One of the best uses of a corporate blog is to listen to your customers and then make it clear to them that your firm is taking their suggestions and thoughts into consideration when developing new products or services. The big difference between a website and a blog is that the purpose of a site is to talk to customers about the company?s goals, history and services. A blog, however, talks with the customer and this continual online dialogue is what makes it such an effective 21st century marketing tool.</p> <p>Professor Lisa J. Abendroth, a marketing expert associated with the University of St. Thomas? Opus College of Business, recently observed that corporate blog articles must strike a balance between advertising the firm?s products in order to win over more clients, and actually providing relevant, newsworthy information that is not simply an overt marketing ploy, but manages to keep readers coming back to the company?s page. </p> <p>Abendroth points out that the most important aspect of an effective blog is actually listening to customers. Blogs should encourage comments after each article and especially valuable are candid observations on a given product or service. Always make it clear that your firm reads everyone of these comments by indicating this in a future post and suggesting that feedback can help better develop future merchandise. It is also advisable to link positive reviews of your products and services published on other blogs and websites in your articles. Not only does this give your product and blog further credibility, but the Wordpress platform is such that blogging statistics clearly show how visitors find a particular site and where links to these pages are placed. As such, these bloggers will pick up the fact that visitors from your site are clicking on the link in your article and in turn will likely be curious and visit your blog as well.<br />