Fear of Blog? Don't Run from New Web Tech

Being a self-proclaimed web junkie, new ways of using the medium always fascinate me. When blogs became popular a few years back, I operated a personal one on LiveJournal for several years as a way to stay in touch with friends and family. This was early social network days, prior to Facebook and Twitter, and having a network of peronal blogging friends was the best way to stay in touch.

Around 2005 or so, blogs took an evolutionary step, growing from a tool for "personal journaling" into an accepted communications method for businesses and news organizations.

Still, working in Northwest Wisconsin with clients less familiar with web tech, I find that the common misconception of a blog existing only as a "dear diary" sort of personal journal is still prevelant. Clients frequently react negatively to hearing the word "blog," and don't always understand what a blog can do for them.  Read on to see how flexible a good blog can be a key part of your professional communication!

A blog is not a personal journal

Let's clear up that misconception right away. A blog, or "weB LOG," is a set of published articles. These articles are "tagged" with code, allowing for easy sorting and searching, and are presented in a newest to oldest order so that the newest article is listed first. There are also additonal capabilities, such as "RSS Feeding," or allowing users to get the content easily and through software and methods other than a standard browser, just to name one. Although blogs gained initial noteriety as easy to publish personal journals, the powerful publishing tool was quickly adapted to additional styles of use, as a blog is at its core a more flexible way to publish news.

What a Blog can do

• Publish Niche News. Many upstart or genre news sites are built on blogging software to make it easy for their bloggers to publish their news. Good examples of some of these niche news sites are sports blogs, video game blogs, design blogs; in fact most niche groups have a blog and companies often host blogs relevant to their audience's interests to draw attention and help build a community around their brand, or simply as an alternative way to publish their own company's news.
• Act as Executive PR. Some companies use "executive blogging," or CEO blogging to give their companies a personal face. The blog then contains personal letters or messages from the company executive to the general public, their customers, and so on. The method of writing can also be done as formal or informal as the company would like.
• Give back to their industry. Some corporate blogs, like the Sitepro blog, aim to have articles of interest to their customers and their industry. Some articles in our blog are indended to be relevant for our customers, giving them ideas of ways to keep their site current, simple things they can do to improve their SEO, etc. Others are intended to speak to our wider industry about the technology and trends in the technology.

Find the Right Mix for You

In the end, a blog is much more than a personal journal, and can serve to be a powerful addition to any web site. It's just a matter of finding the communication goals you have for using the blog, and then writing good articles that keep visitors coming back.