Blog Sites, Web Sites

by Bernie Mitchell in Social Media.

OK, hands up I am a blog fanatic and think everyone should be writing about what they do. When I am talking to groups at events and in our workshops I always get asked about the difference between a blog and website.

"If the odds are a million to one against something occurring, chances are 50-50 it will."

The main purpose of a website is to produce a transaction. Think of Amazon, you really are only meant to go there and buy, nothing wrong with that, it is an eCommerce site and people know that.

We don’t race there to catch up with Mary and her news, if a website is not purposeful and focused, it does not fulfill its mission to produce a sale or whatever you seek in a social Website.

"How High The Moon" ... Les Paul and Mary Ford

A blog is a conversation, where you can have a dialogue with prospects and clients. Through a blog you can demonstrate your expertise or ask questions, blogs are social in the sense that people will spread a blog via other social platforms and they drive conversation. And it is up to date.

The big missed opportunity is when your website is really just “your brochure put on a web page” – if it only says “we do this” “contact us here” - you are missing the point. There is no call to action to “buy something” or "try something" as in the website example and there is no invite to a conversation as in the blog example.

I strongly advocate blogs as the linchpin of social media, when you run a blog, especially as your main site, you are investing in your home on the web, not the “social platform de jour”. Sites like MYspace were all the rage a few years ago and then Facebook thundered past, in 2012 everyone is diving onto Pinterest and I am sure something else will be along soon!

For now I will stick to blogging.  *   *   *   *

Pub's Side Note: The party of the rich is a little behind but they are prepared to buy their way up. Those people got money and it is not to provide jobs for the unemployed. We are talking "bottom line" here, people don't count.