Watch If You Can’t Blog It, Don’t Do It on YouTube.
If you were going to start a new business, what kind of business would it be?
Here’s the new litmus test: if you can’t blog it, don’t do it. Some businesses don’t have blogs and shouldn’t have blogs: oil companies, Blackwater, KBR, Halliburton, whatever. Evil = no blog for you, unless you just like putting a hate magnet on the interwebs.
So… if you were going to start a new business, it should be a highly bloggable business. If I wanted to stick with the energy category, think biodeisel or solar. Many more kinds of business are bloggable than people realize. Freelancing and consulting services are super-bloggable (heck, look at me). Freelancing is also a growing sector in the job market–it will explode in the next 5 years due to white collar outsourcing and softsourcing (people replaced by software). But even the most old-school thing you can think of: the “mom and pop” retail store–can survive and even thrive when it becomes a boutique with a blog.
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Side note coming from a tangent, but as a blogger, there are a number of things I do purely because I’m a blogger, and I think “oh, I can blog about it”.
But I agree with your article entirely – I design websites for a number of businesses who often come to us and say “We want a blog”. The only problem is, they often don’t use them.
Actually, if those evil companies to which you refer could blog about what they are actually doing without propagandizing, it could be a good tool for getting the word out about what is actually going on over there. Most people haven’t got any idea what those companies are really doing there, and get their news and misconceptions from people who don’t even know anything about the situation and how it works. I can assure you that a lot of the “knowledge” passing around is inaccurate and distorted. Just sayin’.
I think that, done well, a blog can be an asset to any business, even an evil conglomerate. I’ve really enjoyed the Small Business Blogging Challenge on Business and Blogging (http://www.businessandblogging.com), wherein readers try to stump the hosts by coming up with businesses that couldn’t possibly use a blog. It’s been absolutely fascinating.
I’m still skeptical that a roadkill remover (http://tinyurl.com/26bscc) would get major results (I hear “roadkill” and just shut down, but that’s me), but seriously, they make me believe that anyone can pull it off and use it as a good marketing tool if they put the effort in and think creatively.
Kristen
@ Rhys – I hear ya!
@ Robert – Good point. One of the advantages of blogs is their ability to bypass traditional or mainstream media, which everyone seems to think is biased in whatever way they don’t like.
I just feel that I see a connection between the evolution of business itself and the evolution of the online tools business uses. Old-school biz + new online tools = Seth Godin’s “meatball sundae.”
Michael,
This is a great exercise for business owners or those wanting to start a business because we really do get an opportunity to talk to people like we do in person.
I’ve personally seen a local blog http://www.sandkeyblog.com which is written by a Sand Key restuarant owner about local events and their events. The blog makes me and others always think of his place to eat and it makes him “real” and you feel a special connection. It is wild when you see how you feel about local businesses and realize your blog is hopefully doing the same thing.
@ Kristen –
That is very interesting, indeed! I’m sure that a lot of people would have laughed at the idea of Microsofties blogging, and yet ol’ M$ has a great many bloggers. It’s helped to humanize the company. Ironically, Apple has no blogs!
I will be the first to admit I’m deliberately being provocative to get the discussion going (heh… my evil plan worked!). But seriously, if I were going to start a new venture, I would put a lot of weight on how bloggable it would be as part of my decision-making process.
@ Cyndee – Yes, that is a great example! Thank you for sharing it with us.
@Michael – I can’t speak for the B&B folks, but I suspect they would say that blogability depends on your level of creativity.
But some businesses, UNLIKE embalming or picking up roadkill, do seem to lend themselves to blogging.
What would be your top 5 most bloggable businesses?
kk
@ Kristen – Top 5 bloggable businesses? Ooh… I like a challenge! Let’s see…
How’s that?
@Michael – Not bad, not bad — and fast, too! Why did you specify accounting and lawyering rather than leaving it with just general professional services? That was the only thing that surprised me.
kk
@ Kristen – As examples, though there are other kinds of professional services.
@Michael – Ahh, thought you were suggestion those two as the mostly appropriate ones and others a less appropriate. Gotcha.
kk
Kristin, Michael
Thanks for mentioning Business & Blogging’s Blog Challenge – we’ve been having a lot of fun with the series. People have certainly unleashed their creativity in trying to stump us – a rock quarry, a gas station, a roadkill remover, an independent embalmer,etc. While I wouldn’t say those businesses are top candidates, it does show that if they could blog, so could more usual businesses.
I like the premise of this post – a web 2.0 update to the traditional ethics test question – would you want what you are doing to show up on the front page of the WSJ or for you mother to know what you are doing?
@ Liz Fuller – Thanks for stopping by! I like what you said about “telling your mother!”
The way I feel about it, if you have to try to justify and spin what you do immediately after you tell someone what you do, maybe you’re in the wrong business!
I am always amazed how fast some business blogs start out and then they run out if ideas. They come out of the gate hard and then slowly stop posting. It would be better to post slower and be consistent.
Bob Hernireich
@ Robert Hernreich – When you see that happening, it’s usually because they never had any real content strategy and may not even have had a main objective they wished to accomplish with the business blog. When you know exactly who you’re writing for and what you hope to accomplish, you will always have topic ideas.
Business is not just about giving our knowledge, experience, product and skills in return for money. Business is also about the heart, how we can add value to this generation and maybe even next generation. When we have the heart, there will always be something we share share with our target audience. How can there not be enough content to share? There should be be an overwhelming amount that you find your fingers are too slow to type it out.
Michael, I’m new to your blog but I really enjoy what you are sharing.
@Michael Martine
I aggree with you, but sometimes we need more time to look for new topics to be written after so many posts we’ve created..
I believe there are lots of articles/information on the internet where I can read and write for the reference but finding the best is a bit difficult today since lots of contents are “rewritten” from others.
@ Vivienne -
That is how I feel. I never have trouble writing (or filming) posts. People talk about “blogger’s block.” Well, have you ever seen a child on the beach get “sand castle block?” I’m a kid on the beach!
Thank you for your kind words.
This idea is really great but may be for now it’s not relevant for my country Mr. Michael because the internet penetration level in my country is still low, so I can’t do the thing like Mrs. Cyndee Haydon suggested, do you have an ide?