by Heather Flowers-Forhan

Created on: February 27, 2012

Many companies that have jumped on the bandwagon for social media marketing have included blogs on their websites, and there are many good reasons for this. A blog is an online publishing tool, combining the words ‘web’ and ‘log’ that used to be for online journals and diaries. Today it is a crucial piece of advertising that many businesses are not using to their full advantage.

Blogging controls what is said about your business and costs virtually nothing. By utilizing free websites like Wordpress and Blogger, you can design, promote and publish your business in ways no ordinary website can. When Universal Studios wanted to advertise their new Harry Potter exhibit, they told six bloggers and let THEM do the work for them. At the time it was considered a risk, especially since Universal has such a well-known brand and could spend virtually any amount they wanted. But the idea worked for them, and this is why: Twitter is to business what the Superbowl is to advertising, sans the million dollar price tag. 

Engaging your readers with a blog entertains and delights them, while a website is mostly business to business or business to consumer. It is almost impossible to be found on a search engine unless you have more than one listing, and building multiple websites can become costly and prove ineffective. Consider your domain name for your website a train station in which nothing is built - no town, no houses, no population - because no one knows it exists. This is the problem many people face after they have already shelled out thousands of dollars to have a promotional website built. Most of the time, directing a potential customer to a website entails advertising that takes a lot of revenue out of a small business. Many small businesses don’t have the capital to hire advertising agencies or even to get a decent website that is encrypted with the proper SEO to warrant their website being listed on search engines ahead of their competitors. However, by publishing a blog you can creatively route prospective consumers to your website without them realizing it.

In summary, it is the digital age. Advertising has witnessed a revolution in which people DVR their favorite shows so they can avoid commercials. Magazines and print media are being replaced by smart phones, Nooks, Kindles and online newspapers. Consumers are web-savvy and economically sound, and it takes more than a sound bite or smart jingle to grab their attention. 

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