What Is A Blog and Why Does It Matter For Your Business?

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As an early adopter of emerging media, and creator of WordPressTutorials.com, I oftentimes take for granted what I have my hands on.

We who live this ‘techy stuff’ (as friends would call it) like blogging, podcasting, video blogging, and social media – wield this bleeding-edge sword that’s powerful for business exposure, traffic, buzz, search engine positioning – and find it ‘normal’ or ‘fun’ or ‘simple’ – but to many others around us, its a whole new world.

After crafting a lengthy email to a potentially new consulting client tonight about the power of blogging, I decided to share a portion of it with you, my reader. Share with me your thoughts, would love your feedback, and appreciate any additional points you would add to this list.

A blog is…

- an interactive website

- written in a more personal and conversational tone

- a 2-way communication channel, that invites user feedback in the form of comments

- written with frequency, with new posts written either daily or weekly

Blogging can be used to..

- keep up to date on industry trends, developments, topics and issues; ie. market research or competitive intel

- stay current and conversant on anything and everything related to one’s industry

- build community, networking with new contacts, influencers and press

- serve as a staging phase for new material – to gather feedback, and then republishing in mainstream media or in books

- develop or establish yourself as a subject matter expert, having timely and informed opinions about a particular area

- listen to unfiltered feedback from consumers – getting immediate, free feedback without the cost and delays of focus groups

- engage your customers or marketplace with value

- become part of the discussion, to discover what the market is interested in

- generate a host of fans, evangelists and web links to boost your web property’s exposure, traffic, visitors, conversions & sales

- humanize a corporation/company; it infuses personality and ‘a voice’ into the company

- create buzz because your readers will feel like they know you, and people like to do business with people they know

- achieve high rankings on Google and other major search and blog engines

… and you say?

Sherman Hu

@ Tina, thank you so much for your kind words, very humbling.

Though I really appreciate your wonderful compliments, there are many giants who have come before me. I see myself as a 'subject matter expert', but not the 'G.o.B.'

I do have a heart for beginners though, and it's wonderful to see the progress of students, like yourself, make the jump to the next level with my tutorials.

Tina, thanks once again, have a fabulous weekend with your beautiful family! U ROCK!

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@ Trish, thanks for your feedback! Long time no chat eh? Hope all is well.

That's a good point, use it as a staging platform for your next book - get feedback from readers, and be able to make changes or tweak the plot or characters on the fly, kinda like having your own virtual 'writer's group' - then publish it via self-publishing (createspace.com, lulu.com etc) or sending it to your publisher.

Thanks once again, Trish. U ROCK!

Tina Nocera

Sherman is to blogging what Clapton is to guitars - he is the God of Blogging.

Thank you for crossing over to the language of those of us who are mere mortals and do not easily understand or digest your fast moving tech world.

Trish Jones

Hi there Sherman,

May be you covered this in general terms but I just wanted to add ... market a published book but giving away snippets and then adding some extra narrative to it ... and you could even write a book with your blog. Some would argue why would I want to read the book later, but people still like to sit with a cuppa and read something physical rather than piecemeal from the net.

Best,

Trish Jones
aka The Blogging Queen (you're King by the way Sherman - but then you taught me!)