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Main | Do I Really Need a Business Blog? Part II: The Offense and Defense of Who’s blogging and Why »
Do I really need a business blog?
By Joyce Dierschke | September 25, 2008
A client posed this question to me the other day as I was explaining some of the web tools he might use to promote himself and his business.
“Everyone says I need a blog, but it seems like a lot of work,” he lamented to me. “I don’t need another job!”
Well, he’s right. Having a professional blog is a job and should be treated as such. But blogs are not meant to make your life more difficult. They’re meant to open a dialog between you and your audience, which could actually make your life easier in a lot of ways. For instance, blogs can drive traffic to your main website or to your office, generating new business leads. Blogs can offer useful “bonus” information for current clients and prospects. And blogs, if done correctly, greatly enhance business and personal credibility.
But if you’re really against a blog, than by all means don’t launch one. A half-hearted blog will surely fail, and many business and professional blogs do fail – mainly because the blogger or the company is not committed.
Before you make a decision either way, take a look at some stats from Technorati’s just released State of the Blogosphere 2008:
There are close to 1 million blog posts every day
There have been 133 million blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002 (up from 70 million in their 2006 report)
These numbers are just to show you have big the world of blogging is, and to illustrate that it is only getting bigger. Blogging is a lifestyle, one that business seriously has to consider.
But here is the really interesting part, especially if you are teetering on the business blog fence:
4 out of 5 bloggers post product or brand reviews on their blogs
133 million blogs, 4 out of 5 are reviewing products and services…you can do the math. If you provide a product or service, chances are someone out there is talking about you. Do you want their voice to be the only one representing you on the web?
Still not sure? Tomorrow I’ll give you some info on who’s blogging and why.
Topics: Blogging, Social Marketing | No Comments »
