If you have an existing website and are prepared to add something at least every week or two, then adding a blog to your site is probably a good idea.
What are blogs?
The word ‘blog' comes from the combination of the two words, web and log. Blogs are online diaries or journals created by individuals or companies and stored on the Internet. Blogs generally consist of text and images appearing in chronological order with the most recent entry shown at the top of the page.
According to technorati.com, there are some 93.8 million blogs worldwide (more than 250,000 in Australia), and 175,000 new blogs are being launched daily.
Why blog?
For individuals, blogs can be a way to express your views, build a social community with a similar hobby or interest, keep a travel diary or keep family and friends, who may not be physically close, updated with all your news and photos.
For business, blogs can help you build stronger relationships with important target groups such as clients, the media, the general public and/or shareholders.
- Simple, low cost PR. Blogs are a simple and fast way to put information online.
- Establish expertise. Position yourself and your company as the expert and raise your visibility with your target market.
- Extend communications and customer relationships. Blogs enable companies to present a human face and voice to the public. Blogs allow you to join customer discussions, respond to concerns, provide tips and insights or receive feedback.
- Build community. Use blogs to grow group support around a cause, political issue, technology or hobby related to your product.
- Test ideas or products. Because blogs are informal and conversational in nature, you can publish an idea and see if it generates any interest or buzz.
- Higher search engine rankings. Google and other search engines reward sites with a lot of content that is updated often and have many inbound links.
Corporates using blogs:
Dell http://direct2dell.com/
McDonalds http://csr.blogs.mcdonalds.com/
Boeing http://boeingblogs.com/randy/
And from the normal to the novel!
The Age http://blogs.theage.com.au/
Pigs will fly http://www.pigswillfly.com.au/
Dogs with Blogs http://www.dogswithblogs.com.au/
Freaked out Fathers http://www.freakedoutfathers.com/
Crazy Aunt Purl http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/
Grab Your Fork http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/
As a good blog can help you build traffic, communicate, and more importantly, build trust. Many businesses choose to host their blog separate from their main business website. This can be useful, as it separates the formal from the conversational and casual and prevents these two styles from conflicting. But don't be surprised if your blog starts getting more traffic that your main site!