I’ve been presenting on social media marketing quite a bit around Kansas City and it’s neat to see so many folks getting excited about the opportunities that these tools and technologies provide. But I’ve noticed something that’s consistently happening during my presentations.  As soon as I throw out the word “blogging”, I see eyes roll and shoulders drop throughout the audience. Geez….You’d think I was a Yellow Pages advertising rep at a search engine optimization conference.

For non-web-savvy people and businesses, the negative connotations of blogs and blogging are still top of mind. Do any of these sound familiar?

• Aren’t blogs just personal online diaries?
• If I start one, what the heck would I write about?
• I’d rather not create more work for myself or my business…

What is a blog…really?

When we look at what a blog really is, we have to remember that it’s just a smattering of web applications that have been tied together into a user-friendly platform to facilitate easy web publishing. Those individual applications combined provide both individuals and businesses with an incredibly powerful marketing tool that by far outweighs the cost of setup and creating content.

A Semantics Issue – You Don’t Have to Call It a Blog

If you can’t get past the negative connotations, let’s just toss the “blog” term out the window and call it something else. Here are a few examples: “Resource Center”, “The Latest”, “News Room”, “Press Releases”, “Case Studies” or “Upcoming Events”. Are you more comfortable with those? By chance, are one of those titles already incorporated into your website? Probably. Are you having to call your web guy anytime you want to add something new? Are you syndicating that content so that thousands of eyeballs are receiving your message within minutes of you publishing it?

Key Features of Blog Platforms

What really matters here are the features and functionality that a blog platform provides. It’s up to you how you position this area of your website from a content strategy perspective. Here are the key features that make a blog platform a no-brainer for most businesses.

1. No Programmer Required – I could literally teach my grandma how to setup a blog, pick a theme (design/layout) and start adding content. However, a seemless integration of a blog within a website will probably require some programming. But once setup, content updates can be made on your own.
2. User-Friendly Content Management Tools – Most blog platforms offer very intuitive tools for adding new website content, images, videos, etc. The experience is what I would call “stupid proof”, and in a lot of cases, the content editors have a very Microsoft Word-type of  feel.
3. Search-Engine Friendly – The programming backbone of blogs help make them naturally search engine spider friendly and posting high-quality content frequently acts as spider food and link bait.
4. Built-In RSS Feed - Realize that if you have a static, brochure-ware website, you have no RSS feed. And not having an RSS feed is like creating a TV show, but people can’t record/DVR it or be notified of new episodes. Syndicating your blog content online can mean thousands, even millions of eyeballs experiencing your content with the click of your “publish” button.
5. Reader Interaction – Blogs come standard with the “Leave a Comment” feature. Whether you’re starting a discussion, explaining a concept or promoting your products or services, interaction with interested parties is never a bad strategy. Listen, learn, improve.
6. Plugins, Extensions and Modules Oh My! – With the most popular blog platforms being open source (anyone can access the program’s source code), the programming/development community has built countless add-on programs that add functionality to blogs. Want a contact form? No problem. Want to integrate your social media presence? No problem. Want an e-commerce site? No problem. And these are just the tip of the iceberg.

My Recommendation

No matter your profession or business, if you approach me about taking your marketing or website to the next level, I’m going to recommend a blog. With that being said, I’m also going to help you develop a content strategy and the processes and procedures to help you support it.