Potential Impact of Blogging on Businesses

Potential Impact of Blogging on Businesses

There was a time of static web pages where the content did not change for months or even years. Maintaining the “What’s New” page had proved less effective in terms of introducing new ideas, products or services that a business offered. It also relied on visitors who were already familiar with the business website to read these updates. It had little or no impact on generating more sales. Advertising on the internet has always been very expensive and takes a substantial portion of the budget. But now is the time of Social Media realm and blogging introduced a revolutionary idea to advertise and market new products or ideas globally.

Blogging has now become a major tool for a business to announce what it is up to. From entrepreneurs and small businesses to large global firms, everyone is taking a keen part in blogging. It has secured its position in the market and major firms have dedicated staff just for blogging.  It has become so effective that in 2013 Yahoo paid $1.1 billion to acquire Tumblr, a blogging company that hosts 170 million blogs.

There are many free blogs such as Wordpress, Bloggers, Goolge+, etc. These free blogs can be used to introduce and advertise new products to the global market within minutes. It also raises business’ web presence and it can generate more traffic to its website.  Visitors can read the blog, post their responds, provide feedback and share it with other people. Blogging also establishes the company as an expert and authority in its area of business.

It is very simple to create and easy to maintain blogs. It is also very cost effective method to expand customer base by keeping them informed with new products. Businesses can blog on the existing platforms such as WordPress, Google+ etc. or they can also customize it and incorporate in on their own business website. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to generate more traffic to a website relies heavily on blogs.

One of my friends is an immigration lawyer who used to work for a law firm. Two years ago, she started writing her own blog about latest immigration reforms. She was doing it as a hobby initially, but as she started getting recognized for her expertise and thousands of people were reading her blogs, she decided to start her private practice. She created her own website and incorporated her blog in it. She also became a member of lawyers.com, lawguru.com and few other such sites where she answers visitors’ questions and provides legal consultation. As her blogs gained popularity, she was recognized as an expert and 94% of the visitors to her blog decided to hire her for her services. She is now paying almost nothing to blog but generating $8,000-$10,000 monthly in new and repeat clients.

This is just one example of how blogging generated more sales for a small business. Multi-billion dollar corporations have recognized its importance and are maintaining their own blogs. With the tremendous popularity of social media, blogging has become an essential part of a company’s online profile. It is very cost effective, user friendly and promotional tool with marked improvement in company’s sales.