This title seems so, 2004 - but I'll tackle it anyway because Spoken Whirred and AdSaint brought it up.

Brian Schwartz over at the new Spoke marketing agency has clients telling him they need a blog, because, well, they need one.  He makes a fair point that having a blog just to have one is a poor idea.

If you are considering blogging because you’ve either been told or believe that it will help your search rankings, it will help personalize your business or drive traffic to your site.  I’m telling you that you don’t need a blog. 

Yes, if done effectively, blogging can improve your search rankings, generate traffic and help put a personal face on your business, but so can more effective web design and copywriting and yet most people are smart enough to outsource those two, but try and fail at blogging  (a point we will come back to later). 

Brian's point isn't that you don't need a blog, it's that you should learn to crawl before you walk.  If your website is just an internet brochure, a blog isn't going to be the magic potion that transforms it into a magical lead machine.  Much of what you can do with a blog in the search engine results, can be done with competent website design and copywriting.  He's right about that.  Partly.

Blogs are amazing content managers that if used correctly, can serve as a primary focus of your online profile.  That used correctly is the hard part, but it's easier to write a blog for SEO than it is to build a site correctly.  Most developers still build the site in a non-SEO friendly manner.  That's right, folks.  Optimized sites aren't necessarily optimized for traffic and search, and I'd say most developers have a blind spot when it comes to working with their SEO teams (A good thing to ask yourself is if you talk to the SEO team before or after you build the site.  After is bad).

Having a blog isn't like eating pizza. There are bad blogs.  All blog software is not built equal, but it's also not a substitute for good SEO.  At the same time, just because you spent a lot of money on SEO and SEM doesn't mean you're spending your money wisely. And if you're still purchasing banner advertising, and haven't looked at a social media strategy, I don't want to talk to for less than $50,000.  You made that bed - you lie in it.

Brian's main point is correct.  If you have a blog, have a point.  You don't get to say that blogs can't help you if you're not willing to use them correctly.  And if your marketing firm can't tell you how to use them correctly, then maybe they aren't the people you should be speaking to about social media.