The anti-blogging blogs (or the reality-check blogs–take your pick) continue. This one is from Jim Logan and his post The Temptation and Reality of Business Blogs.
Jim rightly points out that blogs are probably not the tool a small business and solopreneurs should use to immediately grow your revenue. He also gives a list of some marketing endeavors that might have a more immediate impact on your company.
However, I would argue that business blogging should fall into Stephen Covey’s second quadrant: important but not urgent.
I don’t think many people would argue that a business blog alone is
enough marketing for any company…even a business blog consultant.
However, it can be a great, long-term investment for companies and
businesses looking to have a conversation with their prospects and
clients.
Where do you rank business blogs in importance when it comes to your company’s marketing?
Are there people out there making the claim that business blogging is a boost to short-term revenue? If there are, they are full of it. That is just unscrupulous hucksterism. I don’t see how anybody who knows anything about blogging could ever make such a claim in the first place. Blogs help with long-term goals and often their benefit are not even directly measurable. For example, how would you measure Scoble’s affect on Microsoft? Nearly impossible to do so empirically. And yet who would dare deny Scoble has had a tremendous affect on Microsoft?
Comment by Michael Martine — August 16, 2005 @ 9:52 am
Peh… sorry for the bad grammar! 3 hours of sleep does wonders…
Comment by Michael Martine — August 16, 2005 @ 9:54 am
I am nearly three months into a blog for my company. When I first started I was a bit starry eyed about the whole thing. However, I suspect that my blog, like most things, will go through a typical “S Curve” and the biggest results will be a ways down the road. My first quest is to build great content. Second, find readership. Once these two are accomplished and added with some time, I expect that I will see significant results. Time will tell. I doesn’t hurt that I have over 3,000 people who have used my company to draw on either.
I believe the Blog environment is far superior to the static website that I have.
David Porter, Pacesetter Mortgage
Comment by David Porter — August 16, 2005 @ 11:43 am
Been blogging for slightly over a year. I have $35,000.00 in sales I can tie directly to blogging and would have not happened if I did not blog.
Blogging was built for small businesses like mine…
Comment by J.D. Iles — August 16, 2005 @ 1:12 pm
As Martine suggests, it’s unlikely that anyone who knows anything about blogging sees it as a short term revenue generator of any significance and if anyone is promulgating that and expecting to be paid for the ‘advice’, that would indeed be hucksterism. But I suspect that Mr Logan, having set up a straw man with his little rant about business blogging, is now having a quiet chuckle as we respond on his ground. As Rich says, a second quadrant job – not urgent, but important, at least for those owners of small businesses who are looking for a cost-effective, technologically accessible way to extend their reach and strengthen their relationships with their market and existing customers.
Des
Comment by Des Walsh — August 16, 2005 @ 6:47 pm
Apologies – that should have been Michael Martine!
Des
Comment by Des Walsh — August 16, 2005 @ 6:48 pm
Des,
No chuckles or straw man here. The post originated from two unrelated contacts with prospects that contacted me regarding underperformance in their companies and the question of whether a blog could give them financial relief. My advice to them both is to remove blogging from their thoughts and focus on more immediate means to buld their business. They need more revenue immediately.
After the second such contact, I wrote the post.
Jim
Comment by JSLogan — August 18, 2005 @ 8:03 am