Take a Walk on the Blog Side, Part I

"In today’s environment, hoarding knowledge ultimately erodes your power. If you know something very important, the way to get power is by actually sharing it."
~Joseph Badaracco

Quick survey:

• Who here has a website?
• Who is on Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn?
• Who here has a blog?

If you don’t have one, why not?

Everyone knows that you need to have a website. But websites are not that easy to set up, cost a lot in hosting and maintenance fees and are not that simple for the average user to update. However, they are as essential to business as the business card and I am not denying how important that they are. I don’t know about you, but I am a website snob. I see a lot of them every day and I know what I like and what I don’t like. And when a business doesn’t have at least some sort of web presence, I find myself not believing that they are at all real.

So why not start a blog?

On Entrepreneur.com I found dozens of articles written about harnessing the power of blogs to grow your business. In fact, one of them was published just today, May 11th and I will add that information to a future installment.

First, a little crash course..

BLOG is an abbreviation of “web log” since they started essentially as a diary. A diary is a monologue, never intended for others to read (and if you had an older sister, you know exactly what I am talking about if you ever happened to break the rickety lock and read her darkest secrets…you realized quickly that no one would really want to read it!) That is exactly what I thought a blog was about…self-centered, weepy losers with too much time on their hands ranting about whatever irks them the most or telling the most inane details of their daily life….

When people suggested that I should start a blog, I admit I was skeptical. Who would want to read what I have to say? Why would they care? What would I possibly have to write about on a regular basis that might be even remotely interesting? When I started, I didn’t even use the “b-word” as I felt there was that stigma attached to it and I wanted my writing to be more than just mindless chatter about what I had for dinner or even what the latest and greatest bead that I found to use. So I set out with a mission, a direction and a plan for how to get there.

A BLOG is actually more like a BOOK. If you were to write a book to promote your ideas, position yourself as a subject matter expert and share your unique expertise, you would find a way to take it on a book tour (like our friend Tom Girolamo). A blog can help you to connect with the thousands of people in the world who are seeking your ideas, your expert perspective and community with like-minded individuals. Blogs are all about building community and it is a great way to go on a virtual book tour without leaving home. And there are millions of people who are seeking what you have to say. Trust me. Now you just need to say it. And that goes back to having a mission, a direction and a plan for how to get there.

For my path to blogging, I started by seeking out blogs, and to my surprise they were everywhere! And they were good! I also ordered a great publication called Artful Blogging to which I now subscribe. This magazine is a primer on how to make your blog stand out from the crowd, and although it is targeted to creative types, the suggestions and examples would help anyone interested in starting their own blog.

There are some who will tell you that you shouldn’t waste your time blogging because it cannot be monetized and therefore is not helpful to growing your business. I will tell you that is dead wrong. How can it be wrong to connect with an ever-changing community of people who are carrying on a dialogue with you on the subject that you are most passionate and excited about? You never know where the next great opportunity will find you and I can tell you that they can come from all around the world with a blog. And they can actually be monetized to even make a little money on the side while you sit back and keep doing what you are doing. But more on that at a later time…..

So, why should you jump on the blog band wagon? In just a few short years, blogging has taken cyber-space by storm. According to Entrepreneur.com there are an estimated 175,000 new blogs and more than 1.6 million blog updates online every day. So, should your small business start a blog? I say yes, and over the next few installments I will tell you why. But here are a few good reasons why you should consider blogging….

• Blogs cost little, if any, money, are extremely easy to create and maintain and you can do this with virtually no training required.
• Blogs allow your business to appear more alive and approachable giving your company a personal voice which can boost customer loyalty.
• Blogs can help you gain insight into your customer’s needs and interests which you can use to develop products or services or simply fine-tune the ones you have.
• Blogs allow you to engage with current and potential customers in a direct, informal, no-pressure way.

Stay tuned for more tips on how to use a blogs and other social media to your advantage to be successful.

After all, you are a subject matter expert in your field and in our BNI Point to Success Chapter. You have something unique to say. Why not share it with the world?

And if you are a member of the BNI Point To Success chapter and you are reading this...please leave a comment on your thoughts so that we can continue the dialogue that this blog is meant to be....

Working Words Of Wisdom:

"Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them…Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes."
~Peter Senge