Don’t Become a Blogging Zombie!

Not counting what Hat Trick Associates calls “Zombie blogs” (blogs that have been at least temporarily abandoned by their companies), there are currently around 400 million English language blogs online.  The numbers, of course, keep changing, as hattrickassociates.com explains, with new blogs started by the tens of thousands each day, and a large number of blogs dropping off the “radar’ out of sheer neglect.

Because of the low “barriers to entry” (a business school phrase referring to how easy or how difficult it is to get into an industry), Hat Trick goes on to say, almost anyone can begin blogging. 

“So if you’re asking yourself ‘Does the number of current blogs mean I shouldn’t bother with creating my own?’ your answer should be a definite NO!”, concludes Hat Trick. Just remembering those 500,000,000 blog readers (your potential customers and clients) should be sufficient to re-energize your devotion to the blogging task.

Badlanguage.net blogger Matthew Stibbe reminds us of a variety of reasons it’s a good idea to have a company blog:

• To increase the number of visitors
   
• To improve your reputation in the industry
   
• To position your company as an authority
   
• To interact with your target audience
   
• To provide fresh content for Search Engine Optimization
   
• To build incoming links

So why the heavy zombie rate among business bloggers? Hat Trick lists the challenges small business owners face when they embark on do-it-yourself blogging:

• Finding topics to write about
   
• Finding time to actually write the posts and upload them
   
• Adhering to an established publishing schedule

“The main problem with company blogs is that they often get neglected after the initial honeymoon period has worn off, remarks Stibbe ruefully. Stibbe has a great list of content ideas for bloggers to keep handy, including industry news, company news, how to articles, lists, competitions, and opinion pieces.

In my experience as a professional ghost blogger and business blogging trainer, it’s the “finding time” thing that most often turns avid bloggers into zombies. As Hat Trick Associates not so subtly suggests, “Those who don’t have the time and resources to blog themselves can still hire firms like Hat Trick Associates to help them develop content ideas and take care of the writing and posting.”

All those wonderful reasons to have a company blog?  Those are the same reasons NOT to allow yours to become a Zombie blog!