Why Your Business Should Blog: A Real Life Case Study
March 7, 2012 /
in Blogging, General Information, LinkedIn /
by Mic Johnson
Blue Gurus has been in business since April 2009. This is our 146th blog post. We blog once a week and have, with few exceptions, every week since the business started. Outside of a few networking events and occasional speaking opportunities, our blog is our only consistent marketing tool.
We coach our clients to blog too, whether that be helping them get their blog posts out each week, helping them create the content, or coaching them on how to become better bloggers.
Blogging takes time. Blogging takes creativity. Blogging takes effort. Blogging requires consistency. Blogging requires commitment. Blogging requires good, relevant content. Blogging requires writing skills. And it’s for all of these reasons that many businesses fail miserably when it comes to blogging.
-Within the first day of posting the blog on our web site and social media accounts, I heard from people I know and people I don’t know commenting on the article.
–
Ragan Communications, a PR and Communications firm out of Chicago,
reposted my article for their readers and sent it out with their email newsletter. Others that saw the article retweeted it on Twitter, “LIKE’d” it on Facebook, and re-posted it on their LinkedIn status updates.
-I shared the article with
Eric Ly, one of the co-founders of LinkedIn, who I met at a convention over a year ago. His reply: “LOL Mic! Love the reverse psychology of all these points. I should NOT use LinkedIn. Love it!”
-In the first couple of days after posting the article, I looked at my “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” section on LinkedIn and two people from New York, one person from San Diego, and one person from Lebanon had viewed my profile. And that’s all that I could see (you have to have a paid account to see more).
-One of the people from New York also tried to connect with me on LinkedIn (I politely declined because we recommend that you, as a general rule, only connect to people that you know, trust, respect, etc.) I asked her where she saw the article and she said “A coworker of mine forwarded it to me.”
-A guy I don’t even know wrote
this article about it and shared it with his audience.
All of the things mentioned above are just the ones that I know about. I have no doubt that other people read the article, shared the article on social networks, reposted the article, emailed the article to clients, coworkers and friends, and more. Most of the time that’s what people do. It’s an added bonus if they actually take the time to comment or tell you that they enjoyed your article. In the end, the article spurred opportunities for engagement with other people.
Blue Gurus is a 3-person company and we blog every week. It does, has, and will continue to lead to business. In February, we had more than 2,200 unique visitors to our web site. A large portion of that traffic came from the fact that we consistently create good, relevant content via our blog. In fact, we signed up a new client just last week who saw Jason’s blog post
Why You Should Consider Migrating To Google Apps and reached out to us.
Our blog helps create awareness for who we are and what we do. Blogging helps us stay “top of mind” in Kansas City and across the country…even the world. We simply share our stories with people in the hope that it will inspire them or help them in some way. If we do that consistently and authentically, the business will, and has, come.
You want to stress over the ROI of blogging and social media? Be our guest.
We’re just going to keep on blogging.
But surely much depends on the business sector you belong to? What advantage if you sell ready mix concrete or skips? Equally time is at premium, and there is a limit to what any of us can cover. It may be that for some there are better avenues than LinkedIn. It is a matter of what suits the the talents of those involved, the free time available and where their potential customers are likely to be found
Thanks for the e-mail. I agree with the point about SEO.
I still believe that for many building up a good real, rather than virtual, network of contacts is a sounder proposition. If you look at the content on many social network sites, how many actually read 5% of what is posted to them? In that environment the effect of the advertising is perhaps subliminal. It is like the ever present bill boards that no one .reads but everyone notices eventually. Time spent has to be weighed against allocating time to improving existing customer service and enhancing the possibility of word of mouth recommendation.
On the positive side much of the web based presence can provide an affordable marketing vehicle for many. It is a game where cleverness and originality can match wealth and establishment, but how many of us have that spark of originality that can truly make us stand out from the pack?
I wish you every success.
You are most welcome. Thanks for the well wishes and additional comments.
I see value in both “real” and virtual networks, the latter being composed of many of the people in the former.
Great customer service and word of mouth recommendations are wonderful. But blogging, as one example, is a relatively easy way to consistently stay in front of customers…..and allow new ones to find you. Does it take time? Absolutely. Does it take commitment? Does it take creativity? Absolutely. Can you be coached to be a better blogger? Absolutely. In fact I have a client now that I’ve been coaching for a year who has absolutely gotten better as a blogger and gotten business from it….but it’s a marathon; not a sprint.
In the end, it’s about building a network of trusted relationships, wherever that may be, and staying “top of mind” with them by consistently communicating on a regular basis about things that help them…or educating them about what you do….or whatever. In person contact will always have value and is always preferred, but it is impossible to “stay top of mind” with very many people in “real” networks….unless you add them to virtual networks and then communicate to, and with, them consistently.
I wish you great success as well. Thanks for the dialogue!