Just a few short years ago, companies who had yet to launch web site were thought of as pre-historic or dinosaurs. The same in beginning to hold true for companies who have web sites but have yet to enter the world of blogging. The excuses are many, none of which are really valid. They essentially center around budget, lack of contributors and not feeling they have anything to say.
Excuse # 1 – We Cannot Afford To Install a Blog
Seeing that WordPress is completely free, this is not a valid excuse. Sure you may have to pay a designer to adapt your site’s “look and feel” to the WordPress platform but in all reality, if you do not have any budget for this, there are literally thousands of pre-designed templates you can use. Furthermore, if you or someone within your organization has the very basic level of design skills, you can very easily customize headers, footers, cascading style sheets and the like.
Don’t like WordPress? Movable Type also offers a free version of its blogging platform.
Excuse # 2 – We Have No One To Write For Us
Okay, I can understand this one. You may have a small company in which you have just a handful of employees – none of which has any writing skills whatsoever. Does that mean you just curl up and completely avoid the blogosphere?
How about when your computers need repair, or the air conditioning goes out in your office, or the copy machine breaks, or a myriad number of other things? Do you just ignore the problem or do you instead call on a specialist? I would venture to say that most would refer to a specialist unless you are one of those die-hard do-it-yourselfers.
So, if you do not have any writing talent within your company – outsource. There are literally thousands of freelance writers available to write on a continual basis for your blog. Their pay scale varies from incredibly cheap to very pricey. Obviously the higher quality of writing you want, the more you are going to pay for it. However, even with a small to moderate budget, you can easily find a company or individual who will crank out posts for your blog.
Excuse # 3 – We Have Nothing To Say
Do you sell a product or service? If the answer is yes, do you have sales copy on your site to promote those products or services? Then you have something to say. Even e-commerce sites can come up with a variety of topics for blog posts.
Here are a few examples:
- Cover news in your specific industry. Add your own commentary to make your content unique.
- Write opinionated posts related to news and events surrounding your industry.
- Announce new products and/or special offers.
- Write in-depth product reviews.
- Highlight customer testimonies and praise.
- Do a Q&A style of post to deal with most common inquiries from clients.
- Publish company news – the more personal, the better.
I have exhausted the five excuses I hear most often from clients that continue to resist social media. Besides excuses for why companies are not blogging and in case you missed the other four posts in this series, other excuses include lack of control, no one to monitor, we do not have the budget and corporate red tape.
As I continue this series after the Thanksgiving holiday, I will look at six benefits getting involved in social media can bring your business.
David Wallace, co-founder and CEO of SearchRank, is a recognized expert in the industry of search and social media marketing. Since 1997, David has been involved in developing successful search engine and social media marketing campaigns for large and small businesses.
Aw shucks. and i almost thought that you were giving me a way to squirrel out of this.
I really enjoyed this series, some great insight David and you’ve nailed some key restriction points that companies continue to battle when considering the jump into social media.
I would also add that many companies and clients view social media as an “all or nothing” type of approach, which can seem very intimidating from the outside. Instead, companies need to understand that just starting with a regular listening and monitoring process can be a huge step forward to opening their eyes to the degree of interaction and engaging conversation going on that they need to be involved with.
I think many people that have excuses to get involved with any type of social media are more scared than anything.
True that if your not blogging you are missing out on allot of customers. People now look at the blog behind the website to get a view at the business.