As you are probably aware I am an avid blogger. I wrote my first blog post on May 28th 2007 for my first business Feelgood Organic Hampers. That means I’ve been blogging for over 6 years. However, when recently I was asked to link to a post with blogging tips in I found it hard to do.
So here it is, part 1 of my guide to the what, why and how to blog.
What Is A Blog?
The word ‘Blog’ is short for ‘web-log’. Most early blogs were online diaries written in the most part by techies.
Now a blog would be better defined as a website or part of a website that is updated on a regular basis.
I’d also add that blogs allow others to add comments although some bloggers do switch the comments feature off. For me comments are very important and I’ll discuss why in part two of this post next week.
What are the benefits of blogging for business?
Here’s some impressive stats
- 82% of marketers who blog daily acquired a customer using their blog, as opposed to 57% of marketers who blog monthly — which, by itself, is still an impressive result. Source
- Websites with blogs see 55% more unique visitors. Source
- Bloggers get 97% more inbound links. Source
But of course there are some compelling reasons that don’t require stats.
1. Blogging establishes you as an expert
Buy providing people with information and industry hints and tips people will begin to trust that you know what you are talking about. It’s a good way to build your personal brand as well as the brand of the company.
2. Blogging builds relationships with customers
This is one of the reasons that I believe leaving comments open on blogs is so important. Comments are a social outlet as much as Facebook, Twitter and other social sites are.
Most people who find your blog won’t realise it is a blog, they will just see it as a part of your website. These people may use the comments section to find out more information about the story you have written, you or your product.
You can also use your blog posts to answer customer questions both pro-actively by creating blogs around the common questions they ask or by answering the questions on social network by linking to your posts.
As with showing your expertise, knowing the answers to their questions and being able to respond will help customers trust you and your business.
3. A blog serves as the hub of your social media activity
You can of course set up a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a Pinterest profile and use them exclusively to share what you do but I always recommend setting up a blog as part of your website too. Or if you don’t have a website your blog can be your website.
A blog on your own website belongs to you, you are not bound by the rules and red tape that social networks have in place, you won’t wake up one day to find out that your blog has gone because you broke a rule that you didn’t even know existed.
Once you start updating your blog regularly it can sit at the centre of your social media strategy. You can repurpose content such as images and quotes from it to share on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Twitter.
What Blogging Platform Should You Use?
Here’s some of the most popular blogging platforms with their advantages and dissadvantages.
WordPress.com
Platform hosted (by WordPress) – This means you don’t have control over the hosting of the site. WordPress have it on their servers in the states and depending on who you listen to in the SEO world this could be detrimental to your SEO. (See these responses I got on Twitter when I asked the question)
Great for personal blogging – It’s a very versatile tool and great for a personal blog. It’s also a great place to start with a business blog. If you are not quite sure you are ready to commit try blogging on wordpress.com before you get your webmaster to integrate a WordPress.org page into your site.
Free – It’s free, you don’t need to buy a domain or hosting. You can sign up straight away and be blogging within 10 minutes.
Customisable– to a point. There are lots of themes for you to choose from and most let you upload your own header image. More customisation usually requires you to upgrade to a paid account.
No Google analytics – Google analytics have become such an integral part of my life I can’t imagine having a site that I couldn’t integrate it with. I don’t think that there is a better analytics platform out there. WordPress.com has it’s own inbuilt statistics but they aren’t as detailed as Google’s ones.
Tech ability required = low
WordPress.org (Recommended)
WordPress.org is similar to wordpress.com but it can be installed on your website, in your own hosting space. It’s what I use to power this blog and what I’m rebuilding this website on.
It’s self hosted – This means you can host it on your own webspace. You have complete control. You will need to buy a domain name and some hosting in order to run it but it is by far the best solution for business blogging. Most hosts offer very good value hosting packages. Just make sure you are getting one with databases when you sign up.
If you have an existing website you can integrate it into it. It’s probably a job you will need to get but this is probably something you will need to get your web master to do so there will be costs involved.
Most web hosts offer one click install – once you have bought hosting it is usually quite simple to install WordPress.org from your control panel. Check with your webhost if they offer this ‘one click install’ service.
Completely customisable – if you are a techie there is nothing to stop you building your own theme and making something totally unique. If not you still have lots of options for themes and style choices.
Websites can be built on WordPress – WordPress.org doesn’t stop at being a blog it can power your entire website as a content management system. See the website I just built for We Teach Social as an example.
Lots of plugins to enhance your blog – Plugins are little applications that you can add to WordPress. Pretty much anything you want to do; run a poll, set up a form, make it a private members site… and much much more can be done with these little apps. This is what makes WordPress really really special.
Tech ability = Medium to Hard depending on whether you can do the one click install. The good news is there is lots of online help.
Blogger
Google’s own platform – I’m not sure if this affords it any SEO advantage but it’s worth considering. However I wouldn’t recommend this as a business platform at all.
Platform hosted – By Google, as with WordPress.com you have no control.
Free – It’s free, you don’t need to buy a domain or hosting. You can sign up straight away and be blogging within 10 minutes.
Some customised features – There are various templates you can work with and it is possible to break into a small amount of the code if you do need to customise. In general customising to this extent isn’t something the average Blogger user would do.
Great for personal blogging – It’s a quick, easy platform to set up. It’s very user friendly even compared to WordPress.com. Your Granny could use it without too much help.
Tech ability = low unless you want customise
Tumblr
Tumblr still seems like the new kid on the block to me although it was founded the same year I started blogging. It’s users are the younger generation. 22% are under 18 and 26% between 18 & 24. Source.
If you are specifically targeting this audience Tumblr is a place you should be.
Free – It’s free, you don’t need to buy a domain or hosting. You can sign up straight away and be blogging within 10 minutes.
Mini blog – Tumblr has been called a mini blogging platform. Something between the 140 characters of Twitter and a full blogging platform. Some people do use Tumblr for full on blogging but it’s real advantage is the ease of posting short updates. It prompts you to post: ‘Text’ ‘Photo’ ‘Quote’ ‘Link’ ‘Chat’ ‘Audio’ or ‘Video’. It’s very easy to update from your PC or any mobile device. This difference means you could easily have a Tumblr and a traditional blog.
Great for curating content – Some of the best Tumblrs curate content on a very niche or specialist subject. Cats With Cash is one of my favourite non business related Tumblrs. I also love Laughing Squid’s Tumblr, curating quirky content from all over the internet.
Customisable – As with Blogger and WordPress.com you can choose a theme and customise it to a certain extent.
No non tumblr commenting – I find this frustrating. One of the things I love about blogging is commenting. I’ll talk about this next week. Tumblr just gives me the ability to ‘reblog’ (share a post on my own blog) or ‘<3’ (show my appreciation).
If you post a ‘Chat’ post people can join in if they have a Tumblr account but I find this too limiting for my own personal business use.
Tech ability required = low, yes your Granny could use this too!
Next week in part two I’ll talk about what you should blog about, what the ideal structure of a blog post is, tips on driving traffic to your blog and commenting.
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