BLOGGING!
I’ve been asked over the last few days by quite a few people “how long should my blog posts be”.
My stock response is usually “2-3″ paragraphs.
And why is that?
Well, think about the most memorable blogs you’ve read.
Revisit them and note their word counts. You’ll probably notice a common thread: Less is definitely more in the realm of the successful blog. With this in mind, to keep your blog posts concise and relevant without rambling or straying from your core message. It’s tough to engage busy people, and interest can be quickly lost when your word count goes beyond 500. This means that a certain amount of post tailoring is always required, but it’s a skill quickly mastered and full of rewards in terms of subscribers and reposts.
So keep it short, and she won’t mind…
According to a recent report from Pingdom.com, WordPress is the blogging system of choice for 49 out of the Technorati Top 100 blogs.
And who can blame them? If it’s good enough for them, it is for me.
Here’s why I continue to use WordPress for the design of absolutely all my clients websites, and why I will do for some time:
- WordPress is absolutely free and free forever!
- The massive, massive catalogue of FREE plugins available enable all client sites to go beyond being just a “site” or “blog”
- The backend is so easy to use compared to others like Joomla. You don’t need to learn about modules to find a page and edit its content.
- Blogging is a dream with WordPress with comments sections, tagging abilities etc built in as standard.
- It’s secure. In the 4 years I have been using WordPress, none of my clients have had security problems.
- And lastly, GOOGLE LOVES IT
Source: royal.pingdom.com via Liam on Pinterest
There are lots of different opinions and descriptions of what a blog is, so it would seem sensible to start with a brief overview.
A good place to start for some background on the terminology of blogs and the blogosphere is Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org). There, blogs are described as:
The term blog is a shortened form of weblog or web log. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called *blogging*. Individual articles on a blog are called *blog posts, posts or entries*. A person who posts these entries is called a *blogger*.
Blogs did indeed start life as a personal online publishing system which allowed individuals to quickly and simply write, publish and distribute their own opinions via the internet on any subject that took their fancy. These would then appear in chronological order, hence often giving the appearance of a diary type format.
Mainly because of this, blogs are still often described as “Online diaries” – however, this is now akin to describing a PC simply as a Word Processor. Certainly, in both cases, it is one of the uses that they can be put to, but it barely scratches the surface of what you are really able to do with them, particularly from a business perspective.
Looking at blogs in another way, they could also be considered as a special type of website. However, by using the special characteristics that a blog offers, they have now been converted into a hugely effective marketing and communications tool for businesses.
Why blogging is great for business
So what are the special characteristics that blogs have which make them so great both for personal use and for business use?
- No technical knowledge required: you don’t need technical expertise to write a blog. You add pages or articles through a “Windows” type of interface so there is no need for a web designer to update it for you – you can do it all yourself and in double quick time – I use and recommend WordPress, that’s what this blog is built in and I love it! As do all my clients.
- Readers can leave comments: your readers can respond to your posts so that you can start to see who is interested in the same areas as you or as a business open a conversation with potential clients, suppliers or partners. The perfect opener to developing a relationship and a network! On that note, why not comment on this blog post below!
- Automatically organised: ‘categories’ and ‘archives’ are integral parts of a blog and each post will automatically be placed correctly according to the selection you make. This gives great organisation and structure to a blog which is perfect for visitors and search engines alike, and which allows you to concentrate on the content.
- Internal and External Links: blogs thrive by links and referring to other articles so that conversations and ideas can be taken up and developed. At its best, this allows a viral effect in terms of promotion and helps develop both relationships and networks.
- Search engine magnets: with regular posts, categorised content and search engine friendly links and addresses, business blogs become ideal places for search engines to find the type of content they love … and you can rank very highly!
The above point is my top reason for any business to start a blog. I cannot emphasise enough, the impact regularly blogging has on a websites search engine rank.
Related post: Blogs, Blogging and the SEO effect
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Continuing from my last post about why businesses should have a blog, here are my top 6 benefits associated with having a blog:
- Search Engine Marketing & Visibility – Higher rankings and therefore greater visibility on Google because of the updated content, great (automatic) structure and the focused content which will attract Search Engines and readers alike.
- Creating a real dialogue with those who matter – You have the opportunity and the ideal tool to start to open up new and very real communications channels with your customers, prospects, partners and suppliers.
- Public Relations & Press Releases – While not the ideal use for blogs from the point of view of blogging purists, business blogs remain fabulous marketing tools to distribute and then promote your company information and press releases.
- Lead Generation – additional visitors, better positioning and improved search engines ranking all provide the chance to develop an increased lead generation opportunity.
- Brand Awareness – An ideal channel through which to put your brand in front of the customer and communicate what it stands for you could be a small company or multinational, either way you are strengthening your online position.
- Educational Marketing – Show how your products and services can solve your customers problems rather than rely on interruption marketing and (in your face) selling. You could also look at this in terms of relational marketing because that’s exactly what you’re creating, better relationships with your marketplace.
Firstly, let’s make it clear that a Business Blog is not a place where you keep and report a diary of your company’s activities – a personal blog may sometimes be used as a diary, but a business blog most certainly is not!
You should think of a Business Blog much more as part of your online marketing toolkit, indeed as a central element of it. It can be used in a number of different ways according to your business requirements but all centred around the ideas of two way communication with prospects and customers (essentially leading to conversations and connections) as well as general marketing and business development.
- Differentiating your business, products and services
- Attracting prospects and developing new business opportunities
- Promoting your business through the mainstream media and online public
- Acting as a central element of your Search Engine marketing
- Researching and Developing new Markets, Products or Niches
- Developing Communication channels to your market
- Helping to enhance and build your visibility and brand
- Positioning Yourself as the Expert
- Improving Internal Communications
In all of these areas, you will find that Business Blogs are not only very effective but also very cost effective as well.
Blogs help to personalise your company and the products and services that you offer by opening up direct channels of communication with your prospects and customers and engaging with them. By doing so, they also help to build much higher levels of trust so that, in fact, the readers of your Blog often become your most passionate word-of-mouth ambassadors.
On top of that, the inbuilt distribution facilities such as RSS and pinging, as well as the blog specific marketing opportunities that trackbacks, comments and social bookmarking all add extra ways and means to promote your blog and therefore your business. You also have the fact that blogs are very search engine friendly because of the way that they are written and organised (automatically, I might add) and because the philosophy of linking is an integral part of the blogosphere – as a result, business blogs have the tendency to rank more highly than other types of websites.
A Business Blog is a flexible and yet powerful marketing tool for small businesses and large corporate companies alike which offers a surprisingly large range of options and benefits. In fact, once a business has the chance to have their questions answered about blogs and understand what they can offer, the focus of the questions tend to change from “Why have a blog?” to “What sort of a blog will be best?”.
| I’m giving away a free 30 minute telephone consultation, exclusively available to my website readers. It’s 100% free and we can discuss any problems you might be having, from websites to blogs, to SEO and Twitter. Just click here to sign up, for free! >> |
