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To blog or not to blog
By Ann Williams | July 14, 2008
As a business owner you may be asking the question: “Should I be blogging?” My answer would be that it depends not on what type of business you are running, but rather on what effort you are willing to put into a blog.
Types of business best suited to blogging
The nature of a blog would lend itself very well to service businesses, particularly where there may already be an educational element. Examples of this would be a spa, a dietician, an accountant or even a garden service. However, any business where there is at least one blog ‘champion’ (ie. a keen sucker), can find topics to write a good blog about, and attract a steady, loyal readership. For example, a car mechanic could write enough material to give Car magazine a run for its money. A Bed & Breakfast owner could produce a lovely blog about the area they are situated in…. A bond origination company or estate agent could give extremely useful information about buying and selling your property….
So when do I blog?
1. Only if and when you have enough time and energy to be updating your blog on a regular basis. One of the main concepts of blogging is to get people to return to your website because there is something new that they may not yet have seen and could be interested in.
2. When what you want to say would come across best in snippets rather than as an article. It is the online equivalent to the bits and pieces pages that you find in magazines. The actual layout of most blogs means that each entry should not be too long or else the page becomes long enough for the reader to scroll their finger into spasm. This is a great medium for observations, thoughts, ideas etc.
3. When you are happy to tell people a little about yourself. Blogging can be a very personal medium. It can be great for small businesses which are based on the status of the employee, particularly consultants. It allows clients and potential clients to get to know that you know what you are talking about or have similar ways of thinking about important principals.
Don’t blog if…
1. You are not happy with writing. You don’t have to have a language degree, but you do need to be able to express yourself in writing. And please bear in mind that a blog is not a chatroom. (Consider doing a blog in your home language - you could get a considerable following.)
2. It would be better as a newsletter. Regular electronic newsletters to your current clients (and anyone who wants to be sent a copy, so have a sign-up on your website) can be far more effective and easier to manage then maintaining a good company blog.
3. You load you blog with press releases and marketing muck. People return to blogs again and again if they are news rich and / or educational. You need to give readers some useful information.
4. You are not willing to keep an eye on what is happening on your blog.
There really is no type of company that could not make use of a blog. Whether you decided to make use of a blog to market your company has more to do with how much time you have to spend, and whether you have the skills to produce good content. With the plethora of free, easy-to-use blog templates available, this medium is now truly available to all.
Copyright Ann Williams
Topics: Electronic marketing |
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