Blogs - The Next Big Thing in Marketing 

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I’m amazed – my new blog has increased my web traffic by over 100% in its first month!

It has also helped sell consulting and keynote speeches, and I’m now helping others start blogs to promote their businesses. It seems that my blog has a somewhat different readership than my website and newsletter as well, increasing my audience.

So, what is a blog? The "traditional" answer is that it's a Content Management System. A better answer is that a blog is what a website wants to be when it grows up. My blog is typical in that it’s implemented as a very simple and small extension to my original website and I usually update it every day or two. Blogs by their nature are simple and regularly updated.

Most company's websites tend to be pretty boring and static - certainly most don't change in any significant way on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. Internet users typically don't have much reason to visit a website over and over unless they want to buy something. A typical and smart way to try to overcome this "pretty boring" scenario is to have "free" stuff available and update and enhance it regularly. "Free" is very important on the Internet. No one wants to read your marketing crap no matter how well done you may think it is. But add something free that users like and regularly update and add to it, and Internet users will begin to like your site and hopefully visit it regularly. Articles, bulletin boards, news items, etc. are good “free” stuff that might work. For example I have free articles on demop.com, a free newsletter, and regularly add new free things. Soon I hope to add audio from a recent keynote or two and may give out a few free copies of my forthcoming video from WatchIT. But this free stuff tends to play a relatively minor role on most company websites as they are primarily marketing vehicles. 

What if:

• The “free” stuff was the highlight and majority of the website?
   

• The website could somehow be less formal yet still equally professional?
   

• Users saw the latest information by default?
   

• The website was dynamic with very frequent new non-promotional material added?
   

• Users could add comments, making it interactive?
   

• All this information was archived and somehow indexed for ease of access and to make the search engines happy?

So, what do you have now? A blog.

Blogs are quickly evolving from quirky and droll Internet diaries to the next wave in the information revolution. They have been responsible for breaking a number of news stories including the capture of Saddam Hussein and the recent Dan Rather “Bushgate” fiasco. Many companies are incorporating blogs into their websites or encouraging their employees to blog. A number of books on business blogging are starting to be released including "Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies," and many companies are starting to offer business blogging consulting. PR companies are starting blogs for their clients.

Microsoft has hundreds of bloggers. Stoneyfield Yogurt has a four blogs.  Boeing’s Vice-president of Marketing is blogging for Boeing. Forrester Research has a report on business blogging and recommends that companies “Start Slow But Start Now With Blogs.” Blogs are a cutting edge information dissemination and marketing technique that is quickly becoming mainstream.

When you look at a blog you’ll see a title and a description of the blog, a number of dated posts with optional comments, and a sidebar that contains additional information. For example my blog is called “The Ted Rap,” its description is “Ted Demopoulos' thoughts and musings on Information Technology, Security, Business and more.” My sidebar, about an inch wide and on the right, has my picture, some information about me, some links to my main website as well as some other miscellaneous information.

 

Blogs can help companies market in several ways:

• They add a more personal voice to a company and add personality to its website and brand.
   

• They are a great way to publicize company programs, opinions and values. Examples include Stoneyfield’s program Creating Healthy Kids, which promotes healthy eating among children.
   

• They are dynamic and interactive and tend to attract a regular following of readers.
   

• Search engines love blogs.
   

• Advertising on blogs can be an effective way to reach certain groups.
   

• Due to their dynamic content, regular readers, and search engine popularity, blogs attract traffic.

Until recently, blogs were considered a bizarre Internet phenomenon without any use to most people. Now they are rapidly proving themselves as significant business tools.