If You're A Small Business And You're Not Blogging Or If You Are Not Discussing Blogging, Could This Be Why?

The quotes below are from Brad Shorr and I whole-heartedly agree....

http://in-sidemarketing.blogspot.com/

"How blogs are reshaping public relations by giving companies direct access to their audiences?"

"Right now, the business blogosphere is dominated by tech industry bloggers and some very major names from other sectors. But the trend toward blogging and conversational marketing is irreversible. Companies in other industries should pay close attention. They can capitalize by getting involved early".

" To do things right, we want to spend as much time as possible inside the client's office, to learn the business, and build relationships with the staff, become part of the team. We believe that's the best way to help clients market. We'll have to invest some extra time, but it's worth it if it gets results."

"These differences have huge implications for what and how a company communicates"

"When a customer gets past the hype and the one-way communication and starts to see the client as a group of people offering something of real value....good things happen. Marketing used to be "LOOK AT ME!" More and more, it's becoming "LOOK AT US!"

"A number of industries have embraced business blogs en masse. Yet, I meet executives all the time who have never looked at a blog, let alone considered starting one"

"The time for investigation is at hand. Estimates of the number of blogs are iffy, but run as high as 70 million worldwide. Whatever the number, blogs are spreading like wildfire. Some experts predict business blogs will eventually replace traditional Web sites altogether. That may sound incredible, but there's no doubt blogs are changing the nature of business communication in a big way."

"That being the case, businesses need to do two things."

"Learn about blogs and the many ways to use them, and determine whether now is the right time to start blogging"

"As you explore blogs, you will quickly see they behave nothning like websites. Web site communication is one-way: blogs are discussion forums. Websites are full of big picture marketing jargon: blogs are personal and plainly written. Web sites tend to radiate nothning but positive spin: blogs put it all on the table, good news and bad."

"On the plus side, the first bloggers in a particular niche usually wind up being the most successful. Having a reputation for thought leadership within your industry will attract business, even if your company is relatively small."

"I talk to executives in a variety of relatively low-tech industries that seem to be in a blogging no-man's land."

Their customers are older and may be just now getting comfortable with email. They value personal contact and phone calls, and wouldn't read a blog if you paid them.

But these executives are starting to encounter a new group of decision-makers with the opposite mentality. People that can't imagine life without email and would only use the phone if their life depended on it.

"Bridging the gap between these two customers types might be, in the end, the best reason to start blogging sooner rather than later. More on blogs to come."

" We want to help clients who are frustrated with their results, and have the sneaking suspiction they need to think about marketing in a new way."

All of the above statements are taken from blog posts by Brad Shorr___http://in-sidemarketing.blogspot.com/

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Now here's my thought.....

" There were two cafe's downtown. One was across the street from the other. One cafe had a website. An active website. And the other cafe didn't use online blogging-technology.

Which cafe do you think will be there in five years?......

"Just thinking outloud!"