Should you be blogging for business?

Blogging can either be a great thing for your business or nonprofit, or if can be a huge waste of time and resources. If blogging isn’t a good fit for your organization, would you rather know now or find out after months or years of blogging?

Let’s take a look at some reasons you may or may not want to start blogging.

Reason to start 1: Blogs are shared

Sure, people are on social media more than ever. That means they’re not reading blogs any more, right?

It is tempting to believe that everybody’s attention span is super short. But in fact, the statistics show that the longer content is the more likely it will be shared. So if you really want to be successful with social media, blogging should probably be a part of your strategy.

Reason to start 2: Blogging gets you more leads

Not everyone wants the same thing from their website. Some you want leads, maybe you want something else like donations or even online sales. Regardless, organizations that blog get more website traffic, so they get more of all those things as well.

But if you’re looking for leads, B2B organizations that do blog have reported getting 67% more leads than those that don’t blog.

Reason to start 3: It demonstrates expertise

Think about it. If you are thinking about doing business with someone, and you can already read blogs they’ve written, that can help you decide whether they’re actually experts in their field or not.

If a service provider is obviously an expert, you’ll be more likely to hire him. Or if a nonprofit is showing expertise, you’ll be more likely to make a donation. People are more likely to do business with people that look like they know what they’re talking about!

Reason not to start 1: You have to be consistent

Blogging is a commitment. Ever looked at a website, clicked on the blog, then noticed the most recent entry was a few years old? Chances are you wondered if they were even still in business!

You don’t want people to wonder that about your organization, do you? You have to blog on a consistent basis to make sure that doesn’t happen!

Reason not to start 2: You have to come up with topics

Sure, I wrote Blog a Week several years ago to help organizations come up with blog topics. But I did that because it’s a lot of work. I see people stall out for this very reason all the time. It’s a struggle!

Reason not to start 3: You may find writing painful

Personally, I enjoy writing. But I know not everyone does. In fact, over the years many people have told me they find it extremely painful! If you don’t enjoy writing, then blogging is going to be a thorn in your side.

Of course, you can hire a writer or digital marketing agency to do your writing for you. In that case, it can potentially eliminate all the reasons not to start, but it would require an ongoing investment of money.

So should you be blogging for your organization? I can’t answer that for you, but if your pros outweigh the cons, then absolutely!