24 Aug Blogging for businesses – it’s not dead yet!
Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, User-Generated Content, Voice Search, Chatbots – PR and marketing companies are using the latest technologies to keep their clients in the spotlight, but does it mean our traditional techniques should be kicked to the curb?
Blogs first came about in the early 2000s, first as an outlet for writers and then as a soundboard for innovative businesses. In 1999 there were 23 blogs on the internet, by the middle of 2006 there were an estimated 50 million.
In 2018, even the mention of blogging can be met with an eye roll and; “Who would even read a blog anymore?” and “Can’t we just make a video?”. But blogs are still firmly at the top of my agenda when talking to prospective clients. If clients are not blogging, they should be. And if they are only publishing one blog a month – they are not doing it enough.
The internet is still the first port of call for anyone searching for a new service, company recommendation or the answer to a niggling question. Blogs still generate SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and can use Key Words to index your company in a Google search ahead of another business 100 times your size.
One of my clients is Fluenta – a provider of ultrasonic sensing technology for the measurement of flare gas. Fluenta writes and publishes a blog each week. If you search ‘flare gas’ in Google, Fluenta blogs appear second and third in the results – below Wikipedia and ahead of 4,909,997 other links.
The potential for a good blog to drive a business’ reputation, position as a thought leader and ultimately, sales – is still there. Companies just need to change the way they think about blogging to make it work:
• Know your motivation: why are you creating the content in the first place?
• Know the audience: understanding your client/customer personas gives massive insight into the content that resonates with them
• Get those keywords in: when you know your topic and audience, find the words to fit. Look at what is trending and relates to your topic.
• Keep it coming: blog regularly and consistently. Allocate time to write and get new content uploaded on the same day every week
• Check your competition: you do not want to write something you biggest competitor covered last week
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