A strong online presence is important for businesses in today’s high-speed and competitive world. Blogs have already become a new are a new buzz marketing. Marketers are blogging for organisations, products, ideas and or for other organisational goals and achieving. That has not started happening in Pakistan yet. If happening, it is on a very small scale.
To understand blogging as a corporate communications and marketing tool, we must understand the nature of blogs. Here is a short definition, “Blogs – an abbreviation of ‘weblogs’ – are published on the web, typically as micro sites standing by themselves but today also as parts of traditional web sites. They reflect the interests, thoughts and opinions of the person, sometimes persons, publishing the blog. Blogs are characterized by frequent updates, an informal tone and many links to other blogs and web sites.”
A business blog is the one published by or with the support of an organisation to reach that organisation’s goals. In external communication the potential benefits include strengthened relationships with important targeted segments and positioning of the publishing organisation as industry experts. Internally blogs are generally referred to as tools for collaboration and knowledge management.
Blogs can drive visitors to existing web site and help find new customers and engage the ones organisations already have. Blogs are prevailing and cost-effective marketing tools. As far as businesses is concerned, there are clients and potential clients. A blog will create a dialogue between the business, present client base, and potential buyers. Communication has never been easier and user friendly before phenomenon of blogging that started only a decade ago.
Once an organisation has a blog, it offers immediate and high impact interaction with its target audience. As more people have online access, they will want more than the standard online newsletter or typical PR response (we are so averse to existing PR stereotypes). Long gone are the days when companies simply fed information to their customers. Now everyone asks for a dialogue – a meaningful exchange of information. Consumers also want to know that organisations are listening to them and paying heeds to what is being suggested, and blogs allow just that – responding quickly and openly.
From a business point of view there are several potential reasons to blog particularly in less connected countries like Pakistan. But, as always, it depends on what businesses want. Blogs are no different from channels like video, print, and audio presentations. This word of mouth (or call it word of mouse) marketing delivers results – but of varying kinds. The kind you can expect from blogs is mainly about stronger relations with important targeted segments.
Who should blog for the businesses? Ideally, front line people who know the business in and out should blog about it. Marketing professionals can also use this powerful tool. Organisations can hire professional writers to blog for them under company’s name or blog under their own. Depending upon the feedback and information provided by the audience, an inside blogger can develop the ability to write in his or her own voice and create content for business blog. On the other hand, outsider bloggers can view business with an objective eye and offer fresh marketing ideas and strategies.
Earlier, online marketing and web sites never picked up in Pakistan because of the obvious “digital divide that exists due to individual disparities in levels of income, education standards, psychological reasons, age, gender, rural-urban divide, and quality of life or collective deprivations like lack of physical infrastructure.” Things have changed for the better. Now the stage is set that Pakistan corporate sector should look at blogging as an opportunity to reach out and take advantages.
One wonders why local businesses have failed to notice the growing readership and influence of these Internet postings and the buzz corporate blogging can create, particularly as a process of Search Engine Marketing or targeting online segment of consumers. In this case again, may be the responsibility to educate corporate Pakistan rests with bloggers. Bloggers and social media enthusiasts must let them know what you can do for them and how.
Pakistan bloggers are exceptionally good (and I am not being ethnocentric here). They have expertise for corporate writing. Their language and blogging skills and networking capabilities can be compared with any bloggers’ community in the world. Internet coverage and users-base is constantly growing. Even trend to shop online is taking off. Given chance, blogging help any business directly as well as indirectly. And the whole world is your market as they say.
Computers and collaborative web technologies have changed the way business is done these days. My recommendation is that every business, large or small, must start thinking out of the four-P marketing paradigm and have a blog.
The writer is Deputy Controller Examination, Lahore School of Economics
