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Whenever I am asked to speak to a group of small business folks about social media, I always suggest the creation of a blog as the jumping off point to enter the world of social media.
More often than not someone in the crowd will remark, “I don’t read blogs, nobody has time for that, why would I want to start blogging.”
I then proceed to dissect this comment like:
1) I don’t read blogs – chances are you probably do – not like a magazine or a diary perhaps, but every second of the day millions of folks go online to search for products, services, companies, solutions and answers – and guess what kind of content they find – you bet, content from keyword rich, search engine friendly blog posts.
2) nobody has time for that – on this point we agree, a lot of folks don’t have time to sit down and pour over the random musings of perfect strangers – but, they do have the time and need to get information about the products, services, and companies they plan to do business with – and guess what kind of information they find when they search? – blog posts. Are you seeing a pattern yet?
3) why would I want to start blogging – if your intent with a blog is to develop a large, engaged, readership and to stake your claim as a thought leader in your industry, a blog is a wonderful vehicle, as long as you realize you must work like crazy to implement this strategy. If, however, you simply want to show up in Google searches for things like “Denver accounting software reseller” or “Boise hair salon,” then posting keyword rich, education based, location aware content a couple of times a week on a blog is your ticket to success.
Search as a way of life for your customers and prospects and has changed the game of marketing forever and while there are additional potent reasons to blog, enhancing your chances to rank well in the search game is reason enough for most small businesses to invest the little bit of time and energy it requires.
Comments
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at Oct 08, 08 | 11:37 am and is filed under Social Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
I would say 75% of the people in our small business still don’t understand the value that a blog brings — I’ll certainly pass this on to them so they finally hear it from someone other than me. Ha!
Those that are new to blogs and think they are too time consuming need to find an aggregator for their favorite feeds. Google Reader has cut down a lot of the time I find myself reading “random musings”.
It is frustrating that there is still such a negative attitude towards blogging.
I just conducted a social media class and no one in the room blogs. Aside from the opportunity to share your views and knowledge - it is a great way to connect with others that know far more than I.
Blogs provide my daily dose of learning, news, entertainment and as a home based operator - blogging and Twitter bring the world to my desk making my life much richer. Okay - that just sounded like a need to GET a life. But really, I have met kindred spirits via blogs and most importantly I have learned a TON!
Someday all of the nay sayers will look back and say “oh, so THAT’s why I should have been blogging.”
Deborah
For people who say they don’t have time to blog I have this suggestion. To get started you don’t need to spend hours coming up with a topic and writing about it. Most likely you already get tons of questions from your clients every day. Simply write down an answer to interesting or common questions that come up and turn these into blog posts. This doesn’t take up much time at all.
John - perfect timing. I am presenting to a group of small business advisors on Monday and this is a great lead in post. Thanks!
Most of my work has been in the rather traditional lumber, paper and printing industries (blogging to some of these industries is a misspelling of logging!). It’s a challenging task encouraging social media as a strong communication tactic; however when I point out to the real measurable benefit (increase in website traffic) it becomes a much easier transition.
My own blog story is compelling.
After writing my book “FIRST, BEST, OR DIFFERENT” about 20 months ago, I launched a blog. At first no one read it–not even my family or close friends. In fact, many of them snickered when they heard that I was a blogger. Still, I continued to blog.
In a few weeks things snowballed as the search engines found me. Soon I had connected with my audience and had created a dialog with people all over the world.
I started getting comments, emails, and phone calls from readers. People wanted me to speak at meetings or wanted me to give them advice. I went from being “nobody” to an internet celebrity (more or less). This took less than six months.
My book sales took off and I have not looked back since. Today, I have a thriving career as an author and thought leader in marketing and sales. I owe it all to my blog.
Give blogging a chance.
John Bradley Jackson
Author of “FIRST, BEST, OR DIFFERENT”
http://www.firstbestordifferent.com/blog
When I decided to start my blog, it was more for the development of a personal marketing tool and to complement my resume. Although aimed primarily at potential employers and recruiters, I found that there was as much benefit for me to stay current on market issues and new guidelines. As a finance professional, I also had to be careful that my commentary was centered more around my expertise and style of management rather than prompting some sense of controversy over a topic.
I’m very glad I started it and now the challenge is to keep it a part of my weekly regiment during F/T employment.
