A blog can help to grow your business

A blog can be a powerful tool to help you to grow your small business. Bill Slawski notes some blogging benefits in Should a Small Business Blog?:

Having drawn repeated mentions in local newspapers and magazines

Being profiled in national publications like USA Today

Appearing as an example in a book on blogging as a way of enhancing a professional reputation

Attracting business from local customers as well as national and international clients

Since all small businesses are busy, it can be hard to justify the time (or the expense of blogging if you hire someone.) Nevertheless, a blog can grow your business in ways you can’t imagine or foresee.

Companies I’ve worked with have gained product ideas from their blog, and have used a blog as an informal focus group. They’ve discovered entire new markets for their products.

I’ve never yet worked with anyone who found a blog useless – every client found the blog valuable, and continues to blog.

Here are some blogging tips:

* Blogs are casual, they don’t work well as formal communications. If you’re thinking formal, think press release rather than blog;

* Trust your blogger. You won’t see real results from a blog until three months or so have passed, so don’t expect to set the world on fire right away;

* Investigate the keywords that your customers are using to find you. Use the keywords your customers use;

* Create a blogging schedule. I like Bill Slawski’s idea of blogging about some of the jargon in an industry – using a blog to explain terms makes it a Frequently Asked Questions page on steroids;

* People are interested in people. Talk about staff on the blog and talk WITH staff on the blog too – do staff interviews.

If you’ve never considered a blog, see whether other companies in your industry are blogging. If a company maintains a blog longer than a couple of months, realize that they’re getting a return on blogging. You can too.

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