Using blogs for business

Business blogs are increasingly becoming a common trend now to stay competitive on the Internet. Blogs now have become such a big part of the Internet world that staying on the Internet means you have to have a regularly updated your website blog with fresh articles.

For those of you who are not very sure what blogs really are, it’s a term describing a set of short posts, journal style, displayed usually chronologically. Among the more popular blogging tools are Wordpress, Buddypress, Blogger and LiveJournal.

Blogs were first created in 1997 and started gaining popularity in 1999. There are over 100 million blog sites on the Internet today. Mostly they are personal blog sites, but the number of business and corporate blogs are growing.

Blogs are becoming a powerful marketing and promotional tools. Since blog posts are usually short and concise, it is easy to get your message across. This is especially so for small business. You can reach a larger audience using blogs, sharing your expertise and knowledge.

Apart from the obvious benefit of marketing, blogs are also an interaction tool. Readers of your posts can leave their comments and messages about your postings. This community interaction can help create increased traffic to your site and awareness of your products or services.

So what are some of the ways businesses can use blogs for interaction?

Promotions
Use blogs to advertise specials and promotions in your business.

Contests
Post contests and games on your site. This will help bring readers back to the site frequently.

What’s New
Let your readers know what new products or services your business has to offer.

Coming Soon
Create interest for products and services you are about to launch.

Frequently Asked Questions
Post common questions from your customers. The comments and messages will allow further interaction to ensure all answers are clear and helpful to other customers too.

What are the benefits of using blog for your business?

Search engine marketing
Update regularly and structure your content towards keywords to strengthen your SEO marketing initiatives.

Develop a reputation as a leader
Write about matters that are important in your industry and show your skill and understanding of knowledge in those issues.

Competitive edge
Show how your business is unique and has advantage over other businesses by outlining the benefits of your service over the competition.

Brand awareness
Create an online identity of your brand by clearly communicating your ideas and market position

Examples of blog implementation for businesses

You can add a blog to an existing website and customise it to suit the styling and layout of your current website. It’s easy to post articles and news by non technical person. Blogs are an excellent method to share a company's expertise, build additional web traffic and connect with potential customers.