Blogging for businesses
Blogs have become a popular business tool for attracting and communicating with customers, sharing business expertise, and increasing web traffic and brand awareness.
The availability of free and easy-to-use blog software like Blogger and WordPress means blogging is now an option every small business can afford to consider.
On this page:
What is a blog?
A blog is one of a growing number of social media communication channels or tools. In essence, it is a web page made up of posts written at regular intervals and shown in chronological order – rather like a journal.
Blogs became popular in 1999 when the software and tools became accessible and, at the time of writing, there are in excess of 170 million blogs online according to The Nielsen Company. These blogs can be divided into two broad categories: personal blogs and business blogs.
Some people suggest blogs are on the brink of being superseded by other social media channels like Twitter, but this is unlikely because blogs play an important communication role in bringing together the mix of text, images, and video, while allowing people to comment and interact with each other.
Why blog – what's in it for me?
There are a number of reasons why you should consider starting a blog for your business. Blogging is a low-cost, easy way to establish a presence on the Internet, start communicating with existing customers and find potential new customers.
Blogs provide you with a powerful communication channel to share your business-related knowledge and expertise with a larger audience and build a reputation for your business. In the US alone, blog reading numbers are expected to reach 133 million people by 2012 – that's 56.5% of America's total Internet users. Blogs are generally shorter than articles, they're easer to read and write, and if you get the mix of being topical and useful right, people will come back several times a week to read what you have to say.
You can even use blogs to save time. You can answer Frequently Asked Questions on your blog – this is both useful for the readers and saves you having to answer questions by email or by other means.
You can also share business news and updates, advise people when your website has been updated with new information, promote sales or discounts, encourage people to sign up for newsletters, provide sneak previews of what is coming up, or even run contests to generate some interest.
How do I start a blog?
To start blogging, you’ll need a computer, an Internet connection, and a web host to host your blog. You can either add a blog to your website or cut your teeth using one of the free blog options like Blogger and WordPress. With these, you'll be able to set up an account and start blogging with ease.
It's a good idea to research the various blogging programs and options rather than settling on the first free option. Find out what the advantages and disadvantages are – ultimately, you'll want a blog that will be able to grow with your business. If blogging really takes off for your business, you might want to include features or options that will require you to move to a paid platform or program. These usually allow you to brand your blog better and have additional functionality not available in the free versions.
It won't take you long to set up an account, choose a blog name, and start blogging - but before you do, you'll need to identify who your target audience is. Define who will read your blog and why. This will help you to choose an appropriate name and description for your blog site and influence what you'll write about, and how you'll write it.
Before you invite everyone to comment on your first blog post, take some time out to plan your blogs. How often are you going to post on your blog? Daily? Three times a week? Once a week? One of the keys to successfully blogging is consistency. What are you going to blog about? Brainstorm ideas ahead of time and plan your blogs in advance each week.
Some basic dos and don'ts
Some tips to give you a head start:
- You'll need to put time aside to blog regularly. Most successful blogs put out new content at least a couple of times a week and stick to a regular schedule.
- Blogs are part of the social media mix. They're about generating online conversations, not promoting your product, so you’d never post a press release on your blog. You want your content to be personal and engaging.
- People expect blogs to be open, honest, and personal.
- You can use your blog to make business announcements, but use a casual and personal voice, and don't only blog as a form of business promotion. Blog about your industry and share thoughts, insights, tips, and tricks that will help others.
- Keep working at it. It's unlikely that your blog will be an instant success, and it can initially feel as though you are writing for no one. It takes time to build up readership and develop a regular community who participate in your blog. It can take about a year of putting out consistent, quality posts before you develop a significant following and start to see a real return on your investment.
- Cross-promote your content over the various social media channels you use. If you've just posted a new blog entry, then tweet about it on Twitter and add a link to your Facebook page. If you've just uploaded a "how to" video on YouTube, share the video on your blog.
- Keep your writing short and make it easy to scan. Most people will scan your posts before they decide to start reading or not.
- This means writing short sentences, using subheadings and avoiding long blocks of text. You should also make use of images and bullet points, and highlight key words.
