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Gevril and Haurex Italia dinner during Baselworld in March 2011 with Larry Brauner standing in the background.
Baselworld 2012 is right around the corner! -
Aug
3
Should Every Small Business Have a Blog?
Filed Under Blogs, Small Business, Social Media Marketing, Websites
I asked on Facebook earlier today whether every small business should have a blog. My Facebook focus group provided eight responses of which six were affirmative.
Fortunately, I’m not obliged to side with the majority on such matters, and although I praise blogs in 6 Easy Ways to Integrate Search and Social on Your Blogs and elsewhere, I see a blog as one of a variety of marketing tools at our disposal.
Starting a blog requires a commitment that is inappropriate for many small businesses.
You and I can talk about thought leadership, but when an entrepreneur is already wearing five hats in his or her small business, and there’s a family at home requiring attention, starting a blog could be the very straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Outsource it? That could be pricey and, in any case, I don’t know if that is thought leadership.
Back in April, I asked: Is Going Blogless Really An Option?
My answer: “Going blogless is an option. [With some creativity] you can accomplish with a standard website most of what you’d hope to accomplish with a blog.”
If anybody says your small business must have a blog, send them to me with boxing gloves on, and the two of us will duke it out. 
Comments
4 Responses to “Should Every Small Business Have a Blog?”
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Hi Larry,
Interesting post. I did question myself before; indeed it depends, as we see from our long long human history, so many businesses achieved tremendous success without even Internet, not to mention a blog.
I usually will analyze the client’s industry, market, competitors and current operation as well as the client’s interest to define whether a blog is necessary.
The actual criteria are not the issue for me at this time. Rather, it’s that many PR and social media consultants are convinced that every small business client must have a blog.
It is an important question every small business with a website should consider. Too often a small business uses their company name as their site address. Unless the business owner is SEO savvy, the site will not appear in general web searches for their services. A blog, using the keywords relevant to their business, can achieve high search rankings landing them on page 1 of Google or Yahoo!. Once they have that visibility, the blog can be an information source to consumers and ultimately a valuable tool to drive business to their website. So my answer to the question is, yes.
Hello Larry
Thank you for a very interesting and informative service. As a small business owner, I don’t believe that every small business “must” or even “should” have a blog. A well developed site with sufficient other marketing methods in the mix can suffice. I agree with you, adding yet another task (especially one that may not be a natural talent)could just derail the little bit of energy left and leave the SMB owner despondent and overwhelmed. Keep well.