What is a Blog and does it serve a purpose?

Being new to digital marketing, the learning journey has begun. My first lesson ‘blogging’. Most businesses seem to struggle with blogging and its purpose.

What does the word “Blog” mean – simply, it’s a blend of 2 words “Web and Log”. It has been called several names in its short life time from “online journaling”, “scrapbook” to “web diaries”. I personally prefer the title “news and trends”.

A blog in layman’s terms is your voice among the online crowd. The internet is a medium that is unparalleled in its reach. It is a form of static billboard on the internet that showcases information. Bloggers have the opportunity of reaching hundreds or even thousands of people each and every day.

Blogging has now entered a realm of its own, from fad to industry.

The majority of business related blogs focus on a particular topic: up-to-date news, technical information, advice, articles of interest, links, photographs, an achievement or anything which is relevant to your company/product.

Some mind blowing blogging facts:

• a new blog is created somewhere in the world every half a second, that’s 7200 new blogs created in an hour
• amazingly 172,800 new blogs are added to the internet every day (with this number rapidly increasing on a daily, monthly basis)
• statistics show most people will read at least 1 blog a day, with the average person reading 2
• statistics show blog sharing usually reaches a peak at 7 am
• an average person will read a blog twice
• blogs can help influence customers buying decisions and purchases
• based on a study in 2014 it took 36% (378 bloggers) 1-2 hours to write a successful blog
• based on that same study it took 5.5% (57 bloggers) more than 6 hours to write a successful blog
• statistics show blogging is usually done during a business day, however a large volume of blogs are posted outside of business hours (evenings)
• 60% of blogs are 500-1000 characters in length with 20% being less than 500 words.

Based on information from the Office for National Statistics

• the internet was accessed every day, or almost every day, by 78% of adults (39.3 million) in Great Britain in 2015, compared with 35% (16.2 million) in 2006, when directly comparable records began.
• Almost all adults aged 16 to 24 (96%) accessed the internet “on the go”, compared with only 29% of those aged 65 years and over.
• Social networking was used by 61% of adults and of those, 79% did so every day or almost every day.
• In 2015, 76% of adults bought goods or services online, up from 53% in 2008. “Clothes or sports goods” were purchased by 55% of adults, making them the most popular online purchase.
• In the last 3 months, 22% of adults purchased online once or twice, while 28% of adults purchased 11 or more times. Online purchases totalling £100 to £499 were made by 42% of adults who had bought online in the last 3 months.
• In 2015, 86% of households in Great Britain (22.5 million) had internet access, up from 57% in 2006.

Here at TU Marketing we have some interesting blogs aimed to assist you on writing a successful and interesting blog.

So in short ‘YES!’ blogging does serve a purpose and is something most businesses should consider writing. Marketing has evolved, traditional marketing used to interrupt (we’ve all experienced cold calling and receipt of constant mail outs), whereas now; digital marketing is used to attract customers. We are living in the information age; the age where knowledge is power, people will go online to look for information that will provide the solution to their problem. If your blogs are relevant to someone in this wide world, it will lead them to you.