Why You Shouldn’t Blog
31 Jan 2010
I had coffee this week with a fellow marketing consultant like me, with one big difference: she’s an SMS (Social Media Skeptic). We spent much of the hour we were together talking about the merits (or lack thereof) of social media. Since I’ve already written a similar post about Twitter, Why You Shouldn’t Use Twitter, I thought I’d focus this time on blogging. So, here are some of the objections she had, along with my thoughts on the topic.
- SMS: Blogging takes too much time — it’s a full time job.
- Me: It doesn’t have to be a full time job… if you commit to write one post per week, that’s a great way to get started, and that will only take a few hours per week. If you have a few people blogging on a rotating schedule that shares the workload across people.
- SMS: Even if you only write one post per week, you still have to respond to all the comments. Who has time for that?
- Me: Yes, it’s important to make time to respond to comments, but think about it in a positive light… if your customers (or potential customers) are engaging with your brand and what you’re blogging about, isn’t that worth the additional minute you spend responding to them? What other form of marketing can you engage customers like this? (a lot, but many of them are in social media!). Isn’t the point of marketing to engage with your consumers?
- SMS: Not everyone is a good writer, so they shouldn’t be blogging.
- Me: There are so many ways to blog. You can use video, audio, photos, short paragraphs, etc. Not all of these require 4 hours to write a post, or good writing skills. In addition, you can rotate your bloggers on a schedule so not one person is carrying the load, or also use guest bloggers on occasion to mix it up a bit.
- SMS: I’m not technical, so I could never figure out how to put together a blog.
- Me: Just over a year ago, I didn’t even know what WordPress was (it’s a Content Management System that allows you to easily put together a blog/website in a very user friendly way), and now I know it very well, and even train others on using it. Sure, occasionally I get stuck, but 95% of the time, I can manage it on my own. In addition, there are some VERY user-friendly WordPress themes out there, such as Headway, that allows you to drag and drop boxes, and edit the design elements by just clicking.
- SMS: Blogging (and social media) are fads, and will not be around for much longer.
- Me: I do agree that there are some social media tools that might not be around in a few years. But, I think that the overall categories such as blogging, micro-blogging, etc. are here to stay.
Once I had responded to all of her objections, I pointed out some of the other positives of blogging:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The more you write, the more activity and comments you get on your blog, and the more inbound links you get. This is exactly what the search engines look for when analyzing websites. All of this activity is viewed very positively, so will positively affect your search engine rankings.
Interact with customers – As mentioned above, isn’t it a POSITIVE thing to be able to interact with your customers? To hear their feedback, get them engaged, get them asking questions? All of that happens on a blog, and it’s all on YOUR website. - Establish yourself as an expert in your area - Writing blog posts in your area of business allows you to establish yourself as an expert, and display what you know in your area. It may or may not be directly related to your product, which opens people up even more to hearing your message.
- Low cost - For the cost of $10, you can buy a domain name and build a blog. If you want a premium theme such as Headway or Thesis, that will run you $90. So, for $100 you can have a blog. True, the biggest cost with blogging is time, but the actual budget outlay is less expensive than most other forms of marketing.
(Photo credit: No social media, Blogging sucks)
So, what do you think? Is blogging a good idea? Are there any other objections you’ve heard? Or benefits I haven’t mentioned?
