Imagine it: it’s a Thursday afternoon and the end of the workweek hovers tantalizingly close. It’s a slow day, and you have just one or two more loose ends to tie up.
What do you do in these moments of languid semi-productivity? Many find themselves tempted away from the task at hand and into the irresistible, limitless land of social networking. As you scan mini feeds and twitter pages for interesting information, you see new photo albums, status updates and fun events – but you also see the occasional, posted online article. Sometimes it’s a funny story; sometimes it relates to industry strategy; sometimes it’s just a word of advice about positivity in the workplace. Whatever it is, chances are that if it proves worth reading, you’ll remember what site posted it and maybe even begin to check that source regularly for more great pieces.
Suddenly, by simply selecting, reading and following that article and the blog that posted it, you have helped increase the poster’s visibility, brand resonance and web traffic.
the 5 REAL reasons to blog
There are lots of reasons to blog – creative self-expression, entertainment, learning new things – but not all of them matter to your business’ bottom line. However, when used correctly, blogs add real value to your brand at a low monetary cost and help you extend your reach beyond the realm of the typical. Blogging is an investment of time and energy, so it should be worth what you put into it. Integrate a blog into your organization’s digital brand platform to:

  1. Advertise and advance your brand’s equity. Who are you and why should consumers care? Your brand should be clear and consistent, with its own unique voice and personality. Writing a blog helps acquaint clients and prospects with what your organization believes, how consumers benefit from its services and policies and establish a clear persona for customers to look to for advice.
  2. Build credibility among prospects and competitors. If your focus is finance, discuss how new government tax policies may affect Wall Street. If you market to medical providers, write about emerging research and what it means for providers, practitioners and patients. New policies, standards and discoveries emerge everyday. By sharing this information and your take on it with the public, you elevate your organization to the level of an expert. The extended knowledge and perspective you share bolsters your credibility as an organization to competitors and customers alike.
  3. Add to your organization’s existing service marks. You do A, B and C; now you ALSO write thought-provoking blogs that educate and inform. Do your business’ rivals do this? If not, you’ve just given your organization the competitive advantage of an added service and positioned yourself as the information leader.
  4. Establish social currency on interaction platforms and increase your website’s traffic. When something great happens involving your business, you post about it. Social media is big. Oftentimes, it governs how, when and what information, ideas and opinions we share with personal and business contacts. Creating a blog gives your organization a dependable source of social currency to offer up for discussion at the virtual water cooler. It makes your organization visible and gets followers and friends thinking about what you’re doing and planning on how they can become a part of it. Once you get them thinking, your blog will get them reading which may lead to getting them acting and browsing the rest of your business’ website.
  5. Strengthen the SEO of your online presence. It’s simple mathematics. The more relevant content on your website, the higher Google and other search engines will rank it on the search results page. By populating your online blog with fresh, meaningful content on a regular basis you increase your SEO and the value of your website. And if you post your new blogs on your business’ social media networking pages? The additional inbound links will drive your SEO through the roof!

becoming a blogging believer
In the age of the 8-10 second sound bite and the sentence long status update or tweet, blogs help showcase an organization’s real depth. Short tweets and posts are good for maintaining visibility, but the content can become cold, generic and repetitive. Blogs afford your organization the opportunity to create meaningful interactions with clients, prospects and thought leaders and inspire the blossoming of new and richer dialogues. They enhance the value of your organization as a whole and your website in particular, while extending the reach of your communications strategy. Simply put, blogs allow you a completely unique avenue to improve your bottom line by merely paying attention to your industry and sharing what you discover and how you see it with others.
If you don’t have the time or skill set to build and fill your business’ blog, try looking into hiring a skilled marketing web team for the job. They can design the blog, integrate it into your new or existing web presence and ghost write collaborative blog pieces from a well-rounded, results oriented perspective. Take the initiative and get started blogging now. Your brand will only benefit from the new leads, visibility and credibility drawn in from the fresh, captivating content.