Getting Your Business Blog Started

Businesses have been using the Internet to communicate for about fifteen years, but now we've entered a new, more dynamic phase. The best and brightest people at more and more small businesses will be blogging within the next few years.

Robert Scoble — who was Microsoft’s most famous blogger — said this as he left the company in June 2006: “Blogging? Bill Gates hadn't heard the word five years ago. Today he owns one of the most popular blog services and has 3,000 of the most-respected corporate bloggers.”

Don't be embarrassed if you're a few years behind Bill Gates on this, but the clock is ticking. The early adopters are already doing it, and small businesses that aren’t at least preparing to blog may be letting their competitors gain the advantage of being first-in-the-niche to go for it.

Some companies think about starting a blog, then put the idea on the back burner after considering how time-consuming it could be.

Allied Internet can help your company’s bloggers; we specialize in helping small businesses during the first six months, which are critical.

What the Blog Can Do

Your business blog will give readers an opportunity:

• to become interested in what you and your company are doing; when appropriate, they will be able to follow the progress of new products and services. Blogging is much better than email campaigns, which have been seriously compromised by the spam tsunami.
• to know that people at your company are approachable.
• to get to know you well enough that they will eventually want to do business with you.
• to help you improve your products and services.
• to hear from you quickly during times of crisis or when there's a problem with a product — and if you’re willing to be open about problems, your blog can be your most effective way of dealing with any issues which may arise.

Get Familiar with the Business Blogosphere

The term "blogosphere" is at least a little bit awkward, but it's a standard way of referring to that part of the Internet. If you're going to blog for your company and haven't been hanging out in the blogosphere, that's where to start. There may not be much — or anything — in your particular niche, but that doesn't make any difference. At first you're just getting up to speed with the culture and the process.

Read a few business blogs every day, and after you get a feel for how it's done, add comments when you feel that you're ready. If you like, Allied Internet will be happy to suggest some business blogs for you to read.

Online News Sources

Make your own personal set of links to the best online news sources in your field, whether it's financial services, sports, mining, arts and crafts, or whatever. Then read those news sources every day, always thinking about possible topics for your own blog.