Why your company should be a content creator (AKA Blogging)

In a time when it seems the Internet is vastly overpopulated, there is still a place where your thoughts and information matter: The blog.
Companies should be blogging for a number of reasons, the most important of which is to prove their credibility and drive more traffic to their website.
Jeanette Gibson, director of social media marketing at Cisco Systems says their network of 31 blogs across the company drive around 500,000 page views a quarter.

“Our blogs are destination links,” she says. “People want targeted content, and the nature of blogs very much works for us.” ¹

This idea of targeted content is exactly what proves your credibility and keeps potential and current customers coming back to your page.
But what about other platforms like Facebook and Twitter, aren’t these more important than maintaining a blog?
Although you should definitely have a presence on these networks, they by no means replace the beauty of the company blog. Mike Rowland, president of Impact Interactions, points out why blogging is especially helpful in the business-to-business sector,

“When you look at the b2b market, what’s necessary is thought leadership, and you cannot get thought leadership in 140 characters or a Facebook post,” he says. ²

Not only is blogging necessary for these more lengthy topics, it’s known as a place for more in-depth customer interaction. Blogging allows a hub for continuing conversation about your industry and your company’s place in it.
Finally, you want to know more about the details. How exactly will this help my business? Who will I be reaching with a blog? What will I say?

The 4 Ways Blogging Helps your Business

1. Power up your SEO efforts. Search engines no longer blindly follow meta-tags, they work on a much more complex algorithm that includes your traffic flow, keywords used within page content and back-linking.
2. Keep a fresh perspective. Sometimes a website alone can feel too static, especially if you don’t have frequently varying content. That’s where a blog comes in. Appeal to your audience with continually updated content that’s innovative and continues to explore topics that tie customers back to you for advice and solutions.
3. Cross-platform exposure. Although there are some things micro-posts simply cannot accomplish, this shouldn’t prevent you from linking to your more extensive blog content on Facebook or Twitter. This promotes traffic across multiple avenues and builds a following that may be different from that of your blog alone.
4. Brand awareness with a broad audience. The more places you can be found online, the more people can interact with your brand. By maintaining consistent topics of discussion related to your services, you ensure that return visitors are either colleagues who can become a resource or consumers interested in utilizing your services.