These days everyone has a blog, from sports figures to celebrities to the guy down the hall in IT. Everyone is blogging, so that naturally begs the question -- should my business have a blog to be successful?
The answer to that question is fairly simple in my opinion. All businesses can benefit from blogging, but service-related businesses (Realtors, Photographers, etc) and smaller retail stores are going to see the most benefit from blogging. The reason for this is twofold -- one, both of these industries are serving a customer who may not realize precisely what they want or need. Weekly blog posts can help solidify such a need in the customer's mind. Two, many of these types of businesses rely heavily on referrals (word-of-mouth business) and blogging lends itself well to referral business because the customer has the opportunity to learn more about the business immediately upon being referred.Many business owners want to start a blog but they don't know where to begin. Tumblr of course is a great platform, as is WordPress and Blogger. I have used all three and found Tumblr to be the best simply because of the social media integration (think of it as a Facebook for bloggers) as well as the ability to upload pictures, video, text, and audio from virtually anywhere. Tumblr assigns you an email address that you can use to upload content on the fly, and Tumblr's servers are smart enough to know what the content is before posting. If you upload a video it shows up in a media player, as opposed to a link. Audio files get the same sort of treatment.
Once the blogging service has been chosen, the hard stuff begins. Many businesspeople will feel overwhelmed at the prospect of writing an online "article" every week or even every month. Some people just aren't born writers, and blogging is certainly a skill that requires development like everything else. There is hope, however, for those who would like a little help. Many business consultants can be hired-in for copy writing purposes, and some will even manage the blog entirely. The rates for such services are fairly inexpensive -- from $50 a post or $20 - $25 an hour. Some owners will opt to use this sort of service every once-and-awhile until they feel comfortable devoting the time needed to make the blog successful.
Once content is present on the blog, it's time to share! This can be done via the company's Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ page. Also some businesses that will rely heavily on blogging (Photographers are an example) can set-up their website address to redirect to their blog. This makes it very easy for customers to access their photos (or jewelry, or anything else creative) without having to jump through multiple sites.
Having a robust following to your blog is great but not essential. A business consultant specializing in social media can give you a few tips on how to increase your follower ship. Just realize that building an audience takes time and patience, and there is no magic bullet for gaining 1,000 followers in a day. The fact that your blog is present and being updated regularly is the first step towards having a large audience.
T. Andrew Bledsoe holds a Bachelors of Science in Digital Media Communications and a strategic marketing MBA from King College. Andrew is a marketing strategist at Summit Marketing specializing in online marketing & social media. During his free time Andrew enjoys running, reading about marketing strategies, and designing websites. Andrew's Online Marketing Blog.
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