Put your best blog forward
By Adam
December 02, 2009
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
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“Your website is the front door, your blog is the board room table.”
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a website and a blog, this analogy from Daniel Patricio of bizlaunch.ca’s Small Biz Blog at should help clear things up.
It’s a common misconception that a blog is just another corporate website. It’s not. A blog is the conversation you have with your peers after you’ve stepped away from the website.
Patricio continues:
“The role of the website is often a destination where visitors can quickly learn about the products, people and services behind a company; however, that only serves to answer the ‘Who and What’ of the marketing mix. The blog is where people go when they say, ‘Yes, I’ve read your marketing copy but what [do] you guys really do?’”
In other words, you don’t want to use a blog to regurgitate your press releases and annual reports – that’s the job of your website. Instead, you want to use your blog as a virtual boardroom table where you can reach out to your prospects and customers on a personal level, listen, share ideas, offer expertise and build relationships.
In Who’s There? Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web, Seth puts it this way:
“…blogging especially, is social. Not antiseptic or anonymous or corporate. This means that the writing skills you and your organization have honed aren’t going to help you much.”
In other words:
“Your business blog is to traditional communication what casual Fridays are to the suit.”
Keep in mind none of this suggests your blog’s content should be anything but professional. It simply means you ought to loosen the tie. A lot.
Seth sums things up:
“Blogs work when they are based on:
And:
“If you can’t be at least four of the five things listed above, please don’t bother. People have a choice … and nobody is going to read your blog, link to your blog or quote your blog unless there’s something in it for them.”
Ouch. But so true.
Think otherwise? Leave us a link to your blog, tell us what it’s about and what it’s doing (or not) for your business.
If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a website and a blog, this analogy from Daniel Patricio of bizlaunch.ca’s Small Biz Blog at should help clear things up.
It’s a common misconception that a blog is just another corporate website. It’s not. A blog is the conversation you have with your peers after you’ve stepped away from the website.
Patricio continues:
“The role of the website is often a destination where visitors can quickly learn about the products, people and services behind a company; however, that only serves to answer the ‘Who and What’ of the marketing mix. The blog is where people go when they say, ‘Yes, I’ve read your marketing copy but what [do] you guys really do?’”
In other words, you don’t want to use a blog to regurgitate your press releases and annual reports – that’s the job of your website. Instead, you want to use your blog as a virtual boardroom table where you can reach out to your prospects and customers on a personal level, listen, share ideas, offer expertise and build relationships.
In Who’s There? Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web, Seth puts it this way:
“…blogging especially, is social. Not antiseptic or anonymous or corporate. This means that the writing skills you and your organization have honed aren’t going to help you much.”
In other words:
“Your business blog is to traditional communication what casual Fridays are to the suit.”
Keep in mind none of this suggests your blog’s content should be anything but professional. It simply means you ought to loosen the tie. A lot.
Seth sums things up:
“Blogs work when they are based on:
1. Candor
2. Urgency
3. Timeliness
4. Pithiness
5. Controversy
And:
“If you can’t be at least four of the five things listed above, please don’t bother. People have a choice … and nobody is going to read your blog, link to your blog or quote your blog unless there’s something in it for them.”
Ouch. But so true.
Think otherwise? Leave us a link to your blog, tell us what it’s about and what it’s doing (or not) for your business.