Getting People to Buy Into Blogs

So, let's say you work for a library that isn't the most technologically advanced. In fact, let's postulate that your library is a little (a lot?) resistant to new technology. But, all the same, you'd like to introduce a blog to the library's website. For all the right reasons. How do you bring the idea across?

John Jantsch, a man who specializes in helping small businesses market themselves, has an interesting idea. Avoid the 'B' word altogether. In his own words:

I have this new marketing strategy that costs next to nothing and:
Will bring you a substantial increase in search engine traffic
Will greatly enhance your ability to communicate with your market
Will increase your odds of being interviewed by the media
Will allow you (or someone you designate) to instantly post news updates to your web site
Willl guarantee that your web site has fresh reasons for people to come back
Will allow you to be seen as a thought leader in your industry and
Will give you a tool to help cement strategic

Phrasing things this way at least gives people the information and reasons why a blog is important and how it can be used to improve your business/public profile without using a term that people might be afraid of or averse to.

Sure, Jantsch's website is geared for business and increases profits through successful marketing. But really, a library can think of itself as a small business whose profits are providing information and services to our patrons. There are a lot of ideas that Jantsch posts on his blog that can applied to library service.

One thing that I've seen in my short time in the library profession is that librarians (in general) are not very good at marketing themselves. They've never had to be until recent times. There's been no competition for information services until the last five years or so. Now libraries need to get the word out on why going to them for information is a good option to going to Google and typing a few words into the search engine.