Henry Copeland of Blogads has a pretty compelling contrarian review of the recent Business Week article Blogs Will Change Your Business. In short, BW is "often jumps on the bandwagon just as it goes off the cliff", or so says Henry. I tend to agree, and do have some issues with the short shrift techno babble cursory manner in which they dealt with blogs. They usually do this on any number of topics, so no real surprises here.
At the end of the day, I guess I’m thankful that they’re raising the level of blog awareness among the BW audience. (mid to upper level managers in almost every company in the US) On the other hand, I’m already being asked by my corporate friends about some of the facts, figures and examples that were handily glossed over in their cutesy blog-like format of the article. More work on my part, but at least were having the conversation on blogs.
My business and I have benefited greatly from blogging however, I don’t believe every business needs a blog. BW overstated the need.
A hammer, screw driver, saw, and measure tape all have a place in a tool box. Each serves a particular function and use. Each is the right tool at the right time and none are the only tool you need.
Blogs are a tool of business; they sit in the tool box alongside direct mail, print advertising, signage, websites, and other marketing means. A blog is not a strategy and it’s not a must have for every business.
The only marketing and sales plan that matters is the one that works. To say every business needs a blog is to me to say you don’t understand business.
Blogs – just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Comment by Jim Logan — May 3, 2005 @ 12:03 pm
The BW article was just a hash of everything that has been rolling around the blogosphere for the last 12 months. It’s good to get the conversation flowing however it didn’t go nearly far enough.
Blogs are really just the tip of the iceberg. The really big issues for corporates are that they are now operating in transparent markets, that assumptions about command and control that have gone unchallenged for years are starting to look a bit fragile, that the notion of IP is changing, that communications infrastructure has changed…..
I think of it as a change from Inside>Out to Outside>In. Easy in theory, really challenging in practice…
Comment by James Cherkoff — May 4, 2005 @ 8:14 am
I liked the BW article for what it was.
Comment by jr — June 17, 2005 @ 7:27 pm
I have to agree with several other comments here, a blog is just another medium for contacting people, not to be used solely on its own, but alongside traditional methods, if it wasnt a blog then it would be some other latest ‘craze’.
Comment by Jim Jensen — June 22, 2005 @ 7:33 am
I thought the article to be a good review on the whole although a little hyped for the American market. We all need to consider and re-consider the tools we use to communicate with our customers and this article gave us a perspective from which to evaluate our current tools of communication. Good on ya BW.
Comment by Diana Terrones — June 29, 2005 @ 5:57 pm
Please could you have me by educating me on what subject I should deal on my blog to gain attention and traffic
Thanks
Comment by chukky — July 8, 2005 @ 11:29 am
For me, blogs are another way to communicate.
Will it change your business…? well that depends on your business.
Remember also that some journalists may not have alot of control over how their articles are printed – in relation to headlines, and content…
Casey
Comment by Business Coach — July 11, 2005 @ 1:28 am
There’s an old investor’s tip: When youru company makes the cover of BusinessWeek, sell yor stock. The wisdom behind it is that BusinessWeek often discovers a trend just about when it’s hitting a peak. In this case, I’d like to think they were spotting a trend just when it is taking off.
Comment by shel Israel — July 16, 2005 @ 8:47 pm
As with any other form of “advertising”, you can’t expect a business blog will work on its own to help grow your business… there are just too many sites out there for someone – the right someone to just stumble across your blog. You need to drive traffic through advertising, page rank, well-written and targeted content, links in to build page-rank, etc.
However, that said I believe a blog can be used effectively for business… as long as it is remembered that it is part of business–so it needs to be taken seriously to be successful
Meghan Wier
Comment by Meghan Wier — July 27, 2005 @ 4:14 pm