Wendy Alpine of www.alpinepr.com talks about the importance of blogging.One of the questions I frequently get from clients is:

“Do I need a blog? What should I blog about?”

In fact, that’s what I asked myself when I first started thinking about blogging. But the truth is that in today’s social media driven world, you can’t afford not to blog. Blogging lets you create content, position yourself as an influencer in your industry, and increases your web visibility through search engine rankings.

Here are five reasons why you should be blogging:

Have a voice.

Blogs let everyone be a writer or even a reporter. With social media, you don’t have to wait for a reporter to cover your story; with a few paragraphs, or even as little as an image with one line of text on storiesig for example, you can be the reporter, reviewer or opinion editor. Do you realize what kind of power that is?

A blog gives you the platform to write about trends in your industry, new ways of doing business or why you think your product stands out from the rest. If you market your blog through your social media channels, you increase your chances of getting “picked up,” and having others read what you say. Depending on how newsworthy a post is, it can be recognized by traditional media and end up as a story in the paper.

Be an influencer.

Blogging lets you be a trusted source and influencer in your industry. When you write about trends, react to news or discuss opinions, you are establishing yourself as an expert. Why is that important? Reporters are always looking for experts or trusted sources. Also, if you are writing about industry trends, you are more likely to be quoted by other bloggers or media which increases the odds of your message being heard.

Get higher placement on Google.

A blog is a website to which the blogger can add content whenever they want. And each and every one of those blog posts is actually an individual web page containing all of your business information. Each of the pages is a way for search engines and web users to find you. The more pages you have online, the more pages you will have indexed by the various search engines. The more pages you have indexed by the various search engines, the more leads you have the chance to generate.

Your competitors do.

You may not be blogging, but your competitors are, and reaping the benefits of producing content. You are doing your company a disservice by not taking advantage of this platform. Chances are, if a reporter or customer is Googling your particular industry, and you don’t have fresh content, your site may show up on page two of the Google listings. Unfortunately, a reporter or customer will have already clicked through to your competitor who shows up on page one.

Creates fresh content for your website.

Blogging lets you keep your content fresh. Updating your website takes time and sometimes you don’t always have a new product or service to report. But blogging twice a month ensures that you have fresh content, which not only keeps people returning to your site but also drives new traffic which could turn into leads.

Do you blog? I do, and in my next one, I will discuss the “How To” on creating a great blog.

 

Wendy Alpine
wendy@alpinepr.com
www.alpinepr.com
Phone: 770-321-1695
Fax: 404-806-5316