Some of you may recall my last blog entry included a made-up term “Achrontastic Maltesia” as an experiment to see just how long it would take for something I post to be something my potential customer can find. Well, I’m happy to report that it only took 22 hours!! No, I’m not kidding, check this out:
The day after posting my entry Google was already displaying results for a term I completely made up. So what does this mean for you, the small business owner? It means that blogging is worth the time and effort you have to invest to do it right.
Before we get into it, let me make a quick distinction: I want to thank Susan Silver for commenting on my last entry and pointing out that blogging really isn’t free . In her blog entry on the subject she points out that doing social marketing correctly requires dedicated resources and time. She’s absolutely right; it’s not enough to just post and forget, somebody has to go out and share your blog entries with your potential customer. You should use blogging in concert with other tools to maximize your results. So keep in mind that while the tool may be free using it properly does come with costs.
Blogging should make sense for your business as well. If you run a local yogurt shop you may not benefit from blogging, but if you run a PR agency you definitely would. See our friends at SpinSucks.com . So how can you be sure that blogging is right for you? Ask yourself if you can provide some insight into your business or industry that has a fresh point of view. I’ve known successful bloggers in many industries. My friend Barry runs an organic restaurant with a very successful blog where he shares produce buying secrets and organic recipes. A former classmate sells vitamins online and blogs about his battles with obesity. What they had in common was the ability to sit down a few times a week and write a couple hundred words that people might find interesting. For some businesses this is easy, for others it’s just not possible.
Now that I’ve hopefully intrigued you let me rehash the benefit of blogging. In my last entry I shared with you the concept of the Google long tail and how blogging can create unforeseen search benefits for small business. By writing that entry on and mentioning the term “Achrontastic Maltesia” I proved that you expand your reach every time you post an entry. If you write about something generic you may not come up at the top right away but over time Google cannot ignore a massive library of content on a blog. Little by little you build presence on the Internet and your content reaches more people with every post.
What are your thoughts on blogging? What is keeping you from doing it? What would you like to know? I’m making myself available to all commenters on this post. Ask me anything and I’ll answer it right here.