What was once a silly little platform for airing general thoughts and feelings has turned into a massive behemoth… for airing thoughts and feelings. Of course it goes beyond that now. Blogs are changing the face of not only publishing but marketing as well.
The problem with the web as it used to be was that it was loaded with static pages that were drab, dull and boring. For the longest time, web sites were seen as an untouchable entity to many companies. If they had one, they dare not tamper with it. It was like the engine to an expensive automobile.
“Just call the mechanic” It was left to the IT guys. You couldn’t (or shouldn’t) make a change unless contacting another department and that might take a day or two to get things done.
Then comes the blog. The all powerful dynamic machine that allowed for rapid published of content through an easy interface. WordPress is at the forefront of the blogging movement, with over 9 million downloads. It is the most popular, the most customizable blogging platform on the web. The ease of use combined with simple customization and open source platform have taken WordPress out of the world of blogging and into the world of content management.
It’s not just for Blogs anymore – Now it can completely power a website.
There’s no doubt that the blog has changed the way we view and use the web. Here are just a few ways that’s happening.
They’re Open To Everyone
Every person with access to the internet can host a blog and publish to it. They can voice their opinion in any form they choose and their message can be wide spread – potentially global. The ease of sharing has made it extremely easy buy cialis online for a middle class Joe to write a post about problems with Nestle, or Nascar antics, and have that post go viral across the web in a few short hours.
There are journalists who are paid ridiculous salaries that can’t get their content to explode in such a manner.
The blog has given a voice to millions of people, and amplified the voices of those who were already outspoken. It’s a powerful tool for having an opinion heard from a consumer standpoint, and marketers can use it with equal potency for reaching into new markets.
No More Web Designers
One of the greatest things about the web is having a website where traffic can find you. Unfortunately it used to be extremely difficult to get a nice site up unless you knew HTML in and out with some knowledge of PHP or ASP, with some CGI and CSS and PERL…yeah. Fun, right?
Blogs have made it so simple for anyone to manage a website. The customization has helped designers create themes and templates for WordPress (and other systems) that look and act just like a typical website. In truth, they are. They contain all the design elements and navigation of standard corporate or niche websites with the simplicity of a dashboard on the backend for easy updates and customization.
Blogs have transformed into complete content management systems that have allowed users to build intricate, beautiful websites with little to no experience in PHP, HTML, etc. While those certainly help, they’re not needed.
Do we still need web designers? Of course, but gone are the days of having to hand off a simple update to a web admin and wait for changes. Users can now manage their sites easily with a simple web interface.
Changing The Way We Share
It used to be that if you liked a site you had to manually copy the link and send it to friends via email or instant message – it was basically a world of copy and paste. Blogs mix wonderfully with other social media networks and make it extremely easy to share content with plugins for social bookmarking and other social sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more.
The most popular is the sexy bookmarks application, lending a nice design to simple sharing. A newer plugin that’s becoming popular is the Wibiya bar that springs up from the bottom of the window and offers translation, sharing and other customizable buttons.
The simplicity in sharing has opened the floodgates for viral content to spread quickly and has strapped a rocket to the ass-end of many content marketing campaigns.
Overall, the blog is a great opportunity for small businesses to start engaging and interacting with consumers. As costs in hosting, design and domain registration come down this has become an affordable option for many to start marketing more heavily online while creating professional designs that are easily managed directly by the business owners.
