Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.

By Sasha Pasulka

Companies regularly approach me to consult on their digitalstrategy, and one of the first things on their mind is their blog. If theydon’t have a blog, they want one. If they already have a blog, they want it tohave more readers. More regular content. More commenting.

The way I see it, investing heavily in your brand’s blogtoday is a lot like investing heavily in real estate in early 2006. You’re a wee bit late to the party.

“The blog should be the center of everything, right?” asked one client during our initial discussions. This client’s brand has over 20,000Twitter followers – active, engaged followers – and their Facebook page seesthousands of daily interactions. But their blog sees only a handful of visitsdaily, nearly all of them referrals from Twitter or Facebook.

They were really concerned about this. They wanted to knowwhat I could do to improve their blog’s readership.

“Are you looking to sell ads on your company’s blog?” Iasked.

“No.”

“So, then, what are you looking to do with your company’sblog?”

“Promote our brand. Increase brand awareness. Engage withour fans.”

“Aren’t you already doing that really well on Twitter andFacebook?”

They’d inadvertently stumbled into a prescient social mediastrategy. Blogging as a branding tool doesn’t make a lot of sense anymore.

This transition’s been in the works for a long time, and Wired magazine’s September cover story,titled “The Web Is Dead,” certainly hoped to be the nail in the proverbialcoffin. I’ll disagree with that as a blanket statement – and as somebody whoseprimary source of income continues to be the advertising revenue from a stableof successful blogs. (And whose secondary source of income is consultingrevenue from companies who pay me to tell them how to write their blogs. Putbluntly, I suck at politics.)

The Web is arguably moribund. It is not dead and it won’tkick the bucket any sooner than terrestrial radio or print magazines.

But what doesn’t make a whole lot of sense today is amajor investment in a blog as a branding tool. There are certainly plenty ofgood reasons for your company to have a blog – to communicate information toyour customers, to allow them to get to know you personally, to share photosand video, to encourage feedback. But all of this can, in most cases, be doneequally effectively with third-party social media tools.

Is your startup’s big plan to game SEO? To use your blog’s content tobe the top-ranking Google result for some oft-Googled search term?

Good luck with that, buddy. I’m sure your hyper-intelligentSEO is even more freakishly brilliant than the hundred other hyper-intelligentSEOs competing for that same search term. No really. Throw some more money atit.

SEO strategies like that worked four years ago. They evenmaybe worked three years ago. Today, it’s a field too crowded with really smartpeople who have really smart computers, like hunting for an arbitrageopportunity on the FOREX.  

(To clarify: This is not to say that SEO is dead, just thata blog’s value in a brand’s broader SEO strategy is rapidly diminishing. But,hey, did I mention that Google search is dead?)

Or is your plan to link-bait? To make some controversial orunnecessarily sexual or arguably misogynistic assertion that will set Twitterall abuzz? Is that really what you want your brand to reflect anyway? (I canthink of only a single brand that link-baits effectively, appropriately andbuilds brand strength from it, and that’s OkCupid. And they do so masterfully.)

Blogs continue to be an effective way toshare in-depth news, information and opinions, and that market is persistent. But the way brands need to use blogs is changing, and that’s important to know as you’re choosing how to invest a digital strategy budget — a budget of money or time. Don’t bangyour head against the wall trying to update your startup’s blog three times aweek with whatever nonsense you think “represents” you just because it’s whateveryone else has been doing. Customers are more frequently looking to Twitter,Facebook and apps to learn about new brands and keep up-to-date with familiarones. Ask yourself if blogging is really a valuable investment for your brand,or if you’re paying $500K for a one-bedroom condo in the suburbs just becauseit’s what everyone else has been doing lately.

I’ll end with an example I’m sharing specifically because mymother doesn’t want me to share it, and incidentally because it illustrates mypoint. My mother – who asked that she be referred to broadly as “BetaMom” forthis post rather than singled out, and who will probably never make that mistake again – recently signed upfor Facebook. She doesn’t use her real name, or provide any details or apicture. Her only two friends are my sister and I (and I confirmed that friendrequest begrudgingly). I asked her why she finally gave in to the social mediacraze.

“I want to follow all my favorite companies,” said BetaMom.“They put their news on Facebook now, and I want to read it on my Flipboard.”(BetaMom is an avid iPad user – and that’s another post entirely.) Shementioned that she never really liked or saw value in a standard RSS feed, but gettingher brand updates on Flipboard, via Facebook, works for her.

The chasm has been crossed. My Not-So-Beta Dad will joinFacebook the same day he voluntarily reads my gossip blog without me shoving alaptop in his face and screaming “Look Daddy! This is what I do for a living!”

BetaMom was the final frontier. She’s ready to get updatesfrom her favorite brands on Facebook rather than by surfing the web.

So – does your company really even need a blog?

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