Clever Zebo officially succumbed to Blathy (what happens when your blog lays fallow for more than a month, and you don’t even spell out the words “blog” and “apathy”).
It’s a sad state of affairs I know many startups and even ongoing online marketing programs share. While Clever Zebo has been kicking butt in a bunch of other channels (partnerships, webinar, referrals, even GUEST BLOG POSTS ironically), we let our blog slip over the holidays.
Self-criticism aside, I want to talk about where we’re going with this blog and where you might consider going with yours.
There are blog evangelists out there who argue that regardless of the topic and your temperament you should blog multiple times a week and constantly share your ramblings on social media. The argument concludes with a general promise of a steady increase in traffic, leads, and new business. While certainly this dream scenario is true for some, there are mitigating factors, namely:
A) How much weekly writing and social sharing time is spent versus monetizable return.
B) What kind of long-term commitment is required to make this strategy pay off.
C) What kind of interest is there for the topic versus competition and noise.
While the ideal of an obsessively-maintained blog is attractive, what it takes to get there simply is not feasible for all companies — at least not in a short enough time frame to address fundamental business acquisition needs.
- WHY WE ALL SHOULD KEEP BLOGGING
From the first part of this post, you might think I’m trying to talk you out of your commitment to blogging. But I’m actually attempting the exact opposite. I’ve noticed an interesting trend the past few months: the majority of our new clients and serious prospects cite connecting to our blog’s content as a big reason why they wanted to have further conversations with us and ultimately work together.
While it’s not yet at Seth Godin level, the blog nonetheless has an impact on our site visitors — they want to know how we think and are looking for practical, logical advice on how to improve their online marketing program.
This realization has been tremendously empowering. Maybe I don’t have to worry about a weekly regimen of vomit-blogging and social rampaging; maybe the key is to keep using this medium as a way to keep my thoughts sharp and Clever Zebo’s followers current on online marketing trends and thinking. If I’ve learned anything in nearly a decade of online marketing, it’s that best practices are best unless they’re not.
I invite you to revisit your blog and ask yourself a few tough questions:
Let the answers slosh around, and if you’re inclined, let us know what you think.