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3 Big Reasons and No More

Connecting, engaging, listening.

I think these are my three big reasons to blog. I’m not sure they’re everyone’s, but they seem to resonate with me. Here’s how:

  • Connecting with the community makes it easy for clients to find me, makes it easy for me, too, to find others in fields related to mine, to share knowledge and experiences. And by golly, I learn alot from these great blog colleagues!

  • Engaging with the community — blogosphere as well as local business clients — pushes me to think further, past the generic to what works for each individual, to see that what’s working for me is not what might work for you, to combine and create. (That’s the sort of thing that keeps a writer’s brain engaged, too! And that’s always a good thing.)

  • Listening helps me shape my business to meet your needs. That close listening led me to create a NON-blogging site for my client this month. Life lesson: Blogging’s not for everyone. Business lesson: Build for the client, not for yourself. And above all, listen. But back to blogging and listening: great place to tune in to you who email me and post here, as well as to lots of others blogging in the Web world. And who said, “listen and learn”? Probably mom, a wise wise woman.

Tags: Blogging, Small Business, Small business blogging by Judith
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Why Blog? Reason 3: NOT to talk

Don’t talk.

Bloggers are infamous for chattering too much and listening too little.

Use your blog to reverse the information flow: Give customers a place to tell you what they think instead of you telling the customer what you’re selling.

That’s my reason number 3 to have a blog. It can be a place to Listen.

Sound upside down? It is, but that’s the ultimate in a business blog, one that’s so successful that your customer is posting more on it than you are. And when you’ve engaged your customers to that extent, then they have a vested interest in keeping you in business. Can there be anything better than that?

Tags: Business blogs, Free Advice, How to blog, Small business blogging by Judith
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Why, Why, Why Blog? Reason 2

Blogs are great tools to engage your customer. And an engaged customer builds a vested interest in your product.

A bookstore, for example, is an excellent candidate for a blog. Bookstores sell to customers’ passions — passions for literature, learning, politics. And we all love connecting over our passions. Give us a blog that tells us about the next book-signing, has a bit about the author, has a blog posting BY the author. Add in an RSS feed so we’re alerted to new events at the store. Have a section where we can comment on bestsellers. Have a section for the book club that meets there once a month.

Do all that, and you’re steps closer to engaging your customers, to creating that old-time feeling of the general store as a gathering place and of the storekeeper as a friend and confidante. And that goes for whether you are selling a product or a service.

Blogs can create that cozy, general store feeling. As we get to know you, the owner, manager, blogger, we become invested, engaged. We care.

Tags: Blogging, Business blogs, Online Content, Small business blogging by Judith
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Why, Why, Why Blog?

We’re circling  back to that one essential question for small businesses: Why bother to Blog?

Here’s the short answer: marketing.

And that’s what I mean when I say we’re circling back to the essential question for small business blogging. Blogging is marketing. That’s what intrigued me from the beginning and what lured me into the blogosphere. In my travels around town I’m still getting that same question from business consultants, entrepreneurs, and recently a bookstore owner. Why, why, why blog? So, I’m circling back to dig deeper. Beyond marketing.

I promised I’d be experimenting with blogging, seeing how it went for me and my Web content and editorial business and sharing business possibilities with you.

Well, here’s how it’s going: It’s changed my way of thinking; it’s put me in touch with great marketing minds (see “Blogs on Marketing” on my blogroll); it’s expanded my thinking about PR, social media, and the impact of sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. It’s connected me into Web 2.0, niche marketing on the Web, the importance of content, thought leadership, transparency and open communication.

And I’m lovin’ it.

I love the relationship aspect; I love all the good stuff, the connections and sharing. And, ok. I am still entirely UNinterested in the rants, the diaries and celebrity chat. But I can live with all that, just as I live with the noisy neighbors who hang out by their cars and smoke — because I spend time instead with my fascinating Zen neighbor who grows the most beautiful garden in town.

I spend my time on the blogs that feed me, intrigue me and add to my life.

We live in a world of chaotic proportions. That’s reflected on the Web. It’s anarchic, enormous, and growing exponentially. Blogs help people find us and us find people.

Blogs help customers find us, connect with us, get to know us — and that relationship is essential to marketing in today’s world.

There’s more to the long answer to why blog? And why use it to market? But blogs are supposed to be short, so I’ll be back in a couple of days with a second great reason for small business blogging. And a third. And a fourth.

Yours, Judith

Tags: Blogging, Business blogs, Marketing Blogs, Small Business, Small business blogging by Judith
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Blog a Lot?

Here’s a topic that does not go away. How much should I —  must I –  blog? Last month, in response to a blog by Debbie Weil, corporate blogger, I said, maybe not so much.

Maybe that’s not the full answer, though. Nick Stamoulis, blogger, author, at Brick Marketing, weighs in this week with his thoughts. A must-read! So, surf over there and check it out. My blog  on the topic is still live, and you’ll want to see the comments there, too. Chris McElroy picked up on the resurfacing of the conversation and his 2 cents is for more, not less, blogging, as he says in the comments to my blog.

So, do I have the definitive answer for you on how often to do your small business blogging? We need to keep exploring the topic. And maybe, just maybe, the answer is individual as well as SEO-related: as in, what’s YOUR goal for your blog?

Tags: Blogging, Business blogs, Marketing Blogs, SEO, Small business blogging by Judith
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Building a blog not to blog

Can you use a blog site without ever blogging? Using it as a Website instead? I’ve been asked this question by potential clients who do not want to blog but want to be able to make their own changes to their small business brochure sites. The answer is yes. Absolutely. You can use the software and it is mighty easy to use. That’s one of its greatest assets and what’s made it so ubiquitous in so many professions and fields of business.

Blog software, though, is not the only answer for small businesses. Other content management software might better serve a small business site. And some of it is free, too, just as the popular blog software is. So, if you’re thinking about building a quick blog to replace a static site, we may have a better answer for you. 

Tags: Blogging, Business blogs, Functionality, Small Business by Judith
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