I Really Really Really Want to Read a Good Blog

Many weird and wonderful things came from the 90s: Spice Girls, Tamagotchis, Kate Moss, Furbies, Leonardo Dicaprio and Recess are just some of my favourites. While some have disappeared forever, and others have come and gone, many of the most wonderful have never left our side! Yes, I am talking about Leo… No! Not really! I am talking about blogs.

If you are living in the twenty first century and you still don’t know what a ‘blog’ is, then be prepared to feel a fool my friend! Because you’re on one.

From the first term ‘weblog’, coined in December 1997 by John Barger, through to his contemporary Peter Merholz’s hilarious verb adaptation of ‘we blog’, and then Evan Williams and Pyra Labs’ daring reference to ‘blog’ as a noun came the birth of this international internet phenomenon. Our many present day terms such as MABs, micro-blogs, edu blogs, podcasts, photo blogs, and who knows how many others, show a general acceptance of ‘blogging’ as the norm in the twenty first century.

The main purpose of a blog is to discuss what your target audience will be discussing, or to answer what they will be asking. If you are able to rank well for this then, fingers crossed, your blog will come up in answer to a reader’s question. Then, chances are they will go onto your site, realise you do what they are looking for and BAM you have yourself a conversion. If you don’t get a conversion, you will at least get your company and services more well-known and potentially see an increase in traffic to your site. This, in turn, will give your site more authority in search which equals better rankings. With better rankings more people will be clicking onto your site from search and seeing what you have to offer and then BAM you will see more conversions.

Now isn’t that wonderful, the circle of online life.

Hey, That’s My Blog!

Not too long ago Matt Cutts created a bit of a storm when he announced that guest blogging is bad. His words were that it ‘had become too spammy’. Well Matt we do agree with you. In many cases guest blogging can be, but it could also be the start of a beautiful friendship.

When River Island approached Rihanna (or vice versa) I am sure the thought crossed their mind that maybe they could make some money from her endorsement… Yet the collaboration of these two huge names, both with very sizeable followings, has provided material (clothing) that benefits both audiences very well. River Island devotees get a fresh range of distinctive clothes to choose from, while Rihanna idolisers get to wear the Barbadian diva’s favourite pieces themselves. (For more about this match made in fashion heaven you may want to read our very own blog post on Rihanna For River Island by Christina.)

What wouldn’t have worked in this kind of situation is a clash of interests. If, for instance, Brad Pitt chose to collaborate with a high end designer’s perfume for women, then the audiences would become confused and it would not work in convincing anyone to buy anything. Oh wait! (Although with names of this scale it actually turned out that Chanel made millions of dollars in free advertising by everyone’s online discussions and deliberations, much like this one…).

So guest blogging, like your own blog, is not a problem so long as it is relevant to your company but more importantly, relevant to the audience (or audiences in some cases) intended to read it.

Blogging Can Be Serious Business

So by now you may have come to realise that blogging is actually a pretty big deal, but who is to say it’s for you? Well, if you are in any way interested in bettering the success of your business, connecting with your target audience, or improving your revenue, then it’s for you.

Having a regularly updated blog gives you a direct channel with which to communicate your brand to those interested in or around it. A blog will give you the chance to speak in your own chosen voice representative of what you stand for, about the things that you stand for. The tone of your blog will be dependent on your target audience: speak to those you want to attract in a way that is going to attract them. For instance, if you wish to attract business owners, you may need a more authoritative, serious tone to get them to listen to what you are saying. For a young audience, playful, interactive and fun content will be better to get their attention.

By regularly uploading content (in whichever form suitable) on your blog you will be feeding your customers more about you - giving them more to like! By giving your audience more to engage with, it is more likely that they are going to engage with you, and this means more traffic which therefore makes a business blog an excellent return on investment.

Not only this, but search engines love blogs. Fill them with content about your brand, products and services and you will reap the benefits in your rankings. Search engines will crawl your blog to find it filled with juicy, rich content describing what you do and the services you offer, and with all those tasty keywords linking back to your site they will index your site galore! And here we are again, with better rankings comes more traffic and better ROI and round and round it goes in this wonderful circle of online life!

For any help or advice with writing effective blog posts for your business, take a look at our SEO, Content Creation and Digital Marketing Strategy packages, or Contact Us for more information on how we can help you today.

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If you are concerned about Google’s stance on Guest Blogging, check out Mik’s guest blogging response blog post.

Image Credit

Photo sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spice_Girls_(6_janv)_56.jpg