Blogging Advice for Small Business

qaAre you a small business owner, and looking to generate more business through an online internet presence? If you have been considering putting together a blog for your business, the blogging advice detailed below is intended especially for you.

Q: What should I be writing blog entries about?

A: This is one of the first questions that gets asked by small business owners who are curious about the blogosphere. The best advice that you can take when it comes to learning what to write about is to specifically write about any topic that meets two criteria:

a) It should interest you.

b) It should be related to your business in some way.

This may seem rather obvious to some people, but you might be surprised at how many bloggers choose the wrong topics and ideas for their blogs. If you do not choose a topic that is going to interest you, then you will be much more likely to fall behind on the blogging schedule that you need to maintain in order to attract traffic to your blog. If you choose a topic that is not related in some way to your business, then you will be defeating the whole purpose of blogging for your business in the first place.

Q: How often should I be writing and publishing blog entries?

A: Truth be told, the right answer to this one is: As often as you can. As long as you are not neglecting other aspects of your company, you should blog as often as is feasible. The benefits of blogging for your business tend to be rather cumulative in nature. All the things that your blog will do for you, including search engine visibility, buzz, popularity and traffic levels all come over time rather than at once. The best advice here then, obviously, is to blog as often as is possible, be it once a day, once a week, three times a week, or several times a day depending on what you have to say and how often it needs to be said. Choose a schedule that works for you and run with it for the best results.

Q: How should I organize the topics for my blog?

A: It is generally a best practice to limit how many categories you have, which will keep readers from becoming overwhelmed. Choose a handful of categories that you will write about and make sure that all of your blog posts fall under one of these categories, allowing readers to better search for and find the blog entries that you have written in the past. You can write blogs to fit into any category that you can think of; You should try to be broad when choosing organizational categories, so that you do not end up with blog entries that you do not know how to file.

With this small business blogging advice, you should be ready to start your own small business corporate blog to build a successful web presence online.

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Originally posted 2009-01-26 05:56:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Are You Asking Yourself, Why Blog?

whyThe first question that needs answering when it comes to journeying down the path to creating a social media endeavor like a corporate blog is “Why?” For business, it is already expected that a company have a website presence, but what do consumers really want to see when they try to research you or your company online? The truth is, when consumers and other people begin to research you online, they are preferring to read what other people are saying about you, or they are looking for a chance to see you in action, reading about your expertise, how you solve problems, and so on.

Newsletters, testimonial ads and standard website content are excellent at getting the word out about your company, and they will never be completely replaced by blogging, but they are all clearly one way forms of communication. If you send out too many newsletters, your readers may stop paying attention, or they may regard your correspondence as spam outright. On the other hand, for those who prefer to receive information via e-mail, blogging is still quite the viable option.

Blogs allow you to reach out to your customers and other consumers more easily than ever, by allowing you to:

- Provide information and resources that are topical and relevant on a regular basis,
- Receive feedback from your readers, engaging them in discussions that are relevant specifically to them,
- Distribute your content on a much greater scale thanks to search engines and RSS feeds.

Additionally, blogs give your readers and customers a lot of additional capabilities, including the chance to:

- Receive regular updates from you,
- Receive updates from you when they want to, and if they want to, rather than on your schedule,
- Take things away from your blog, sharing them with their network
- Find you more easily through search because of tagging and keywords.

Chances are, your customers are finding new ways to become connected now than in the past. Blogs will give you more juice with Google, and they will also allow you to differentiate yourself much more clearly from other businesses, and all it takes is a little bit of personality, and a little bit of work. Corporate blogging is all about pouring your passion for your company into a medium that your customers will gladly respond to. Internet users love blogs, and are attracted to blogs, so by writing in a blog, you can touch your customers past, present and future in new ways, giving them a reason to work with your company.

Now that you know why blogs are so important, and now that you understand what they can do for you and your company, the next step is obviously going to be to create your own blog. Your business can benefit in a number of ways when you run a corporate blog, so now is the time for you to implement corporate blogging in your marketing strategy for better business.

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Originally posted 2009-01-16 05:57:56. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Why Fear Blogging?

Are you afraid of blogging? Many companies and businesses are actually quite afraid of corporate blogging because they are afraid of being different. It’s time that we get over our fears, however, because the new way of establishing permanent relationships with people is to ask “Do you have a blog?” The truth is, blogs are a great way to hear other people’s ideas and to find out about companies, businesses, contractors and other people in the industry. Too often, however, people say that they do not have what it takes to keep a corporate blog, and this is usually not true. Anyone can keep a blog as long as they have some basic understanding of the process.

Most companies are supportive of the idea of corporate blogging, especially among employees who will adequately spread a positive message about the firm. Unfortunately, most employees are unaware of this position, and believe that corporate blogging may get them in trouble, or worse, fired. If you want to have a corporate blog, and you want to share the news about your company, but you are afraid that your boss or bosses will not agree, you simply need to learn how to motivate them. Show them some of the best corporate blogs out there, and show them what this corporate blogging effort is doing for these companies. Companies that have effective, popular corporate blogs are managing to see increases in sales even in times of economic crisis. What does this say about the power of a corporate blog? A lot, actually.

According to Technorati, there are more than 4.3 million web blogs out there. The word of mouth networks are simply becoming more and more efficient, and absolutely vital as a result. The fact that there are so many corporate blogs out there is an excellent indicator that everyone is blogging, and if your company is not already blogging, now is the time to start.

Here are some of the reasons why employees within a corporation should be allowed to blog:

1 - People do not trust corporations, but corporate blogs allow them to facilitate community and communication, building stronger relationships with companies that they perceive to be trustworthy. If you are honest with your readers in a corporate blog, they will trust you more, end of story.

2 - Talking to corporations is difficult, but corporate blogs facilitate communication in an easier and more effective manner. Communicating by phone, e-mail or website can be difficult, and who knows if you will ever get a response. But if visitors comment in blog entries, they know they will be seen and heard.

3 – Blogs create believability. What do you think is more believable and friendly, a press release from the company’s PR representative, or a couple of blog entries on the subject? Blogs are inspiring, they are friendly, and they are full of communication. When readers want info on your company, they will sooner turn to your blog than a press release in the news.

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Originally posted 2009-01-08 05:37:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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