Is Your Blog Hurting Your Business? Marcia Yudkin

Blogging has a good reputation. “Everybody” is sure that it’s going to help their business. But as Marcia Yudkin points out, that’s not always the case. In fact, it might be sinking your business down the tube.

She doesn’t mention the case of giving away “too much information” so that your clients don’t need your advice, though that might be happening too.

Instead, she focuses on the tone many personal blogs take. Is it killing your business?

From Marcia Yudkin’s “Marketing Minute”

Should you start a blog?  You’ve undoubtedly heard that blogs
quickly get you traffic from search engines.  And like-minded
bloggers readily link to one another, also boosting traffic.

True, true.  However, will your blog persuade people to
become customers?

The opposite happened when I visited a blog cited by someone
who responded when I was looking to refer a client of mine
to a qualified professional.

The tone of this blog was brittle, harsh and self-absorbed.
Reading it felt like I was eavesdropping on a conversation
with other members of a clique.  An unexplained, repeated
acronym was especially off-putting, as were entries calling
attention to the blog writer’s personal problems and lack of
discipline.

Unfortunately, the blog format seems to encourage sniping,
confession, sloppiness and other kinds of rubbish we all
indulge in among friends.  But on the web, you’re always
among strangers as well as friends.

If you blog to help market yourself and your company, don’t
let your hair down any more than you would at a Chamber of
Commerce meeting.  Keep your marketing hat firmly on your
head!