Why Blog? Ten Reasons That Cut Through The Hype

So, why blog?

Well, there could be thousands of answers. It all depends on what you’re looking for. But we’re going to start off with ten.

Ten Reasons Your Organization Can Use a Blog

Search Engine Marketing: Also known as Search Engine Optimization. Jenny has a static website for her window washing company. Laura’s window washing company’s website has a blog. Jenny’s website stays the same, the information unaltered, constant and unchanging. Laura is able to add fresh information to her website, using her blog. She can write a post informing her clients that she is holding a summer sale, or a post about the benefits of her all-natural cleaning solutions, or even a picture she took hanging from the 32nd story of a skyscraper while washing windows. Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, are going to display Laura’s website at the top of results, rewarding her for her frequent updates. Blog=increased online visibility.
Direct Communication: The internet can be faceless. If you want to hire someone, a bland website doesn’t show you a genuine person, a human being who you can relate to and trust. Blogs provide a way for you to speak directly and honestly with your customers, letting them see a human side through the web. They have the opportunity to comment on your posts, giving you valuable feedback to help improve and expand your organization.
Brand Building: What are the core values that you are trying to build with your brand? Blogs serve as another channel to let your customers know what you’re all about. Perhaps your company is proud of it’s contributions to sustainable living. Write a post updating the world about what you’ve been up to. Maybe you firmly believe in open communication in client care; tell your clients how in a detailed post. Make your customers aware that you are the type of organization they can be proud to work with.
Competitive Differentiation: With blogs, you can tell your story over and over again. You can put a spin on it, change paces, change direction. The world changes quickly, business evolves, and your website should be able to keep up with it. Show potential clients that you know this, understand it, and aren’t a dinosaur. You can roll with the punches. If your competition can’t, then they’re down for the count.
Relational Marketing: A good website tells it like it is. There’s no extra fat, stuffing or padding. However, in a blog, you can explore the fat. It’s an opportunity to further expand upon your business, from a personal point of view, rather than an objective, business-only standpoint. You can grow a trusting relationship and bond between you, your clients, and your readers.
Exploit Your Niche – Blogs help you fill your particular industry niche Are you a force to be reckoned with within your specific niche? Then exploit it by making yourself a presence within it. When one of your readers needs someone that does what you do, who are they going to turn to? The blogger who they read on a regular basis or some random company they googled? With a blog, you can be the first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks about your niche.
Media & Public Relations – This may be listed as number 7, but at times it rivals number 1. Blogs are a powerful communication tool because the information can go viral organically with the touch of a few buttons. On the net, bad news can practically travel at the speed of light. Did your company botch something? Did another blogger write a negative review of one of your products? If you’re active in the community, you can search and see these things. Then, respond on your own blog. Publicly controlling the outbreak puts you in the drivers seat, not the naysayer. There are many cases where slanderers were turned into evangelists, because of proactive blogging strategies.
Reputation Management – This is an extension of the former reason. By blogging, you have a voice to respond with in the online world. If all the world is talking, and you’re sitting quiet, then a likely scenario is about to unfold. I’ll call it the telephone game – you know, the one where you sit in a line, and whisper a phrase to the person next to you, and they pass it on? By the end, the message is nearly always some mutated version of the original. Facts get shifted around as information is passed through the internet. Add your voice as the voice of reason in the conversation – let your clients know the truth, straight from the horse’s mouth.
Position You as the Expert - If you are passionate about what you do, then you probably have a lot og ideas on the subject. Share them, and show people that you are their first choice because of your vast expertise.
Intranet & Project Management – Blogs make grat, easy-to-use applications for internal communications within an organization. That may be one of the least well-known and underutilized areas of blogs. Encouraging employees to blog within the company is adding one more community element. This can help them to spur one another on, inspire, help each other, and just work together to make any improvements or changes they come across throughout the process.

Once again, why you might blog really depends on what you want to get out of it. Be sure to set clear, defined blogging goals before beginning – this is the key to successfully tackling the blogging niche in your industry.

From the Online Strategy Blog of !escunid

If you would like more information, or to discuss a Blog implementation for your organization, please do not hesitate to contact !escunid Online Development.

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