“Blog fade” is an expression used to describe the fading enthusiasm for a blog; posts become less and less frequent until the blog is finally left sitting idle collecting pixel dust.

It’s happened to the best of us. We start out of the gate with a plan to blog twice a week, weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly. The blog was so easy to set up, we launch right in.

And it’s precisely because blogging is so immediate and accessible that we sometimes push it back in favour of more pressing tasks like, oh, I don’t know, taking care of clients! We figure we can always jump in there and put up a blog post; we’ll get to it later.

As part of a broader marketing communications strategy, well-written blog posts will improve your search engine rankings, attract traffic to your website, and reinforce your credibility as an expert. You may also use them to get a conversation going with your clients, prospects, team, employees, vendors, suppliers or other stakeholders.

When you don’t post regularly, you’re losing out on all of those benefits. But not only that – you’re also sending a subtle message that you’re not around anymore. People surfing the Web are hungry for information. They want more and they want it now. As brilliant as it was, the post you wrote last month is ancient history.

Have you ever heard the expression, “How you do anything is how you do everything?” When people look through your blog and don’t see any recent updates, they may start to wonder if you’ll “fade away” in other areas of your business as well.

Online marketing communications are cost-effective, quick to implement, and give you immediate, measurable feedback at the click of a mouse. It’s no wonder more and more corporations – large and small – are turning to Web sites, blogs, micro-blogs, and other social media.

A common mistake, though, is to just take your print materials and drop them onto the Internet. They simply don’t translate, and here’s why:

•    People have no time – they are trying to do three times as much in the same time, just like you are
•    People have no attention span – they want access to answers immediately, and the Internet has trained them to expect that
•    People have no tolerance – they  know they can click somewhere else in an instant if they’re dissatisfied or disinterested

So before you go online with your 8-page white paper or even your 3-page brochure, consider these three tenets of writing for the Web:

1.    Make it quick – Make one clear point, support it and get out of there
2.    Make it relevant – Know the answers your customers are looking for and don’t clutter your message
3.    Make it good – Do whatever it takes to deliver high-quality online content

Invitations to Hawaii solicited…

Following AR Communications Inc.’s successful presentation for Toronto’s Legal Marketing Association, Michael Rabinovici, our Senior VP, Strategic Initiatives, was invited to Banff to speak about social media. Due to prior commitments to several critical stakeholders (i.e. his children), he was required to travel to California instead. But did that deter our intrepid international spokesperson? Of course not. On a sunny morning in San Diego, Michael hooked up to a live feed and delivered his Banff social media presentation using some of the very technology he touts. Next stop? Hawaii. At least in our dreams. Invitations received will be gratefully accepted…

Click here to listen or download an audio of the presentation to  GlobaLaw