About a month after I wrote a post advocating for having a blog, I chuckled reading this headline on The Wall Street Journal editorial page: “I Don’t Have a Blog and Never Will.” Welp, it was fun while it lasted —I’ve been taken down by the WSJ in one fell swoop. Fortunately, my despair was short-lived—and the piece, a worthwhile read, makes some eminently valid points about blogs, as well as who should (and maybe shouldn’t) have one, which comes down to distinctions between personal, individual blogs and business blogs.
Stephen Miller, the article’s author—and himself an established book author—points out that despite having ample opinions and a willingness to discuss issues about which he knows relatively little, he doesn’t want to put such opinions in writing. Hear, hear! Not every writer—especially not established authors—needs a platform for publishing their passing thoughts. If I were a published author, I doubt I’d be interested in maintaining a blog either.
But there’s a different case to be made for businesses’ launching blogs, which is to provide a platform for showcasing their expertise—especially if that expertise consists largely of opinions, whether on economics or personal finance or the virtues of hiring a professional to install your home theater system. A business’s opinions differentiate it from competitors—even if those competitors are never directly referenced—and the business’s willingness to share them freely and in well-written, easily digested posts can help build a consistent audience of clients and prospects over time.
An underlying assumption of Mr. Miller’s piece is that blogs are necessarily self-promotional and indulgent. He has a case when it comes to individual writers exploring their every whim, opinion, and passing fancy—the world could do with fewer streams of consciousness. But done effectively, a business’s blog can provide a valuable cornerstone for a broader content marketing strategy without striking readers as overly self-impressed—though this is admittedly assuming every post doesn’t focus heavily or solely on promoting the business. On the contrary, effective blog content shouldn’t read like an advertisement at all, but like a free advice, analysis, or opinion column.
Where I agree completely with Mr. Miller, though, is here: “Moreover, does the world need another blogger? Twitter alone has more than 200 million daily active users. The internet has spawned a vast amount of junk opinion. Call it the blah-blah-blahing of the world.” Amen.
“But wait a minute,” my handy-dandy imaginary reader notes, “You point out on your website that the world has gotten too noisy. How can you recommend increasing the volume?” Guilty as charged! And in our post-printing press, social media-awash world, more blogs and content only add decibels. But silence is a dubious advertising and marketing tactic. And therein lies the rub for businesses seeking to stand out from the crowd: how to make their presence and expertise known while avoiding contributing to—and thereby getting lost in—the blah-blah-blah.
Striking that balance requires publishing only top-notch content that contributes positively to the conversation in which you’re participating and informs your audience in clear, concise, and valuable prose. After all, the world doesn’t need more word salads—from individuals or businesses—but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t benefit from more high-caliber content written by experts. In fact, maybe that’s exactly what’s lacking from today’s conversation: more reasoned, thoughtful, considered, well-written analyses.
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