Worker Bees Blog

MarketingProfs has a nice weekly series where someone throws out a question, and the collective intelligence of MarketingProfs readers jump in and try to contribute their "know-how."

This week the question was about inexpensive ways to get the word our, especially for non-profits.

And a colleague, Andrea Learned, was kind enough to point to me as someone who blogs, and actually focuses on the non-profit world.

And once again the power and impact of MarketingProfs is clear, as I've received quite a few hits from it...far more than when I was mentioned on CNN in March I must say!

Blogs are a great option for non-profits, as long as they realize these few things:

1. There isn't much cost in technology (yay!) but you don't escape the human capital cost. Whether written by in-house resources or contractors...it's the time you will pay for.

2. Blogs are not a magic pill that alleviate any need to make decisions about who you want to reach and what you want them to do. In other words: you may build it, but they may not come, or they may come, but not follow through and do what you hoped for. So first step: know what you want.

3. Blogs are not something you try in the short-term and then toss aside if you don't see immediate results (especially if you're really not clear on what results you were expecting!) It is a long-term commitment to your audience to create a blog. And it is still a bit of an experiment to try to get tangible ROI from a blog. Don't worry, you can always be like the many reputable, successful organizations who want blogs for the qualitative (not quantitative) results.

Blogs can be a great tool, but the value of any tool is greatly determined by how you wield it. Blogs are no different.