Is blogging a waste of time?
February 6th, 2009 by Ingrid Cliff
Today I was asked why businesses should blog – after isn’t blogging just a waste of valuable time? Doesn’t it just detract from your core activities and add to the plethora of junk on the internet?
So what did I say? Well there are different sorts of blogs. Some are just comments and observations. Others look all the world like normal websites. Blog platforms are becoming the default website for new businesses, with many using WordPress themes as the base for their site rather than traditional web design.
In terms of start-up businesses, Blogs quickly gain listing in Google (the best result I have seen so far was not listed to page 3 of Google in 3 hours of going live).
Blogs are Google’s favourite things. They love the fresh content so the algorithms seem to weigh more heavily towards blog content rather than traditional static content. With the right keywords they can quickly outperform traditional websites no matter how well optimised. So in terms of new businesses I have a lot of sympathy for blogs as a great way to enter and quickly dominate the market. They are also very cheap (free other than domain name and hosting if you are willing to do it yourself).
What’s my personal experience?
Blogs when done well can help demonstrate expertise and build more personal relationships with clients. What I have personally found is some people love my blog, others engage via the newsletter and some prefer Twitter. My approach is to match my communication style to their individual communication preferences in terms of how they like to get data. I haven’t yet spent too much time on video or audio, but they are other valid channels.
In terms of traffic – my Performance review blog is the main source of traffic to my EPR product – so it works in terms of generating traffic and a following.
The thing with blogs are they are just one marketing strategy and have to be considered in the overall context of what the person or company wants to achieve. They also are a big commitment and require time and focus, so are not right for every business. But if a client is serious about SEO or SEM – then a blog or blogs in my opinion are absolutely essential.
In terms of managing information overload from too many blogs, I use tools such as Google Reader to more effectively manage my time. That way I can track the 100 or so blogs I follow without wasting hours of effort each day.
So what do you think? Are blogs a waste of time for business?
Ingrid Cliff
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This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Web copywriting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 7th, 2009 at 12:57 am
Ingrid, I completely agree with your assessment. As you said, blogs are a part of the marketing mix and, like the hundreds of other options (direct mail, advertising, PR, etc.) should be weighed based on their time & money investment compared to their payoff. There are very few businesses that find success using just one marketing technique, but there are many who successfully choose to focus on a few that provide the greatest return on investment.