4 Reasons Your Company Doesn’t Need a Blog

A company blog can be a great marketing tool. It can humanize your brand, give you a new way to interact with customers and clients, and help keep fresh content on your web site, bringing in more traffic and helping increase your search rankings. But blogging isn’t right for every business—if the following are true for you, blogging is probably not a good fit for your organization.

You don’t really want to blog. If your company isn’t committed to blogging, or there’s no one on your team who is excited about the idea managing a blog, there’s a good chance your organization’s blog won’t last very long. The amount of work involved in creating, launching, and maintaining a blog will seem like drudgery (and be ineffective) if your company doesn’t make it a priority to contribute ideas, maintain a regular schedule, and promote its blog.

Your team is already at maximum capacity. Blogging takes time, and if you’ve never managed a blog, chances are you have underestimated the required time commitment. A good blog has regular, well-written posts, lots of images (preferably taken by you), and a comprehensive plan. More than anything else, all of those things take time. Even if you plan to outsource the creation and maintenance of your blog, the person who manages the blogging process will need to rely on your team members to offer topic ideas, stay up to date on what’s happening within the company, and even locate images.

Your business changes on a dime. Blogs thrive with regular content, and the easiest way to generate fresh content without feeling overwhelmed is to plan out your posts in advance. Planning your content by the week or by the month will help you work ahead in anticipation of busy weeks and allow you to ensure you’re giving equal exposure to all of the parts of your business—not just the ones that are easiest to write about. If your business is somewhat unpredictable, a blog may not be the best tool. (Instead, consider faster-moving social media like Twitter, Facebook and Google+.)

Your company’s culture doesn’t mesh well with blogs. The best corporate blogs (like this one, this one and this one) don’t take themselves too seriously, which makes them fun to read. If leadership at your company will be uncomfortable having a blog with a more casual, personal voice, blogging is probably not worth your time. Very few people read academic journals for pleasure…the same will hold true for a dry corporate blog.

Aleigh Acerniis a writer, editor, author and social media specialist who loves words, travel and food—not necessarily in that order. She lends her services and good sense to Yellow Duck Marketing.