Is Blogging Dead or Are Companies Not Trying Hard Enough?

There's no way to say blogging is dead. Do agree with you Gini. It is not that you have contents on your blog even if everyday you have updated it. It doesn't end there. There are many things to consider before you get results with your blog. As they say content is King. Yes it is, as long as you produce quality contents, useful coupled with right practices -  BLogging will surely bring wonders to you.

I agree with you that blogging is not dead. Yes it is labor intensive, but it does pay all. Not everyone uses Facebook or Twitter in business. I think it is harder to attract users to your site if you are business and you use Facebook. Corporate clients will read a blog before going to Facebook. Facebook is more interactive to one's personal posts.

 @thomasoutt Beverly Sills said "There is no shortcut to success." That still applies, even to blogging.  Blogging seems so easy, but it is a lot of work.  Therein lies the rub. 

Blogging isn't easy it also require time and planning like you have to do for a business.

Thanks for the info. Just opened up a blog around 2weeks back which contains 250 articles. Still writing the articles ect was easy peasy compared to doing the SEO for it! Thanks again for info.

blogging for me is very much alive.  i love writing about religious or spiritual items.  the problem i have is in getting folks to my blog to read it.  i have a great article about CTR Rings for women that even goes into they're original intent and the ongoing history of them.  getting folks there is the difficult part!

Depend on how related comment they write. 

RT @Soulati Is Blogging Dead or Are Companies Not Trying Hard Enough? http://t.co/JIPOavlR via @ginidietrich

"It’s hard to generate good content even once a week" yet gurus teach to blog once or more a day everyday, probably because they want to kill the competition. Btw adding to that numbers the blogs opened everywhere in the world just to make money (which they don't) explains first why there are so many and second why so many close. So it's not always bad that many blogs close their doors.

Then for the theory that blogging is dead could be just a move to push FB, Twitter or Tumblr or where most of those "make money blogging" guys have moved. Or it's just sensationalism. ;)

Great and timely post.   After re-branding my company, I have started blogging over the last two months.  I am definitely trying to put up great content and not sell.   Mainly using a "case study" approach and providing food for thought.   And, you are correct, it is difficult to continuously post great content.   Insurance is not a sexy topic, but I'm trying!  :-)   Thanks Gini!

I'm not as consistent about my blogging as I could be. But I would never eliminate it from my strategy. That sounds insane to me. Whenever someone says "I closed my blog and I'm relying on Facebook, and Twitter instead." I hear "I closed my own store and hope that Walmart and Amazon will move my product and services for me."   

Nice post @ginidietrich ! Keeping content flowing is tough, but new tools and new tactics like curation are making it easier to stay relevant and informative, even on those occasions when ideas or time are running short. I think the bogosphere is definitely evolving with more migration to what you could call social blogging.

ROI is such a lovely word. But sometimes, quite deceptive. Especially when it's used as a platitude. [grin]

I have observed that the ROI of traditional paid advertising and marketing campaigns can be equally (or more) difficult to prove than paid and earned online campaigns. Sometimes, it depends on the business or industry. Sometimes, location or region.

There are ten thousand platitudes and then there are results.

There's no better bon mot than, I have seen with my own eyes. I'm sure you have too.

My favorite anecdote is 100s of millions of dollars spent on tv advertising with a global, super agency, glowing polls, surveys and imaginary that gush about the ROI, and then a five year industry member conclusion that sales had not increased one cent for all that spend.

Mission, situation, market, budget, goals, short term results, and long term results - these are the plain-spoken terms that dictate strategy. Whether or not a blog fits into your strategy requires individual reflection. But I find it difficult to believe a blog can't deliver strategic, long term value to industry leaders.

Here's another view:

Spent a lot of this evening talking with someone on twitter on "mommy bloggers" after a local scandal (really bizarre stuff).  I asked who actually reads these blogs, and the response was that it's mostly other bloggers trying to get themselves notices via comments so that people will visit them, etc.  So the contention is that most blogging is nothing more than a sub-culture.

This makes sense to me, in large part because I never (and I do mean never) cross paths with any of the bloggers who talk about their personal lives (mommy or otherwise).  People on the 'net who are "real" and are interested in, say, good conversation come from a very different place - and are much harder to find.  Barataria has been around for 5 years and is now in a place where it has decent traffic - but is still soundly beaten by the online version of any newspaper, including the Bemidji Pioneer.

So if most blogging is just a sub-culture, it may well not be worth the time for most businesses.  They'd have to break out of the usual BS and find their real customers and not the wannabee reality show contestants who think "blogging" is about their own narcissistic shortcomings.

Something to think about.

Blogging has to be done well to be effective, and that information is severely lacking.  My gig (well, the best paying of the gigs I get) revolves around teaching people how to be as effective as possible with their time.  My biggest problem is the deep and wide culture of mis-information about what blogging is all about and how to use social media.  Most of my time is spent dispelling nonsense.  

The problem is that a lot of charlatans have polluted the field and convinced people that the social media / blogging world is narcissistic crap that takes insane amounts of time.  The people who have pushed this view are much louder than those of us who know what the Hell we are talking about - and tend to get the attention of legacy media such as teevee, etc.  

If done properly, blogging should not take that much time and can, indeed, be farmed out pretty cheaply if necessary.  It can and should be evaluated for its ROI, and my clients are all very happy on that score.  But far too many people have been ripped off and have a bad attitude for a very good reason.

It crosses my mind that those companies should outsource their blogging to actual bloggers who know how to do it, and then run with the leads.

Mmmmm......blogging. An introverted extroverts dream. I would think the biggest issue corps would have is the almighty acronym.....ROI. Gasp! Guess that's the stats you cited. Ahem, 77% is more than a passing grade to me. I have no idea. I'm still just a spec on the wall of the big bad blog world. Scary stats tho.

@hollisthomases Couldn't agree more! And now if I can just focus on doing some posts of my own. LOL! Thanks for the RT!

Just my luck; just about the time I get the hang of this thing, that damn horse dies right out from under me.......I have a face for blogging though, so I hope it sticks around.

Where I have fallen woefully short is not supporting @LanierUpshaw's blog enough. You would think my tired ass could at least do one post a month, right? I keep telling myself I will do a better job, but it's kind of hard to support them when it's all about me, huh? I don't want them horning in on my popularity........sheeesh.........

One thing I have found through blogging is, I really do like to write. It has opened some doors for me to meet some incredibly talented people so that can only make me better I suppose. 

I will not abandon Lanier's blog; going forward my commitment is to do at least one post a month. Of course, they might ask me to stop if the only thing I can write about is me so we'll have to see how that goes...........

Blogging is king, long live blogging..............