Blogging should be part of a business’ marketing strategy and should be done (I think) at least once a week, preferably twice. Three times at most. This is of course just my opinion and I base this on how often I would read other business blogs.

If you follow several businesses via their blog, Facebook or Twitter it can become rather annoying if you’re bombarded with posts on a daily basis. You don’t want to annoy, because that means losing a customer. You want to entertain, inform or educate. It’s not always about selling either, because too much selling becomes irritating too.

Varying the content of your posts is more likely to keep people interested and returning to read more. Adding pictures is a must generally, because people just like pictures more than reading text and if they like your picture, they might stay on your page and read the text.  And if your 5 year old is better at writing a story than you are, why not use a copywriter? Do a search on the internet and find one suitable for your business. Personally I can recommend Alfalfa as they’ve been used by clients of mine and do an excellent job!

All right, now to set myself a reminder to blog so I don’t forget…

Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines it as

: a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also : the contents of such a site
— blog verb
— blog·ger noun
— blog·ging noun

Personally I thought it was just the page on the website that was a blog but it seems I’m wrong. Or am I? These days there are so many websites of which just a section is the journal part, and they aren’t only personal either as loads of businesses have one, although they come under different titles, some calling them News, but it’s all the same thing – a Weblog, which is what Blog is a shorter version of.

So I think Merriam-Webster’s definition is a bit limiting. So here’s mine:

1) An online personal journal where you can tell the world what you want to share with them. Where you can pontificate to your heart’s desire about the mating rituals of the gnat, the latest Jennifer Aniston hairdo, who stole your cheese and your version of the chocolate brownies Gary showed us how to make on Masterchef Australia (that flopped when you made them).

2) An online business journal  where you can inform the public out there that your business has just acquired the secret of eternal youth, offer special deals on your services or goods, advertise a competition for a world cruise (or a basket of fruit) or just inform them of what you think they need to know regarding issues related to your business.

* You can add photos (please resize from a million MB to less than 100 so it doesn’t take forever to load), or videos from YouTube, or you can link to other websites (hyperlink) where you’ve read or seen something you want to share.

*  The Blog can be part of a larger website (personal or business) or be just the one page journal.

You don’t have to call it a Blog if you hate the term. What about calling it an Ojourn (online journal) or Wournal (web journal)? Mind you Wournal sounds a bit like a strange Australian animal… Maybe just leave it as Blog.

Call it “Fred’s musings” or “Monologues by Molly” or “Wonderful Widgets Inc. Wonderful News”. If you have stuff you want to share with the world, then get blogging! If you don’t have a website you can get a free account on some sites like Blogger, Blogspot or WordPress.com (which I personally prefer). Don’t deprive the world of your fascinating wit or your brilliant business acumen.

Oh, Merriam-Webster also lists the words that rhyme with Blog:

bog, clog, cog, flog, fog, frog, grog, hog, jog, log, nog, Prague, prog, quag, shog, slog, smog, tog

Maybe this is why people don’t like the word so much? How Prague got in there I don’t know though…

The idea behind the blog part is to start letting clients (and potential clients) know more about what they can do to with their website, with social media and also to encourage them to feel less scared about computers. Coming from an IT background (that’s Information Technology for those who don’t know the term) I found it interesting and even a bit amusing that there are plenty of people out there who are actually afraid of computers.

Having given some training in basic use of computers this has come up quite a bit, and it’s mostly amongst older folk who didn’t grow up with computers. Which is quite understandable.  I mean what I know about fixing cars is not much, and I certainly wouldn’t recommend that anyone gives me a set of spanners (do you use those in cars?) and points me to their car engine. So I understand when people quiver when they sit in front of a computer. Maybe they picture the keyboard biting their hands. Or the hammer in the cartoon coming from the behind the screen and beating them over the head.

Ah yes, way back then there weren’t these wonderful flat screens and gazillion byte disks and fancy games. I remember the black screen with green serif fonts. Oh, that ages me terribly doesn’t it, so let’s move on…

What gives me great pleasure is seeing how a person who was afraid, who was told (by family nogal – sies jong!) they would never master this monster called Computer, who thought a mouse could only be a hairy little thing with a tail, are now happily clicking away on said mouse, one-finger typing on a keyboard and staring into a webcam chatting to their grandchildren in Australia.

But I digress. I started out about websites. My thoughts do tend to wander sometimes though, so forgive me if what you thought you started off reading about turns into something else halfway through. But it’s related really – there are many people who run businesses yet are still afraid of computers, and who think that a website and Facebook and Twitter are things they can do without. Maybe they can, for a while. But if the competitor is doing these things and you aren’t, then the potential for losing clients to this competitor is great, because more people are scouring the internet for things they want and need these days than doing so on foot. Technology is not going away and it would be wise to invest in it if you are in business today.