Ask Girl Geek: Blogs?

Hi Everyone,
I am support group leader for MCP 68 and this extraordinary group of coaches is having incredible discussions about coaching and business and the future. In last week's group, the question was raised about the comparative benefits of blogs and email newsletters.

Are there people in our community with experience using a blog? How effective is it? How much does it help increase trust levels towards the coach and increase name recognition? How would you compare it with the effectiveness of an email newsletter?

Janet

Hi Janet,I've used both blogs and email newsletters. Both are only pieces of software, so the question of how effective they are is more about how you use them and what you post in them. If you know what they can do, then you can decide which is best to suit your purposes.

The main difference in the ones I've used is with blogs people have know to go there when new content is posted, otherwise it's not in front of them like the regular publication of an email newsletter is. If you want "top of the mind phenomenon" and regular reminders I'd go for the email newsletter.

You can make blogs and email newsletters public, so that anyone can view them and you can set them both up to allow viewers to post comments, if you want that kind of interaction. The blogs I've seen all have automatic archives, so people can view past comments. I've mostly used blogs for my FAQ's page on my website and as an online journal to record ideas for the development of some groups. That one was not meant to be public, but may be useful and something I choose to share later.

I'd be glad to come to one of your support group calls to answer questions on this or any topic related to website if you like. Just give me about 2 week advanced notice so I can clear my schedule.

Thanks for asking!
Annette