Why a Blog Should be Your Online Hub

Recently, I met with a prospective client who reached out to me because she knew she “had to do something different” but wasn’t sure if she needed a new website, a Facebook Fan page or “that Twitter thing.”

She’s a thought leader in her industry, has writing experience, but was unsure about where or how to begin.

So here’s what I told her.

Hub-and-Spoke-300x284You Need a Blog to be Your Online Hub

Actually, more specifically, I told her she needed a socialized website. In short, I recommended a website on a CMS (content management system) platform with a blog as the centerpiece of an integrated content marketing strategy.

Here’s why:

Blogs by their nature are chock full of timely, fresh, new content on relevant information to her (or your) industry, prospects, customers and readers. Used in a hub and spoke fashion, they are the perfect conduit for traffic building, lead generation, and interaction with her (your prospects and customers).

Her blog will be the central hub with spokes to all the different paths that traffic can travel to find that fresh, relevant, useful blog content.

But these spokes are two way streets. For instance, traffic will flow from her blog to her Facebook fan page and frequently her Facebook Fans will be invited to access information on her blog. Her Twitter followers will regularly feed on Blog food offered up through tweets that link to relevant blog posts. On the other hand, her blog will direct traffic to her video’s on YouTube.

See the Hub and spoke at work here?

6 More Reasons Why a Blog Should Be Your Online Hub

  1. Blogs are an easy-to-use CMS (content management system). Blogs require only limited training and/or technical skill to use and make it easy to update or modify your content as needed
  2. Blogs give your brand its voice in your content marketing. Blogs allow you to share your brand’s unique voice in ways a traditional website can never do. They make your brand feel “human.”
  3. Search Engines LOVE Blogs. Keyword-rich, fresh, relevant content, SEO friendly blog architecture and cross-linking to other content on the Web are just a few reasons why search engines love blogs.
  4. Blogs offer easy to update multi-media formats. Blogs make it simple to upload multi-media content like videos, photos, podcasts, slideshow presentations, PDF’s and of course text.
  5. Blogs supply content for social media interactions. Blog content is food for social media sharing sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Use well crafted calls-to-action to create likes, shares and leads.
  6. Blogs provide a targeted location to direct prospects and customers. A Facebook or Twitter link can quickly direct prospects, customers and readers to your blog. This is where you connect your spokes to the hub that is your blog.

Are these reason enough for your blog to be your online hub?

They were for my new client. She recently launched an integrated content marketing strategy and is already seeing SEO benefits from the blog, traffic, and is interacting with her clients in ways she had never done before.

Are you using a blog as your online hub? Do you have more reasons why it works as your online hub? Share it here with other business owners and help them get started.