Mitch Ratcliffe, who I spoke to via Skype some time ago, has a very compelling piece at Red Herring on businesses, passion and blogging:

Which brings us to the point: Blogging or any web marketing requires the company behind the blog to deliver even more in person than their blog-less competitors might. It raises the stakes and, by doing so, deepens the customer relationship, creating a real sense of loyalty and commitment based on the perception of a growing trust between vendor and customer.

He explores why two prominent bloggers from the recent blog convention in Seattle both “struggled with offering a positive answer to the question: ‘Why should a business blog?’”

I’ve heard this question asked many times before and the answer is: for some businesses having a blog doesn’t make good business sense. A plumber who has all the business he/she can handle or wants and gains new business from referrals from existing clients doesn’t really need a blog. What purpose would it serve?

This month I’ve been working with a local district manager for a large insurance company in setting up a private area for a district of seventeen agents. They are not going to be using blogs inside the private web area, at least not initially, they are going to use a messageboard for communication among the agents. Also, the possibility of using a wiki inside for collaborative discussion on some tutorials and other information is being considered. On the outside, however, in the public area the district manager is going to use this area for recruiting new agents and a blog makes good sense in this instance.

So blogs are tools for a business and just as a screwdriver isn’t used to hammer nails, blogs don’t fit every business’ needs. I think blog evangelists need to proceed more cautiously when promoting to businesses in such blanket terms that they must have a blog because not every business needs a hammer. It’s no so black and white. The better approach is to analyze how a business operates, particularly in the marketing and communication sectors and discuss if having a blog would add value to both these areas.

Also, setting up a blog just to say one “has a blog” I think is a big mistake. If you aren’t going to actually work the blog then what value does this bring to the business? In fact, if it takes the business focus away from what is making it money just to do something that may make them more money in the long run, that might not be a risk worth taking. I mean, it’s sort of akin to taking out a full page ad in the newspaper with no clear vision or plan of what the business is going to advertise.

I realize these blogging conventions that are popping up have a focus on turning on business owners to blogging but the conventions themselves are businesses and while the convention should definitely have blogs not necessarily every businessowner who attends should run back to his/her business and implement a blog.

Research, evaluate, implement.

A good argument could be made that this final step: implementation may not make good sense. Responsible blog evangelism should continue to include the possibility — however small the percentage — that blogging isn’t right for every business.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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