5 Reasons Your Company Should NOT Have a Blog...
Business folks I talk with are a bit surprised when I say, "You probably shouldn't have a blog...yet." In most cases, it's in response to these tactics:
- Hot Marketing Tool - Blogs can be Conversation Stations - a vehicle to engage with your customers. Using a blog as a soapbox for a marketing monologue will not only get discouraging fast, but could drive current customers away.
- Ghost Blogger - When a company says they're going to have an anonymous writer for the blog, or someone writing for the principal face/voice, I start waving a red flag. Boo! on Ghost Writing
- Repurpose Content - A good idea if used sparingly and if you make the copy conversational - or take snippets from your brochures and white papers and expand on the thought. But if you're going to use the blog as simply another channel for that dry material, think again. People don't read your brochures (do you read theirs?), so why think they would read it on a blog? Remember, it's a conversation.
- Old College Try - This is why I ask for a three-month commitment. The old college try is like sitting at the edge of the swimming pool and paddling your dangling feet. You never really went swimming.
- Won't or Don't Read Other Blogs - This could be a 500-word post on its own. Again, it's a conversational tool. Blogging has two roles - just like any other good conversation.
If your blogging efforts tank, you look bad, I look bad, blogging looks bad...your prospects look elsewhere.
I think every company and business leader should be blogging (verb) right now - at least the reading and researching part.
I think every company and business leader would be wise to start working with a blog (noun) - at least behind a firewall or hidden from indexing and start working on their strategy and voice.
Look, the lightbulb wasn't invented by someone just plugging an electrical cord into a candle. Look beyond what you've been doing to reach your customers. Be open to new possibilities.
I forget who said it, but remember this: If Union Pacific Railroad saw the potential of passenger transportation, maybe we'd be flying Union Pacific Airlines.
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