Top Ten Reasons Why Your Company Should not Have a Blog

I wrote a post a week or so ago about 3 things you should know before starting a blog and we had a very good conversation around those themes. In the comments, Mack Collier added two things that I feel should be highlighted:

1 - Your blog does not have an expiration date. You have to start blogging with the mindset that it's going to be something that you will do from now on.

2 - Your blog WILL suck at first. Accept this. As you become more familiar with the space, and the tool, your efforts will improve. But you have to realize going in that those first few days/weeks/months, you might not see that traffic move much. You might not get many (any?) comments. Don't be discouraged by then, stick with it, interact with others, learn from others, and your efforts will improve.

And here's the thing, if you're a person looking to build a business, especially if it has your name on it, you may look at the advice - all of the advice shared at the post - and decide to go with it, to do it. There is good potential there, if you stick with it, that after your fail, you will succeed. Because you are willing to try and fail.

It's not the same for businesses. Businesses are often unwilling to try before they fail, so they fail without even trying. My friend Peter inspired this line of thinking in a recent comment. Is it because of arrogance, the idea that human failure is somehow greater or worse than the failure of outrageous fortune (I see signs of this in the current unwillingness to change our relationship with the environment), he asked.

Trying is hard, it means you have to put attention and effort into building something from nothing sometimes. And to build it on sites other that your own - if you want to have a community, you better be part of a community. These are two things that as a corporate marketer you may not like very much.

In that case, we can find more reasons why your company should not have a blog:

(1) You get part time results for part time effort - and you are constantly checking the needle to see if it moved instead of working on moving people with your passion and exceptional products.

(2) You never heard of a never ending "campaign" - called building permission-based relationships and learning with the community. That's what all those people with no lives do with Twitter and it has nothing to do with business.

(3) You publish only "perfect" posts - what's this thing about being spontaneous and in the moment? We have talking points for sounding human and staying on message.

(4) You benchmark every post against best practices - except for, whose best practices and what benchmarks?

(5) You think it's marketing's job to write and edit the posts - so they look nice and professional, just like your brochures. I think that may work if you're a marketing agency, but what about a science lab? A construction company? A law firm? You get the idea.

(6) Your readers' comments are in lemon ink- they magically disappear or never appear when they're not exactly perfect testimonials. You'll need red cabbage to make them reappear, and frankly attracting that kind of attention is probably not what you wanted.

(7) You ask all your sales people to hit the blog daily to get good traffic - maybe this is a bit harsh because I know for a fact that you'd never, ever do that.

(8) You hire an agency to blog for you - this is not the same reason why it's not a good idea to have marketing blog about engineering. This is a bad idea because you embody the company and not a third party. Blogging can be maddeningly personal and doing this will awake the ghostwriting fairies.

(9) You're ill prepared for the Trojan Horse at your door - it seemed like a good idea when you thought it was a free gift from the gods, didn't it?

(10) You don't have it in your DNA - [thanks, George] it just doesn't add up when it's all said and done.

There will be communities without you, but this blogging thing is not a destination in the same way that you thought about your Web site. In fact, even for your Web site, you might consider what the user wants to do vs. the path you want to take him through, if there is a path at all. 

Remember number 5 on this list, and that with a blog you're very much in the art of possibility mode vs. the confines of the limited universe of one-way thinking. What would happen if you took a seat in the midst of the audience? What would you see, feel, experience, learn?

© 2006-2009 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Jon Buscall]

Brilliant! I love number 8:
The wonderful thing about a blog is that it shows who or what you are and where you are at. If someone else is doing this for you, you come off as fake.

I do think that smaller businesses are actually better placed to start business blogging because they are not tied down by years of "best practice". They're prepared to learn in public.

Blogging starts a conversation. It's worth exploring.

[Joy-Mari Cloete]

Thank you for this, Valeria. I'm going to send this post to all the account managers at my company.

