By The Numbers: Blogging Roadblocks
Here at the Science of Marketing, we’re fascinated by numbers. That’s why a recent question on LinkedIn caught my eye. The question, posed by Internet marketing consultant and fellow blogger Lea Woodward, asked businesses and business owners, "What’s the biggest hurdle stopping you from blogging?" With only 11 respondents, there isn’t much data to analyze, but I think it’s a great question and warrants further investigation. For now, some data is better than none, so here are the current results.
According to the numbers, time is the main reason businesses aren’t blogging, and the color behind the numbers says that time can be broken down into two main facets. The first is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day to engage in blogging, which suggests that blogging isn’t that high on the priority list. The other reason is that too much time passes between the inspiration to blog and the opportunity to go online and key it in. This presents an opportunity for mobile or e-mail blog entry.
Second on the lists is a fear of being boring. This is also expressed as a lack of confidence that anyone will actually read what the respondent has to write. In either case, I believe this fear can be attributed to the perception that quality content is hard to come by. A recent blog post called "Blog Content: Consider the Source" lists some inspiration points for quality content.
Next up are those who don’t see the value in blogging. I’d combine these answers with those respondents who don’t place a high priority on the activity. For some reasons why a business should consider blogging, check out section one of a recent entry called "Business Blogging: Choices that Count".
I’ll call the next category "Disclosure Limitations". There are always restrictions on how much a company’s employees can say externally, including legal constraints, not wanting to tip off the competition, avoiding brand dilution or giving away information that clients usually pay for.
Laziness, the final roadblock to blogging in this mini study, can impede even the most rigorous of writers. However, this lack of inspiration doesn’t have to be a permanent condition. There are some writing tips in this post that might help you get started.
Please take a minute to answer Lea’s question on LinkedIn, or write a comment below. I’ll update this post with additional data when it’s available.
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May 1st, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I think endorsement of an employee blog raises the spectre of legal problems. Thus, any links to a blog or personal website are often verboten. Links to other companies likewise are discouraged. Sort of like the image of The Organization Man of the 1950s.
I blog for a number of reasons and a variety of audiences. Mine is primarily an industry blog and other memebers of my profession will find it useful. But there are entries devoted to consumers, too. I generally will blog anywhere from 8 to 10 times per month. I try to keep the entries to 3 or 4 paragraphs unless the topic demands more than that. It is enjoyable and I often will expand a topic for my newspaper column. The topics are often the result of a client question.
It is really quite easy to do. And that removes the greatest obstacle–fear of the unknown.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Paul-
I hope blogging is easy for you with your three ESPN Tobin Cups for distinguished writing…
-Jeff
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:38 am
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the comment. What’s interesting to me on the legal front is that the corporate cultures of some of the largest public companies in our industry (IBM, Cisco and sun) fully support employee blogs, while the small private companies shy away from the activity. You’d think the behemoths with everything to lose would want to avoid the risk of linking to employee blogs, but their legal and marketing departments actually embrace it. I wrote a post on this phenomenon April 10th called “High Tech Blogging: Gorillas in the Midst”.
I’m hoping the smaller high tech companies begin to find their voice in the blogosphere. There are a lot of conversations going on about their solutions that many don’t know about, let alone participate in. Just curious…what do you see as the greatest benefit of a company blog?