Small Business expert Steve Strauss at USA Today is asked whether Blogs are just a fad that should be ignored. He starts out by answering the question stating:
I cannot disagree that the Web log, or blog, is definitely the Flavor of the Month. But even when chocolate is the Flavor of the Month, that doesn’t make it any less tasty. Sometimes trendy is OK, and this is one of those times.
The article goes on to say that businesses can benefit from a blog by:
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strengthening relationships;
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building your brand;
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improving customer service;
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increasing employee awareness;
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building a reputation;
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benefiting search engine rank; and
- making money through advertising.
With that much upside, the article should sway many to consider the use of the blog in their small business. Be trendy, why not order both chocolate and vanilla?
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I don’t know that the analogy of blogs being the flavor of the month is a good one. So let me make an even more bizarre analogy: blogs are salsa.
In other words, blogs have been around for a while, but suddenly they’ve become an overnight sensation. I mean, when I was a kid, no one ate salsa, at least not in New England.
Then, one day, salsa started appearing everywhere. At some point it overtook ketchup as the most popular condiment in the US. Salsa was new and exciting.
First there was red salsa and green salsa, then peach salsa and mango salsa and a dozen other flavors found in Trader Joe’s across the nation. Salsa became entrenched in our diet that it became a culinary medium–like pizza and bagels before it–where we needed to mix it with other foods and flavors because we had become so comfortable with it.
Blogs are the same way; as we become more familiar with their format, their strengths and weaknesses, we’ll use them in new and interesting ways, mixing them with current marketing techniques to build our businesses, promote our candidates and issues, or bring navel-gazing to a new pinnacle (or nadir.)
To paraphrase Homer Simpson…mmmmm….blogs.
Comment by Rich Brooks — August 26, 2005 @ 5:29 am