We-blog: 8 reasons that blog is what you need

From the weblogers diary

Bloggers, blogosphere, blogging - we know a lot of words connected with blog. We use them everyday, but do you know where word "blog" comes from? Let us go far, to the roots of blogging: the first weblog, which is a combination of words web and log, was set up in 1997 by John Berger. Short and well-known blog was formed form weblog afterwards.

1997 is a history now. It's no surprise that the essence of bloggin has changed a lot since then. It's no longer a place where teens, who get carried away by theirs emotions, describe how was their day, adding some pics for effect (now we have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc, don't we?). Nowadays blogging is associated with professional bloggers, who built their own brand in this way. And they sometimes created real, big Internet empire.

Blogs not only personal

Also a company can be a bloger and by this way it deliberately taking difficult task to come into being in the Internet. The goals of having company blog may be different: from increasing visits on a website, by conversion boosting, and building an expert image. The route to success may not be easy, but don't give up! The effects can be really spectacular.

For someone information that company's blog can contribute to increase of conversion may be enough to set up a blog. However, we advice you to read this text to the end: although it sounds like cliche, the decision on setting up corporate blog and blogging regularly should based on solid analysis. On the face on it, blog looks like simple way to business success, but not everybody should have one.

Blogger test

How we can check if our corporate blog will be beneficial?

If:

• you prefer to do one-way communication and divest customer of the opportunity to shed tears and complaining,
• you want to see effects in 5 minutes after the publication of the article,
• you are going to save money, don't engage a copywriter and publish posts that are copied from other sites,
• you don't like regularity and you want to update your blog once in a blue moon,

our diagnosis is clear - let it go, you do it wrong!

But if yours answer on most of above questions is NO, you still have a big chance to be a good blogger.

Below we highlighted 8 signals the presence of which indicates that the company blog is what your firm needs.

1. You are ready for two-way communiaction

Company website is static and rarely there is a place for direct interaction with customers. And this is the difference between website and blog. The second one is characterized by two-way communication and possibility of getting feedback. Lack of direct control over users' comments is also what gives PR specialists the creeps and what pull audience in your blog. As research conducted by Blogifirmowe.com shows, up to 30% of men who read that kind of content on the Internet, comment it at least once a day. But this is completely diffrent when we look at the case of women: 23% of them said that they don't comment at all. Nevertheless, these research suggest that the mere opportunity to join the discussion in one of the factors attracts readers.

2. You are ready to give up the exaggerated promotion

Your blog cannot be just another place for pushy and exaggerated promotion. It can't only focus on the company and its life. There must be something more than the entries about team-building trip last month or receiving MultiSport card next year. Such information are, of course, worthwile when we we talk about PR, but they aren't directed to the customer, but more to potential employess (employer branding). Company blog sholud be highly relevant to the aeras in which the company exsists and operates - allowing you to create an expert image (see point 3).

3. You want to be an expert in your field

There is no that cheap and effective tool to building expert image as the corporate blog. Blogging adds credibility to your brand. Thanks to that we show that we know what we are doing and we're doing it good, we have the knowledge and we are happy to share it with others. It is really important for small companies which don't have big marketing department. A perfect example of companies that can see positive effects of blogging on website traffic or even the number of clients are law firms. Using their services is closely connected with some kind of risk that a potential client would like to minimize, so they searching the Internet for information. Create professional content which will answer to a most popular queries in search engines (we think that in this case it could be "how to divorce") is a way to build trust and show that we are and expert in our filed and we don't just want to make money - they got first free advice while reading our blog after all.

4. You want Uncle Google to like you

It's not a secret that valuable content significantly affects the traffic coming from search engines. Blog entries are full of keywords, so it can be the perfect tool to "pull in" new users to our home page. Regular publish posts with unique content (which is not duplicated form other subpages of our webiste or copied from others) is what Google likes the most. Google puts on the usability of search results and prefers content, which answer questions bothering users. If you want to be successful in SEO, you should keep your watchful eye on branch in which you exsist. And this eye should be the eye of customers. Consider what questions they may have, what are they looking for and what can make a problem for them - this is what they will google. You should make sure that your copmany blog contains the answers they need.

5. You want to go viral

The truth is that interesting and unique article promotes itself. It's much more easy (and much more cheap) to raise awarness of brand among customers by creating valuable content than using other marketing tools. We must not deceive ourselves - not every post will trigger a wave of shares and likes. So when we decided that we'll set up corporate blog, we should know that. However, if you manage to get readers interested, there's a good chance that they will send your link to their firends. In this way you can gain new audience.

6. You want to give your company a human face

It's not about brand hero or cooperation witch celebrities. If you don't want to be associated with lacklustre Corp, entries on your company blog can be very helpful in showing the personality of the company. Publish article signed with the name of the author, don't be afraid of adding some pisc to that - it not only inspires trust, but also upgrades company image. Topics of the blog also impact on brand perception: try to add some posts which aren't closely related to the services offered by your company, but which reflect the identity and values of the firm. According to a study by Blogifirmowe.com, 79% of respondents like blogs with subjective opinions of authors.

Expamle of giving your company a human face: "new employee" post on digitaloperative.com

7. Your company want to to be modern

Company website is static and formal - once placed on it content, eg. section "about us" usually don't change for ages (or never). This is why today's startups consciously often resing from the website and set up blog where they posting all important information. Reserach conducted by Blogifirmowe.com shows that running a company blog tells of its modernity.

8. Systematic is not a scary monster for you

If you want the company's blog to realized some goals (eg. increase of website traffic or conversion), you have to take care of the content regularly. Publishing once in a blue moon make no sense - you'll better let go if you're not ready for systematic blogging. Hubspot cunducted research which showed that companies that blogging more than 15 times a month gain 5 times more website traffic than those that don't. What is more, increasing the frequency of posting from 2-5 times a month to 6-8 times doubles the number of leads. It's not difficult therefore to note that systematic blogging can brings satisfactory results.

Is it worth it?

If most of the signals described above characterizes your attitude, then the answer is simple: go blogging as soon as possible! BUT! If you have some second thoughts, remember that this kind of PR activity makes sense only when you have enough patience, time and willingness to wait for the results.

As indicated in a report published by Social Media Today as much as 61% of Internet users made a purchase decisions based on article that they had read on the company blog. This is just another argument that blogs are a tool with great potential and exploiting this potential can help you, and your company, achieve success on the Internet.