To Blog or Not To Blog

According to Nielsen, at the time of this writing there are more than 28 million blogs on the Internet, with more than 43,000 new blogs and 600,000 blog posts being created in the last 24 hours alone. By any analytical standard blogging has obviously developed into a powerful communication medium. However the question remains do the numbers in-and-of-themselves mean that blogging is right for everyone?

I have read many a commentary that state something akin to "Blog or Die" with the message behind these doomsday propaganda pieces being that if your business doesn't jump on the blogging bandwagon it will surely perish. Moreover, since I author a Blog I must believe in blogging right? Not necessarily...

If you've taken the time to review a random cross section of blogs on the Internet I'm sure you'll agree that the world would be better off without some of the content currently being published. That being said, I also believe the world is indeed a better place as a result of some of the good content available via blogs. OK, enough waffling...Not everyone can or should blog. In this author's humble opinion, blogging only makes sense if the following conditions can be met:

You Have Something To Say: I don't have any particular affinity for useless musings. Time is a precious commodity these days and most people I know are looking for valuable information that they can put to work for some benefit. I'm also not a fan of going to a blog to read third party news or press just so someone can boost their search engine rankings. There are plenty of legitimate news sites and other aggregators out there so if you can't produce your own content you shouldn't blog.

You Know How To Say It: Mark Twain I'm not, but for the most part I can put across a cogent thought. While there is no requirement that you be a Rhodes Scholar to blog, it does help if you can communicate well in written form. The worst thing you can do for your business is to lose credibility via poor communication and a lack of professionalism. Not everyone is a writer nor should they try to be.

You Have The Time To Say It: I typically produce 3 to 5 blog posts per week and it normally takes me an hour or two per post. If you don't have the time to make blogging a priority the effort will end in frustration for both you and your audience.

You Have Someone To Say It To: Make sure that there is a viable audience for your content. Whether the blog is a tool for internal communication to employees or an external channel to third parties you must have an audience to either receive or pass along value.

There Is Some Benefit Derived From What You Say: Back to value...Whether the value is received or given (in a perfect world both) does not matter as long as value is created. A blog can serve educational, social, business, philanthropic, political or any number of other agendas so long as a clear value add is present. A simple cost/benefit or risk/reward analysis should indicate whether your effort will be of value to you and even if it is not of value to you it may be to others.

The bottom line is that the numbers do in fact speak for themselves. Blogging is much more than the latest trend and is here to stay. So as long as you can meet the criteria mentioned above blogging can be a tremendous platform from which to effectively communicate your message.

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Mike Myatt serves as Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth, the nation's leading venture growth consultancy. Mr. Myatt possesses a broad range of skill sets, competencies and experiences rarely found in the business world. As an executive he has held numerous C-suite positions, as an entrepreneur he has been a principal in 4 successful ventures and as a professional advisor. www.n2growth.com