Blogging Benefits for Businesses
10/23/2007
by Leslie A. Rodriguez, Contributing Writer

As technology continues to transform the world at large it is important to note how it is also changing to benefit entrepreneurs and their businesses. Most recently blogging has come to the forefront of business innovation as a quick, easy and inexpensive marketing tool for business owners.

Blogs or weblogs are websites that display postings in chronological order and usually have links to comments and specific entries.  A surge in business blogging has occurred in the past few years due largely to the fact that 30 percent of the 50 million internet users are in fact blog readers.

There is no doubt that the business world has already seen the benefits of blogging. General Motors has given Vice-Chairman Bob Lutz his own FastLane Blog and Microsoft currently maintains Microsoft Community Blogs, a section of the company’s website where users can utilize the Microsoft Blogs list to find blogs about Microsoft technologies written by Microsoft employees.

More importantly each of these blogs has added a touch of personalization to the companies which they represent. Blogs provide a unique and personal way to communicate with current and prospective customers. By talking to people, in a conversational manner, a blog puts a human face on a company that is difficult to duplicate in any other way.

Undoubtedly blogs can easily benefit any size business if used correctly and updated regularly. Here are 5 ways blogging can help to benefit business owners:

1. Build Community
Blogs provide a business with a chance to share its expertise and knowledge with a larger and often times a previously unfamiliar audience.

2. Low Cost
Blogging is a low-cost alternative to having a traditional web presence like a website. For small business owners without the time to learn extensive web html or without the money to hire a designer/developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get your company's name out on the Internet.

3. Easily Accessible
Blog software is easy to use. The process consists of writing, posting, and linking to resources. Blog software companies such as Moveable Type, TypePad, Blogger.com and WordPress offer easy blogging tools to get started. Blogs are also very user friendly and offer clients the chance to have a voice within a company as well.

4. Search Engine Friendly
A blog offers a business the opportunity to promote its Web site for hundreds or even thousands of different keywords. Search engines particularly like promoting blogs because they offer a large amount of content that is updated and added to on a regular basis.

5. Reduce Calls and Emails
A blog can be used to eliminate a lot of questions that a customer may have about the business and its services. By sending readers to a blog a business can gain all of the above benefits and reduce the amount of questions that you get asked by customers. A blog also offers an easy response forum for questions that will be archived for future customers.


Sources:
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/bus_blog/

http://www.answers.com/blog&r=67

http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingideas/article80100.html

http://sbinformation.about.com/od/businessblogfaq/f/businessblogs8.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm

http://blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com/2004/10/blogs-and-public-relations.html

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