A Case Against Small Business Blogging
Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 by Mike Rundle
The genius team over at Particle Tree have written a great article titled An Argument For Small Business Blogging. Again, it’s a great article, but what bothered me about it is the same thing that bothers me with other articles like this. It’s written with the mindset that every company should blog.
When beginning work with a client we take an approach that I believe separates us from the rest of the blog consulting companies (of course every company has something that separates them, right?). If a company comes to us saying they wish to start blogging we don’t try to figure out their blogging strategy or how to integrate a blog into their website, we ask if they even need a blog first and if they could manage one properly. We do this for one simple reason, not every company needs a blog or can manage a blog.
Blasphemy!
Well hear me out first. Let’s look at your local plumber for example. The case for him blogging might include:
- Better ranking in search engines
- Able to respond to customer feedback
The arguments against him blogging include:
- Too time consuming to do it right for just one individual
- Can receive personal feedback on a more personal, face-to-face level without a blog
- Business comes from local word-of-mouth and not web searches
Yes there are many people who might search for a plumber in Tampa and nothing is to stop the plumber from getting a well organized SEO (*note: SEO is not dirty if done right) site up there and putting it in some local directories. But does the plumber need those online customers? If he is well-established I don’t think he does, but newer plumbers would definitely benefit.
Finally think about this question. Is it more damaging to not have a blog than to have one that doesn’t get the job done and possibly makes your company look worse? Not every company needs a blog and not every blog needs a company.
Reader Comments
17 Responses to “A Case Against Small Business Blogging”
Also, a company diving right into a self-written weblog is difficult because it’s a paradigm shift away from what they’re used to. Marketing-speak, press releases, ducking questions — these might be PR tactics they’ve employed for years, but when you start a weblog it has to be honest or else your readers won’t read it and will definitely let you know.
So a company who’s not ready to be transparent and honest can still have a weblog, but we would rather not be a part of that process. We value comments and readers, and if a company weblog is just a rehash of press releases and marketing gobbledegook, then it’s not really using the weblog medium to it’s full potential.
September 14th, 2005 at 11:21 am
I am heartened to see the “blogs are not a panacea” movement gaining some speed. I wrote specifically about the idea of the blog as an SEO strategy at StraightUpSearch yesterday. For every good corporate blog, there’s are probably dozens of “placeholder” blogs that are not pure of heart.
September 14th, 2005 at 11:38 am
How can you guys be sure that the company will stay honest and transparent after you’ve dealt with them? On the same note, what do you guys do when you find out that the company you have either worked with in the past or are currently working with doesn’t intend on staying honest?
Do you just drop the project or try to convince them of the benefits to staying honest?
September 14th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
Mike, unless we are blogging for them ourselves the only thing we can do is educate them the best we can. I think it works the other way around though, once we explain how honesty works (not overly honest of course) they might be inclined to drop us.
If we give them the blogging strategy and they decide not to execute it and go back to old school marketing then the public will help educate them.
September 14th, 2005 at 12:16 pm
Paul, I think you make some very valid points. I agree that for any bsuiness strategy, you have to weigh if the time and work commitments to implement a blog is worth the effort needed to maintain one. We didn’t really mention that and I’m glad you bring it up.
I do, however, disagree that some businesses couldn’t benefit from one. All businesses should be able to benefit from establishing personal relationships that reach out to their customers and shows their expertise. Whether you’re willing to spend the time to do that is solely up to you.
The thing we’re frustrated by is how a lot of small businesses can’t see how a blog can help them out and I think it has to do with how blog readers and bloggers have been describing and presenting them. A lot of businesses are just getting the wrong idea about how weblogs can be used. Also, successful blogging requires the same organization skills necessary for successful publishing. Discipline and routine makes the whole commitment affair a lot easier to swallow.
Yes, your plumber might not have the time to maintain a great blog, but I would argue that if he did … it would do wonders for his business especially if he’s the only plumber revealing his dedication to customer service and online professionalism in his area.
September 14th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
My issue is does the plumber benefit more from doing other things to promote his business or spend 5 hours a week working on his blog? It all comes down to an individual basis. I can see how he would benefit from a blog. Heck, I can envision a way every company could benefit from a blog, but the question here is does the blog provide a higher ROI than something else?
Actually, that’s the question every company has to ask themselves.
September 14th, 2005 at 12:46 pm
Couldn’t the plumber use the blog to pass along tips to his potential customers? (i.e. Lost your ring down the sink? - What to do before you call me. or 10 things you can do to keep your septic system performing.)
Or use his daily work stories humorously to show the value of his work? (i.e. The joys of pulling squirls out of a greasy kitchen plumbing stack.)
I think most businesses that want to offer something besides marketing speak need to blog, because it increases content and offers vistors something different than the competitors sites.