[Peg Mulligan]

I think that number 3 "You publish only "perfect" posts" is the biggest obstacle for new bloggers, at least for me. Perfect posts slow you down and make you lose the moment of responding to the conversations going on around you.

New bloggers' posts are more like polished artifacts than conversation & won't invite a lot response, because they're too finished.

As a new blogger, I still find it easier being spontaneous and in the moment, commenting on others' blogs, rather than posting to my own, possibly because the scope is more focused when I comment & I am already part of a conversation, thus my tone is conversational...I think starting conversations is a more advanced blogging skill, possibly, than responding or adding feedback to conversations, and that's the part that new bloggers will have to work on the most.

[Dennis Stevenson]

I like number 1. Part time results for part time effort. At a former employer (deploying a ginormous ERP) the mantra was "part time is no time". I know this is where my company falls down. Full time requires commitment. We aren't there yet. So, while it frustrates me, I think it's for the best that we don't blog.

I think for some reason there's a Maslovian hierarchy that people believe is in play for companies in this kind of situation. "Blogging is for companies at the self realization part of the pyramid." Therefore things like sales calls and business deals end up taking all the energy and time (I won't call it passion, because to me, this stuff isn't passionate).

This is clearly (to me) the tyranny of the either/or - not the magic of the both-and.

[Shawn]

Don't mean to be contrary and, of course, being at least partially involved in professional blogging I have a vested interest in this point I suppose, but I don't exactly buy number 8 and believe frankly it doesn't fit with number 1 and probably a couple of other points if I think about it long enough. I think you are talking here about a very specific kind of blogging and defining it as a personal form of communications. But blogs are many other things too. Seth Godin's blog has no comment section, so at least numbers 6 and 8 (and probably more) do not apply to him. Yet, I doubt he's ever questioned the value of his blog or thought about quitting. Blogs are also, simply put, constantly updated Websites using keywords to attract customers, build value, raise page rank, raise awareness and educate the public. In this respect, they are much like many other much older forms of communication. Let's not build boxes around a new medium and decide what it can and cannot be used for. History has taught us the consequences of these kinds of assumptions.

[Roger Ewing]

Valeria, I am going to make a very short comment regarding this article. It is absolutely dead on target for me.
I am the person you are speaking to. I have a company, it has my name on it, I have sales people, and, I am struggling to make my blog "perfect" as a result I am in some sort of holding pattern and can't seem to launch. I get different views from everyone I speak with, including my own employees. After reading your article, I am going to take charge of this thing and roll it out.
Thanks for the inspiration.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Jon - for that point, I am drawing from many discussions we had online - on Twitter and on blogs where the evidence points to writing your own blog for voice and authenticity. It is absolutely worth exploring, with a caveat - be very up front with your readers on what you're building or just testing. For it to become a regular appointment, it needs to be an appointment in the first place.

@Joy-Mari - glad to be helpful. Let me know if they have comments and suggestions.

@Peg - I've been afflicted by a little of that. This is my third year and I still often obsess over the accuracy of what I write. You have a great insight here "I think starting conversations is a more advanced blogging skill, possibly, than responding or adding feedback to conversations."

[Denis]

And today headline for Smartbrief Social Media issue is: 10 reasons not to blog. Congratulations! :)

[Stuart Foster]

I think it really comes down to transparency, legitimacy and a clear passion. If you can't demonstrate these things effectively you will be ill equipped to effectively deal with the troubles/headaches of running a blog.

[Judy Cullins]

I'd like to say that you also don't need your own blog. I use blog-like hubpages for my blog. THey get much higher traffic than I do.

Cheers,
Judy

[Alex Beattie]

Shawn, I think you have an interesting objection to Valeria's post, however you point out that it isn't wise to 'box' in how these tools are used. Your definition of a blog as being simply a constantly updated website by using keywords to garner traffic, isn't wrong, I do think most bloggers who passionately utilize blogging for whatever reason, would take issue.

