That is the question. One echoed by many here at work.
Without a disciplined approach, building a viable blog reminds me of the old days when we did newsletters (the printed & mailed kind). The first couple newsletters got done with lots of enthusiasm, then the succeeding ones got harder and more painful to do. Eventually becoming non-existent. It’s the same thing with self-expression for many of us. Loud for a while, then you tend to quiet down.
So why even bother worrying about blogging? What does our company get out of a consistent blogging effort? And what evidence can I show our team why we need to get more aggressive about this blogging thing. I’ve found a number of good posts about this topic:
As Openvine states among a few other reasons such as establishing thought leadership for the firm, blogging will “boost search engine optimization. Search engines love fresh content. By blogging consistently, you give Google and other search engines new content to index and you create opportunities to plug in those all-important keywords to increase your visibility on search engine results pages.”
Hubspot agrees with this: “Every time you write a blog post, it’s one more indexed page on your website. It’s also one more cue to Google and other search engines that your website is active. Every new indexed page is one more opportunity for you to show up in search engines, and drive traffic to your website through organic search.”
As Hubspot says, “One hour of effort today can turn into hundreds of views and leads in the future.” To me, that sure seems to be a very good reason to get our blogging efforts back on track.
Well-known blogger and social media personality, Jeff Bullas has a different view on how blogging actually helps the individual with a number of side benefits, such as becoming a better writer, learning new things, becoming a better researcher all while you gain more visibility as an expert. And lastly, it’s a “path to not only self expression, but self fulfillment that (for him) has become a journey of self discovery.”
Seems to me there are a lot of reasons we should get this blog back on track – not just for the company, but also for our own personal and professional growth.
