To Blog or Not to Blog?

The blogosphere has hit the mainstream.  It’s no longer just a medium for über-geeks to chronicle their daily lives.  Blogs are now considered by many to be authorities on a variety of subjects – from sports, entertainment, product reviews and even breaking news.

Blogging has even gone corporate, with enormous companies such as GM and Boeing speaking directly with the public.

Potentially, there can be a number of benefits for having your own blog:

1. Keep in touch with your customers – Blogs can definitely add that “personal touch” to your business.  Engaging, honest posts that ask for customer feedback can help build trust.  You’re no longer that “faceless” company – you’re a real human being who cares about the people who purchase your products and services.
   
   
2. Promote new products – Have a new product in the pipeline?  Announce it on your blog, post pictures and provide some details.  It can help you build anticipation.  Plus, the feedback you receive could very well help you avoid some marketing missteps.
   
   
3. Real-time updates – Blogging software such as WordPress is easy to use and can be accessed from just about any web browser.  So if you’re at that big industry conference in Milwaukee, you can keep your community up-to-date on the latest happenings right there from your exhibition booth (or even the hotel bar).
   
   
4. It’s cheap! – WordPress, as mentioned above, is actually free software.  You may have to pay your web developer to set it up (or just use the WordPress blog hosting service, which is free), but the cost to maintain the blog is a big fat zero.  Update it as often as you want, anytime you want without worrying about cost.
   
   
5. Build a community – Through the use of RSS feeds, readers can subscribe to your blog and receive your new posts immediately.  After awhile, you’ll be surprised at how many people will become regulars and comment on your posts.

So, as a small business person, you might ask yourself “Should I be blogging?”.  That depends on a number of factors.  Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do I have anything interesting to blog about? – Seriously, this can be an important, yet overlooked factor.  If you have product development, weekly specials or behind-the-scenes news to report then you might benefit from a blog.  But if you’re an auto mechanic who just wants to rant, you should slowly step away from the keyboard!
   
   
2. Do I have time to keep up with a blog? – You don’t have to spend hours out of your day to have a successful blog.  But you should be able to devote at least an hour per week for posting and going through your customer feedback.
   
   
3. Do I really want to know what my customers think? – Be careful what you post and be sure not to stretch the truth.  Trust me, people will call you on it.  And if you know that you have customer service issues, you could be in for some hate mail.  As the saying goes: Don’t ask a question that you don’t want to know the answer to.  On the other hand, if you’re willing to take the heat in order to improve your company, customer feedback may very well be the tonic you need.
   
   
4. Am I going to get sick of this in a month? – Remember that a blog is ideally used as a tool to help your company gain customer loyalty and (hopefully) help you improve customer relations.  It takes a commitment of time and effort.  Frankly, you’re better off not having a blog at all rather than have a blog that hasn’t been updated in months.
   
   
5. What am I looking to gain? – A blog can help you gain knowledge about your customers and about your own company.  This should be a big part of your goals.  As they say, knowledge is power.

There you have it – a very quick crash-course in blogging.  Please do feel free to contact me with any questions!

Blogging Resources:
The Intern Trap – Great article to help you make sure that you have the right person speaking on behalf of your company.

WordPress.org – Home of the free blogging software.

WordPress.com – Their free hosting service.  Note that if your blog is hosted on WordPress.com, you may lose the ability to customize it to fit your current website’s design.  For a fairly low cost, I can setup a fresh copy of WordPress software on my server and customize it to match your site.

TypePad – A paid, fully-customizable hosted blog service.

Top 10 Blog Writing Tips – This article can help you with deciding what to write.