Why a business should blog
The advent of the mass media brought with it a model of one-way communication. PR and advertising became the order of the day. Back when there were only a few channels, it worked pretty well. Companies got used to controlling the communication and the message.
The Internet changed that model. The Cluetrain Manifesto said it best - markets are conversations again.
Instead of being truly customer focused, and in real communication with their public, many companies launder and press their ‘message’ until it becomes corporate speak. Writing a blog can change that. It allows the business to open a line of communication with their public.
Yes, it may be a scary idea.
But in the long run really talking to your public - and having them talk back - is the best business idea to come along in a long time.
Another reason with real business ROI is that while you write about your business or organization, you’re naturally creating content that will increase your visibility in the search engines. Since search engine ranking and positioning affects how web users perceive your company and it’s value, this gives great return on investment.
Some bloggers pour cold water on this idea. Some are seeing the value.
Dana Van Den Heuvel blogging about the American Marketing Association event Blogging: Marketing Beyond the Website in Chicago commented that there had been questions about blogging and search all day and he was amazed ‘we had not connected these dots before.’
Marketers and PR people may not have seen this connection. SEO people certainly have. Blogs are always a subject of discussion at the Search Engine Strategies conferences.
And since companies invest heavily in search engine marketing and pay per click ads so they can be on page one for their best keywords, they know how valuable a page one search ranking is.
It’s no wonder this is a benefit they’d be interested in.
Thank you, Sally. Valuable encouragement for those not online and trying this new channel to take the plunge. My students found it scary, at first. At least that was my take. But now, they actually seem to be embracing the idea. Now, to get business people - particularly non-tech savvy or comfortable business people to take that first step.
I look forward to hearing how you and others here are encouraging business to make the move, take the risk and enjoy the benefits.
If companies value any type of SEO strategy, I’d recommend them utilising a blog.
I can’t emphasis enough how useful they are. The way you can target keywords in any post you write, and the natural linking benefits are fantastic.
Let’s be fair, The Tinbasher ranks #1 on Google out of about 1,390,000 for ‘the price of potatoes’. And that was just an experiment!
But I do have a WP plugin to switch the title round and have my permalink structured properly. It’s as much about utilising the blog as a tool as anything else.
Doc Searles, one of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto, took me to task for saying search visibility is one of the benefits of a blog. For Doc it’s about the conversation and customer relationships.
And of course it is about that. But if you don’t get found, you don’t get read or seen. It’s hard to start a conversation when no one knows you’re there.
Ask the companies who pay high prices for pay per click ads on page one of a search result whether they think search visibility is a good benefit.
BTI Communications’ competitors are paying $5.50 per click to be on page one where they have visibility from their blog.
And BTI gets there for free (sort of) by blogging? I love it.
There are two things you want out of your web presence - people to find you and for them to then engage with you if they see fit.
If anybody can find me a cheaper and more efficient way than a blog to do both at the same time, I’ll platt sawdust.
Apart from the obvious benefits of being found and being engaged, search visibility also influences your brand awareness, recognition and value. Getting all that from your blog is a great return on a fairly small investment
Take the BTI case study -
They are a small company that has been putting in business phone and communication systems for 25 years. Along comes Voice over IP and floods their market with new players with deep pockets.
In July 2004 when VoIP started to take off, BTI had no search visibility at all. But they knew that unless they did something really clever they would be swamped by the marketing material from all the new VoIP suppliers
For $2500 a month they are running three blogs and 8 RSS feeds. This includes the platform, the software license, hosting and my time.
They’re getting on average 800/1000 click throughs to their website from the blog and RSS feeds each month,
If they had to pay the pay per click rate of $5.50 per click, it would be costing them double that.
And per research studies only 38% of searchers click on the pay per click ads - they prefer the natural search results. So not only do they get more clicks, they are getting way better brand awareness and acceptance.
See the Eye Track image on my blog about how searchers view a results page
http://falkow.blogsite.com
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