If you spend anytime online, you have probably noticed the business blog craze. However, do you really need to worry about adding a blog to the company website when you already have so many other things to do? Are blogs really that important?
One reason many companies use a blog is that breaking news and important announcements can be added to the site in seconds. Instead of sending a memo to tech services or asking your web designer to change entire pages of your website to add the latest information and then waiting hours or even days for the information to appear, you can simply sign in to your blog and post it yourself.
Blogging also is a great way to help people feel like they are connecting with you, which can lead to more sales. However, while you can make your blog a bit more personal than the company website, it is important to remain professional. Don’t post any stories that could be detrimental to your company image. So what types of stories should you post? If you have a sporting goods business, you can mention that you and your son took those terrific new fishing lures that you just started carrying out on the boat over the weekend and he caught a ten pounder with his lure. If you sell cooking supplies, you can talk about the surprise breakfast the kids made you yesterday, complete with all their mishaps.
Of course, if you know ahead of time that you will never be able to keep up with a blog, you may not want to start one, but if you can manage to post news or events at least once a week, a blog can really be useful for your small business.
Originally posted on May 23, 2006 @ 12:45 pm