, 2 min read
Real Benefits of Blogs
Harold has another great post, this time he lists some of the tangible benefits of blogging, for him…
After an intensive year online, these are the tangible benefits to my business:
- Using a feed reader (via RSS), saves a lot of time and bookmarking.
- The information I get from bloggers is usually weeks ahead of the mainstream press. Call this competitive intelligence.
- By blogging, I have raised my profile on the web and increased visits to my site by a factor of 1000 in less than one year. This is cheap marketing.
- I use my database of posts when preparing reports, proposals and presentations. It helps to have a searchable system like Drupal.
- Blogging forces me to think and reflect in order to write, so that what was just an idea in my mind becomes more concrete.
- The underlying technology of easy posting and RSS to keep track of things, makes a lot of sense for collaborative learning and collaborative work – two areas of interest for my business.
- Through blogging, I have met a number of business partners.
- Blogging keeps me in touch with a lot of interesting people and expands my view of the world, providing new ideas for my business.
- When I have a problem, especially a technical one, I post it on my site or someone else’s and usually get an informed answer within 24 hours. It’s like a large performance support system.
- It allows people to get to know my opinions before they engage me as a consultant; saving time and potential frustrations.
Like e-mail, blogs are practical tools for everyday business. There are abuses of both (spam) but I think that blogs are one more tool that give the small business operator a real competitive advantage.
To me, my blog has become the single more powerful knowledge management tool I use. The way I use it, it gives me a view of where I am, where I’ll be, where I’m thinking about being. My blog is like my intelligence department… it collects lots of data in an organized fashion and it sits there, waiting for me to go to. The fact that I’m read means I get feedback, and hence, people help me complete my information. I also find out about new, interesting people because they link to my blog, comment on my blog and so on. Like good clients, they come to me first, hence, they pass a compatibility test. My blog requires some effort, but very little in the end. The benefits far outweight the cost, so far.
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