Lately I’ve stumbled upon some good blog posts about being open and transparent in business. One of the reasons why I’ve always thought blogging was good for businesses (not all, but many of them) is that it lets you showcase your knowledge and be seen as an expert by your customers. Being transparent in business takes this a few steps further and helps establish an even deeper connection with your customers. According to Court’s Internet Marketing School, being transparent has the following benefits:

• Your customers are more knowledgeable about you and your business
• You establish a sense of trust upfront by being transparent
• Others value your honesty and are drawn to you in the process

Back when I used to work for a sports agency/consultant I always wished we would blog. Many advertising agencies blog, so why are so many sports marketing agencies and businesses not doing it? We had a collection of some of the smartest individuals in the sports business industry but the fear was that blogging about what we do would give away valuable information to competitors. Now, I don’t really know any business that has a 100% transparency policy, but even if you do give away something of value, someone else still has to do the work. But blogging and showing that you can offer good insights and smart thinking can be the best form of PR or business development you can do. That said, I still understood the hesitation to jump into this, since no other competitor was really doing it, either.

So what if you’re scared that you’re giving away too many things? Social media legend Neil Patel said in a recent interview, “And the main key to my success was that I let everything out. Because sooner or later others are going to know what you know, so might as well be the one to tell them.” Also, you don’t have to always write about your business. You can write about notable events in the industry and what you see others doing right/wrong. If you don’t even want to write the blog, just hire me and I’ll write it for you – as long as we’re transparent about it

There are tons of sports blogs, but I’m still waiting for agencies in the sports business world to catch up with advertising in terms of taking advantage of blogs and social media to position an agency as an expert and spread influence. The only sports agency (that I know of) right now that is really involved with blogging is Dynasty Reps. Its founder, Darren Heitner, could probably tell you that he owes just about all of his success to blogging, being transparent, and using his blog to build his reputation.

I think there’s a huge opportunity for a sports marketing agency (or two or three) to start blogging and generate some buzz in the industry while building a reputation.

Why do you think the sports business world is behind advertising in terms of blogging? Is it just that sports marketers and agents aren’t around new technology as much as ad agency people? Do you think the lack of blogging by sports agencies will change soon? I’d love to hear what you think.

Tags: blogging, tranparency

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