Frequency of blog posts may not be as often for certain types of businesses. What is important is that business are engaging in conversations with customers, not lecturing them.(cluetrain mentallity).
September 14th, 2005 at 1:52 pm
He sure could Eric, but understand that doing this well would take time and that is the question that is being posed here. Your ideas on what the Plumber could match many of my own thoughts.
September 14th, 2005 at 1:59 pm
I’ve been working on setting up sites with a couple small businesses, and while they seem to understand the benefits of blogging, it’s clear that they are not ready to take on the task of blogging. Still, I set up their sites using Wordpress, turning off all commenting functions, knowing that one day when they’re ready to start blogging, it will be easy to “turn it on.”
September 14th, 2005 at 2:27 pm
One of the statements I made during my talk at the Blog Business Summit was, “Don’t blog.” My point was essentially what Paul has described above. Overall I feel that most companies just aren’t ready to do this, even if a blog is right for them.
Many companies think they are ready, but when we explain what it will take… “My boss might not let me talk about X.”
And if you can’t talk about cool stuff like X, what’s the point in having a blog? A post a day on how cool your product is? Two words: Unsubscribe. That’s what the blog’s readers will do.
Deciding to blog isn’t just installing the software and you’re off. It often ends up as a discussion about the company’s willingness to be open to criticism and the time it takes to actually talk to people openly.
Our company doesn’t want to make a buck off companies at the risk of them taking a reputation hit because they didn’t follow our advice (for many reasons). We want our clients to be successful at this endeavour. Because if they are sucessful, so are we. So it is in our best interests to question a company’s desire to blog.
On a side note: Here’s a case for plumblogging.
September 14th, 2005 at 2:47 pm
“Not every company needs a blog and not every blog needs a company.”
Wow, well put
September 14th, 2005 at 8:32 pm
I concurr with Sam - wasn’t it one of the 37signals boys that asked if a blog needs a business? Anyway, Im off to read the other fine articles you linked to ..
September 15th, 2005 at 6:28 am
Great post, Scrivs. I agree, not every company should have a blog and not every blog should have a company. Matthew, you’re absolutely correct in questioning a company’s desire to blog. Your average small business owner knows nothing about blogging or the web in general.
From a business perspective, I probably wouldn’t recommend blogging to most small companies. It’s true that your success is tied to a client’s success. It just wouldn’t be smart business to recommend blogging when companies will muck it up and hurt your company.
On the other hand, what if the business owner was not a client, but a friend, and willing to invest the energy and effort? I still believe blogging is beneficial to most companies when done right. It’s up to the business owner if they want to invest the time.
September 15th, 2005 at 9:14 am
Amen Paul!
It’s great to see a business blogging consultant be brutally honest.
Not every business owner needs a business blog, and not every owner (whether on their own, or by using someone on their team) is ready to plan for, strategize on, and consistently maintain a business blogging strategy.
It’s not that many more owenrs couldn’t benefit from the technology. But it’s the business owner who is focused only on the technology and not on developing the proper mindset that will always fail to benefit from business blogging.
With sufficient resources and the right mindset — focused on communication, connection, and relationship-building, instead of “in your face marketing” — most business owners (but not all) can win more clients with a properly developed business blogging strategy.
Aloha!
September 17th, 2005 at 4:41 am
I experience the “plummer” syndrome almost daily, why I have not thought to put this data on paper instead of harboring these details is my error.
I appreciate your thoughts, they validate my feelings exactly.
Relevance has always been in short supply as well as content (for the reader) not the engines, that said maybe the plummer belongs in the blogosphere after all.
September 18th, 2005 at 2:02 pm
Great point. Blogs aren’t for everyone, but for others they make sense. Some people use blogs for other reasons however, other than trying to gain new clients. For example, one of my blogs is specifically for company’s press releases. Another is just to catalog, store, and create an archive of valuable information that I can later access at anothe date, or turn around and package into a product for sale. Blogs not only get your name out there, they can act as an organizational storage device for your writtings, pictures, pod casts, or other forms of media! My archive is mostly filed with Marketing Tips and Articles for Businesses, because that’s the business I’m in!
September 18th, 2005 at 9:30 pm
Whenever we recommend a marketing strategy for a client we look for things that will generate buzz (i.e. be viral) and communicate advantage. Often a blog is a good way to do that, but it depends on the company.
One concern we have about blogs is how effective they will be in the future. E-mail marketing, SEO, PPC and the like all get more expensive and less effective as more companies do them. While blogging make sense for many of our clients today, their ability to offer unique content and generate buzz is diminished as new competing blogs appear.
Generally we recommend blogging when the company is unique, innovative and/or a thought leader and can generate top content in the years to come. Knowing content is king, we ask ourselves can the client generate king content?
September 18th, 2005 at 11:03 pm
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