In Blogging For Business, Keep Current To Keep Relevant

David Markowitz blogs about food and drug laws, aiming to “provide timely and useful information to people working in FDA-regulated industries”. In fact, Markowitz refers to his site not as a blog, but as a “web portal”.  Whatever you call it, in blogging for business, Markowitz has hit on a valuable strategy for drawing readers to his blog and then to his training company’s corporate website.

Working with my ghost blogging corporate clients, whatever the nature of their business or professional practice, I always advise that we use the blog to provide information – especially new information – related to their field.

Couldn’t online searchers go directly to more complete and authoritative sources?  Markowitz has the answer to that question down pat, although, by his own admission, most of the information in his posts comes from the FDA website itself.

“Going to the FDA website is like visiting the Library of Congress,” he points out.  “We sift through the information and present what is most relevant to our readers.” Sure, I explain to clients, searchers can go to government or academic sites to find data, but they need you as an expert in your field, to help them make sense of the information, which you do by highlighting and explaining just one important concept in each blog post.

Blog maven Ted Demopoulos compliments Markowitz’ technique, explaining that each of David’s posts includes a link to a page of his website, where his training products and services can be purchased.

The Markowitz strategy of using your business blog as a sort of “Reader’s Digest” is especially appropriate for businesses in industries undergoing changes – new legislation, new discoveries,  new technological advances.  Real estate, mortgages, and life sciences are three areas that spring to mind, but keeping blog material relevant depends on staying current, no matter what the industry.

Blogging about what’s new – and why it matters – may go a long way in making your blog the “go-to” site for information in your area of expertise.  In other words, keeping up may be the secret to moving up (in search engine rankings, that is), while offering real value to your existing clients and all those soon-to-be’s!