We are often asked why someone should blog. After all, there are close to 165 million blogs by some accounts. What could you possibly add to the cacophony of information out there? The answer is, a lot. Let’s start with the fact that no one expects you to be the next Hemingway or Faulkner. No one expects you to be the next David Pogue, Ariana Huffington, or Walt Mossberg either. They have full time jobs writing….you have a full time job running an optical practice.
Your patients and customers come to you because you have something to offer the shop or practice down the street doesn’t. It could be free parking. It could be your life-size poster of Lady Ga-Ga in a pair of the hottest new sunglasses. It could be for your expert opinions and advice. Why not share that experience and expertise with potential patients and customers in addition to your current clientele.
Blogging can be boiled down to curating and creating. There are times you will want to sit down and write something from scratch, giving your expert take on a particular subject, whether that be macular degeneration or the newest from Maui Jim. Feel free to discuss why you believe something should be treated in a particular way from the research you’ve conducted or why these new sunglasses are the best thing since the last great thing. There are other times you will take the work others have done or written about and you will present it to your readers (with attribution of course) and add your two cents worth…or 4 or 6 cents worth.
You want to blog because Google and other search engines want new content to index and each blog post is considered a new page for search engines to come back and relook at your website. Most importantly, you want to blog because women, the purchase decision maker or influencer for most purchases, pay attention to online content as part of their purchase decision process. According to Online Media Daily, 77% of women use Facebook for fun, while 87% use it to remain up to date with family. More than 61% of women who are active blog readers admit to making a purchase decision based on a blog recommendation, close to double the rate of both Twitter and Facebook users.
While women rank Facebook highest for fun and keeping up with friends and family, blogs rank highest in researching new products and recommendations than influence purchase decisions. Do you still think you don’t need a blog?
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