Even as creators of social media tools and networks continue to innovate and come up with new ideas, it's nice to know that an old social media standby still works very well: Blogs really are effective.
Check out a very interesting infographic, "The State of Content Marketing 2013," from social media campaign company Wishpond. This statistic is particularly compelling: "Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links." It is well known that search engines favor blogs because their content is fresh and frequently published.
Here are two additional key stats from the infographic: "B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month" and "37% of marketers say blogs are the most valuable type of content marketing."
It's easy and inexpensive to establish a blog linked to your website. Blogs can be short or long (though not too long) and published at any interval (though "more frequent" trumps "less frequent"). The most important factor is that your blog's content is relevant and interesting to your target audience. In other words, the content must be perceived as valuable and useful, not simply as a sales pitch or self-promotional.
Learn more about how to use blogs as a marketing tool in the on-demand online course, Big Brand Strategies for Small Brands. Brand marketing expert Barry Silverstein presents specific strategies, tactics and techniques small brands can use to market their brands like the big brands. You'll get a comprehensive overview of everything from brand name and brand position to detailed information about how to build a brand marketing arsenal that includes public relations, social media and blogs, non-traditional marketing, and more. Click here for complete details.