personal Blogs
Education blogs
14
18
5
7
6
16%
36%28%
20%
Drivers of blogging
Appearance of blogs
Popularity of blogs
Trend awareness
Attractive Deals
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Interpretation- It can be interpreted from the above pie chart that major portion of visitors
frequently visits fashion blog and beauty blogs. Q.3- Is the Corporate or Business organizations aware of blogging?
Aware
unaware
No idea
Indifference
17
10
3
20
28%
36%
10%
14%
12%
Frequently Visited Blogs among
visitors
Beauty blogs
fashion blogs
business blogs
personel blogs
eduction blogs
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Interpretation- It can be interpreted from the above pie chart that major portion
Corporate/Business Organizations are aware of blogging
Q.4-how often do you blog (corporate)
More often
Occasionally
Once in a week
Once in a blue moon
15
5
25
5
40%
20%
6%
34%
awerness of blogging
aware
unaware
no idea
indifference
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Interpretation- The above pie charts depicts that most of the companies blog once in a week, they spend less time on blogging because they ignore the importance of blogs and how blog can help to boost their company
Q.5-which of the following platform do you use to interact with your customers?
wordpress
Commercial blog
squarespace
Typepad.com
Tumblr.com
10
15
2
8
5
50%
10%
30%
10%
how often do you blog
once in a week
occassionaly
more often
once in a blue moon
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Interpretation- as per the chart blog is the platform that some companies used to interact
with their customers. Q.6-how responsive are the costumers to your bog?
Highly responsive
responsive
Less responsive
Unresponsive
25
15
5
5
37%
25%
5%
20%
13%
platforms
blog
slideshare
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Interpretation: the chart is showing that customers are nowadays more interested on blogs
rather than other facebook or instagram, which make then highly responsive on companies blogs
7- Findings Few companies are using blogging to promote or market their products and services
Building an identity via blogging requires a lot of time, which some companies do not have
Most of the companies using blog are those companies which are into digital marketing services.
Most of the companies ignore the importance of blogging, ignore that the success of their strong brand image depend on blogging and also ignore the fact that blogging can help in earning more money
8- Suggestions For a company to create a strong online identity via blogging, it should:
Use blogs more often to generate awareness about its brand
Use blogging to helps establish authority and make people trust the company
Use Blogging to adds value of the company
Use of Blogging is about being there more than ,it is a place to come back regularly Company must understand that facebook or other platforms are not enough to generate the kind of business it wants
50%
30%
10%
10%
how responsive are the costumers to your bog
Highly responsive
responsive
Less responsive
unresponsive
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9-Conclusion
As per the study it is analyzed that blogs have become the popular tool of marketing and Various types of blogs are there which provides the insights into the varied need of people in General. Today, various companies use blogs to market their products and services and which leads to build the goodwill amongst blog followers. This conclusion presents some closing thoughts presented in the preceding, which deals with the concepts of brand engagement and creation of an online identity via blogging, which is part of social media channels that help companies, to promote, to market, to sell their products and services as well as to be in a permanent touch with customer. Blogging helps reader to know more about the company as well as about the products and services.
10-Questionnaire
Q.1- Factors driving traffic to blogs
Appearance of blogs Popularity of blogs Trend awareness Attractive deals
Q.2- Popularity of blogs among customers Beauty blogs Fashion blogs Business /corporate blogs Personal blogs Education blogs
Q.3- Is the Corporate or Business organizations aware of blogging?
Aware Unaware No idea Indifference
Q.4-how often do you blog (corporate)
More often Occasionally Once in a week Once in a blue moon
Q.5-which of the following platform do you use to interact with your customers?
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wordpress Commercial blog squarespace Typepad.com Tumblr.com
Q.6-how responsive are the costumers to your bog? Highly responsive Responsive Less responsive
Unresponsive
11-References
1- https://serps.com/ 2-https://www.earningdiary.com 3- Strategic Brand Engagement: Using HR and Marketing to Connect Your Brand Customers, Channel Partners and Employees (Book by John G Fisher) Originally published: 2013 Author: John G Fisher 4-Brand Engagement (Book by Ian P Buckingham) Originally published: 27 November 2007 Author: Ian P Buckingha 5-https://napkinmarketing.com/canadian-us-uk-marketing-magazines/
6-https://www.cbo.me/blog/5-powerful-benefits-of-blogging-for-your-small-business 7-https://www.gauravgulati.com/importance-of-brand-engagement/
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