A warning for blog evangelists (like myself). We should “…proceed more cautiously when promoting to businesses in such blanket terms that they must have a blog …
… because not every business needs a hammer” according to Things that … make you go hmm.
I can only agree. Of course, I’d expect everyone to agree. But it’s still valuable to remind oneself from time to time.
Actually I think there’s been so much discussion about when to blog, that it would be interesting to discuss when a company absolutely shouldn’t blog. “Things that…” throws in two suggestions. First of all when the company doesn’t need the work a blog might generate. That’s the easy and perhaps too obvious one. The other one is more interesting — “…if it takes the business focus away from what is making it money just to do something that may make them more money in the long run, that might not be a risk worth taking.”
Now that’s a question I struggle with every week. I know all the reasons why a company could use a blog. I have seen them all work. Blogs deliver results. But they also consume time. And they have this tendency to become addictive (that’s why we believe in them so much, I guess).
Reader comment by Susan Getgood:
“I think it comes down to priorities. Businesses need to engage in the marketing and sales activities that will deliver the desired results. If a blog does the job, it should be part of the marketing mix. If other acitivies are more approporiate , the company should do those first, and perhaps add a blog at some future date.
From a marketing perspective, I think the key is to understand that a blog is just one of the many tools we have to reach, and convince, an audience. It just may not be the right first choice in every instance.”
Fredrik Wacka is the author and founder of the popular CorporateBlogging.Info blog which is a guide to business and corporate blogging.
Visit Fredrik Wacka’s blog: CorporateBlogging.Info.
