The Why of Blogging for Business

What is a Blog? When a business owner recently posed that question to one of my Say It For You blog content writers, I realized that sometimes we get so used to doing something, we forget why we’re doing it.

“A blog is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically – like a what's new page or a journal," Darrell Zahorsky explains in About.com Small Business Information. “The term is actually weblogs coined by Jorn Barger in 1997,” he adds.
 

What does blogging provide to a small business?  Zahorsky lists three advantages:

• Low-cost alternative to having a web presence.
• Easy and quicker to update.
• A chance to share your expertise with a larger audience.

For those who haven’t made the jump or are having trouble getting started, fellow blogging trainer Jordan White compiled a list of his best blogging tools to help “kick your inner muse into gear”.

Save ideas on the go. The idea, White says, is to capture creativity in moments when it naturally occurs.  I agree. Many of us who provide business blogging assistance keep “idea folders”. Those folders could be actual paper folders in which newspaper and magazine clippings are collected, or they could take the form of little notebooks to carry around, or even digital files on phones or tablets.

Pick topics.  “Broad topics lead to confusing posts; specific topics are actually far easier to write,” White cautions. Couldn’t agree more, which is precisely why I teach content writers to focus on the Power of One when it comes to their message.  Each business blog post should impart one new idea or call for a single action..

Silence the inner critic and just write. “The key to blogging success is to do it often,” White reminds bloggers. “Waiting on brilliance gets you nowhere – the Muse honors the working stiff” (Stephen Pressfield). For professional practitioners or business owners, allowing the blog to become “inactive”, with weeks and even months elapsing without posting fresh content is ultimate death blog.. It's crucial to maintain frequency and consistency in posting content on the Web.