10 reasons why small businesses should blog
Blogging brings many benefits, but it is also time consuming, with lots of resource needed to keep a blog up and running.
So the big question is, should small businesses blog?
There are many reasons why blogging can be a vital form of marketing for small businesses, here are a couple:
- Demonstrate your expertise – If you see your company as a leading light in its industry, then a blog is the perfect place to demonstrate this by writing articles that show you really do know what you are talking about!
- Regular fresh content for your website - So many small business websites can become boring and static, with very few updates. A blog gives you the opportunity to bring in new content on a regular basis, without it feeling contrived
- Portray your personality – A blog allows you to speak directly to your visitors or customer base in a way that is hard to do through your website otherwise
- Help with SEO – Fresh content, lots of internal links and also links from elsewhere in the blogosphere will help with your website’s search engine optimisation (SEO)
- Provide content for your social media channels – You might already have a number of profiles across the social web – Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin. Coming up with new content for these channels is difficult, but a blog can be a great source of new fresh content and also provides a destination for your followers to be directed to
- Encourage guest bloggers – Why not encourage partners, suppliers or even customers and other bloggers to come and blog on your website? It is a great opportunity for you to build relationships whilst also getting great fresh content
- Keep visitors coming back - Using RSS for example, you can ensure that visitors that come to your blog can sign-up to be notified about new content when it is published. This will keep them coming back to your site again and again
- Engage with the blogosphere – Being part of the blogosphere is the best way to engage with it. Target the key bloggers in your niche and start to build relationships with them
- Provide added value - A blog is a great way to give your customers additional information that will help them with their dealings with you. Give them something that supports and enhances your products or services
- Being social – Many people often forget that blogs are social. Encourage comments and respond to them quickly so that you can really start engaging with your audience
Lucy Thorpe:
April 9th, 2010 at 10:06 am
It also allows you to respond quickly if things should go wrong. You are in the driving seat when it comes to steering your image through any ups and downs. Having established a friendly tone of voice and a sociable relationship with your customers, you make far more impact when you have something important to say.
BT Tradespace:
April 14th, 2010 at 9:33 am
RT @social_smallbiz: #tip A blog allows you to speak directly to your visitors http://bit.ly/a1HIyv
Barney Austen:
April 14th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Great reasons to be blogging – fair play. I would suggest that the strongest part of it would be the engagement in the blogosphere as you say. It's all about the people
– link building etc should come off the back of that.
The other point to note is that it does take a bit of time to generate interest and patience is required. This is no golden bullet – more a gentle jog to get to the end.
Thanks for sharing
Dan R:
May 4th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
10 reasons why small #businesses should #blog http://bit.ly/d73Njl #smb