It’s funny. It’s been over a year since we added our first (albeit brief) entry to the Miles Design blog. Although my original vision for our blog was to have a venue to talk about branding and share all of the interesting things around me, here we sat nearly 15 months later, with just one entry.

Ironically, as I have been procrastinating over writing new entries, I’ve had several clients asking me about blogs. Among our clients, there are those who are considering starting blogs, those who are a little slow to add content to existing blogs, and of course the clients who seem to be getting the hang of it. Just the other day at lunch, blogging came up again. This time it was a potential client who asked us a very straightforward question, “Why would our business even want a blog?”

Our group all chimed in to share their perspectives… A blog is an opportunity for an organization to show it’s personal side. If a brand is the total perception of a company, what a great way to build “personality.” It’s a great chance to express opinions, discuss trends, dig deeper into the details of a project, or have the ability to go deeper than the company’s ‘capabilities’ or ‘client list.’ It’s an opportunity to showcase their best team members as thought leaders, or even express the CEO’s sense of humor. It’s a place to link to interesting sites or stories. And some business leaders find blogs less intimidating to add to, versus updating the “about us” page on their website.

Thankfully, I’m taking our table’s advice. As a part of our impending re-launch of MilesDesign.com, we’re re-committing to maintaining our blog, not just updating our samples and client list.

So why would Miles Design want a blog? First of all, our previous website was launched in February of 2006. Our single “news” page listed our all of our “newsworthy” items over the past few months. While that seemed adequate at the time, it forced our “news” to be reduced down to headlines, such as:

08.06 – MD launches smart new ad campaign for The Heart Center of Indiana.
07.06 – MD begins work with Sensory Technologies.
07.06 – MD (and team) win Telly Awards for The Heart Center TV commercials.

You get the idea…

So for us, a blog is a great opportunity to expand our “news” into full stories. It’s a chance for us to share more about what is happening in our office, as well as outside. And let’s face it… I like to talk about us, almost as much as I like the BBQ chips from Jimmy John’s.

Secondly, our blog allows Miles Design to be a better example for our clients. If branding experts can’t demonstrate the marketing benefits of a blog, why would their clients show interest?

Finally, let’s not downplay the fun factor. It’s a chance for us to share the cool things we experience all around us. Our shop maintains strong ties to culture, and it’s something our principals encourage. As design thinkers, we’re constantly looking at the trends going on around us: in business, music, fashion, all types of design, and (of course) branding… all topics we’ll likely be exploring. And when you have a such a simple, fun, brand-building forum as a blog, who wouldn’t want to share?