Tips for Starting a Business Blog
Business blogging gives small business owners a chance to connect with potential and current customers as well as colleagues. From sharing updates about the business to providing customers with tips, business owners fill their blogs with useful information. This low-cost tool can also help small business owners promote their businesses to online markets.
Other People Are Reading
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Link From Your Website
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Work with your web designer to host a business blog on your company's website. By featuring your blog on your website, your customers have instant access and don't have to worry about remembering a different web address. Before you jump into blogging for your business, come up with a list of topics you'd like to cover. This will help you determine if business blogging will add value to your business.
Define the Purpose
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While business blogging is popular, it's important to post with purpose. Have a goal for your blog and define it before you post your first entry. You may use your business blog to give customers a behind-the-scenes look at how you create your products, to announce product launches, to promote sales and specials or to provide customers with useful tips and ideas.
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Give Your Blog a Voice
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Give your business blog a voice by setting a tone for your posts. You may elect to use casual communication, which is ideal if you provide services or products to consumers. If you provide products or services to fellow business owners, you may consider taking a more authoritative tone to position yourself as an expert. Regardless of the tone, "Entrepreneur" -- a magazine and online resource for business owners -- suggests keeping your blog personal and relevant to your business.
Find a Writer
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As a small business owner, writing weekly blog posts may not fit into your already busy schedule. Hire a freelance writer with blogging experience to write and post your blogs, or delegate this task to a member of your staff with good writing and grammatical skills. Before handing over the task, talk to the writer about the purpose of the blog, the voice you'd like it to have, topics you'd like to cover and how often you want blog entries posted. Decide whether you'll provide the writer with topics or have the writer come up with topics for you to approve.
Be Consistent
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If your content is engaging, readers will visit the your blog often, so it's important to post on a regular basis. Whether you post once a week, twice a week or every day, consistency is key in successful business blogging.
Monitor Comments
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When you blog, expect your customers to leave comments about what you post. You will likely receive a variety of comments including positive, negative and spam. Put a staff member or freelance writer in charge of monitoring your comments. Your blog monitor should immediately delete spam, and respond to other comments left by customers.
Promote Your Blog
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Let your current customers know that you're launching a blog by sending an email or announcing it on your website. Host a contest to drive traffic. You can give a free product or service to the person who posts the best comment or who comes up with the best name for the blog.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit blog image by Ewe Degiampietro from Fotolia.com
