Keeping customers is a primary goal of any business and communication with customers is one of the key elements in achieving that goal. Decades ago, there were only a few methods available to keeping in touch with customers: mail, phone or direct contact. Today, with the Internet, methods of staying in touch have expanded dramatically, and companies that ignore the social media aspect of customer relationships do so at their own peril.
In the 21st Century, companies such as Marlabs Inc connect hosting and managed IT services to its clients and employs Technology Centers everywhere from the U.S. to India, and use a variety of methods to keep communication going, including one vital aspect of staying in touch: the company blog.
The term “blog” originated in the last years of the 20th Century, although it had precursors that go back to around 1983. Throughout the 80s, as the internet itself took shape, people had access to digital communities, including Usenet and Bulleting Board Systems or BBS.
Usenet featured newsgroups which were moderated, and were largely discussion forums; by the early 1990s, the term “world wide web” was coined and included USENET newsgroups designed for discussions and serial publishing. From 1994 to 2001, the blog itself arrived in the form of online journals as users recorded their personal lives.
In the late 1990s, the term “web log” came into use, which was quickly shortened to “blog.” As the 21st Century began, the idea of “blogging”expanded from a personal means of expression to a means of business to keep in contact with customers, with companies hiring people to write blogs for the companies.
Websites, both from personal home pages and from business sites, began to incorporate a “What’s New” category, in which discussions about issues related to the company could be held. Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report was an early example of news based web logging, as well as Arts & Letters Daily and the Institute for Public Accuracy.
Over the last ten years, blogging has become an expected, even vital, method of communication between customers and businesses. It demonstrates to the consumer that the business cares about his or her needs. It allows the company to address issues that it might not be able to discuss in any other setting.
Through comment sections on blogs, customers and business people can get to know each other on a more personal level, and thereby, the businesses can better understand the needs of their customers, allowing for that company to grow.
The development of blogging has changed the way businesses operate, introducing another means of communicating with customers and helping to bring businesses in the 21st Century together. Moreover, it’s become an expected form of communication, just as the web page itself. In years past, businesses were slow to introduce a web page for their company; now, it’s as matter of survival. Similarly, blogs are a great means of letting customers know the people behind the business. As people come to know and trust each other, the more likelier they are to do business, a win-win for everyone.