17 Reasons why Blogs will rule the Corporate Web

INTRODUCTION

I believe that for most businesses from one man bands, corner stores to Multi nationals
– the establishment of a Blog presence on the web will produce great dividends.

If you think of blogs as the ramblings of rather grumpy individuals in a sort of online
diary – think again. They offer big advantages over the well worn web site approach.
Now to be technically clear, you can do with a web site everything you can do with a
Blog – the key difference is cultural, not technical.

DYNAMIC NOT PASSIVE

Traditionally a web site was built, its content remained static and was only changed
when a major revamp was required, and although increasingly sites incorporate
updated materials it usually involves some investment to do all but cosmetic changes
except for those organizations using a Content Management System. Blogs,
alternatively, have a more relaxed approach to updates and posting new materials daily,
or weekly are the norm. Making them fresher and more interesting than web sites
offering up pages of ‘brochure-ware’.

EASY TO CREATE

There are many tools to create blogs now emulating expensive contact management
systems. Some are free, others are paid. Word Press is the standard but to make most use
of it requires some technical knowledge, Type Pad is perhaps simpler but offers ease of use.
All have everything you want and more – for Blogs with Posts in text, Podcasts and Video
embed features. You can link them to Facebook, Twitter and all manner of Social
Networking tools. You can create the opportunity for others to ‘Follow’ you. With a Blog
and its ease of promulgation you can adopt the principle of ‘ Do it once’ – avoiding
repetition. Items can be reposted to other social networking sites – Twitter and Facebook
or your main web site or vice versa.

CULTURALLY BETTER FOR MARKETING

Everyone is sensitive being sold to. A blog which discusses your business and provides
information about your industry or entertains or provides other tools of use to your
clients and creates a two way dialogue is a much preferable marketing mechanism.

1. Interactive
A highlight of a Blog is its two way nature – it caters for discussions, questions and
comments much more effectively than a web site and the Blog culture means that
clients, potential customers and the blogging community create content for you which
in many cases is superior to your own in terms of impact. You can also, if your
organization is large enough, have different authors contributing to your Blog.

EVOLVING

Over time you build up content and as more online tools emerge you can immediately
capitalise on them. In time the Blog will become the hub of your online presence.

MORE INCENTIVE FOR DYNAMIC CONTENT

Because your goals will be to attract interest by providing exceptional content to make
it worth your ‘tribe’ reading your log, there is real incentive to create great content.
Because a post can be 10 words or pages, then creating content is not a huge exercise. It
can be equally easily deleted if you don’t like it or need to edit it. With current easily
used tools you can create, Video Content, Podcasts, onsite slideshows, and there are
always new tools to discover. I use Stumble Upon www.stumbleupon.com amongst
other tools to find useful content to share with my clients.

PROMOTIONS

Because we started as a small business and many of our clients left big businesses to
start their own businesses, I like to share the services I have found useful – hardware,
gadgets, software, online services and anything that will inform and educate and help
others. Part of the blogging culture includes promoting and connecting your Blog to
others who provide great products and services.

MORE PERSONAL – PEOPLE LIKE DOING BUSINESS WITH

PEOPLE

Blogs are written in a more personal style and give a more personal face to your
business. Your replies to comments, complaints and suggestions say a lot about your
business, as well as giving new or prospective clients a good feel for what you might
offer to them and your compatibility with their corporate culture.

CURRENT AND TOPICAL

The information you post can be current. I post several times a week, only larger posts
take time to draft, edit and post. Generally, I type and post in a matter of 10 minutes so
it is right up to date. It is the norm that posts are dated, so you can judge the currency of
items.
 EASIER SYNDICATED

Syndication is the power to promulgate these on the web. All Blogs have RSS feeds
(Really Simple Syndication) where a follower can set up a link to their reader (try
Google Reader) where they get notification of updates and new material on your site.
The Share It button on my Blog allows readers to share the post on a large number of
sites – spreading my word. These include, Twitter, Facebook, Digg , Reddit, Delicious,
Stumble Upon, My Space, Technoati, Propellor, Mixx, Newsvine, Google Bookmarks ,
Yahoo Myweb, Windows Live and Kirtsy as well as offering the opportunity to email the
post. Now that is what I call Viral!

SEARCH ENGINES LOVE THEM AND THEY WILL RANK BETTER IN

GOOGLE, KEYWORD FRIENDLY

Because of their updated content, rich content, the simple architecture, the number of
inward links and the use of keywords in post titles, search engines love Blogs and for
good reason in many cases. Your Google rating can soar in your Blog much faster in
most cases than the rating on your main website

RESPONSIVE TO CHANGES IN DIRECTION

As your business evolves so your Blog content will evolve without major rewrites, or
site redesigns.

SMALL COMPANIES CAN PLAY BIG

A Blog is your chance to play with the big boys. Provided your goals are to inform and
to develop extraordinary content – you can compete with your largest competitor. Your
blog can portray a human face that a large corporation will struggle against.

EXPERIMENTS

Another use of a blog is for communication experiments. Posting ideas requires no great
investment but is a great way to gauge reaction. Post about new ideas but the contribution
of others usually makes them better ideas. It is also a simpler platform for making content
experiments. My first Podcasts and Videocast required only the skill to cut and paste code.
I could see in minutes what worked and what did not – then Blog about what I learned.

CREATE A COMMUNITY

A Blog can be a focus for your tribe! Put together a community by being of service to them.
Interestingly Bloggerrs tend to be in their 40’s not as one might suppose their 20’s. Build
your community and see it build itself. It could include customers past, present and
potential and they in turn if they find your Blog useful will extend it to others.

BUSINESS SUPPORT

The many different ways a Blog can support your business. You could use a customer portal
for, feedback, ideas and suggestions for uses of your product or requests for future
developments. On an internal Blog, your maintenance staff might use it as a portal to
discuss repair issues, workarounds and uncommon faults. Provided you are open and
authentic, your clients can work with you in developing your business for the future.
2. Analysis

Your blog provider or simple online services can provide you a range of analytical
tools to see how your Blog is performing, who is visiting it and what content they are
interested in. In this way you can measure the effectiveness of your efforts and
tailor future content to your Communities likes and needs.