Many companies still view blogging as something only done for personal reasons or by people who wish to show pictures of their cat. For these companies I decided to give a short rundown of some of the benefits that a company (and an individual) would experience from having a weblog. Keep in mind that there are a large number of benefits that come with blogging, but I will only highlight some of the major ones.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Google and other search engines love a site that is constantly updated. The most frequent visitors on all of my sites are Googlebots. Over 70% of my visitors that come to Forever Geek do so from Google.
With blogging software you can easily write an entry filled with keywords that you would like Google to list highly. Also, people who run blogs like to link to other blogs. Robert Scoble of Microsoft does this frequently and the traffic boost and Google boost generated from such linkage can work wonders for your site.
Stay Fresh In Mind of Customers
A company blog that is constantly updated and uses RSS feeds to distribute content is capable of staying fresh in the minds of their target audience. Companies are always trying to win mindshare by plastering ads of themselves almost everywhere along with getting publications to write about them. With a blog you always get this exposure and major publications are more likely to write about your company since the information is readily available.
Sense of Community
When a company can get their audience to feel as though they are part of a community then they are more likely to succeed in selling their product or service. The Apple community scoops up every new technology that Apple brings out. Very few companies could say the same since it has become to easy for us to switch to the competition.
Blogs (along with other online communities) can help build the feeling of being part of a group. When people feel as though they belong to something, they are more likely to remain loyal. A loyal customer also becomes your best salesman.
Instant Feedback
Companies are learning that shipping products without listening to customer feedback is becoming dangerous. However, getting people to openly provide feedback can become a hassle. If you had a blog you could easily write an entry on the product and customers could anonymously (if they wish) provide feedback without feeling as though they were signing up for a junklist.
A great example of this is SixApart. They have recently released their third iteration for their product licensing scheme and each time it has improved due to customer feedback. Without their blog this would not have been possible.
Many More Benefits
As I mentioned there are many more benefits to having a public blog for your company, but these are some of the more important ones that can easily be shown. If you would like to hear about what else a blog could do for your company why not use our contact form to get a hold of us for a free consultation.
