Blogging: the easy way to raise your profile02 September 2005
Blogging, or web-logging, is rapidly increasing in popularity as businesses of all sizes realise its use as an online marketing tool, particularly with the increased availability of 'always on' high-speed broadband.
A web-log is quite simply a kind of online journal, a piece of software that allows an individual to type and publish time-stamped content directly onto the internet for others to view information, place enquiries and receive solutions.
A recent WordBiz survey questioned online marketers about their use of blogging and what they thought its impact would be on business and consumer relations in the future.
Of the 700 respondents, 80 per cent insisted that the rapid rise of blogging as a business marketing tool is much more than just a fad, and furthermore, 55 per cent agreed that blogs will almost certainly become a "must-have corporate marketing tool".
How can this be useful for a small business?
There are a number of reasons why some businesses have not yet realised the benefits of blogs as a marketing tool. These include the existence within an organisation of other knowledge management tools and a lack of knowledge about how to go about blogging and security fears. The main factor hindering business adoption of blogging found by the WordBiz Report was "the time it would take to write", 65 per cent of respondents were concerned about this.
But the advantages for small businesses would be significant, and companies are increasingly looking to resolve the issues to reap the benefits.
- Blogging is completely free, the only cost is measured in the man hours spent raising company profile this way.
- The speed with which blogs can be updated, and the fact that you as a business decide the content, brings company closer to consumer and maintains a brand profile within the market.
- You can blog within firewalls, so staff may communicate securely, or under password protection to allow selected clients access to the content posted.
- A blog is easy to write and maintain, it requires very little staff training, and generates very few technical problems compared with complicated websites which are set-up and maintained by other people.
- Blogs can help increase search engine optimisation, raising company profile on the web.
Small companies looking to utilise the web in this way to grow their business can do so through blogging service websites, such as blogging.com, Typepad.com and blog.co.uk, or create their own blog publisher through the company website. See our previous article on why blogging can be better than a business website.
