I recently wrote a quick post at Business Blog Consulting about Google allowing users to now use private domains and use the Blogger service. It’s a great move by Google and I applaud their decision. As part of my reasons for praise I indicated:

“We have told many of our clients that ask us about the Blogger platform that we would rather they did not use Blogger as the application for their company blog. The reason was simple, it was a matter of branding. We felt and still feel that blogging can help strengthen a company’s brand.”

I received an email from a potential customer stating that they had read the post and was interested in how blogging could help them with their company’s brand. I quickly called them on the phone and I began my discussion as always, wanting to know the basics of what the company’s service was, their product, their customers, and a few other background questions. I ended with coming back to the original idea of branding and I asked, “What are your current branding efforts?” The silence on the other end of the phone was deafening. I suppose they were not prepared to answer this question. I explained to them what I considered “branding”.

Branding is all about your identity. A brand can be about your existence, your ideas and concepts, and the message you impart to others. This is not just a company concept, this can also be about an individual. In the instance above, I was asking what image the company would portray to its customers and clients. If I had never heard of their company how would I learn about them and how would I remember them as opposed to the number of competitors in their same group? This branding and portraying a company’s identity is valuable for every business, just check out how much companies are paying for those Super Bowl ads and then ask me how important branding is to them.

Blogging can increase your brand exposure and differentiate your business from your competitors. Blogging is an excellent way to teach the world about your company, its message, its ideas, and a great vehicle to impart this information to the people that matter. Blogs can be a long tailed elevator pitch. It is a tool that is searchable, readable, and a powerful way to communicate. Many companies beg for a little exposure in the mainstream media, trade magazines, and other vehicles that increase their exposure to potential customers. Blogging is all of that and more. Next time you intend to do business with a company find out what their company is about. Do a little research and exact their identity. Read their blog. What, they don’t have a blog? That’s too bad, they may have gained a customer.

Tags: Google, Business Blog Consulting, Blogger, Branding, Blog Advertising, Blog Marketing