| To Blog or Not to Blog guest article by Rick Spence To blog or not to blog: that’s a good question. Bored teenagers in Toronto, marketers in Munich and cat-lovers in Cleveland: they're all going online to post their thoughts on the issues of the day (or what they had for breakfast) through Web journals called blogs (short for web logs). According to Technorati, a blog-tracking search engine, there are now more than 55 million blogs. Most will never be read by anyone but the authors' friends (if any). But that's the way of all media: as science-fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon once told a literary critic, "90% of everything is crud." The power of blogs lies in search engines that enable people to find any information they want on the Net. Your daily newspaper may run three or four stories a day on politics, but with a few Google clicks you can find hundreds of new political blog posts every day. Many bloggers are experts writing about what they know – which makes a rich resource for anyone wanting to indulge their interests in travel, technology, or whatever. Although an unexpected byproduct of the Internet, blogs fill a real need, for both bloggers and readers. Still, should you blog? The pro-blog lobby will tell you about marketers whose blogs have helped them obtain media recognition, speaking engagements, lucrative contracts and new clients. It's all true – but rare. Blogging is like advertising (or any other type of marketing) – some campaigns will generate big breakthroughs, but most never do. A blog is guaranteed to do two things for you. Thanks to continual updates, blogs rank very highly on Google and other search engines – so a blog will make your business easier to find on the Net. Also, a blog will deepen relationships between you and some of your market (the ones who read your blog regularly, or receive automatic updates through an RSS feed). Beyond that, concrete benefits take time and effort. I've been blogging about entrepreneurship for two years at Canadian Entrepreneur (http://canentrepreneur.blogspot.com). I post three or four times a week and now average 100 visitors a day. My business has benefited – it has landed me some short-term consulting clients, as well as at least one speaking engagement. But frankly, those benefits don't begin to compare with the effort I've put into the blog. Nonetheless, I enjoy the creative outlet provided by my blog. I also enjoy being a member of a community of bloggers – entrepreneurs and marketers who devour each other's blogs and create a supportive community of interest. But these benefits don't fill the freezer. There are definite risks to blogging – such as giving away competitive secrets, angering clients or prospects, or committing libel. Unless you foresee tangible benefits from blogging, stick with conventional marketing tools that don't create such risks or demand so much content. Would you benefit from blogging? That depends on how you answer the next five questions.
If you've answered yes to four or more of these questions, consider blogging. You clearly have an audience, something to say, the talent to write and the time to invest. If you don't have all those positive attributes, put blogging aside for now. As with advertising, quality control and many other business processes, it’s better to do nothing than do it badly. There's no reason to blog if the conditions for success (time, talent, audience) are not present. Note: Whether or not you decide to start a blog, you should be reading blogs. They contain news and surprising insights you won't find in any book or newspaper. Talk back to bloggers – you can express opinions and promote your website simply by leaving comments on other people's blogs. In today's "social media," the benefits of blogging don't only belong to bloggers. Rick Spence is a Toronto-based content-marketing consultant specializing in small business. You can read his blog at http://canentrepreneur.blogspot.com. E-mail him at rick@rickspence.ca for a free copy of his article, "Starting a Blog in Six Easy Steps". You can read Paul Tobey's blog at Business & Music Blog | |
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