Fasthosts Reveals That UK SMEs Failing To Capitalise On Blogosphere

Nearly half of small businesses would use a blog to drive traffic to their website and increase sales according to new research from the UK’s largest hosting provider, Fasthosts. However, only three per cent of the 2,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) questioned are actually intending to start a blog.

Findings from Fasthosts research paper ‘Blogging For Business’ suggests that SMEs understand the potential business benefits that running a blog on their website could bring, but are failing to put this awareness into action and create one.

There are currently 53.9 million blogs in existence, with 75,000 new ones created daily (Source: Technorati). Blogs provide an excellent opportunity for interactivity and building relationships with potential customers. They encourage the website owner to regularly update the content on their site and are one of the most effective means of ensuring that people regularly visit your website.

Fasthosts research found that 26 per cent of respondents needed a blog to be updated daily to ensure they returned. However, just over one third of participants indicated that as long as the blog was informative and interesting, it didn’t matter to them how regularly it was updated.

“In today’s hyper-competitive market, blogs provide a fantastic way for small businesses to differentiate themselves through personalising their website and attracting more customers,” said Andrew Michael, CEO, Fasthosts. “The corporate blogs of large companies are bound by corporate guidelines and gate keepers, so for small businesses there is far greater opportunity for interesting comment and genuine dialogue with customers.”

2295 businesses participated in the online survey carried out between June and August 2006 by Fasthosts. Three per cent of respondents stated that they intended to start a blog, which accounted for 69 votes. To take part in the latest research on SMEs' server use, please visit Fasthosts hosting provider.

About Fasthosts
Fasthosts is the UK's largest hosting company. Based in the UK, and operating 24x7 from their dedicated UK data centres, Fasthosts keeps over 1 million domains running smoothly and ensures over 6 million emails are delivered safely each day. All Fasthosts services can be self-managed through the award winning Fasthosts web-based control panel, enabling customers to set up and manage new websites, email accounts, databases, and other hosted services online. Fasthosts was voted the number one webhost by tophosts.com in September 2005; won the Web Host. Directory 'eCommerce webhosting award' and was also announced as the best dedicated server package in August 2005 by HostReview.