You know by now that blogging is an essential part for promoting your brand whether it’s a business, or just yourself.  A question I’m often asked about blogging, is if it’s always effective and that is a concern of many simply because there are so many people blogging.

The fast answer, is no. Blogging needs to be looked at as a complex marketing strategy. Results don’t happen overnight and to be successful with a blog, you need someone who can do more than simply put pen to paper, so to speak (fingers to keyboard, to Microsoft Word just doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?) Finding a good blogger, in a world where it seems like everyone is a “writer” can be hard.

Casual blogging makes everyone and their dog believe they’re a writer. Some are – and I’m a firm believer that you don’t have to write in a professional capacity to be fantastic – but that doesn’t mean everyone who blogs has the skill to bring to a business blog designed to draw traffic.

When looking for a blogger, any business will find an interesting mix of responses. There are those professionals who are growing with the demand for blogging and learning how develop effective content with SEO in mind and they’re the ones you need to hire. Then there are those who are writing simply because they believe it makes for an easy job where they get to work from home. I’m not saying that those who decide to pursue the craft because it’s convenient to raise their children can’t be skilled and talented; but there are some who just aren’t in it for the writing. They’re not worried about learning extensively, they’re happy to coast by with a more modest paycheck and blog about personal experiences or write for content mills.  There’s nothing wrong with this; to each their own, but they might not be the ones to deliver the required skill and consistency for an effective business blog.

If you’re hiring a blogger, don’t be afraid to ask questions. You don’t necessarily need to be looking at experience alone as long as they’ve got the capacity to learn and demonstrate that they’re passionate about blogging and helping you reach your goals. Everyone may be writing, and that’s great, but it doesn’t mean they’re all right for your blog!

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I recently witnessed an interesting exchange on Twitter, one person tweeted “I should be blogging” another answered “there’s no ’should be’ blogging, blogging just happens when you need it to!” It got me thinking about the perception that blogging is strictly done for the sake of journaling, in a reality, it is a career.

I mean no disrespect whatsoever to those who blog about their personal lives as parents, as professionals, as people with busy lives. These people share their experiences, and some of them even get paid for it. I read blogs like this on a daily basis, and have many good friends that blog about themselves and their families and have attracted a large following. But, there’s a much bigger world of blogging, and it’s time that people know it!

While there are situations where I blog as myself, about myself and my personal experiences, that’s not really what my business is all about. Professional bloggers do more than just write casual editorials or recount what happened that day or week. We work strategically to establish blog content that will attract the target audience of a niche market. It’s about inadvertent advertising in a way that will actually engage people or stimulate thought. Unlike traditional advertising methods, blog content produced by a pro blogger really gives something back and that’s because it’s not directly about making a sale; it’s about giving people something interesting to read and letting things happen from there.  Coming up with blog content is like setting up a complete marketing campaign and it takes skill, experience and knowledge.

Reputation, integrity, credibility, and a great source of entertainment are a few things that a blog will help people remember about the businesses that feature them. Can people take the same away from a casual blog for which the writer is compensated for, but writes as themselves?  Sure they can. These bloggers can also use similar strategies like pro bloggers do to get people to read – but hiring a pro blogger gets you someone that can write about any topic area, any industry and do it in a way that drives traffic to the site. Since professional bloggers ghost write for business blogs, the spotlight is not on them or what their personal opinions and experiences are; it’s on the business and it’s that ability to deliver that end result that makes a difference.

So, to the Twitter user who indicated that blogging just happens – when it’s a career as a professional blogger, you can’t wait for it to happen; you make sure it does!

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