Part 3 - The Small Business Blog
A blog is a content-management tool that allows you to quickly and easily publish content to the web, usually in reverse-chronological fashion. Were you expecting a more complex definition? Sorry. In technical terms, that's exactly what a blog is.
Blogs (short for web logs) began as online journals kept by individual authors. Web diaries, if you will. While much of that individuality has been retained, blogs have evolved to fill many other roles as well. Today there are personal blogs, educational blogs, news blogs, entertainment blogs, and yes ... business blogs.
In this context, a business blog is just what it sounds like — a blog published by a business for the purpose of business communications. A business blog is a great way to expand and enhance your website with fresh content. In fact, if you're a small business owner, I can't imagine a single reason not to start your own business blog.
First, let's dispel a blog myth. With regards to search engine visibility, a business blog does not possess any magical powers. It will not propel you onto the first page of Google in a week, the way some people think. But blogs are extremely easy to publish, and that's the search engine advantage they have over regular websites.
By default, most blogging programs (such as WordPress and Blogger) create clean, well-coded web pages. And they do it literally at the click of a button. Just type your blog post, click the "Publish" button, and you've got a new web page. No web coding experience is necessary.
Now repeat that three times a week for a year, and you've got more than 150 pages of quality web content. That's the search engine benefit of business blogs — they make it easy to publish new content on a regular basis. This keeps people and search engines coming back to your site on a much more regular basis. These are good things!
Behold, The Small Business Blog
Small businesses are sometimes at a disadvantage when it comes to marketing. The premise of this book is to show small business owners how to compete with (and perhaps even "conquer") their larger competitors online. And I can think of no better tool to support that goal than the business goal.
Like any business, the small business needs to get the word out about their services and/or products. But by their nature, these businesses often lack the marketing budget of their larger counterparts. A business blog can help fill this gap between marketing needs and marketing budget, and when used properly it can also help you propel your small business to the next level. I'll explain how to do this as we go along!
Benefits of Blogging
- An easy way to grow your website / web presence
- A great way to "feed" search engines with relevant content
- Helps you position your business and yourself as an authority
- Helps you provide valuable content to readers / potential customers
- Improves your search engine ranking and visibility over time
- Demonstrates that you're web savvy and "with the times"
Now let's talk about some of these blogging benefits in more detail.
Easy to Publish
Business blogs are easy to publish, even for the web novice. That's because the blog does all of the technical work for you. You simply type your message, add links or images as needed, and click the "Publish" button. The blog will convert your text into web code for proper display on the web. This simplicity is ideal for the small business owner, who usually does not have an extensive IT department (if one at all).
If you can create and send an email, you can post content to a blog. This simplicity makes you more inclined to publish content regularly, which keeps people and search engines coming back more often.
Easy to Launch
Blogs are also fairly simple to setup, especially if you get help from an experienced blogger. For instance, I recently set up a blog for a small business client of mine. I customized a WordPress blog template, designed a few buttons, and that was it. In two days, the blog was up and running. Then I showed some key members of the company how to use the blog, and that took all of about 30 minutes.
Search Engine Visibility
By default, blogs do many things well that can help them earn search engine ranking. In many cases, blogs can achieve solid ranking faster than regular websites. A blog is easier to publish than a regular website, so you can post content to it more often. Search engines like websites with frequently updated content.
Positioning Power
More so than a regular website, blogs tend to be closely associated with an individual author. So if you make your blog an extension of yourself, it becomes a readable manifestation of your knowledge, personality and professional talents. In this way, you can use your blog to position yourself as a "thought leader" in your market area.
The Potential for Dialogue
Blogs are part of the social web, often referred to as "Web 2.0." Web publishing of yesterday was mostly a one-way affair in which the publisher spoke to the reader. Web publishing today is more of a dialogue, where publishers and readers speak to each other. With their reader-commenting capabilities, blogs support the concept of an online dialogue.
Blogs Can Foster Trust
When you publish a business blog in your own true voice, you encourage people to trust you. This is especially true when people read your blog over time — when they become "fans" of your blog. You become less of a stranger and more of a trusted resource. Any company can benefit from appearing trustworthy, especially in the post-Enron low-trust world we now live in.
The Potential for Leads
You stand to gain a lot from the interaction and trust mentioned above. When you interact with your blog readers in a positive way, you have a much greater chance of turning them into readers, subscribers, customers and buyers. You can promote this even more by using your blog as an "Ask the Expert" tool, and putting your contact info front-and-center.
The Buzz Factor
Good business blogs create a following. Seth Godin's blog is a prime example of this. There are also quite a few CEOs who have popular blogs these days. If you create a blog that offers helpful or insightful information on a regular basis, people will see it as a reliable resource. And when people find something they like online, they share it with others! They can subscribe to your RSS feed (explained later), email it to a friend, bookmark it for future reference, etc. The more value you put into your blog, the higher the buzz potential.
Fill in the Blank
This is just my own list of reasons why business professionals should engage in blogging. After a month or so of blogging, you'll be able to add to this list with reasons of your own. With their versatility, blogs mean different things to different people. What value will you build into your own business blog? There are no limits.
Blog Marketing Success
As your blog grows in size and popularity, it can support several marketing objectives at once. It can help you attract readers, generate valuable leads, improve your search engine visibility, and position yourself as a trusted expert in your field. If you blog effectively and build an audience of loyal readers, you could even outperform your larger competitors online.
Best of all, many blog programs are free, which is an ideal price for the small business owner!
So there's our introduction into the world of business blogging. Now let's talk about how to get started with your own business blog.
Blogging Continued >> Strategic Considerations