What a stroll down your Facebook or Twitter news feed doesn’t confirm, a visit to one of over 31 million blogs will — everybody’s got something to say.
If all the world’s a stage that’s being read about on the Internet, then bloggers have emerged as the critics and the experts. There are political bloggers, mommy bloggers, faith-based bloggers, design, fashion and music critic bloggers. Major news outlets — like Huffington Post, currently the world’s most popular blog with 110 million unique monthly visitors — have even spun out of what once started as “news blogs” in the early 90s.
Sarah Palin got it wrong when she said bloggers must be “… sitting there in their parents’ basement, wearing their pajamas, blogging some kind of gossip or — or a lie.” Blogs have in fact been rated as the fifth most trusted source for accurate online information and the third most influential online service, ranked only behind retail sites and brand sites. By nature, blogs are written in a personal, conversational tone which builds credibility among readers.
Blogs originated as more of an “online diary,” but they have capitalized on their “unedited voice of a person” (David Winer, inventor of the blog) and evolved to foster conversation and connections, create emotional ties and forge loyalty among readers.
Successful businesses know how to (1) gain new customers while (2) nurturing existing ones. And, the businesses who leverage blogs as the most powerful medium in their marketing mix are more than accomplishing both of these goals.
Businesses who blog are #WINNING
Companies who blog receive 97 percent more links to their website.
B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67 percent more leads than those that do not.
57 percent of online marketers say they have acquired new customers simply through blogging.
23 percent of top executives say they read blogs regularly.
Over 409 million people view more than 19 billion blog pages each month — on WordPress alone.
Adding between 21 and 51 blog posts to your site boosts traffic by up to 30 percent. And, when you’ve added at least 52 blog posts, your traffic increases by 77 percent.
What corporate blogs should not be (besides boring)
According to Winer, if an article “… was the result of group-think, with lots of ass-covering and offense avoiding, then it’s not (a blog).”
To create a successful blog, you don’t have to spew vitriol about pop culture like TMZ or Perez Hilton, nor do you have to rant like Bob Lefsetz, music critic, all three of whom have blogs with tens of thousands of daily subscribers.
David Sinick, who literally wrote the book on SEO tricks with his WordPress SEO BluePrint, says you don’t even have to follow a scientific formula to achieve the targeted SEO results.
“There are tons of different factors that go into ranking well, but the biggest is high-quality content,” Sinick said.
Businesses are supremely motivated by SEO, and Google is overwhelming the world’s leading search engine commanding around 70 percent of the market. Yet, Google’s own SEO Starter Guide agrees: “Search engine optimization is about putting your site’s best foot forward when it comes to visibility in search engines, but your ultimate consumers are your users, not search engines.”
For blogs to hit their stride and find an audience, content must be not only be high-quality, but published consistently, whether by guest bloggers or by a singular voice in your company — and ideally, by a mix of both.
The only thing blogging costs you is time.
The barriers to entry then become: My business doesn’t have anything interesting to say, I don’t have enough time, or I can’t think of enough content.
Problem solved.
From now through August, Shift Key’s team of professional journalists is offering blog writing services at a special rate. For $150, we will write one blog, anywhere from 250 to 500 words, on any topic of your choice. Take this powerful medium for a test drive, and see for yourself how blogs can work for your company.
Sources: The Washington Post, Content Marketing Institute, HubSpot, incomediary.com, statista.com, TrafficGeneratorCircle, Google Search Engine Optimization User Guide
This article originally appeared in the July edition of our e-newsletter, Beyond the Keyboard.
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At Shift Key, we make communication capital. We are journalists who know how to create original content, the foundational layer of digital marketing. We understand audience and the information your audience wants – whether you are an agency, brand, company or non-profit. Content is the bedrock of digital marketing. Shift Key creates unique and informative content that feeds marketing activities across a mounting number of channels, generating buzz for brands and leads for products and services.