Business Blogging - Does It Really Make Sense?
As a small business owner, I often wonder if the time commitment required to maintain a blog is worth the effort, especially in the very early days of a business. Can it really help you hawk your goods? Let’s face it, when we create a blog that compliments our business (vs. a blog that IS a business), our goal isn’t to blog for bloggings sake, but to support our revenue generating activities. If we firmly believed that blogging could not meaningfully impact our business, we probably wouldn’t do it.
Blogging As a Business
To believe that blogging can not a viable media business is like believing the world is flat, or that the Earth is at the center of the universe. Blogging is business, and the most successful blogs & blog networks (TechCrunch, Huffington Post, Copyblogger, DoshDosh, etc) have been replacing, in every increasing strides, traditional media. Everyone knows this. There’s nothing earth shattering here and I won’t even attempt to refute it. My inquiry is to whether blogging can compliment non-media based business.
Blogging as a Compliment to Business
Peruse through the vast ocean of content that is the web and practically every authoritative source says, start a blog, it will grow your business! The most relevant article I could find (not necessarily the most relevant article out there and more a testament to my whiz-bang Google skillz), Should You Start a Business Blog, was published by Entrepreneur.com in February 2007.
“A blog allows your business to engage with current and potential customers in a direct, informal, no-pressure way”
- ok, so what business wouldn’t want to do this? Purchasing products from a company, especially an entity you are unfamiliar with, is built on trust. What better way is there to build trust with potential customers than by writing about your business, and allow them to post comments and interact with you. You set the tone! If building trust with potential customers facilitates word of mouth / referral marketing, blogging can be a low cost, though potentially time consuming way, to obtain new customers and clients. There is certainly value to be had here.
“Because of its collaborative nature, a blog can help you gain insight into customers’ needs and interests.”
- Hello consumer research! This isn’t particularly revolutionary or insightful. Blogging is just another medium, arguably more effective and more efficient, through which one can solicit feedback from new/potential customers. Of course this presupposes that you have an established business with enough engaged customers to be deemed a valid sampling size.
- If you are just starting out, blogging won’t really give you the insight your need to materially grow your business. Better to leverage your contacts, find potential customers the old fashion way, and get them on the phone I say. The time you put into requesting feedback will return infinitely more valuable information than publishing a few blog posts. I could be wrong, and if you think I am, by all means, comment away to let me know!
“Blogs cost little, if any, money. Some public blogging sites are free; others charge only nominal fees.”
- This is a silly argument. Sure setting a new blog up isn’t costly. Tell me something I don’t know. As a small business owner, or as an entrepreneur, you have to carefully weight the TIME blogging will take vis-a-vis the million other things you need to get done. I hate to use platitudes, but time is money. Where within your team’s list of priorities does writing a blog post and responding to comments fall? Don’t be fooled by the articles that tell you how easy it - social media marketing is a full time job. And if you don’t have the resources to do it well, why not simply create a web page with some pictures and biographies of your team members, along with their respective contact information. If people write about you on their blogs, post on their comments section (set up Google Alert to notify you when your company’s been mentioned). That, plus a few personal sentences beside an inviting photos can add all the personal touch your business needs.
So what’s the bottom line…
If you are just starting out, a minimalist non-blogging approach (say email newsletters for those who want to subscribe), and a well crafted “about page” might be the more effective thing to do. If you are growing concern with a handful of clients and have the resources, by all means, blog away. Please just don’t fall into the trap of thinking that blogging by itself will materially benefit your business. Its just a piece of a much bigger marketing puzzle.
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About
My name is Arpan and this is my blog! I'll be writing about things I find interesting, and hopefully some stuff that you might too. Some posts are intentionally controversial and are intended to provoke discussion. Don't be shy!
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