I’ve become more convinced than ever that the blog is the center tool of all the other social media tools, mainly because it functions like a website and because if updated regularly, it not only allows you to post material to social media sites, but also helps with the search engine optimization for your website. As such, I think any business that’s serious about using online marketing needs to integrate a blog into their website, in order to take advantage of what a blog can offer.
Don’t think of a blog as just a tool to post articles. It’s much more than that. Posting links with your status updates that lead back to your blog can be very effective, especially, if people can visit your website and look at everything else you have to offer. A blog is its own call to action, with an invitation to visit the rest of the real estate you have on the web.
If you do online radio shows, or videos, these can also be put on your blog to offer interactivity, or they can be used to point people to your site. Integrating them into your blog, along with your twitter and Facebook accounts can make your blog a social media hub of activity, which in turn can help draw traffic into your site.
A blog is only useful if you actually use it, but the benefit of using it is that you are able to provide information to people and establish and sustain your credibility as a thought leader in your field, so that when people visit your site they see the benefits you have to offer and consider carefully the merits of working with you.
The blog is the next website, and if you don’t have a blog integrated into your website, you are already falling behind. Even if you aren’t sure how you’ll use a blog, it’s useful to get your website set up on a blog platform because of how easy it is to change settings and update features on your website. But I do recommend actually using the blog component as well, even if its just to write the occasional informational article about your industry. There will be people who are interested in what you have to share and the blog will act as a great introduction to your website.
I had pretty much written off blogs until reading your description of what they could be and how they could be used.
Most of what I have seen have been little more than self-absorbed journals which seemed to be written by individuals who couldn't stand to be quiet by themselves for a minutes and who had to tell the world of every movement they made as if to prove they were alive.
Your suggestion of linking to web pages which offer answers or detail to issues or concerns that have arisen is certainly more interactive as a use .. although I have most often seen this format in well moderated forums.
A very positive perspective. I will reconsider the potential of a blog.
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