10 Reasons Why You SHOULD Blog

I recently came across this article on AdAge.com -- "10 Reasons Why Your Company Shouldn't Blog" and just couldn't believe my eyes. No blog? That's heresy!

I won't deny that a good blog does take time, shouldn't be boring, still needs to be marketed like any other online property, and is not a quick fix for communications, but the same could be said about a good web site, and I'd challenge a company to try conducting business without a web site these days.

To be fair, the article was focused on corporate blogs. But for any nonprofits who read Advertising Age and are using these 10 reasons to postpone or drop plans for a blog, I offer this:

10 Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Should Blog

1. Content syndication (RSS) tools for blogs can push content out to your audience much easier than anything available for a web site. Feedburner will send content updates to email addresses and other tools like RSS FWD offer similar blog to email options.
2. The nature of social networks and Web 2.0 means going where the people are, not building a web site and expecting them to find you. A blog's content can be easily shared across platforms like Facebook and MySpace, without duplication. The RSS feeds drop the content right onto your pages on those platforms, getting your updates where people can see it.
3. A blog can be leveraged as one more piece of a marketing campaign, helping you get beyond just sending out the occasional press release.
4. A blog should be personalized and have a voice, and in contrast to the typical nonprofit web site that has to offer lots of information to lots of audiences, a blog can really focus on a core group of people, such as donors.
5. A blog can even help you project more than a single voice. Volunteers and people in the field can offer more direct stories about how the organization is changing the world in real time, sometimes better than those written, reviewed, and approved project descriptions posted on the organization's official web site.
6. The interactivity, mostly in the form of comments from visitors, may only be appropriate in a blog setting and not something you'd want to offer on your general site.
7. Bloggers talk about brands. They talk about company information, their favorite products, and support causes and charities they care about. As a blogger, your own organization could do similar things. If you're an animal shelter, why not discuss the dog foods used at your organization? If you're a blindness organization, you can discuss medications used around the world and donated by the pharmaceuticals companies.
8. Money, money, money. Maybe not appropriate for all organizations and their blog endeavors, but for some, there is an opportunity to make money by adding advertising options to the blog.
9. In 2006, a survey of corporate blog owners found that 76% of companies surveyed indicated that they have noticed an increase in media attention and/or Web site traffic as a result of their blog(s). By getting your nonprofit's voice out there as an expert in your area, whether it be on poverty in your community, access to clean water in Africa, or any other big or small issue, the media may be watching. Take advantage of the opportunity to establish your organization's work as a leader in your sector or community.
10. For some organizations, a blog could actually BE YOUR WEBSITE.

Comments

[Lateef A.]

Jenn - thanks for the 'rebuttal' - you made a great point to emphasize that nonprofits stand to gain quite a bit from blogging. In fact, I still believe that some blog is better than 'no' blog at all, even for corporations. Since blog articles invariably focus on niches of a nonprofit's mission, they serve as authoritative sources for web surfers seeking information on very specific topics. The SEO benefits alone are enough reason to maintain even the simplest blog. Proper attention to SEO principles (e.g. well-selected Meta Tags, Backlinks, Content Relevancy, etc.) can only help with community-building (you mentioned Comments). On a side note...nonprofits can use their under-utilized 'Google Grants' funds to purchase free Ads for their blog.

[Jenn Thompson]

Lateef,
Thanks for the comments. Agreed that the SEO benefits can really help outweigh any of the negatives for doing a blog. And for nonprofits that don't have Google Grants, it could help give them that little extra SEO kick that grows community, awareness, AND donations.

[BL Ochman]

Jenn - thanks so much for your rebuttal of my headline. We don't really disagree.

Thought you might like to read the followup post i wrote on What's Next Blog http://whatsnextblog.com and cross posted at AdAge DigitalNext blog. The post is Nine Reasons Your Company Should Blog http://tinyurl.com/4exrj9 and I posted it on Sept 29, before you wrote this rebuttal.

I've also been interviewed for an article about not-for-profits and social media marketing "Social Media Marketing for Non-Profits
Ride the Wave or Drown?" which ran in the newsletter of the not-for-profit organization, Planned Legacy. http://tinyurl.com/3u6vus

[Jenn Thompson]

BL,
Thanks the comments. I did your see your follow up post, unfortunately, it was a couple of hours after posting my own 10 Reasons. I hope nonprofits take in all of these angles and can better to decide to blog or not to blog...

Your article on Social Media is excellent. So many orgs consider just one option like a blog or Facebook or MySpace and don't realize the universe that is available to them. Hopefully an overview like yours will be a useful guide.

I look forward to seeing more of your work.

[SEO Company India]

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