When the idea of starting a blog for our organization first came up a few years ago, I thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. All I knew about blogs was that a few of my friends did it for fun, and the Houston Chronicle had about 50 of them that didn't interest me in the least. And since when was my organization the kind to waste its time on trendy stuff like that?

Looking back, I think my problem was not understanding the purpose of having a blog. I mean, we already had a website where we posted news and pictures - wasn't a blog just another place to put all the same stuff, only with a trendier name? At that time, I don't think any of us really "got it".

Well, congratuations to me - I get it. It's been a long learning process. I'm not sure exactly when it clicked, but it was just yesterday that I realized it had.

Some co-workers and I attended a lunchtime workshop on "Building a Business Blog" at the Houston Technology Center. The steps to building a blog were nothing new to me, nor were the reasons to have one and what to do with it once you've started. But a lot of people in the class were just like I was a few years ago, and for once I had answers to some of their questions. When did that happen?

One mistake a lot of would-be bloggers make is thinking there needs to be a direct cause-and-effect relationship between starting a blog and experiencing exponential growth (or whatever your business/organization's ultimate goal is). And beyond that, they don't see the point.

As for what the point actually is, this article from MarketingSherpa explains it a lot better than I can. It's probably nothing new to the average social-media-savvy user. The important part of this for me, though, was reading that article and realizing, Hey, I already know this stuff.

We haven't started our blog yet - it's in progress - but in the meantime, let's embrace all the small victories, OK?