Blogging creates business assets like practice and play create winners!
Call it a feature article, a white paper or a blog post. Maybe your written wisdom is a work of art like a tribute, reflection or poem. Whatever it is, if it’s thoughtful, articulate and valuable to an audience, it’s an asset and should be leveraged as such. Businesses need to create and disseminate information today or they will become obscure and lose relevancy in a crowded marketplace. Like an exceptional round of golf, there’s a story for each hole. Have plenty to talk about at the 19th and back in the clubhouse.
The good news for all businesses is there are myriad ways to share and disseminate information freely now. There’s a perfect iron or wood for every approach shot. Effectively reaching a target audience of a few thousand used to cost tens of thousands of dollars in the glory days of old media. Today the same distance and accuracy can be achieved at no dollar cost other than spending some of the time you’d be playing an extra nine or watching TV, by building your online networks instead.
Websites are the central communication hubs for businesses today and blogs are where visitors go to find out if the organization has a pulse. Blogs are best leveraged as an integral part of the organization’s website so search engine crawlers can detect the origins of the relevant, fresh, visible content for which they are sniffing. Google looks for dynamic, relevant content that is viewed, shared, back-linked and repeated so it’s best to keep your blog on your website. So if your ball is away, master the next stroke; make sure what you write is relevant to the target and use the right key words.
Setting up 3 or 4 social media accounts and strategically syncing them for blog content sharing can get your message out instantly and to hundreds or thousands of people FREE! When you play a particular course you bring the right set of irons so likewise choose the platforms and tools that are right for your particular audience. Each course has a unique style and contour so you play it differently. Each client has her own individual tastes and preferences so you need to share appropriately on different platforms to reach your various targets.
Then there’s email marketing. Newsletters work when the information is valuable. Every blog post can be a newsletter and vice versa. By the way, don’t make the mistake of only pushing your own promotional messages. Be alert. Pay attention to your network and what other people share. Learn from the pros.
Twitter is a wellspring of fresh valuable ideas and thought leadership. It’s where I often get ideas about which to write articles and blogs. Read people’s tweets and check out their linked content when it catches your eye. Leverage the work of others by sharing it. Engage valuable new business connections, clients and partners by commenting on and sharing their posts. Compliment people when they teach you something new and invite them to comment on your stuff or answer your questions. LinkedIn is exceptionally valuable for this, especially when you participate in Group discussions.
“But I don’t have enough content, I don’t know what to write about and I just don’t have the time with how busy I am…” Every course pro knows a certain game fundamental better than even some of the best tour players. Everyone reading this post is an expert at something, maybe a few things so saying you don’t know what to write about isn’t true. If you think you’re a bad writer, just dump your ideas out on paper and hire a good writer to edit your messages – it’s not expensive if you provide all the facts. Saying you don’t have time to write your blog and mange your social media networks usually doesn’t wash either. Do you have time for your favorite TV shows every weeknight or a few drinks “after work?” Does your alarm clock have an early morning setting? Sometimes it’s best to hit the practice range instead of the course even though playing a round is more fun.
It’s true that some professionals really don’t have the time to devote to content creation and online networking development. An architect’s time is better spent designing buildings; a lawyer’s time is most profitably spent litigating, counseling or defending clients. In some cases it makes sense to hire a professional communicator or agency to keep your blog content dynamic and social media pages updated while you go out and slay dragons or bag trophies… or win tournaments!
So, in blogging it’s your call. Spend the time or spend the money. In some cases it’s ideal to spend both. There is a cost to playing golf and even though social media is “free” to master, that course takes time and time is money. The idea is to increase the value of your business by increasing the quality and quantity of your information assets. Like a bank, you’ll see a nice ROA – return on assets.
