10 Reasons You Should Blog During a Pandemic
I’ve been pushing out a few social media posts recently on why it’s important to blog for your business. I wrote that content a couple of months ago and when COVID-19 hit, I pushed it out a month. And then Mecklenburg County went into lockdown, so I pushed it out another month. Now, I think it’s more relevant than ever. And guess what? It’ll do so much more for you than increase SEO. In fact, that’s waaaay down on the list.
Create New Team Roles: Get creative with job responsibilities so you can keep paying the people you rely on. Are some people’s jobs limited right now? Who likes to write? Who is good with digital content and posting? Make this a job for someone and let them drive the content and how to engage your team members.
Set Yourself Apart from your Competition: What makes you different than others in your industry? It’s your people, your process, and how you overall interact with your clients. Tell a story on each of these themes. Give examples on why you are awesome.
Make Connections: People crave connection right now (yes, even me, the introvert homebody who is usually pretty happy with just her wine and dog). How can you connect with people through your blog? What funny Monday morning check-in can you create as you are working from home? Share how your life has been affected, and have others on your team do the same. These can/should be funny and relatable.
Show you can Adapt. All businesses are pivoting right now, in one way or another. Some have to overcome a little more than others, but everyone is looking for ways to be creative. The main goal? We all want to make sure we stay in front of our customers. Staying in front of our customers = potential sales.
Writing is therapy. Promise.
Free Ad Space. If you don’t already have a blog page set up on your website, I’d bet you $100 it’s in there, it just needs to be turned on. Almost all websites account for a blog space because they are just that important.
Be a Resource, People Need You: People need help right now and they may not be able to pay you for your advice. By sharing your insights on a few specifics of your industry, you are providing helpful content to people who need as well as keeping your brand in front of people. They’ll remember you as helpful during this time.
Increase SEO: You always want to make sure you have a steady flow of visitors to your website. Blogs are the easiest way to do that. Plus, they increase your SEO when you use specific keywords.
Be Creative! It’s OK if you’re not a creative writer. Here are other things you can do to deliver content:
Post an article and provide thoughts/questions
Share a blog from someone you like and trust and give your perception
Create a list (like this!)
Outsource. Even if it’s to your roommate/spouse. They can help you come up with ideas to write about or possibly even flesh out/write the content for you. Lots of freelancers out there.
And, finally, if absolutely nothing else, blogging will help you take a snapshot of this moment in history. The first pandemic in all of our lives. How life has changed. How business has changed. How people have changed. In a few years, it’ll be worth content re-visiting and thinking, “Gosh, remember when…?”