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Should your business be blogging?

April 8, 2008

In the beginning blogging was the domain of individuals feeding us personal diaries, opinions and the like. As the concept became more established, we started to see more authoritative comment from journalists, experts, industry leaders and pundits. Then the business world started to contribute and eventually large corporations took the plunge.

The take up by businesses and corporations was initially slow, but it’s been gathering momentum. We’ve reached the stage where blogging is now considered to be a credible, viable medium for communicating with the marketplace.

So what are the benefits?

It’s easy to set up and start posting messages.
Broadcast automatically with RSS feeds.
The writing style is informal (not press release business-speak), so the message will probably be more digestable.
It’s interactive. Get feedback and use it.
Build expertise and thought leadership in your marketplace.
Use internally for news, updates, alerts, project management, brainstorming, etc.
Get higher rankings on the search engine results pages.
It’s a form of viral marketing.

And the downsides?

Somebody has to take time to do it.
That person or persons must be trusted not to say the wrong thing (for example, reveal confidential information or bad-mouth the competition).
Feedback must be monitored and controlled.

If your business can deal with the downsides, then there are some real advantages.

Also, are your competitors blogging? Yes? Then you’re missing out. No? Then you have an opportunity to lead the way.

Give it some consideration.

Filed in: Blogging