Blogging for business (1): Can we do it?

by David Hallam

Blogging may look simple but it requires resources, material and a market in order to be a sustainable business activity.

A blog is the easiest and most cost effective way of getting a presence on the internet. A well written blog can bring business in. A badly written blog can turn business away. An abandoned blog can be evidence that the business no longer exists. A great blog can improve communications, create new friends and generate leads.

I have been a blogger for over five years. In that time I have found that blogs can create great benefits, but also have a downside. My own blog is personal to me, it is about my hobby and carries many of my eccentricities. Over five years I have developed competitors, made friends and had to stretch myself to find new and interesting material. I enjoy hobby blogging, but I know it isn't for everyone and I know that there can be drawbacks for commercial organisations.


A blog is technically easy to set up, but can be difficult to sustain. So the very first questions anyone thinking of establishing a blog has to ask is:


Do we have the time to create good quality blog postings? Blogging is like any other  promotional activity. Time and energy has to be expended creating ideas, writing posts and getting sign-off. Before starting a blog the company has to be certain that it has the resources. The business also has to be clear that the blog is the best use of those resources. Time spent blogging may be better spent knocking on doors.

Do we have the material to sustain a blog over many years? Think years, not weeks. Even if you only post weekly for 45 weeks of the year (leave out August and the Christmas period) that's 45 posts. Could you now sit down and map out just 20 of those posts? Once started other posts will automatically suggest themselves, especially if you have a flow of news from or about the business. But you need to be certain that the material exists to sustain the activity and justify the investment.

Do we have a market for our material? Our fascinations are not always shared by others. Whilst the minutia of our business will be interesting to those in the company, it may not be to anyone else - except competitors. So before starting a blog, a company has to be certain that it will both attract readers and retain them long enough to generate business or goodwill.

Setting up a blog is not an easy business decision, even though the technology is simple and free. In future posts I will discuss how to launch the blog,  generating material, focusing the content, building a readership, ensuring search engine optimisation, managing comments,  and developing contacts.

This is the first post of a new blog which I hope will help businesses and organisations improve communications, not just by using blogs but every other channel of communication.