Time is short. It’s always too short. We know that. We get that. So when we review the time we, our colleagues and our organisation as a whole, invest into blogging there’s an inevitable question few seem confident enough to answer.
Why do you blog?
To win new business
There’s a logical conclusion for most. The more words we populate into Google, the more chance somebody will stumble upon our blog. Then, there’s more chance their eyes will wander and we can persuade a good proportion of our new visitors to register for our newsletter, download our ebook or maybe enquire about our services. You blog to win new business.
To display your mastery
For some, we utilise our blog as a way of showing our reader the elite knowledge we hold of our industry. It’s the qualitative approach. When our work applies science or challenges convention, your blog is the publication of your insight. The discussions often overlook the typical client requirements. Educating your reader isn’t at the forefront of your mind. There’s tremendous attention to detail to alleviate the fear of a peer questioning your rationale. Your opinion matters and is highly regarded by a select few.
To beat your chest
The blog becomes an extension of ‘About Us’. We get to read about your latest recruits, business wins, office expansions and ultra extravagant Christmas lunch. Maybe a few pictures from the latest corporate golf day are thrown in for good measure? For larger corporations it can be a great way to incentivise staff as they see their endeavours highlighted on the main blog page.
To follow the competition
I’ve been the guest in far too many ‘let’s see what the competition are up to’ internal company meetings. The MD scans the competitors website on the projection screen. She questions ‘why don’t we have a blog, if they do?’. Marketing agrees. Low and behold, a couple of days later the blog is live. Now, what do we do?
For most businesses the ‘blog’, or whichever branded guise it sits, is a concoction of all three. An outlet.
Creating a blog is easy. Creating content? That’s a whole different story
Last week, I published an article (note: I deliberately shied away from saying ‘I blogged…’) discussing what it means to ask our audience to ‘read our blog’ .’Blog’ has become a staple of the website navigation bar. The maturation of Content Marketing is wholly dependent upon how and why businesses have embraced their blog. For some, the blog has evolved into it’s own unique brand. For many, the ‘blog’ represents a mishmash. It lacks strategy and lacks clarity. In content category-speak, it’s the one we’d define as ‘other’.
You can add the WordPress platform to your website server in a matter of minutes. It’s the reason why there are 825,000 references to ‘Hello World. Welcome to WordPress‘ (the default post published on any new WordPress blog) within Google.
So… why do you blog?
I want this to be a one sentence answer. For me?
My one sentence answer: I blog so that I can form my own perspective and make sense of what I see and read.
I don’t write in order to entertain Google rankings. I don’t write in order to win new customers. It just so happens that both occur on the back of what I write. A fortunate circumstance.
The long answer: A large proportion of my working week is spent alongside my clients, running workshops, or at my desk. Then there’s the travel. I also read a book a week. I read half a dozen blogs a day. There’s family time. There’s dog walking time. Like all of us, I’m forced to be selective about how I spend my time. I need to ensure that the words I read stay in my head actually mean something. I fill notebooks with scribbles to make sense of what I read. This helps me to learn more and validate my own opinion. I find that blogging helps me to do this. It’s how I form my own view. A blend of experience. Lived and read. That benefits my clients. That benefits me. Hopefully it benefits my own newsletter and readership too.
That’s how it works for me. It’s an exceptionally valuable labour to me and my business. What about you?
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