Jeffrey Ishmael
jeffrey@corpfincafe.com
http://www.corpfincafe.com
I have been doing an experiment to see which had the most impact, blogging consitently on my site with links to others, or posting comments like this.
By a margin of almost 3 to 1 posting good comments on other blogs resulted in more traffic to my site. Once my subscibers groww it may change, but this is definately the best strategy for now.
Excellent idea. Blogging is something you do when your passion overtakes your privacy. When I do my consulting, it takes on a very personal feel to it. As I started blogging, I feel like I’m on stage in front of a massive audience eager to see my way of thinking on the topic at the moment.
Great post John, and very timely. I’m an independent B2B marketing communications consultant and copywriter, and when I bring up blogging and social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon, delicious, Technorati, Digg, etc.) to clients they look at me like I have 2 heads. They just don’t believe it works for businesses. Then I show them my Google Analytics reports for my blog and website, and how the SEO benefits alone have made blogging worthwhile, not to mention the great interaction with other like-minded people and relationship building. The conversation quickly changes to “how can WE do that?”
Google Reader for RSS feeds has been very helpful for quickly keeping up with my favorite blogs and podcasts. I suggest using the PostRank filter to learn which posts are most popular, it helps me be a better blogger.
I agree that search is the prime reason to blog but, perhaps, not for the reason suggested. It’s difficult to generate significant traffic for business related blog. However, what blog can do for your business even without traffic is generate links that are germane to your business. That’s important for search engine optimization. If your web site is an important engine for generating new customers for your business, then blogging could be hugely important to that effort.
Great thoughts. I know there’s a group of DTM coaches getting together soon in KC… your job - come up with another name for “blogging” that will help some small business overcome the attitude that blogs are for Disney World photos or pics of my 2 dogs!!
It’s amazing the power that blogging can have (that’s posting and commenting) but like some have said, they just don’t seem to latch on. We have a client though who wants high SEO rankings and loves the fact we set up a process where he can record his thought via audio recording as he is traveling. Then later those thoughts can be converted to online blogs which is already helping his SEO. It’s working and solves the “I don’t have time…” issue for him. So there is hope!
Thanks John.
Good post. I am in a medium sized market and it amazes me how easy it would be for most business categories to get to the top of the search engines if they would blog about what they do once or twice a week. Landscape designers could put pictures of their projects up with rich keywords.
Thanks for the great post. I agree that most people don’t have time to just sit down and read over somebody talking about themselves. They want good information and usually find it through search engines. That’s why you have to optimize for search engines in order to be a successful blog.
Great article, well explained. If you provide knowledge or expertise services blogs can really sell people on what you can do.
Blogging…many don’t get it….yet. Get in now, and establish yourself as an authority early on, thant’s my take, anyways…
I am a young serial entrepreneur and I just recently started blogging and am loving it. Not only have people begun to read my blog and view me as a leading young entrepreneur, it has helped me brainstorm new and innovative business ideas and practices, and has also helped me organize my thoughts and keep a record of everything.
I hope to write a book soon, and I know I can draw from my blog entries for much of the content.
I recently addressed the benefits of blogging in a post I titled BLAG ABOUT YOURSELF. Yes, that is blag, not blog. Basically ‘blag’ is a cross between blog and brag, but without the negative connotation of bragging. It is a positive way to tell people about your accomplishments and credentials through the use of a blog, and it helps you build your personal brand and identity online. I don’t want to go on here, but you can check the post out here: http://brianlinton.com/?p=24
Cheers!
Brian
I am totally on board with this concept, and I get the same sort of reactions from business people that I talk to. I was recently at a Chamber of Commerce seminar on “Marketing in a Down Economy” and when people heard that I consult on internet marketing via blogging and conversation - “I don’t have time for those blogs” was the number one response.
Of course I just smiled and asked them if they had enough business NOT to blog. That got them thinking!
I find that there is just a certain threshold to get over before someone decides it is worthwhile to start participating in social media - especially through blogging. I recommend to everyone to start and maintain a list of blog post ideas. You’ll quickly realize how much you actually have to say. Chris Brogan’s blog also offered a number of strategies that helped me get up and going.
I also wonder how long it will be before aggregators become main stream. I’ve been using one forever (Bloglines), but it seems like no one else I know does. It’s such a time saver!