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Why Every Business Needs a Blog

why-every-biz-needs-a-blogLast weekend I was at a small social function mixing it up with several people who I didn’t know very well.  Inevitably we started talking about what we do for a living, and I volunteered that I’m an entrepreneur and a blogger.  This caused several raised eyebrows.  One woman, a doctor, asked me incredulously:  “You do blogging…as a business?  I thought blogs were just…you know…about people’s pets and kids.”

I suppose I’m just so immersed in the blogosphere and online business culture that it strikes me as insane when people ask me what value blogging has for serious businesses.  In fact, for many people blogs are a business, generating thousands of dollars a month in revenues.  But even a traditional small business like a coffee shop or law office can—and should—have a blog.

For one thing, a blog is the shortest distance between you and the public, allowing you to personally reach thousands, even millions of potential and existing clients.  Through blogging, you can update interested parties on your business any time you choose.  Once your blog is set up, it is easy enough to log in and make a post—it can even be done from your Blackberry or iPhone.  As you go about your business, news and information comes up, and you can bring it to your clients in real time.  After a while you will be considered an authority on your industry, and it will generate notoriety and new business.

Another important reason to blog is that it brings a “face” to your company.  The new age of marketing has dawned, and it is an established fact that people need to feel a personal connection to your business before they are willing to get on board with your product or service.  When you blog about your company, you’re showing off not only your knowledge about your industry, but your personality as well.  CEO’s like Bob Mackey of Whole Foods and Jonathon Schwartz of Sun Microsystms have fans reading as much for their excellent commentary as for news on their company’s products.  In fact, the informal nature of blogging makes it easy for both the writer and the reader to communicate without all the stuffy jargon or formal marketing verbiage.  It’s a real person talking to real people about a business of mutual interest.

A blog is also a great place to keep a storehouse of basic information about your company and your industry.  People will refer back to your blog when they know there is plenty of good writing to help them in their own research.    Keeping your archives organized and providing your readers with a search option so that they can go through your old posts for juicy tidbits they may have missed.  You can also keep prominent links to your main website, press releases, and other resources; making your blog a one-stop shop for people who want to find out everything about your organization.

Competition in the blogosphere is tough, no doubt about it.  There are more than four million blogs on every subject imaginable.  People have choices. But competition in business will  even tougher if you don’t have a blog at all.   Customers are going online to do business, and this is not a trend—it is the evolution of commerce.  You must be willing to create a substantial online presence if you want to survive and thrive in the new millennium.

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