Is Blogging a necessary part of your marketing campaign?

by Sandie McCarthy-Roberts

Opinions are like names. There are so many diverse ones out there, take your pick on which one sounds good to you. My advice is to listen to those with the most experience, and make your decision based on that.

Social Media is so new that some of what we rely on is opinions. Experience is limited, but it is there. The trick is a mix of the two. Be smart. Don’t put all your eggs In one basket. That’s the biggest issue with Social Media. People rely completely on Twitter, or on Blogs, or on Facebook, etc… and that is as much a mistake as using no social media is.

The way that I look at Social Media is simple. They all get your message out. They all work nicely together. So why would we choose one or another, and ignore the rest? It makes no sense. Twitter, for example, is a great way to engage in conversation and share information, Blogging, on the other hand, is a way to tell your story. It’s more personal. You are inviting people and businesses into your personal space. You are sharing a part of who and what you are and do with them. You see, the smart person knows that marketing is about building relationships as much as anything else. How much is anyone going to listen to a sales pitch alone? We would all be using spam, if that was the case.

For that reason, you need to ensure your blog is used properly. Don’t look at your blog article after article that must be written. Instead, think of your favourite magazine. They build a relationship with their readers. That’s what you must do with your blog. It must be used as PART of your social media, to build a relationship with your client. Like any relationship, the more time and effort you put into it, the more return you are likely to get. That doesn’t mean, of course, that by virtue of writing a blog post, you will garner success. Again, it’s about relationships. You need to get people to read that blog.

How do you do that? You begin by reading other blogs, and commenting on them. You post your blog post on twitter, to draw your audience to the article. You post on Facebook and grab onto that audience. If this sounds very time-intensive, it’s because it is… but not as much as you think. There are ways to have your blog posts simultaneously put onto Facebook, for example. There are ways to minimize what you need to do. We’ll get into those specifics in another article.

In the meantime, give blogging a try… but only as part of your entire social media mix. Blogging, like social media in general, is not about creating a monolgue. It’s about creating a dialogue with your customer, client, or prospect. It’s about telling them what you stand for, and what your values are. It’s about getting to know them, approaching them about your business or product or service. And it’s about growing as a presence and then as a business.

Is blogging necessary to your business? Probably not. However, it is one more way of growing and sustaining your business. Why on earth would you shut that out of your marketing mix?