Personal blogging is incredibly popular, however it still has the myth of being incredibly narcissistic, or a just a collection of “rants”, but if its done right – a blog can significantly improve your business image. Since 1999, the number of blogs on the Internet has exploded from a few thousand to to millions. And now business is getting in on the act as a way of increasing their credibility.
Why?
Well, firstly unlike corporate articles or press releases there isn’t an editor, you’re getting a personalised viewpoint. It humanises the relationship between the reader and the poster – it makes it less like a faceless corporate mouthpiece and rather an inside look into a corporation from a real person.
Blogs are an excellent method to share a company’s expertise, build additional web traffic, and connect with potential customers and invite them to talk about subjects through comments.
Having a business weblog that is penned by your employees provides good information for your customers while being timely and fun can add a new dimension to your web site and to your business.
Blogs are a powerful tool for marketing and promotion. Because the entries are short, and often full of links, they are more keyword heavy than standard articles often are. Plus, they are easy for your customers to read, so they are more likely to come back daily to see what you might have to say on that day, or on a particular topic.
If your company is very formal, a blog is a place to show your customers that it is made up of real people. This is important if your company’s values are about being “real”, “personalised”, or “genuine”.
In addition to adding this layer of personalisation, a blog can be used to generate buzz about an upcoming event, competition, product or service. A video blog can be used for “workshops” or to showcase a product/service. Whilst adding photos of your authors, or events can add another level of personalisation to your business.
Of course, it may be impractical for a small business to have a blog – but a larger corporation, such as a law firm or accountant firm, or perhaps even a company of photographers could use a blog to not only talk about the pressing issues of the day – but be used to add value to the company and make it more human.