With my recent awakening in social media, and with my new found mission to educate as many people as I can to its merits, I have determined another strategy that I will recommend to existing clients and new prospects.
When you create a new website – or make the decision to upgrade your existing one – it should be a blog. Or at least utilize one.
For most of the last two years, I had a blog and a separate company website. I spent all my time with the blog. I rarely changed or even looked at the static website. I made the decision recently to bail on both – and start a new blog from scratch.
I am not sure if I was damn lucky, or flippin’ brilliant – but it was the best move I could have made. My readership continues to grow, and faster than I ever imagined.
Granted, I have a long ways to go to get where I want to be, but I am at least on my way. The whole reason I started blogging in the first place was to accomplish a few things: build a community of friends and prospects that could ultimately be good referral sources. I wanted to have a means to demonstrate expertise. And I wanted a way for people to find me, instead of me having to find them.
It’s working. And then some.
Amongst other services, I do website design for small business – for people who need a web presence but can’t afford to spend big money on site design. At least not yet.
Of the three I am working with at this current time, all three are likely to start a blog as the basis for their web presence instead of a static site. And I couldn’t be more excited for them. All three of them are in VERY competitive markets. All three need and want to differentiate themselves from their competition. And all three have a lot to offer the market place in content and knowledge.
Instead of a boring website with a home page, an about us page, a services page, and a rate sheet – all three will have an interactive community where people can share ideas and knowledge about their respective industries. And while they are at it, will get a host of traffic to their blogs that might, just might, generate some business.
So, if you want a interactive and positive reaction when people visit your website verses crickets chirping or the sound of a dull thud, when you make the decision to create a new website, strongly consider a blog.
It will change the way you market your business. And more importantly, allow you to take full advantage of social media and networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. And it will considerably strengthen your SEO too.
At that point, company growth might just become exponential…
Todd Schnick. Be Intrepid. www.intrepid-llc.com