Seth Godin is by far the exception to every rule with blogging and he has specific reasons for not accepting comments, which he does explain.

I find the 'outsourcing' bullet perhaps the most relevant, because blogging can be and often is, very personal. Perhaps, Shawn, if the title were something along the lines of, "Things to be aware of before you start a business blog" you might have been more agreeable?

[Paula Thornton]

A blog is a specific format for a conversation. The question shouldn't be about the format, but the conversation: which ones, where, and when?

[Frank Strong]

I love #2 -- so true! As for #8 I'd have a slightly different take -- it is a good idea to hire an agency or consultant to help get a blog off the ground, but that person or firm should have a "teach a man to fish" approach. I agree with the underlying menaing, that a company must embody it's blog!

[Eric Miltsch]

Love it.

Fear of "sucking" overcomes so many bloggers. Don't worry about it & just keep moving forward. (#2)

I've been writing for our blog for over two years now and at times I still suck.

[Heidi Sullivan]

I think it all comes down to passion. If your company doesn't have bloggers that really WANT to blog about your industry, they will never stand the test of time. I wrote a post on CisionBlog this week titled "Creating great blogs" and this was #2:

Find your passion. To stick it out and consistently produce great content over time, you (or your bloggers) need to want to write the blog. In Paul Gillin’s book, The Secrets of Social Media Marketing, he provides a quiz, “Is Blogging Right for Your Business?” After asking, “Are you passionate about the topic?” Gillin writes “Good blogs have personality and personality is a product of enthusiasm. That doesn’t mean you need to be a cheerleader; in fact, some very successful blogs are negative in tone. It does mean that your topic should be something that you can talk about for hours, because that’s basically what you’ll be doing over time.”

[Nick Thacker]

Good stuff, Ayat! I've linked to this awesome post on my blog at www.nickthacker.com. I actually wrote a post awhile back about why your business NEEDS a blog, and yours complements mine quite well.

Thanks!

[Blaine Millet]

Excellent summary - we see almost all the same things when working with the CEOs of our clients. I agree with ALL 10 items and would add a few more. One in particular is that you should not blog if you "think this is all about you" instead of your followers or audience.

With well over 200M blogs out there, if there isn't a way to build a "connection" with your audience and how you can help them, don't bother getting involved - that is what websites are for - one way propaganda promotion.

Another thought to throw out is if you are just a random thinker without a strategy of how you can "consistently" help your audience. If you act this way, your audience will get very tired of the gyrations of posts and leave - be consistent and have a strategy or you will become irrelevant very fast.

Thanks for the content - very nicely done and well thought out.

Blaine

[Kristap]

This post is spot on. I especially love #6. The greatest thing about negative comments is that it allows you to engage in a conversation and possibly change the way that person thinks about your company.

Most of the time it's another guest who comes to your defense. Social media engagement at its best.

[Josh Chandler]

Wait, is THE post which is in turn technically conceding that blogging isn't quite as widespread as many are making it seem :)

I wonder why companies are drifting along on the open waves, hoping someone will come along, bring out a lifeboat and guide them to safety (ie, early adopter craze passes, and the "real world where companies have control returns"), or maybe companies just DON'T EVER want to admit they are wrong, all in all, impressive list you made, really speaks out to a lot of company mistakes, hopefully they will be able to realize their mistakes before it hurts their business.

[atul chatterjee]

I liked the comments of Mark Collier very much.
Another point is that American companies are liable for whatever they write in their posts and for their replies in comments. They may not want to participate in blogs for this reason.
Best.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Denis S. - I love this "Blogging is for companies at the self realization part of the pyramid." Indeed it is more about mindset and ability (philosophically) to make the commitment, than SEO skills. Writing honestly and clearly also help, of course.

