Ben Smith:Small Business Blog Interview

Ben Smith of MerchantCircle replied to our interview questions over the weekend. We featured MerchantCircle, a resource that helps small businesses advertise locally by using the internet, last Friday.

Pajama Market: How has the blog impacted your company?

Ben Smith: Blogging has really done two things for our company.  1) It opens up a non intrusive dialogue with merchants.  They give us feedback on our thinking and that moves the product along faster.  2)I hate to admit it but in small company with everything moving so fast, sometimes you don’t sit back and think and consider things.  Blogging forces you to think through things, which has a impact on clarifying strategy.

PJ: What has the response been from your customers/clients?

BS: They love it.  We admit our mistakes there, we have a bit of a sense of humor on it, and we talk to them.   Everyone wants to be communicated with.   It is also helping them understand how to use this capability in our product to communicate with their local customers in their voice. 

PJ: What types of things about your work day inspire you to write a post on your blog?

BS: An insight I have, a worry that pops up, something I learned, something that just pisses me off like a Yellow Pages company ripping off a small merchant, and oh yeah sometimes something that just made my day a bit humorous. 

PJ: What have been the biggest surprises with your blog so far?

BS: That people read it.  No seriously, that it is fun.  Now I don’t get too caught up in editing or spelling, that would make it not fun.  It is fun and in fact what most of our customers already do.  They spend a lot of their day communicating.  Most local businesses are really extension of the owners personality, an extension of their personal life.  Blogging is just a quick way of communicating to their local customers and has been surprisingly natural for them.

PJ: What blogging program do you use for the blog? Did you create this blog yourself? How do you like the program?

BS: We use a combination of Blogger and our own platform.   I use bloglines to read blogs.

PJ: Is there anything else you would like to share about your blogging experience?

BS: Just like in “real life” take the high road when someone attacks you.  Even if you have figured out that it is someone anonymously attacking you who is actually your competitor, take the high road.

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