Dear Diary, Why do I need a blog?
When I was a kid, my Mom bought me a diary with a small brass key. I wrote in it every day until my sister peeked into it and that was the end of my diary writing, especially when she found out I had a crush on her boyfriend. He was a dork.
I’d forgotten all that until people in the business started insisting that I do a blog. “It’ll make people like you … ” “You can show how smart you are…” yada yada.
So, I set up joyofdirectmarketing.com to write about our clients’ direct marketing efforts, as well as my speeches and books. Then my assistant at the time said that no one does direct marketing any more (as in direct mail – boy was she wrong). That threw a wrench into things for a while.
Then someone else here at the office wondered about the objective of the blog and if I was going to build continuity, progress constantly and develop content. Hmmm. This was becoming too much like work, not at all like my diary days when it was fun.
Then my friend, Amy Africa blogged that somehow my blog is stiff and not like me at all. No trolls and such. You can read about it here: Amy Africa’s QLOG
People responded to Amy (as they always do) with ideas for improving content, type fonts, email capture, colors, adding a photo of me and everyone said to lose the calendar. (God knows where that came from anyway).
So, I figured I should check out some other blogs.
Amy’s good friend, Debra Ellis, has an interesting one here: Wilson Ellis Consulting Blog (I adore her from Twitter.)
I attend #blogchat on Twitter most Sunday nights about 8pm, and Mack Collier runs this information-packed session (you need to be on tweetdeck though), and I like his blog: Mack Collier’s Blog
I now read Dianna Huff’s b-to-b blog all the time: Dianna Huff’s Blog
And for fun, I follow the Brazen Careerist, Penelope Trunk – a city person marrying a farmer who has somehow got me engaged in her whole life, like a soap opera. Take a look at it: Penelope Trunk’s Blog
My friend Dwain told me about the blog: Small Dead Animals. Take a look at it here, and you’ll be hooked: SmallDeadAnimals.com
As I’m checking them all out, I’m wondering more and more why I need a blog, what it’s good for. I still have no idea.
If you get a chance, let me know what you think! Thank you.
12 comments
Lois,
I have a blog because it lets me fulfill my secret dream: being a newspaper columnist.
Great post! And keep it up — blogging that is. You’re a pro at this. You used to write that fabulous column in Target Marketing. Which I *always* read without fail.
Lois,
Thank you for including my blog and me in your post. I hope that you decide to continue blogging, but only if it is fun and in your voice.
Amy’s post gives you a good start on the technical side of it. The passion side of it is up to you. If your heart isn’t in it, blogging will be a chore.
If you need a reason, I have one for you: Your experiences and perspective are unique. Sharing them with others would be a gift.
Bottom line: If you enjoy doing it, continue. If not, stop.
Thank you, Dianna and Debra…I yak so much in speeches and in life, and on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and not sure I have anything left to talk about now.
Think of blogging as a way to let people see the real you…like on Twitter, just bigger and with a lot more characters. Have planned to do my own blog in conjunction with my hopefully soon-to-be-launched web site, coming soon to a monitor near you!
Most…OK, some… web sites do a fairly good job of talking about your business, your services or products, your credentials, awards, press releases, etc. but often lack our personalities. Blogs can fill that gap an at the same time engage your customers in a more personal relationship.
At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Not everyone needs to blog. And anyone who tells you different is full of crap.
Blogging has always been about passionate people expressing passionate thoughts, opinions and other expressions. That’s what makes it special. It’s your forum for being heard on subjects that really matter to you. Some people are good at that and some aren’t. Saying that everyone should be good at it is ludicrous. And reducing it to a mere marketing tactic that must be achieved in order to somehow be transparent, increase depth of content and raise page rankings is foolish. Frankly, we all could do with a lot less of the noise out there that passes itself off as relevant content.
Having said all this, Lois, you are a great writer who is very passionate about her subject matter. So I’m very glad that you blog and tweet. But my only advice is don’t force it any more than you would force yourself to get out a chapter of a book. Wait for inspiration and then unleash your passion. Sometimes it will be daily. Sometimes we may not hear from you in a week or two. (That may give a few SEO experts a reason to cringe, but so be it.) Just be genuine and that’s enough. We’ll be here waiting.
Bob Knorpp
Host of The BeanCast Marketing Podcast
Posts every Monday @ http://beancast.us
Lois- I read this post over a day ago and it’s caused me to think about my own blogging challenges while trying to encourage you. My site is not nearly as far along as yours, so I don’t claim to speak from experience as an overcomer.
For me, I must find either a Passion, a Vision, or a Mission for my blogging (with specific definitions) – and probably you need to find your equivalent to one of these to go forward.
Debra above spoke about Passion, which I define here as something you just have to write about regardless of whether anyone is listening. I can’t do that.
In this instance a Vision shows itself in a crusade – a desire to “convert” the audience to your way of thinking for their own good. I feel Relevance Marketing is supremely beneficial for businesses, but I’m too pragmatic (curmudgeonly? lazy?) to form the Relevance Templars.
In this case I’ll define a Mission as an ongoing act of enlightened self interest. I have something important to say to my prospects that can significantly improve their sales and marketing in these hard times, and in doing so I’ll benefit if they hire me.
There – I now have a reason to blog like I know I should. I just have to commit the time and effort to achieving critical mass in my daily/weekly actions to make blogging a habit. For me, once anything is a habit it gets done. Will I do it? We’ll see.
Thanks for this opportunity to clarify my thoughts. I hope it will in some way help you, too.
Lois I agree 100% with you and the earlier reader comment about the amount of noise and relevancy of most blogs.
There is so much content out there that just doesn’t add any insight or value, but just recycles stuff we already knew or don’t care about.
I follow only a small number of blogs and selectively seek out writers who add some value or fresh insight on a number of topics.
When it comes to DM, I’ve you’re book, Drayton Bird and Ogilvy, and the full extent of my marketing library is probably no more than 2 dozen books.
It’s quality not quantity I seek, and business blogging unfortunately only seems to service the latter!
Lois. Good list of blogs thanks for sharing that, I hope that one day you will find our company blog useful to you. I have to be honest it’s has been a struggle on my end to get my co-workers enthused about doing this. But I believe it is such an important key to our success. I am hoping that by example and through traffic reporting I can continue to make the case as to why we need to be doing this. We need to be sharing why we are experts at what we do, and why people should be trying to find us when they need website development and marketing services. If we aren’t taking time to share and propagate our ideas then what does that say to our potential clients? We need to continue to share our insights and expertise because that is what helps us increase our relevance and accessibility online.
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As you mentioned Penelope Trunk, it reminded me of her Guide to Blogging (in case you haven’t looked through it yet)
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/penelopes-guide-to-blogging/
I follow several blogs maintained by marketing companies. Not sure how much it adds to their authority in the eyes of clients, but at least it helps with their website’s SEO and networking within the field.
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