Why Not to Blog – Part 1
2009
I’m a big fan of blogging but I don’t recommend it for everyone. In a speech I gave at GraphExpo last October I provided 9 Do’s and 1 Don’t for marketing in the digital age. Blogging was my recommended Don’t. Here’s three reasons why.
1. Most blogs fail. It’s that simple. The writers lose interest, commitment, don’t think anyone is reading them, don’t market the blogs, don’t engage readers…. this list is endless.
2. Blogs are not websites. They need to have a person, or defined persons, updating them regularly with a unique voice. A website represents a company. A blog represents a person. That’s why a company gets a website and a CEO may have blog.
3. Blogs require talent. Writing talent to be specific. To be read, the blog first needs to be written and, again, in a personal voice. So, if you are going to delegate the blog to a talented employee, know he or she has to also have the authority to write in his or her voice, not yours. Blogs should not be ghost written.
In my speech, I gave other reasons blogging may not be for you. I’ll save that for a future post. Meanwhile, it should come as no surprise that a huge percentage of blogs are abandoned or fail. In The New York Times, an article on blogging noted that 2008 research showed only 7.4 million out of 133 million blogs had been updated in the last 120 days of the study as tracked by Technorati.
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