Blogging… and running a blog has become so important (read: a must) for an online business today.
And, for small businesses specifically – the idea of sharing, engaging and becoming a trusted authority is key to long term success online. A blog will help set that in stone (if you do it right.)
Sure, you say – but I don’t need to blog, I don’t have time. And, I especially don’t need a blog when I can Tweet (twitter.com), Tumble (tumblr.com) or Facebook it (including paid advertising) with just a few minutes each day. All my potential customers are there too. Why blog and learn all that stuff?
Sorry – but that’s a short-sighted approach. This video explains more why blogging and owning/running a blog is so important (and easy).
(A bit redundant, but: This is the QR access for your iPhone, Android, etc – you can watch the video now):
In the recent blog world expo at Los Angeles, California’s Convention Center – the buzz and excitement around new tools, trends, blogs and (celebrity) bloggers couldn’t have been more obvious. (did you go?)
Outside of the restaurant chatter, conference rooms, show floor and showcase panels, let’s take a quick look at what the updated State of the blogosphere from Technorati.com said:
- Bloggers are educated and affluent – about 79% have college degrees.
- 80% have been blogging for 2+years and 50% have been blogging 4+ years.
- LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Stumble Upon, Delicious, Picasa, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Digg are the next most popular social networks (in that order).
- Blogs outpaced other media for inspiration, product information, and opinion. They won out over traditional media in all categories except news information.
- The top tools for bloggers are: social sharing widgets, built-in syndication, providing site search on your blog, video hosting sites, widgets from other sites, trackbacks, photo hosting, and commenting systems beyond the traditional blog platform system).