5 reasons why you should consider blogging

Some argue that blogging is passé, but nothing could be further from the truth. Available tools enable all of us to express ourselves, share our views and especially knowledge and experience with a much wider audience than ever before. I really believe that everyone should and can blog. Indeed, it’s not surprising to anyone who knows me that that is a reason why Zemanta is part of my life: to make blogging easier for everyone.

Last weekend I read Antonio Cangiano’s (IBM) great blog post on why every professional should consider blogging. It inspired me to think more about why we all should do it. Here are my five main reasons why you should at least consider blogging if you’re not already doing it.

1. Blogging improves your storytelling skills

Blogging is about storytelling, either in words, with pictures, videos or podcasts. Storytelling is nowadays essential part of (content) marketing. But storytelling isn’t so much about talent; it’s a skill that needs constant nurture. Practice makes you better. And blogging is a perfect opportunity to polish your storytelling skills.

2. Blogging improves your communication skills
By polishing your storytelling skills, you also improve your communication skills. Are you shy, introverted, do you have low self-esteem, maybe you don’t know how to sell yourself? Blogging will help you overcome these obstacles. Communication essentially means to convey information to others. The better your communication skills the better you can sell your ideas, skills and knowledge to others. This is one of the reasons why I started blogging in the first place.

3. Sharing is caring
I am a whole-hearted advocate of the philosophy that knowledge is to be shared. Blogging can be a great platform for sharing what you’ve learned and know with others who may be interested in what you have to say and learn from you so they can improve their lives.

4. Position yourself as a thought leader
Blogging helps you build corporate and personal credibility. This is how you can position yourself as a thought leader in the marketplace. Indeed, thought leaders are perceived experts and everyone is expert in something. When done right, blogging can give thought leaders great visibility in the search engine results. Therefore, blogging connects you with others. That’s how great blogging can be.

5. Blogging builds your personal information repository
This is another reason why I decided to blog. Every day we are bombarded with tons of information we try to consume. Every one of us has his/her own way of looking for particular information. Blogging, however, helps archive information you will sooner or later need again. I regularly browse my blog and in this way remind myself of issues, solutions, and ideas I might have already forgotten, but are still useful. Sometimes it’s fun and a bit of an ego boost (we all need it from time to time) to check how far you’ve come.

What do you think about these 5 main reasons why everyone should blog? What other reasons would you add to these five?

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