How necessary is a business blog in today’s marketing arsenal? The “blog” is now a viable platform for communication and is becoming a significant part of the social media channel that is merging with what we now coin as content marketing. Couple that very real concept with the ever-changing Google search optimization criteria and you can’t help but acknowledge from any business perspective, the strength and necessity of content creation and its proper distribution.

The blog, which started out as the writing of random thoughts or musings in the hopes of connecting with like minded individuals and even became the focal part in the movie Julie Julia, is now being touted as the next “thing” for marketing to embrace. This forum of self expression has now become an important part of business marketing and communications. Like it or not, the business blog is here to stay.

There’s much ado about blogging and how business can utilize it as part of their marketing initiatives. Business professionals at the corporate level and entrepreneurs alike are all talking about it. Google is making blogging increasingly important criteria for business to ‘get found’. Even with the termination of Google authorship, Google still allocates considerable weight to content, its validity and its credibility when scoring for SEO ranking.

There exists a level of apprehension about the business blog.

Perhaps the essence of the word “blog” may be responsible for this way of thinking. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as follows: Blog – a Web site on which someone writes about personal opinions, activities, and experiences. I think a better way of looking at blogging and what it can mean to business and brand is that it can provide “a group of like-minded individuals” content that is relevant to them and for them. This content can be in the form of photos, video or just copy and  can cover a wide array of information such as tips and hints, how-tos, DIY endeavours and recipes, just to name a few. This isn’t anything new. In fact, the strategy of providing information that is not directly associated with brand or business is a marketing strategy that has been around for many years – decades actually.

Blogging isn’t just about musings any more. The business blog has come along and has evolved this type of communications into something very viable. To take a well coined quote Jean Luc Picard from Star Trek and modify it a tad… “The blog: To resist is futile”.

Have you taken to creating your business blog? If so, how have you utilized this marketing tool and what have been the results? Please share them here.