Bob Palmer on why your business should have a blog

Bob Palmer at the Thinking Tech blog wrote a post today called "Should your business have a blog?" In the article, Bob says, "I've been blogging for a while but never really recommended the practice to many clients." I might ask why not? Interestingly, Bob then goes on to give some reasons why a business might blog (my comments in brackets):

Easy way to update your web page. [Yep. I always compare writing a post to sending email. It's about the same process. The only thing that can get tricky with blogs is when you add photos. If you aren't careful, you can have a tiny 200 pixel-wide photo that uses 700kb of space. This means the blog takes forever to appear on the screen. I love photos on blogs, but they have to be done right.]

Boost search engine ranking. [Although Bob is right about blogs scoring high on search engine results, he's wrong on the reasoning. In his post he says Google and Yahoo! are given better standing when they are frequently updated. This used to be an SEO axiom, but doesn't hold water any longer. For example, I have a website that hasn't been updated in two years that still ranks #1 for my optimum keyword search 'Americas Army Strategy' (I created the StrAAtegy newsletter). What really drives the search engine rankings is the number of relevant websites that link to your site. The more posts you write, the more likely someone will link to a post, and the more links you get, the better your search engine results.]

Talk to customers/clients in a "real voice." [Bob is differentiating between a real voice and the voice of a corporation which is often trying to cover their ass. This is a great part of a blog, giving the company a human face.]

Communicate news. [This should have been #1. Use the blog to educate your customers. This means announce your products and your promotions, teach them how to use your products, and print their letters of praise (and disgust...with a follow up apology or explanation).]

Receive feedback from customers/clients. [You won't get much feedback at first. I was thrilled when someone left a comment on PJ when I first started writing this blog. In fact, I'm still thrilled. Now I'm getting a few comments a day and getting a much better sense of what readers enjoy and want more of. Adding a reader poll has given me a direction to research and write about for next week.]

For more reasons, read my post called 101 Reasons for your small business to have a blog.

Technorati : reasons to blog