Blogging today is huge. Since taking off around the year 2000, it’s become the best thing since slice bread. Well, to some of us at least. You wouldn’t believe the many people I come across who aren’t familiar with the true value of blogging. I run into people daily – website owners, clients, business professionals and employers that are still hesitant to jump all over this new tool. When I speak with people, I find that most haven’t realized the true benefit of blogging and how to use it to gain competitive advantage.
In this article, I’ll list several reasons on why blogging today is a must for all business professionals and website owners. Understanding the value of blogging makes it a no-brainer for every website to have one.
5 reasons why every person and business should be blogging
1. Easy setup
Setting up a blog is simple. In addition to being a piece of cake to get started, it’s Free! Personally, I prefer Wordpress, but Blogger.com is good as well. Both sites makes it simple for the average person (with no HTML experience) to set up a personal blog in minutes.
For business owners, Wordpress.org offers a free download of their blogging component (exactly what’s being used on my site). It’s free and takes less than 5 minutes to setup for someone with a little server knowledge and a web hosting account (with PHP support). The benefit of this is huge for business owners, saving you big time on development costs.
As for the design of the blog, Wordpress.org offers a large collection of Themes for you to choose from. In addition, the blog can be customized and designed to your liking within a few hours (assuming this is done by a web designer with XHTML/CSS knowledge).
2. Become an instant thought leader
Become famous overnight. That’s right, a blog makes you famous. A blog gives you an instant platform to write and say what ever you please. Writing on a consistent topic or theme can make you a thought-leader within that specified area. This is a great benefit for both business owners and business professionals.
For business owners, sharing your expertise on a particular subject will strengthen the perception from potential customers within your market – giving you an advantage over competitors without a voice (blog).
For business professionals, utilizing a blog to consistently write about a particular topic gives you a huge advantage in the job market. Allowing potential employers the chance to read your posts and gain some understanding on your thought process gives you a great competitive edge over other qualified professionals who aren’t blogging.
3. Transparency
Blogging creates transparency between you and the customer. Generally, blog posts are written in the first person. This allows you to generally speak freely and open up to your true thoughts on a certain topic. This informal platform allows existing and potential customers a chance see through the standard marketing blah, blah, blah and understand who they’re really dealing with.
Being transparent to potential customers is a good thing because it gives people chance to know who they’re dealing with. When visitors on the web have the opportunity to connect with a live person (through blog comments etc.), users tend to put their guards down and are more likely to do business with you.
4. Google loves blogs
Yes, Google loves blogs. To be technically accurate, Google loves dynamic content and blogs are just that, constantly changing content. Because blogs are dynamic and constantly changing, Google gives blog posts extra juice because of its dynamic nature.
Quite often, I’m asked from small business owners how to achieve top ranking in Google. My reply is the same these days – do you have a blog? Blogging is not the only answer to mastering search engine optimization (SEO), but it’s a great tool for achieving top ranking for specified key phrases.
5. Build stronger customer relationships
Blogs are great for building stronger customer relationships. Generally, people associate blogs with personal journals. But more and more businesses are using the blog application for discussing their products and company news.
A great example of this can be seen at 37signals. 37signals develops web applications and maintains a “product blog” where they discuss news and various issues related to their products. This is great because customers of 37signals products can subscribe to this blog and be kept informed with new features and product releases. In addition, the blog framework allows for interaction between the customer and business and/or customer to customer, all along strengthening their relationships.
In Conclusion
Blogging is a great business tool for professionals and business owners alike. Whether you have a personal blog or a blog specified for your business, it’s a valuable tool that can greatly impact your brand.
If you’re interested in discussing how you can get a blog implemented on your website, send me an email.
