Is Blogging Dead?

I was having a conversation with a successful local realtor a few days ago as we discussed the latest and upcoming trends in the world of online marketing and advertising for real estate agents. At some point we got into the discussion of blogging and he firmly believed that “blogging is outdated” and no one goes online to read blogs anymore.

I also read an interesting article in Inc. Magazine entitled “Where Have All the Bloggers Gone?” that concludes the fact that blogging is on decline and not a good marketing tool.

The Truth About Blogging

Despite opinions to the contrary, not only blogging is not dead, it has gotten more and more traction not just among humans but also amongst the spiders and bots of Google and all other major search engines. I wrote an article last month about Google’s newest search engine; Humming Bird, that clearly shows the importance of fresh, updated, relevant content in the calculation of their algorithm. Social sharing (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) doesn’t replace traditional blogging, it actually serves as a catalyst to expose blog content to a broader base of readers. My observation is people who say blogging is dead either already have a blog that died, or they have no blog at all.

Where Are We Now?

Blogging isn’t dying – it’s being refined by those who understand it best, and abandoned by those who don’t have the talent or the ability to sustain their efforts. To be fair, the Inc. Magazine article which triggered this rant did point out those “Companies that do have blogs are very happy with them. 92% of those businesses called the platform a success.” I’m not aware of any other medium/platform where 92% of users view their efforts as a success, are you?

Reasons Why Blogging Won’t Die

Because there is virtually no barrier to entry to a medium which offers global exposure to one’s thoughts and opinions, blogging will never die. While the list of reasons behind why people blog are probably only limited to the confines of one’s imagination. Companies that blog typically have 97% more inbound links than those that don’t, which means more organic search engine traffic.

And the stats get even better from there…

• 70% of consumers learn about a company through its blog versus ads.


• 60% of consumers feel positive about a company after reading its blog.


• 61% of consumers have made a purchase based on a blog post that they read.

If those stats don’t convince you to start a corporate blog, perhaps the below infographic will.

Courtesy of: Quick Sprout

 

The Road Ahead

Blogging is something that I highly recommend any business owner or manager that is thinking about having an internet strategy in place as a part of their long term marketing. Blogging has gotten a bad rap for being too time-consuming and ineffective but in reality if done correctly and consistently it can be an invaluable tool to any business. It’s the only place where you can really be a thought leader in your field and one of the only ways to increase your website’s organic rankings and being found on search engines.

Is Blogging Dead?