Personal blogs: this is usually a personal diary, opinion posts or views on a hobby.
Business blogs: these are a communication tactic for small medium and large corporations to communicate with clients then share expertise and information.
More and more businesses are starting to use blogs as a powerful communications tool. They are an excellent way for any business large or small to showcase its expertise, drive additional traffic to their existing website or the site of strategic alliances.
However, the most important benefit of a business weblog is that it allows you to connect directly with your clients.
Why a business blog makes sense:
- Blogging is easy. Simply write your thoughts, link to your web page, and publish to your blog, all at the push of a few buttons. Blog software companies such as WordPress or BlogSpot offer easy blogging tools to get started.
- Blogging saves money. For small business owners without the time to learn web html or the money to hire a designer/developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get communicating with your clients.
- Blogging is quick. Most businesses don’t update their website frequently. A blog allows you to provide up-to-date information to your customers quickly and easily. It’s much easier to update a blog than your website, and it requires no special technical skills.
- Blogging shows you are for real. They provide you with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience.
- Blogging increases your visibility in search engine results. As you blog about topics, you increase your business visibility in search engine results for those topics. A business blog with posts written around your most desired search results raises your visibility, making it easier for potential customers to find you.
- Blogging can position you as the expert. Your blog gives you the platform to demonstrate the expertise and service you can offer your existing clients and promote you to potential prospects.
- Blogging can make you money. A blog can be an integral part of your on-going service proposition and can be included in any or all of the propositions you offer clients.
For an example of a business blog why don’t you check out some of your competitors? It might give you the inspiration to start your own.
The clear marketing difference between the baby boomer generation and the rising millennials is this: Baby boomers are the Google generation. They will research their issues. They will Google your business before meeting.
Millennials have moved on from Google. They value engagement, they seek debate and they watch rather than read.
They seek answers not through websites but through social media and YouTube videos from debate-formers and thought leaders.
How well does your business use video blogs and how do you position yourself as a thought leader in your field?
Finally, millennials across the globe are driving financial social responsibility and actively seek businesses that they perceive or have researched to have a social responsibility ethos and policy.
For years experts have told businesses of the opportunities of baby boomers and how to reach this market segment. While they are still very important the markets of the future for any long term business model will be the millennials.
Success will take a new approach to marketing and social media and the businesses that address this now can ensure they are fit for the future and ready for the millennial clients of the next decade and beyond.
John Joe McGinley is founder of Glassagh Consulting
