Why are blogs getting to be so popular? Why does everyone (and their mother) have one? WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH BLOGS? In this post we will discuss why blogging has become an important staple in kickstarting a business, and tips on how to make your blog successful.
How popular are blogs, really?
In 2012, Blogging.org, conducted a 1000-people-survey from bloggers across the United States to create an infographic showcasing blogging's most important data. The survey found that there were over 31 million people in the US who had a blog in 2012, and of those 31 million people 43% preferred Wordpress.
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| Blogging.org 2012 Blog Infographic |
Today Wordpress states that over 409 million people view content posted using their blogging platform, and that Wordpress users produce around 48.7 million new posts each month. The site has a page showcasing their statistics for posting, uploads, and created pages on a month-to-month basis. In January of this year exactly 48,694,922 new posts were hosted by Wordpress, and 63,371,065 comments were made by readers.
Considering Wordpress is but one of several blogging platforms available, it's obvious from these statistics alone that blogging is continuing to rise in popularity.
But how will blogging help my business?
Blogging is a great way to connect with your customers and humanize your company. Blogs are becoming the go-to medium for updating customers with new business information, and allows the readers to have a back-and-forth with the company's managers/PR through post-commenting and suggestion/contact pages. Blogging can give a company the appearance of being more open and personal, and helps with building credibility and trust with the company's fanbase.Hubspot, a website focused on helping companies with their marketing strategies, posted a report on Inbound Marketing in which they surveyed 644 business professionals using their service. The research found that 57% of the companies reported they generated more customers through leads from their blog. In fact, the report states that businesses are now in the minority if they do not have a blog!
Jim Blasingame, small business advocate and contributor to Forbes, believes that having a blog can often be better than having a website, due to the fact that it's easier to create content and connect with your audience and future customers. Even if you are not a great writer or do not have a lot of free time, blogging is a way to get your message across in a quick and efficient way with little effort.
(For Jim's full video on why blogging is important visit this vimeo link.)
Blogging gives your company a voice, allowing you to talk about new products, company issues/news, and share your expertise with a much larger audience. Having a blog allows you to gain closer connections with your audience, and the icing on the cake: it's free. If you don't have a blog already, open a new tab and get started!
Okay, I started my blog! But I need some help!
I scoured the internet for the best tips and tricks to maintaining a successful blog, which I have outlined (in no particular order) below:
Speak to your target audience - Figure out who is buying what you sell and write for them. It's important to determine what group of people you are selling to and address them in a way they will understand and be able to discuss. Emphasize with your consumers: put yourself in their shows and write about what you believe they are interested in.
Make your posts quick and easy to read - Readers to not like to scroll through endless lines of text. Your posts should be long enough to get your point across, while also quick to read on a time-limit. Make posts scannable by cutting up content into sections, using lists and bullets, and having easy to distinguish headers and fonts.
Make your blog easy to search - It's important that your blog focuses on the type of content you want to write about. The title of your blog should be catchy and easy to remember. The easiest way to generate readers is though web searches: when your blog focuses on keywords and phrases that customers generally search for, it will often be found easier.
Make your blog easy to share - Whether you're using a site like Tumblr that automatically posts to other social media sites and offers customers the option to share your posts to their pages, or a site that requires a plug-in to enable cross-platform social media posting, it's important you make your blog as easy to share as possible. Many internet users are often using mobile devices to browse sites, and because of this it's often impossible to copy/paste site links. Make sure your site has it's own Facebook/Twitter/G+ share buttons so mobile users can easily share your content with their followers.
Make your blog easy to view on all formats - Remember those mobile viewers we were just talking about? It's important that you create a responsive design for your blog layout, so that your blog can be easily viewed on all mobile devices. It's also important to keep those who are color-blind or have poor eyesight in mind. Use simple color schemes and fonts to make your blog easy to view for everyone.
Well, what about you? What will you blog about?
As a designer/digital media professional, I believe the type of content enthusiasts of my industry would be most interested in would be new and interesting software/application/website reviews pertaining to working within this field.
Reviews for editing software, tablets, and other devices designers need to work in this industry, as well as my own work and projects, would generate an audience of others who are interested in working with photo/video editing, and are interested in networking with others in the graphic design field.
For more information on blogging tips and why business should blog, visit the links below:
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/10/10-tips-for-corporate-bloggers/
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