Here are 5 ways in which blogging is good for your business.
1. Blogging cultivates ideas and nurtures creativity. Blogging daily forces you to be on the lookout for new ways of thinking-to react to others’ ideas and sort through your own. It helps you develop a state of mind that makes you more observant and contemplative. After all, writing every day requires you to develop new (and hopefully interesting) concepts and points of view on a regular basis. Blogging will help you acquire that skill, which you can then apply to other creative areas in your life and business.
Daily blogging motivates pushes you towards new ways of thinking – the simple act of writing is a catalyst for creativity. It helps you to sort through your own perspective and to express that effectively. Eventually this will translate into traits and skills that are good for your business. Writing on a daily basis helps you to generate new concepts and points of view. The pool of ideas and creativity that arises from writing be applicable to all areas of your life and your business.
2. Blogging helps you to shape your vision and your brand. When they first float up from the ether of our minds eye, our ideas are fragile and fleeting. Blogging daily gives your ideas moments of focus where they can coalesce into solid concepts. Fleshing out these ideas helps you to understand them better and helps to clarify your vision. It also helps you to communicate to others. Good communication skills are invaluable in business. When we are able to communicate our vision with precision and consistency we are solidifying our company and its essence in the mind of our potential customers. In a business & “Branding” sense, we must remember that we live in an attraction-based marketing era and the more effectively we communicate the concepts of our brand, the more customers we will win over. After all, one definition of ‘Branding’ is: The ‘Creative Engagement’ between your company and your customers that creates a perception in the mind of the consumer that leads to Trust, Loyalty and Profitability. Blogging is creative engagement at its finest!
3. Blogging & article writing helps you to grow your tribes, fans and followers. Many of the most successful start-ups today, like Mattermark and Groupon were started by founders who had built up an audience long before they ever had a product. In fact, it was their loyal audience that helped to develop and distribute those products, turning the venture into successful businesses. So it is so important to have an audience of people who share your passion. People who want to be in your network. People who appreciate the valuable content that you deliver on a consistent basis… every day. So blogging is a great way to build a strong foundation and a loyal audience!
4. Want to be an expert in your industry? Well-written, relevant posts can help you to mold your reputation as an industry expert and develop a commanding and respected internet presence. The more you know about the things you’re writing about, the more likely potential users and partners will trust you to offer them a great product or service. Educating your readers with valuable content that they can use in a practical way is really a form of attraction-based marketing. We have an opportunity after every post or article to place links to other relevant platforms or a call to action that will get your audience moving. While in the past we had invasive ads that would pop-up and get us to click, nowadays that’s not so true. People are more apt to become paying customers if they are enjoying content that you are providing them.
5. Blogging teaches entrepreneurship. While blogging is considered an outside form of communication, really it is very introspective and intimate. Blogging teaches you to focus on the details and the next step. It helps you to value simplicity. All, useful habits for entrepreneurs. There less up-front and noticeable parallels between article writing and business activities. For example, acquiring ‘readers’… isn’t all that different from acquiring ‘customers’. It’s all about making connections and building relationships over time.
The BEST thing about blogging is that it is accessible to EVERYONE. You don’t need any money to get started (most blog sites are free). You don’t need a publisher, you don’t need a college degree or special training, and you really don’t even need a product or service. Heck, you don’t really even have to be a good writer. The only requirement is to have something to say. We as humans and entrepreneurs especially… usually have PLENTY to say.