Do you like the word ‘blog’?
November 2, 2008
Those of us who have read lots of blogs, understand they’re populated by both genius and stupidity, in ever changing measures - and often within the same blog:
dot dot dot (insert mean spirited comment here).
Blogs are essentially a human device, and have that human fallibility ‘built in’.
So, enter the commercial organisation - put off by that blogging image, and quite rightly so, because;
- Everyone knows there was never much profit in constantly talking about yourself.
- A crisis in business reputation is often self inflicted (Cue joke with a play on words about the BBC’s ‘Brand’)
So, it’s an easy decision not to have a blog.
Only, people do KEEP ON saying that these blogs have a commercial value to the organisation.
Confusing, isn’t it?
Let’s face it, bloggers claimed the technology before it became truly useful. Now marketers love blog technology, but are hamstrung by the whiff of commercial hari-kari.
So, to get to the point of this post, why not approach the business blog issue with more clarity?
Businesses’ should not have blogs!
Instead, they should have;
- Websites written in a human voice, by humans
- Articles written for the benefit of their existing and potential customers
- Articles that show core business values
- Websites that make it easy to discover anything that may be of interest (everything, or not)
- Websites that work hard to raise and maintain the business reputation and avoid negativity
Oh, and it may suit the business goals to have;
- Website(s) that are exceptionally easy to update and maintain
- A website that allows anyone to contribute - especially your customers, prospective customers, suppliers, industry PR and journalists.
- A website that happens to appeal to search engines, attracting more visitors to relevant content and generating more business.
OK, so we might use blogging technology, and it may look like a blog (doesn’t have to) - but it ISN’T a blog, it’s content management :-).
We can all indulge our blogging selves, for free, on Wordpress.com, but our businesses shouldn’t.
They should have better websites.
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