Why blogs are bad for business
27/08/2011
The information on the web about blogging is one sided. It is mostly written by individuals, software or website companies interested in promoting blogs. There is very little consideration to the downside of a blog.
Yet company blogs have many downsides.
The disadvantages of a business blog can be categorised into different types depending on how often and how well your blog is updated.
Bad for Business Blog number 1: The forgotten about blog.
This is very common; a business decides blogging is the new ‘must have’ thing and pays a web developer to implement one, or signs up with blogger or Word Press and creates a blog. Initially the enthusiasm is there and for the next few days interesting posts appear.
A week later a few more blogs. Maybe another a month later. Then Nothing. The website is left with an increasingly outdated blog. The marketing message here is that the company has no news, or has gone out of business. It is very bad PR. So an out of date blog is worse than no blog at all, and can be detrimental to business.
Bad for Business Blog number 2: The poorly composed or designed blog.
A company has a good looking website with a corporate style, and then decided to attach a word press blog to this. But styling is forgotten, and the standard blue Word press blog appears as an eyesore in the pages of the website.
Maintaining the blog is hardly the job of the director, and is handed down to the office temp whose knowledge of either the company of blog writing is minimal. The result is poorly worded copy. This gives a poor image of the company and can even be damaging. So a bad blog or poorly managed blog is bad for business.
Bad for Business Blog number 3: The super-duper excellent blog.
Some companies get the blogging right; they implement a well designed blog within the corporate colours and compose a structured and regular supply of blogs. These are well received and get good feedback.
Sounds great, So why is this bad for business?
The reason the blog is so great is that one of the best sales guys is now spending his time updating the blog. And doing it very well. In fact he is spending most of this time updating the very good blog, and as he is a good sales person he is generating lots of followers and readers. But he is not generating sales.
This ‘successful’ blog is bad for business as it is diverting staff time away from core business functions in an uncontrolled manner.
Of course there is an even worse type of company blog; one that takes valuable staff time to maintain, may contain good content but is not marketed and only ready by the blogger. This is not even generating PR and brand knowledge.
Having explained why blogs are so bad for business the real question must be ‘why do businesses use them and can they ever be good for business?’
The truth is that large numbers of businesses implement blogs without considering the business benefits. But blogs can be used a powerful social marketing and search marketing tool, and can be very beneficial if done right.
The blog module on the Cornish CMS was designed to help with marketing and help ensure the blog does not become bad for your business. It automatically incudes features to help with marketing and make it easier for the content to be up to date.
