Is Blogging Dead?
Today we hear a lot about Social Media. Certainly Facebook and Twitter have grabbed the lion’s share of headlines.
Does that mean the granddaddy of them all Blogging is no longer relevant? Not by a long shot! Did you know that 77% of the online community reads blogs and on average about 6 a day?
What’s more significant this that the line between blog and website is becoming thinner everyday.
In fact, a blog is a website. A blog is a type of webpage programmed with functions that allow you to post information in a blog format, receive comments, send replies and organize your content by categories.
Blogsites used to be primarily 3 page mini-websites that featured the blog page as the homepage and included an about and contact page, they’re now more often part of full websites.
Why is this important? Because, it is not necessary to have a website and a separate blog they are one in same. You can have a blog as part of your website and enjoy the SEO benefits it provides and create a hub for all of your other Social Media activities.
It is the one Social Media platform that you do not share. You are not subject to terms of service rules, you control the branding, you focus your message and content, and you moderate the discussion (comments).
As the hub of your Social Media activities it is where you send your community when you want to share more information than you can include in a FB post or 140 characters. When you have a call to action, the action takes place at your web/blogsite.
And writing blog content also provides a lot of bang for your buck. A blog post can be adjusted for article submissions, Facebook posts and notes, tweets, email content, previews for teleseminars, ebook chapters, and market research to name a few uses.
It’s not as hard to get started as you might think. WordPress is an invaluable tool to create blog/websites and 2 of the top resources are:
So what does that mean for the small business owner? It means that blogging is still a high impact marketing and business building option that contributes to all of your other marketing activities. It is easy to get started and has a low ongoing overhead cost. It does require your time and attention on an ongoing basis. You need to be willing to write and share your expertise and take a position.
If you’re not sure it’s right for you or need some direction on getting started contact us (contact page) for a complimentary 30 min. consultation to find out.
Update: Aug. 14th – This is a great blog post that gives an overview of how blogging is evolving and underlines the importance of having a homebase where you hold the cards and the direction blogging needs to take to involve more “social” aspects offered by other SM platforms. The Evolution of Blogging