@Shawn - thank you for arguing and I stick to my guns. Seth Godin's blog is very personal even though he shares professional advice. Please let's not try to equate blogging for money with weighty issues like what history teaches us. Number 8 makes a very simple point - you cannot possibly know about the business as well as the business itself and you cannot possibly represent the voice (and the soul and intent) of the business. Period. If you like to say that the blogs you create professionally drive traffic, and all that good SEO stuff, by all means, they will. And so do Web sites. We're then not talking about the same thing. This here is passion and it's personal even though it shares professional advice, what you list "constantly updated Websites using keywords to attract customers, build value, raise page rank, raise awareness and educate the public" are outcomes that depend on objectives. They do not talk to intent, especially intend to connect ideas and people.

@Denis - well, look at that!

@Stuart - good points. If you're after optimized sites that just drive revenue, don't start a blog, it's too much work :)

@Judy - I'll check out your site to understand better what you mean by hub pages. Sure, group blogs can be successful as well.

@Alex - funny how an objection about boxing then attempts to box in and define the very thing it is objecting to... good exposition on "being more agreeable" - well done!

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Paula - it depends on who is asking the question. Many companies right now are asking about blogs and this conversation may be useful to get a sense of what is involved.

@Frank - if the agency is designing the blog and helping hit the "post" button, that works. But I think that under no circumstances it should blog in stead of the company without full disclosure that it does so.

@Eric - ditto here. Also, there is a sense of timing associated with a blog. The content is more immediate, halfway towards news in some fashion, and there might be something else going on that day that takes the attention and time of your readers. Context matters more because we're not talking about optimizing a static medium.

@Heidi - thank you for highlighting passion. Here's an additional thought on passion. Many companies hire passionate people then proceed to beat them over the head with "their" message having to be told "their" way... that sort of one way communication is where the disconnect begins. People who cannot interpret and build upon and live a reality (what the message should reflect), who cannot own it themselves, lose passion for going at it with all they've got, one day at a time.

@Nick - you now gave me an idea for a follow up post :)

@Blaine - there will be a special post on about you/them. It's too important a point. Thank you for igniting that conversation here. And yes, consistency and focus help tremendously - they help you stay on track with your promise, and your readers with their expectations. Well said.

@Kristap - I've experienced the community taking care of each other. It's the most powerful form of conversation there is. Arguing is good, and so is critical thinking and they are both in action in a true community, where members and peers respect and care enough about each other to be constructive and collaborative even as they disagree.

@Josh - I'm thinking you're talking about the failing without trying part of the post. Essentially, what all this is saying is it's not business as usual by a long shot and breakthroughs are not born of incremental changes. Social is about change management. These are all examples of symptoms.

@Atul - thank you for stopping by.

[Meri Walker]

Valeria, a client sent me a link to your post and I'm delighted to find you because of him. He sent it because I'm helping him and his team think about their blog and how they might want to extend their reach using the blog and other social media.

He read your post as important danger signs we need to consider. And I totally agree. I LOVE this post! My client's an attorney by training ;-) I'm a communication consultant by training. We're dragging ourselves into social media kicking and screaming...

I'm going to keep your list on my desktop as a set of "trail markers" that will help us keep moving forward on a steep pretty treacherous path to... ???

We still don't know where social media is taking us, do we?

[Valeria Maltoni]

Meri -

Thank you for visiting and for taking the time to comment after reading. The way I see it, social is what the media is engaging again. There are all sorts of great stories from connections people made with other people and with ideas. Connections that have changed the way they look at the world and led them to real breakthroughs. This is real.

What comes as a challenge is that one needs to do it to get where it can take your business or even life. There are no shortcuts or perhaps I should say fewer ones. Keep me informed of your progress. Attorneys can also be wonderful communicators when they can talk themselves through the "risk" part and learn to focus on the upside :)

[Adam Forrest]

I love this article. We just had a heated discussion about managing the blog and who should "own" it. And I just sent this out to the team!

Thank you for great ammo!