When speaking in Jacksonville at the EDPA’s annual conference earlier this month, I asked for a show of hands to see how many bloggers were in the audience.

A few hands went up. I expected more. Many more. Not sure why…maybe my expectations are unrealistic. Or maybe it’s that I’ve seen the value in having an active blog. It keeps your mind sharp, it keeps you in front of a growing audience, and it it lets people know who you are and what your expertise is.

Yet many companies simply don’t consider blogging as a valuable marketing tool. Here’s how I see blogging in terms of helping promote a tradeshow appearance or to enhance a tradeshow marketing schedule.

• It gives you a place to tell your audience about the new stuff (products, service) that you’ll have at the show.
• Blogging is a platform to invite any partners that may have at the show to discuss their products and how it ties in with yours.
• It’s easy to insert a video into a blog.
• You can easily post photos of visitors to your booth.
• You can give reviews and opinions of the show and other products and services.
• Your blog is a ‘home base’ for all things show-related. Post documents, downloads, press releases, etc.

Having said all of that, blogging is not to be taken lightly. It’s a significant committment in terms of time and energy. And if you are going to set up a blog for your company, it’s important to make sure that you have new material showing up regularly, whether it’s every week, three times a week or just a couple of times a month.

But once you’ve made the committment and the process of blogging becomes part of your routine, you’ll discover that it’s a great outlet for all sorts of things. You can post slides from a presentation, videos from your company, how-to’s and informational tidbits that educate and illuminate your audience.

It also allows you and your company to gain more visibility within your industry and target audience.

Blogging isn’t the end-all and be-all of online presence, but it’s a valuable marketing and positioning tool.

If you’re not blogging yet, you should seriously consider it!