Wielding the Power of the Blog? You Are Right?

Wielding the Power of the Blog? You Are, Right? 

Blogs – really?

“Time to come out of the fog about the Blog – It can be one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. Let me give you five power reasons you need to post blogs on your website and around the virtual real estate known as the internet.” 

You may not know it but blogs have been around a long time.  Of course in the covered wagon days of blogging, back in the 90’s they were called journal entries or diaries.  We wrote them on sites like Live Journal, and TheDiary or one of the other ‘journal’ sites.  By the way in the early days they were much more popular than the limited social media sites like “MySpace which have since come and gone.

But in our modern iteration of communications we have seen the rise of conjunctive Twitter posts and One-Line Headlines on Facebook which are often ignored or overlooked by the ten thousand people who are also posting on your Facebook page wanting to shout their headline.

Then there is the problem of limits on content banned as advertising or removed because the powers that be don’t like the content.

But in this society of abbreviated Twitter posts and one-liner Facebook posts, the trend started to move toward shorter content because many online users simply didn’t make the time to stop the clock and read a full article.  At least that’s what some internet content “gurus” are trying to tell us and sell us.   But is it true?

Frankly, no – it’s a load of mule muffins and it all depends on who’s looking for what kind of content.

For instance, most people don’t know that email is according to studies ten to fifteen times more effective at “conversion” than social media advertising on Twitter or Facebook.

Of course there are some social media marketing experts that are trying to convince us that blogging is so 20 years ago, but if you’ve heard that see my comments on “mule muffins” earlier.  But if someone is serious about digging information out about a particular topic and they need to know the difference between AI and Machine learning they aren’t going to get that from a Twitter one liner or a Facebook headline.  They want information – not a bumper sticker.

So why bother with blogging – Really?

First – Blogs help the SEO for your website.

When you write interesting, engaging, and unique content for your website that is engaging, factual, linked to URLs on your website, you’re reaching out to all the search engine algorithms that your business (or website) is all about. A simple blog well written and SEO optimized is a front-page blast that you are here, what you are about, and you are ready to engage the world.

As an example when I worked for a news website I blogged on a consistent basis on topics that were in the news.  Using headlines and subheads that were SEO optimized I was able to position those blogs so that when someone searched for that particular news topic my blogs appeared.

While news blogs may not be my main area of interest right now the blogs I’ve put out put my name in front of the public and that lends to credibility.  It also provides visibility for my area of expertise.  Now imagine what a professionally written and SEO optimized blog can mean for your marketing profile.

Second – Blogs communicate who you are and what you do to existing and future clients, members, donors, or customers and tells them exactly why they should pay attention to you.

Don’t misunderstand.  Your blog should not be a 500-word billboard for your consulting, product, service, or charitable organization.  But what it can do is present the problem and how your interesting story says your product, service, or expertise fit into solving the problem without saying you need to join, buy, support, or become a member.  It is about sharing your expertise in an engaging way.

What you are in reality doing is this.  I am amongst other things a copywriter.  If I share a key point about writing a particular type of email outreach and someone reads that – it just might stick in their mind and solve a problem they have or give them an answer they need.

Of course some would say that by giving an answer to a problem you charge people to solve you are giving away the store.  I’m literally giving away my knowledge related to my copywriting business for free in hopes that it can help someone who is stuck with a particular email problem.

And of course my critics would be right.  But when I give you good advice and it solve one problem the reader I have done two things.  I have given them something of value and asked nothing in return.  Will that leave a good impression of who I am and what my company is about?  Absolutely.  But I have also established myself and my company as experts in a particular field of interest to them and their organization.  By an act of kindness which may I have by default positioned myself as a copywriting expert to show both them and future clients why our company is right organization to hire.

Blogging Exchanging Value For Opportunity

Third – Blogs give you the opportunity engage your current and future clients and customers.

Here’s the beauty of blogging.  This gives you SEO visibility and presents you the opportunity to engage your current, potential, and future clients in your marketing activity.  And isn’t that the point of marketing?  It also gives you articles to link to as you prepare marketing pages, emails, landing pages and other marketing tools.

When you present something that inspires readers to comment, share, engage or talk about your blog, have expanded your reach so much further than the small virtual real estate in which your website resides.

So get creative.  Include polls, ask provocative questions, or write something so powerful so useful or so unique that readers engage or more importantly they share what you have created.  That is free marketing and when they are engaged on a level sufficient to share your information they will remember who you are – and that’s the very heart of branding.

Fourth – Blogs give you the opportunity to improve your messaging and sharpen your vision based on the responses you receive.

I didn’t start writing to become a blogger.  I wrote news stories and editorials.  Ove the past three years I have written and published over one thousand news stories and opinion pieces.  But, I have found over a prolonged period that blogs have helped me really focus on a particular subject, sharpen the message, and drive home a crucial point in an entertaining and sometimes provocative way.

If you want to sharpen your messaging, use the service providing useful information to your readers, clients, potential and future clients blogging is the perfect format.  It is helping people. It asks nothing in return.  It is therefore by default something kind and generous.  Ask yourself this question.  If you were going to hire someone would tend to look more favorably on someone who exclusively tries to sell you something or someone you who has already provided you with expert information that has solved a problem, given you an answer, or opened your eyes to a new potential.

To me this is a no-brainer.  Give without expectation and you will find that it will come back to you ten-fold.  When you share your knowledge you are recognized as an expert – and an expert is what clients are looking for.

Fifth – The Magic Words – You can monetize your blog

Obviously, monetizing your blog doesn’t happen overnight and it should be part of an organized outreach. When you write a good blog you can place the content on other blog sites like Medium.  That affords you the opportunity to link you site blogs to blogs you have posted on other sites and of course your blogs on other sites can link to blogs on your website.  You are beginning to create your own echo chamber.

On the more commercial side of blogging and as a part of a well -planned campaign using your blog to promote your business is also a powerful way you can monetize your blog through offering services, products, subscriptions, or memberships.  But never forget the rules of marketing “free” is always in style

So your organization, company, charitable institution will benefit from powerfully written blog.  It will:

• Establish you as an expert
• Raise your visibility
• Improve your SEO standing
• Provide useful help establishing you or your organization as good people
• And help you with branding which means potential and future clients who know your name.

So, today is the day.  As you travel down the road to success don’t forget to make blogging one of the key elements of your visibility, SEO optimization, and a fantastic way to let the world know – were here and we know what we’re doing – tell them without having to sell them and they’ll still be sold.