Business blogs - A base for your followers

When designing and launching the Webcredible blog, it was really important for us to consider not just what we as an organisation would get out of it, but also what our users would get out of it. Given the growth of social media as a platform, blogs are becoming an increasingly important vehicle for getting a company’s message and content out and also allowing followers to keep up-to-date with company news as they see fit.

I recently contributed to a feature in Web Designer Magazine on business blogs and thought I would paraphrase some thoughts here too.

Many online consumers now operate in an on-demand world when it comes to news consumption.  RSS feeds and social media sites like Twitter allow immediacy of content and the trend is that people don’t want to have to go looking for information anymore, they want it to come to them, but on their terms, and this is key.

If your brand or proposition is compelling and people think you have something interesting to say, then they will want to hear from you, but you can’t manufacture this. Knowledge sharing is important here, and while increased traffic to your website may well be a benefit, it shouldn’t be a goal!

Yes, a blog is about getting your message out, but it’s also about interaction - consumer-initiated interaction to be exact. You cannot force a blog on consumers, but it gives you a vehicle to allow people to follow you and that following will then grow organically if you let it.

If you’re reading this, hopefully you think that the Webcredible blog serves exactly this purpose.