Blogs (short for weblogs) are frequently updated link-heavy online journals. Bloggers post links to other blogs and websites that they’ve found interesting, adding personal thoughts, commentaries and information. A blog is like an always-on e-newsletter – offering real time information and giving readers the opportunity to add comments for all to see. With hundreds of thousands of blogs available on the internet, businesses have increasingly become aware of the marketing and customer relationship benefits of weblogs, and have introduced ‘blog strategies’.

How can a blog benefit my business?
There are a number of areas across your business where a blog can be useful:

Relationship building – blogs can be used as a communication tool between you and your customers. This enables you to interact directly with customers, in a more personal and approachable way.

Viral marketing – blogs are a perfect tool for word-of-mouth marketing. The links create a dynamic environment in which one posting can generate a number of responses from other bloggers. Blogs are also easily tracked (or spidered) by search engines such as Google.

Product development – by creating a dialogue with your end-users, you are getting the best customer research money can buy, without paying a penny! Use the comments and suggestions to inform your product and service developments.

Improve operations – a blog can be set up to provide technical support for customers, or as a hub for sharing knowledge, all fully searchable. They can also be used for managing projects.

Brand building – a blog can set you apart from your competitors, be the ideal forum for demonstrating your expertise, as well as giving your business transparency. They present a more authentic voice for your business, not just "marketing speak".

Internal communications
Not all business blogs have to be outward-facing. Some companies, especially firms with regional offices or staff working from different locations, provide internal blogs enabling employees to foster communications and share information. With so much information currently flowing through email systems, an internal blog can also serve as a company notice board, including sales information, meeting updates and social activities. Keeping company information within email traffic can lead to occupational spam, where some staff are included on emails they don’t need to read, while others who do are left off the list. An internal blog can solve many of these problems.

Creating your blog
Key to the success of your business blog is creating one worth reading! Here are some pointers to bear in mind:

·Choose a topic that you are passionate about

·Create an authentic voice by injecting your opinions, viewpoint and personality into the blog

·Avoid marketing speak of the kind you’d find in a press release as few people want to interact with a press release

·Write shorter, more frequent blog entries. Post at least once a week, if not more

·Provide information that is unavailable elsewhere

·Ensure the information on your blog is relevant and up-to-date, and that any sites you link to are also current

·Use correct spelling and grammar. Write informally not sloppily

·Check that each blog entry – while remaining "unedited" – doesn’t reveal any trade secrets or put across the "wrong message"

·Be honest, but don’t be critical or inappropriate about your competitors

·Write for the web. Use clear titles and choose categories and keywords that your customers may search on. Also make use of subheadings, bullet points, short paragraphs and images

In a recent WordBiz survey, 71% of marketers said time was the main concern in managing a business blog, and 45% didn’t know what to write about. However, you don’t have to let either of these become issues as you can always link to industry articles or other blog posts and just write a couple of sentences why you think it’s interesting. It’s important to make a blogging schedule and stick to it.

(This article was culled from http://www.businesslink.gov.uk )