trends & Tools
To Blog or Not to Blog? A 21st Century Dilemma
As traditional newspapers and television companies slash staff and costs in a bid to survive in a world where we get our more and more of our news and entertainment online, you may have at least toyed with the idea of starting a blog.
We’re not talking about the personal, navel-gazing, narcissistic variety but rather the corporate species that allows you to share industry specific ideas, experiences, wisdom and trends.
It’s a natural for certain businesses. Take for example a travel company offering off-the-beaten track adventures. A blog is a fantastic way to turn prospective travellers into clients as they follow along with the adventure and see the enticing photos posted along the way. But even if your product isn't quite as exciting, if you can share how to use, maintain and service your product, you may have a reason to blog.
If your website doesn’t change all that frequently, a blog could be a great way to inject fresh and timely insight into your static product content. If it comes from the top or another well respected member of your team, you may be surprised how interested your audience is in your opinion.
Here’s another great reason to blog – it gives your search engine results a boost. All that keyword-rich content and links from other sites to it, help to bump your site up the list.
So why not blog, right? Well, here are some considerations:
- It’s a commitment – you don’t have to pump out the blog entries every other day, but it won’t do to produce a new blog entry once or twice a year.
- Me write good one day – If written communication isn’t your strong suit, this may be an exercise in frustration. And a poorly written post could do more harm than good.
- How are you implementing your new blog – in many cases blog sites are launched outside of the corporate website; the blog is essentially a second website. I often find this confusing as a link from the corporate site spawns the blog and suddenly I don’t know where I am. It’s almost as if the blog is cannibalizing the corporate site which could be a negative. Evaluating your current site structure and content and implementing a good strategy will help ensure your blog is contributing to your overall online performace.
- There are some excellent blogging engines out there today that come with simple templates that could have you up and running in no time. If you have a significant investment in your corporate website though, you may want involve your web developer as something like a WordPress blog can be taken to new heights and look as professional as your website with some organizational strategy and design intervention. Or as I’ve mentioned, your developer can incorporate your blog right into the structure of your website.
If you have something to share with your audience, insights, opinions, experience – a blog may be a great way to connect with them in a new and meaningful way.
Hope this blog post helped!
