In 2012, 1 out of 2 companies will have a blog. 23 reasons it should be in your business plan

 
One of the steadiest trends in social media is the company adoption rate for blogs. By 2012, 44% of companies (or roughly 1 out of 2) will have blogs.

Here are 23 reasons it should be in your business plan.
WEB TRAFFIC AND SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION:

  • MORE WEB TRAFFIC:  55% of companies report more traffic to their website due to their blog (source: Hubspot)
  • HIGHER SEARCH RANK:  97% receive more links from other websites which is a primary factor for raising search rank. Google algorithms are more likely to recognize your company as an “Authority” and this is their primary criteria for determining search rank (source: Hubspot)
  • QUALITY LINKS:  Links from blogs are recognized as “quality” links by search engines and an integral part of any search programs by SEO experts (Source: SEOmoz)
  • COST EFFECTIVENESS:  In addition to high quality, links from blogs are cost efficient because they occur with just a comment on a blog and a reply back
  • KEYWORD IDENTIFICATION:  Keywords, especially in the headlines and first paragraphs of blogposts, send a signal to the search engine that content is continually being updated and the website is dynamic
  • GREATER SEARCH PRESENCE:  Companies with blogs report 434% more indexed pages in search engines (source: Hubspot)
CONTENT CURATION:
  • EMAILS:  With very modest changes, a blog serves as an email.  This way, it reaches current prospects while the blog works as outreach
  • EBOOKS: Blogs around a common theme can be compiled into an ebook for downloading and lead generation
  • WEBINARS: The primary points in a blog, once outlined, can be turned into a webinar for interactive engagement
  • FACEBOOK POSTS: Key content in a blog can broken out as relevant Facebook posts
  • TWITTER “MICROBLOGS”:  One of the primary reasons for being with Twitter is to be a microblogging platform with the use of short links.
  • LINKEDIN STATUS: In your status box, people can learn more about you and your company
BLOGGER RELATIONS AND ADVOCACY
  • SHARE CONTENT: Want to build a relationship with an industry thought leaders? Acknowledge those who views you admire; share their content and ask if they’d share yours
  • GUEST POSTINGS: Ask an industry thought leader to post as a guest on your blog
  • TECHNORATI “AUTHORITY” SCORE: Technorati gives an “authority” score by blogs and posts. It is score from 0 to 1000 and it represents the number of links within the last six months. It’s a great way to find the bloggers most relevant to your category
  • COMPETE WEB TRAFFIC METRICS: Compete measures the web traffic of blogs. Its lets you let see trends for a year or longer
  • ALEXA MEASUREMENTS: Alexa let you see the audience demographics, keywords and the actual website that link into your website or blog
1-TO-1 RELATIONSHIPS
  • LISTEN TO CUSTOMERS: 75% of customers post comments on blog regarding product and customer services; 88% use blogs for research and browsing and 91% click through to a company’s website (source: Shop.org)
  • BUILD A DIRECT RELATIONSHIP: All it takes is a comment and a reply to take the next step and have a 1-to-1 relationship. People like to do business with people they know
  • SELL DIRECT: With an SSL certificate and a PayPal account, you can sell product and service directly from a blog
RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
  • CUSTOMERS READ BLOGS: 75% read at least one a day (source: Sherpa)
  • BLOGS INFLUENCE PURCHASE DECISION: 75% say blogs effect purchase decisions, either somewhat or very much (source: Sherpa)
TRUST
  • MOST TRUSTED SOCIAL MEDIA SOURCE: 64% of people trust the information from a blog. That is, if the blog is written by a person at the company. People like to do business with people they know (source: eMarketer)

Is a blog is your company’s  business plan for 2012? Any reason why not?

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