I use a couple of different Email Broadcast Services to send out ezines and other email communications on behalf of my clients. One of these is Vertical Response out of San Francisco. They have a nice tool. Fairly easy to use although don’t get me started on their 30kb message limit … uh, I digress…
Anyway, I get their ezine which, this past issue, spoke of several good reasons that business should blog. According to Janine Popick, CEO/Founder, these include (with my comments added in []):
1. The Voice of the Business [A blog, particularly an executive's blog, can provide a human face to what may seem a cold conglomeration.]
2. Comment Consolidation – What a time-saver. If one of your readers has a question, chances are others have it too. What better way to answer it than in one place where everyone can see and hopefully benefit. [A great way to check the pulse of your blog as well - are you connecting to your audience? do you HAVE an audience?]
3. Customer Interaction – Not only do I love to interact with our own users but when they comment and others start to comment on the comment, it’s the best thing for everyone. This is exactly what any blogger would want. I don’t have all the answers, so I try to encourage customer experts to comment and pitch in on ideas. What might work great in one industry, might actually do well in others. [Most blogs give their authors an opportunity to moderate a reader's comments and remove or block those you they want posted. Be careful with this power. Unless a comment is down right mean-spirited, nasty or profane then let 'em rip you. You'll quickly find out - from other reader's comments - whether they're just spitting out sour grapes or there's a real issue you need to address.]
4. Traffic Driver – We get about 160+ visitors to the blog a day. When when we combine it with our newsletter email, we get thousands. It also drives traffic from the search engines as another source, and gets picked up by other blogs that find the posts interesting. [Just architected a revamped site for a long time client and, although, he's only got a few posts going, his blog is pulling the 2nd highest number of views aside from the home page. More than generating traffic, a timely, informative blog will generate interest]
5. RSS Feeds – Some people like to get their information with RSS feeds. It’s easy with a blog, they’ll sign up for your feed and get it realtime right in their reader. [And for those who still like their online communications the old fashioned way, there are services like Feedblitz that allow you to subscribe to blogs via email.]
You can read Janine’s entire post here…
If you have a business and a web presence and you aren’t blogging … it’s time to seriously consider it. The cost of entry is incredibly low with hosted services from Blogger, WordPress and Movable Type running from $0 to a few dollars a month or software you host yourself costing nothing or very little. One caveat, don’t blog unless you’re committed. Full time bloggers may post dozens of times a day. Do you need to go to those extremes, no, but you do need to make a committment to post a few times a week.
