Blogging, It’s What’s For Dinner
Why blog? I mean really, WHY?!
I’m not deterring one from doing so. In fact, I adamantly encourage you to engage in this new social offshoot of a personal journal. Because for all intents, that is exactly what it is: A periodical update of your daily activities that, rather than being socked away under your underware in your dresser drawer, are paraded in full openness to anyone and everyone that wishes to immerse themselves in your most personal of zen moments!
But more than that, it has become more of an opportunity to advance your business aspirations by informing people on what you are currently engaged in at the moment. Maybe you have expanded your line of products, or have found some link that relates to your work and you wish to educate potential clients of the viability of what you are offering.
The potential of online communication can never be overemphasized. It is quickly becoming the chief means of communication for those who wish to expand the awareness of a business.
According to the most recent statistics there are, well, alot! Factor in that many sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace do not even officially qualify as blogs in many stats, and the some 112.8 million blogs tracked by Technorati since 2008 does not even include nearly 73 million Chinese bloggers. Add to that the almost 350 million people who subscribe to other people’s blogs, it is difficult to dismiss the potential and power of a blog by due to it’s ubiquity and popularity. Even Facebook offers “fan”pages for those who wish to impart a new product or service to others. I have one. It’s Joe Longobardi Photography. See? Betcha you’ll check it out! Buy my service and that’s food on my plate!
The Experts
Blogging has become very important to many business—particularly new upstarts! It is means for engaging in social and networking activity. Sure, you can build a better mouse trap, but who’s going to know it exists unless you blog about it? Heck, there are fan pages on how to engage in social trafficking! Like these guys.
Experts offer numerous tidbits of advice on starting and managing a blog. They also offer many reasons as to why blogging is a benefit to any enterprise. These include, but are not limited to:
- A less formal atmosphere. It’s a more open way to communicate with customers and thought leaders in your business community.
- The rapid, easy format of the blog makes it easy to publish a lot of content on different pages. Search engines love lots of new content with lots of internal links. I just described a blog.
- A blog is a cultural idea creation device. The blogger creates ideas by thinking, reviewing the world, and communicating within their blog sphere.
- Create links easily back to your web site if you leave intelligent useful comments on other people’s blogs.
- Individual postings form packages of ideas. When the media ask you questions, you already have content and ideas to give to them.
They offer suggestions on how to improve your blogs as the following Illustrates:
- Content.Your Social Media credibility is tied to the amount of content you provide. If you’re actively involved, you come across as more conscientious.
- Seeking Answers. Searching for answers is one of the top 3 main reasons why people use the Internet. People use the search engines to find the answers to their most pressing questions
- Blog Stucture.The basic structure of a Blog makes it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for. A Blog organizes your information effortlessly for the benefit of your visitors
- Backlinking, Plugins, Pinging, RSS Feed, Comments. The interactive nature of Blogs is hard to beat. Plugins, Pinging, Backlinking, RSS Feed capability and the ability of people to add comments all contribute to its interactive nature.
- The Whole World In Your Backyard. Blogs are universal. It’s a fact that anybody who uses the internet can access your blog. A Blog allows you to achieve a potentially infinite number of customers for your business.
- Create Instant and Comprehensive Information. Posting on a Blog sends instantaneous and comprehensive information to the web.
- All Roads Should Lead To Your Blog.The cornerstone of your Social Media strategy is your Blog. All of your social media activities should be organised to link back to your blog.
What Interests Me….
….May not necessarily interest you. That’s a given. I engage in a photojournalistic approach to photographing families, events, life on the streets, etc. Once that part is done though, I have to put on my designer’s cap and start to assemble work that will appeal to people. Using that documentative approach to photography obviously is one method of influencing how I may want to lay out an album or a web page for someone. That’s what I do. Why deviate from a successive theme? There’s nothing wrong with finding your niche and telling people about it. Or in this case, blog about it!
Oh, and there’s still the old school method as the following photograph of a war protestor Illustrates. There are still times where the context of a presentation trumps the method.
