“Why does my business need a blog? It can’t help me.”
I hear that question all the time and I always respond in the same way. There are three primary reasons why every business can benefit from publishing a business blog, which I refer to as the GPS Effect:
1. The Google Effect
Business blogs create entry points. How do people find businesses, brands, products and services these days? Not the Yellow Pages. Nope, they visit Google.com and type in keywords to find the information they need. Your business needs to be listed in those results. Certainly, search engine optimization (SEO) is important, and entry points are an important part of SEO.
For example, imagine that your business Web site has 10 pages. That’s 10 ways Google can find your site. Now, imagine that you write a blog connected to your business Web site and publish a new post everyday for a year. Now, you have 365 more entry points for Google to find your site. And what if the content you write on your blog is amazing and shareworthy? People will link to it, talk about it, tweet it, blog about it, and so on across the social Web opening up even more entry points for Google to find your site and include it in search results for keywords related to your business. A business would be crazy not to jump at the opportunity that the Compounding Effect of Blogging offers.
2. The Party Effect
You don’t want to be the only one who misses the biggest party of the 21st century, do you? Think of the social Web and the conversations happening there as the biggest opportunity (or ‘party’) that has ever existed for businesses to build relationships, start and join conversations, and develop loyal brand advocates who talk about your business, defend your business, and lead word-of-mouth marketing and an online buzz that is immeasurable in its reach and power.
Years ago, business owners would have done anything to get an engaged audience to stand in front of them and listen to what they had to say about their businesses. Today, you have that opportunity thanks to the social Web. The only difference is that you’re communicating through your computer rather than face-to-face. That doesn’t make social Web communications any less important or useful than in-person communications. It’s just a new way of networking, marketing, building relationships, and selling. Bottom-line, you need to hang out in the same places that your target audience spends time, and it’s highly likely that many members of your target audience can be found on the social Web. You just have to take the time to find them and then start conversing with them. As your relationships grow, you can bring people over to your own business blog for more amazing content and conversations.
3. The Sustainability Effect
Business blogging should be viewed as a long-term marketing strategy (like brand building and overall social media marketing strategies) that can help you build your brand, relationships, and business in the long-run. This is the type of growth that is often intangible and can’t be accounted for in the company income statement, but like brand value, it’s importance and power to sustain a business in the long-term cannot be denied. Of course, you can enhance your business blog marketing strategy by incorporating short-term tactics to drive immediate results, but the power of a business blog comes from the long-term effects it can have on your audience and business.
Image: Flickr
