Burson-Marsteller Crossmedia

Why blog?

von Mark Howells-Mead

Most companies these days have a website to show their company information, yet as our Social Media Study showed, remarkably few of them (in our example, companies from the Swiss Market Index) have taken the plunge to begin using their websites, or the opportunities offered by social networks, to open up communications channels with their current and potential customers. Even if making the step into communities such as Facebook and Twitter is a step too far for a traditional company, there is one way which a company can easily, quickly, and usually inexpensively increase its online profile.

Most people who use the internet on any kind of regular basis, or who read newspapers, watch television or listen to the radio, will by now know what a blog is. While the term “blog” has only reached the mainstream in recent years, when social media networks boomed and began drawing more attention to the medium, the concept of such an information channel has been around for many years.

“A blog is a waste of time for our company”

Companies and individuals have been giving website visitors, customers and friends regular updates online about what they’re doing for years, albeit (in the case of companies) through “the news section” of their websites. What everyone now calls a “blog” is, in basic terms, a website or a section of a website featuring news, published in chronological order and usually displayed in reverse order. There is no difference between this logic and the logic of a traditional “news page”.

Could the reason why so many business managers are reticent when considering a blog for their company be that they are unclear about what exactly “blog” means?

One potential difference between a blog and a news page is the content: many blogs have traditionally been run by individuals to tell their friends and family the minutae of their daily life, share links to funny videos or pictures, or talk about their hobbies. This is probably the historic reason why many companies see blogs as flippant or irrelevant for a business. However, change the wording and refer to it as a “news channel” or “news section”, and the perception changes. Companies begin wanting to share information about their business and the website, using a simple editorial system which anyone in the company can learn quickly and easily. In effect, they want to write blog posts, albeit in a formal or more serious way.

Some technical experts would perhaps argue that there are differences between a blog and a news page: tags, commenting, “favouriting”, trackbacks, social media sharing tools, RSS and so on. But essentially, all of these individual features are ones which could very simply be added to the traditional news section of a website, were the programmer or technician takes the time and effort to add them… or even better, ensure that they’re included when the website is launched for the first time.

Increase your website traffic

I was asked recently why a website was seeing declining visitor statistics after its launch, when the site owner had spent a lot of time and money on building the site, and when the people who were visiting the site all gave glowing feedback on the content. There were two simple answers: none of the content had changed after the initial launch and there was no way for visitors to interact. If you’re in the same situation with your website, take a moment to step back and think like a site visitor. You’ve visited once and read all of the information on the website. Now what?

Make search engines love your website

Adding a blog or regular news section to a website is a good way to gain more attention for the rest of the website content. Add a regularly updated blog to a website and you’ll see traffic start to pick up. Search engines will love your website more, because each time they come back, they’ll see that your website is being updated. When the a search engine sees that information is current and up-to-date, it’ll usually give it higher rating than a website which is older: search at Google for “social media smi” and you’ll see that our article from January is placed at the top of the list; higher than many older social media and SMI reports.

Can I just set up a blog at a different web address and see how I get on? I’ve heard that a web address like blog.mycompany.ch might be cool…

Yes, of course you can… but first consider what the aim of the blog is. By placing a blog within your main website, you’ll increase the chances of visitors clicking through to further information on the rest of the website when they’ve read the blog post.

See how I linked our Social Media Study earlier in this blog post? That’s to encourage visitors (and search engines!) to continue reading other information on the website. Google groups results from the same website together, so a search for Burson-Marsteller returns our own websites very prominently, even above online encyclopedia Wikipedia (which usually gains many top spots in search engine result pages due to its relevance and the fact that it is so up-to-date). By placing the blog section within the main website, you’ll also probably save money on design work, hosting costs and technical considerations, as your current website layout will probably allow for a blog layout without too many modifications.

Placing a blog at a separate web address and giving it a different look and feel can be beneficial in terms of flexiblilty and will give you the chance to launch the blog without having to re-design or develop your main company website. While these benefits may make the blog successful, you should first consider how you want to connect the blog to your main website, and what effect diverting potential visitors to a separate website may have.

Automatically gain more visibility in social networks

By adding a section to a company website containing regular updates, you’ll increase the traffic to your website. People will come back to see what’s new, begin building a relationship with the company by following what’s happening, and even potentially share articles with their friends. One of the major aspects of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter is that people use them to share information: often a recommendation of an article (or “blog post”) to their friends and family. This usually happens when an article is useful and well written, containing information which is useful and which people think their friends might find useful.

But tread carefully: simply using your online presence to push sales literature or self-promotional news is a quick way to fail in social networks. Publish news about the company, sure: but aim to write things which your readers will find useful even if they don’t buy your product or service. The use of online channels is the modern equivalent of handing out free coffee or newspapers to commuters in a train station. By making a little investment in terms of time – perhaps half an hour a week for a short update or a couple of hours for a longer one – you’ll gain a good perception for your company. Word of mouth will start to spread and you’ll steadily start to gain more visitors to your website. When you start looking for new employees, candidates will be able to see for themselves how the company has been developing in real time, without having to refer to a standardized piece of text in the “about us” section. A blog is the perfect place to show the nature and ethos of the company in a transparent and regularly updated way.

---

Burson-Marsteller Crossmedia has a great deal of technical and creative experience in implementing blogs and content management systems at all levels, as well as a large network of international specialists in the field of communications and public relations. If you’d like to find out more about our services, get in touch and let us know how we can help.

Weitere Blog-Einträge »