It’s probably the most common question I get. More than “Is Twitter just about what I had for breakfast?” and “What’s this Pinterest thing all about, anyway?,” people want to know how often they need to be updating their business blogs. They look to me as if I have some kind of magic bullet and one-size-fits all answer.

Alas, I don’t. I wish I did, but then we wouldn’t be Roundpeg, would be? One-size-fits-all fits no one. But blogging is an important part of any SEM or social media strategy, and it’s a fair question. When determining how often you should blog, it all starts with understanding your organization and your goals. Ask yourself:

  • How competitive is your industry? We have a client who works in parking lot striping. Trust me when I say there aren’t many companies out there blogging about parking lot marking. Because the competition is lower, it’s easier to move your way up search engine rankings with great, focused, content. However, if you’re in a tech savvy and competitive industry like, say, marketing, you’ll need to increase your frequency so you can stay one step ahead of the rest of the pack.
  • How busy are you? Blogging takes one of the following: time or money. You can outsource the blogging to another company, but that’s going to cost you. You can do it yourself, but if you want to post five days a week, that’s a time consuming project which is going to eat a significant portion of your work week. If you can, try to spread the blogging across multiple people in your organization. It will lessen the burden and you’ll also benefit from unique perspectives.
  • Is it a priority? Here’s the bottom line: Blogging is good. As often as you can offer up great, relevant content, that’s a good thing. What you don’t want to do is get rushed and flustered and throw up what’s called “thin” content–something that just regurgitates other posts from around the Internet without adding anything substantial or new. Google turns up its robotic little nose at that kind of content, so you might as well save your time. If you’re going to write, commit to it. Commit to carving out the time and creating information that truly provides a service to your clients and prospects, and you’ll see results. Throw up slapdash posts with no nutritional value and you’ll become convinced the whole thing is a sham.

How about you? How often do you feed your blog monster?

photo credit: Andres Rueda via photopin cc