I'm a big fan of blogging but I don't recommend it for most people or printers. In a speech last October I provided 9 do's and 1 don't for marketing in the digital age. Blogging was my recommended Don't. Here's three reasons why.
1. Most blogs fail. It's that simple. The reasons they fail are also simple. The writers lose interest, commitment, don't think anyone is reading them, don't market the blogs, don't engage readers.... this list is endless.
2. Blogs are not websites. They need to have a person, or defined persons, updating them regularly with a unique voice. A website represents a company. A blog represents a person. That's why a company gets a website and a CEO may have blog.
3. Blogs require talent. Writing talent to be specific. Most printers are not writers. To be read, the blog first needs to be written and, again, in a personal voice. So, if you are going to delegate the blog to a talented employee, know he or she has to also have the authority to write in his or her voice, not yours. Blogs should never be ghost written.
In my GraphExpo October speech, I gave other reasons blogging may not be for you. I'll save that for next week. Meanwhile, it should come as no surprise that a huge percentage of blogs are abandoned or fail. In today's New York Times, an article on blogging noted that 2008 research showed only 7.4 million out of 133 million blogs had been updated in the last 120 days of the study as tracked by Technorati.
Keep in mind that that doesn't mean that 83% of blogs have failed. Many blogs are designed to be short term. For instance, one created by Julie Powell ran for just over a year, the time during which she was testing Julia Childs recipes. It was designed to be a diary of her one year experience. That blog resulted in the book Julie & Julia and an upcoming summer movie in which Amy Adams plays Julie and Meryl Streep is Julia. I highly recommend the book for any potential bloggers. It was instrumental in helping me launch my first blog in 2006, and it is still active today.
If you want to learn more about social media trends other than blogging, sign up for the NAPL's June series at www.napl.org/summerwebinars. This week we'll be discussing Search and things printers can do to be found online for free. On June 23, I'll be teaming up with Susan Wittner to discuss social media trends including Twitter. Hope to see you there.
~ Rhona Bronson
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