Blogs are used by many businesses as a communication channel for product launches and updates. Blogs can also ‘humanise’ a business to its target market and they are an excellent way to build trust and credibility for your products and services. 

Each year, Technorati, arguably the most powerful blog search engine, publishes a “State of the Blogosphere” .  This is an overview, based on a wide ranging survey of bloggers from all backgrounds about what is happening in the blogging world.  Their latest report contains compelling data on the growing impact of business blogging.   Technorati tracks more than 133million blogs, which itself is an indication that the importance of blogging to a company’s online marketing success is not about to diminish anytime soon. 

In the latest “State of the Blogosphere”, Technorati found that: 

• 71% of bloggers are blogging to speak their minds
• 72% of bloggers want to share their expertise
• 61% of bloggers do so to make money or for business purposes
• 53% of professional bloggers aim to attract new clients

Almost all bloggers have found that blogs have helped them to gain credibility and become regarded as an expert in their field by maintaining and regularly updating their blogs. 

So just how big a deal is blogging? 

Back in 2007, Dave Sifry, the former chairman of Technorati, shared some quite staggering statistics about blogging: 

• 120,000 new blogs were being created worldwide each day.
• In excess of 1.5 million posts were being published per day – which is about  17 posts per second.
• Ofcom’s seventh annual communications market report found that UK users were more interested in commenting on other people’s blogs than in creating their own online content.
• Once an individual finds a blog that they like he or she will use that blog to share their own view rather than their own website. 

The argument for blogging is compelling.  We all know of businesses that have a blog – why do they do it?  Blogging is an affordable way for companies to establish themselves as a respected and credible voice in an increasingly competitive online environment. 

What do blogs do for your business?  

Like all other means of social media promotion, blogs can: 

• Establish thought leadership, which is especially evident by the findings of the Technorati State of the Blogosphere report.
• Increase traffic to websites, since bloggers can optimise for keywords using search engine optimisation techniques to help customers find their  products and services
• Help build links to corporate web sites, which will help your search engine ranking and enable people to find your business in online searches.
• Build brand awareness, which gets your business known globally, nationally or wherever you want to be found

Blogs have existed for more than 10 years and have become respectable and trusted channels for news  covering almost every subject imaginable.  Blogs have done something else as well;. in the last few years, we’ve seen companies use their blogs to make their businesses seem human again.  By giving their blog a human face they are letting their customers know that they are buying from a business they can trust. 

With the right blog content and approach toward your readership, businesses can develop strong links that will help them forge a solid online reputation and reinforce their brand. 

In the first two posts in this series we have focused on presenting  the business case as to why all UK companies should have a blog.  Tomorrow in the third post in the series we will start to cover the practicalities of successfully ‘Blogging for Business’

If you would to learn more about how blogging can help you to improve your online success please leave a message below or visit WSI IMS – WSI Internet Marketing Services for UK businesses.