May. 23, 2008 at 2:18pm

To blog or not to blog?

Posted by Shari Campbell in Advertising, Branding, Planning and Strategy
Comments (1)

To blog or not to blog? That issue came up repeatedly at JayRay’s annual ThinkLab in Gig Harbor on May 9.

Several of our friends in health care marketing and public relations questioned the marketing value of blogging. I thought I’d share a few of my favorite blogs – and I’ll be curious to hear if, after checking out any of these blogs, the answer to this blog’s topic is any clearer.

One of the speakers at our ThinkLab, Brian Forth, runs a rapidly growing and cool business called SiteCrafting. His firm has a great blog, Blah Blah Blog, that is everything but blah. While I’m not afraid to admit I understand very little of it, Brian is quick to point out that computer geeks near and far read it. This blog offers helpful tips, solutions and stories from the trenches. Oh, and it’s frequently the source of new business referrals for SiteCrafting.

Another company I’m watching with renewed interest is Regence.

As an active, healthy 40-something woman, I don’t think much about my insurance company. My relationship is with my family physician. But Regence’s new ads and Web site, myRegence.com, broke through the clutter and caught my attention.

According to this site, myRegence.com is designed to “help advise Regence members on health care and lifestyle options, navigate them through the health care system and reward those who make healthier choices. With myRegence.com, members can find all their health-related resources in one place.”

This corporate speak didn’t impress me. What did? On my first troll through the site, I discovered I could review physicians and found 10 tips for firing my doctor. Not necessary because my doc is great! But you begin to see the value.

A blog with a mission?! That’s what you’ll find from the Goodwill of Greater Washington, D.C.

Goodwill is all about training and jobs for people with disablities or disadvantages. Programs are funded through retail stores – and the competition for getting good donations and for getting people to shop at thrift stores is growing.

Check out this blog. I’ve read that it’s a huge success in terms of creating a loyal cadre of Goodwill shoppers – shoppers who buy clothes from the D.C. location, blog with their friends and the “online community” and even “attend” Goodwill’s annual fashion show, a virtual event and online auction that fuels funds to Goodwill’s mission.

Be sure to also visit Living and Working in a Virtual World.

The brainchild of UW professor Andrew Fry, you’ll learn something every time you read it. Promise. And it just may help you figure out if blogging is right for your organization.

Comments (1)

I’m a huge fan of blogging…as long as posts are written with specific keywords in mind. I’ve written about local doctors…and they have eventually found my services because my posts are competing with industry web sites on google rankings.

My blog receives double the traffic of my health care marketing company Web site.

Great post.
Toby Palmer
Blog: http://www.marketingforphysicians.net
5/23/2008 at 5:17 pm
1 | Left by Toby Palmer | Aug. 27, 2008 at 1:28pm