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Blogs, not website, may be more effective way to market on the Internet : NY Times

September 27, 2007

“A Web site may not even be the best place to start promoting your products or services,” reports David Strom in Tuesday’s New York Times. Setting up a blog or participating in social-networking communities can be more effective in reaching your target audience.

Key points made by Strom and the experts he quoted include:

  • A blog can be the driving force of your firm’s branding effort and become the way you find your readers and clients.
  • An active blog helps draw visitors to a corporate Web site and can improve a company’s search rankings.
  • Blogging isn’t about promoting your business. Blogs should focus on a niche or industry segment and become an authority by publishing advice and commentary on it.

Read the whole article to see how blogs and other social media have worked for small businesses. It’s pretty clear that marketing on the net does not just mean throwing something up on the Internet. Effective marketing requires a proactive approach of reaching out and networking.

As John Patrick, a former I.B.M. vice president for Internet technology, who is a consultant and a member of several Internet companies’ boards told Strom “The old ways of hiring a public relations firm and putting out press releases just don’t cut it anymore. Today’s businesses have to be more hands-on, grass roots, interactive and maintain this flow of continuous communications.”