As blogs have evolved beyond a form of vanity publishing to become established vehicles for business communication, clients and colleagues have asked us to tell them why they should develop a blog. The benefits of blogging vary by industry and size of business. Here are just some examples:

Experts and Speakers – Blogs are places where media find guests and interview subjects on unique topics. Elisabeth Squires, known for her expertise on women’ breasts, says that she was booked on Good Morning America and the Tyra Banks show after producers found her blog.  The media coverage in turn results in speaking engagements: “Most of my speaking engagements have been referrals and through media coverage,” she says.  Speakers or experts who are interested in writing a book, may develop their material on their blog, shaping the content as they get feedback from their audience.

Consultants and Members of the “Creative Class” — For those that make their living through ideas, creativity and innovation, blogs are places to demonstrate your credibility and brilliance. Blogs are places to share knowledge and your most recent work. Kim Screen, founder of Good Stock, a press and bindery firm that makes custom books, uses her blog to share recent projects and to connect with customers.  “Blogging (both writing my own and reading other blogs) is like my office water cooler – the way I connect with people,” she says.

Manufacturers – Blogs are the lifeblood of the high tech industry, whether you are a software or hard ware manufacturer. Corporate and developer blogs are where reputations for quality rise and fall, and where providing fast-response technical advisories can be a matter of survival.

Professionals and Advisors – Attorneys, financial advisors, accountants and other professionals who deal in environments where laws, standards and rules are frequently changed or re-interpreted  can use blogs to keep readers apprised of changes. Making this expertise available helps position the professionals as experts, which may bring in more clients.

For many of these types of businesses and more, the well-designed blog becomes a search engine magnet that can be used to point organic (unpaid) traffic to the company’s main web. The ultimate success of a blog is to provide content so valuable that other bloggers link to you.  With the effective use of keywords, proper submission of the blog to directories, and effective linking strategies, blogs can make a valuable contribution to the overall visibility of the web site, and, as a result, your company.

If you’d like additional information about how to use blogs to achieve your business objectives, please contact us.

Tags: green business, Green Marketing, search engine optimization

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Green Marketing, green business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.