There’s no doubt there’s a move towards an online society. More money is now spent advertising online than on advertising in newspapers. The new age of marketing has dawned, and it’s a fact that people need to feel a personal connection to your business before they are willing to get on board with your product or service. That’s where blogs come in because a blog does something a website doesn’t do. A blog allows you to personally reach and interact with far more potential and existing clients than you can reach by any other means.
You can use your blog to update and communicate any time and in real time with your clients, if you so choose. You can log in and publish a post from your computer in your office or home, from your laptop, by email , and it can even be done from your Blackberry or iPhone.
Blogs create the blogosphere, while websites are like standalone islands. The Internet provides also powerful networking opportunities that allow users to effectively target their audience by logging on to social sites like LinkedIn, Digg, Facebook and many and more.
Many business people are taking advantage of social networks to establish internet relationships withing niche networks and others, to participate in blog centered communities, to assert their business presence online, and to reach more potential customers, business partners and employees. It all means there’s increasingly an assumption that in the future most businesses will have both a website and a blog.
A Blog is interactive and is an essential part of the new Web 2.0 marketing tools. People no longer wanted to be preached to by stiff looking reporters with monotone voices on television, or shouted at in newspapers. They want to be a part of the communication and be able to talk back. They can have their voice by commenting on your blog. –
Google loves blogs and ranks them highly. This builds credibility, and because of the personalised content on blogs people seem to trust the message more, and enjoy reading more than on regular websites. — Why Does Every Business Need A Blog? by RACHEL HENKE
4 Blog and Website Differences
(1) The main difference between a blog and website is the communication style. A website is a noticeboard communication style. A blog is designed for interactive communication.
(2) Blogs encourage conversation, websites do not and that’s why businesses with websites are adding blogs, and sometimes forums and wikis to them for complaint handling, customer feedback purposes and for collaborative purposes.
(3) Blogs publish current news with date and time stamps, most websites do not. The information most websites provide is static, rarely updated, and the sites are often poorly maintained.
(4) Blogs have RSS feeds, websites ALONE do not.
Chas Simmons
May 3, 2009
I completely agree that a Blog has the power to communicate on another level that a static website cannot provide. I am an architect and I launched my website just a few weeks ago. From day one, the site incorporated a blog component because I recognized the benefits of promoting my business through direct dialog with readers of the site. A blog component is a unique tool to promote a personal connection with readers and potential clients simply because it’s a voice not otherwise available and a great vehicle that promotes conversation.
timethief
May 7, 2009
Thanks for reading my post and taking the time to comment. I do believe that in the future more and more businesses will be adding blogs to their web sites.
InternetHowBlog
May 4, 2009
I think website combined with blog + miniblog (twitter) can be very effective. You can use website to display products and blog to update product information and twitter to inform about your updates to your followers.
timethief
May 7, 2009
Maybe I’m missing something here but I don’t perceive twitter to be a mini-blog. It’s a quick and easy way to pass on 140 characters of information and that’s about it. IMO it takes less time to post new information to a blog for subscribers to take note of vis RSS feed, as it is to first post it to a blog, and then post it or a link to it to twitter.
carolynlee
May 22, 2009
Actually its a two-for. You can have your blog postings auto fed to twitter via tools like twitter feed.
CodeSucker
May 4, 2009
Great article. I’m convinced a great number of people are misunderstanding what a blog is and what it can do for a business. I’ve seen too many people with this misunderstanding launch their business site on a blog platform! A blog is a business site add-on, not a business itself.. I suggest businesses do have blogs, in case anyone is keeping track.
timethief
May 7, 2009
@Codesucker
It appears we are on the same page. :)
Kat Smith Starlove
May 25, 2009
I think that a blog added to a website is a very useful addition. It lets people know who you are and what some of your thoughts and ideas are. On a more personal level, it is a nice way of socializing with other people.
I am going to add this site to my favorites, has some useful information.
Thanks!
RankUno
September 10, 2009
Adding to the above points; blogs can actually create links for its own. When you publish a post on your blog, you can expect to get links from blog search engines and other blog platforms (Track URL). Blogs are easier to update as compared to a website. You can concentrate on producing original content for a blog post, publish it and wait back for the comments. Blogs are regularly crawled due to personalized content and frequent updates.