To B-to-B Blog or Not to B-to-B Blog?

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By Matt Clark

Blogging is one of the most common social media tools used today. Many marketers are in love with the idea of blogging. If you are a business owner with out a blog, you’re in the out crowd. “Did you see Johnny over there? Poor fellow doesn’t have a blog! I think he’s still using dial up as well, ahhahaha.”

But B-to-B blogging is still young. Many CEOs and some older PR pros still don’t see the value in blogging. I can’t disagree with them (although I do). Already these individuals should stay away from social media as enterprise executives should only blog if they want to blog. If you don’t want to blog, then please don’t - it will fail.

So why should a small b-to-b company start a blog?

• Blog content is conversational, allowing for readers (potential/current customers) to engage with what should be educational content, not sales or marketing.
• Blog readers can engage in direct feedback with company executives, giving them a sense of open-door communication. Now, when CEOs comments back to readers comments, that lets readers know the company has nothing to hide and is available for conversation.
• Blogs allow for direct customer feedback – better then any market research can give you.
• Blogs allow for better SEO and Google ranking (search engines love blogs) but you have to have it connected to your Web site for full search engine exposure.
• Blogs can help you gain expert status in your industry… only if you blog early, blog often, and blog about worthwhile topics.

Still, a few executives and PR pros might not buy into b-to-b blogging. It’s still in its infancy, and early on, more things are apt to go wrong than right. A blog will only be successful if the content changes often, giving your customers a reason to revisit the site. Also, if a marketing department takes of the duties of blogging for an executive, then the blog should fail. A blog (especially b-to-b) has to be done by an executive; they are the industry expert and the ones customers want to hear from.

Happy Blogging…