Business Blogs

Blogs are becoming more and more popular nowadays because of its ability to give any person the right to speak whats on their minds. There are two types of blogs, personal blogs and business blogs. Personal blogs are written in more of a diary entry format, discussing personal issues and opinions on different subjects. Business blogs can be used as an important corporate tool for communicating to your organizations clients or employees.

Numerous firms are now picking up the use of blogs because they are an excellent way to share the organizations information, attract new customers, and gain a competitive advantage over other companies. For a small business, blogs would be perfect because they are easy to use and inexpensive. The process is simple, just express your thoughts while linking resources and publish the blog for the world to see. There are many blogging websites that offer easy tools to create your own customized blogs such as Blogger.com, Movable Type, and Typepad.

For small business owners that are just getting started and have no money to spend on web designers or marketers, they can use low-cost blogs. It is the easiest and most inexpensive way to get your companies name out on the internet.

Not only are blogs simple to use, but they are also very fast and efficient, once you have published your blog, you may stumble on some mistakes. Its easy to edit and fix right away without having to waste your time contacting a web designer to do it for you.

The best part about starting your own blog for your business, is that you get the potential to develop stronger relationships and brand loyalty with your customers. Your customers are able to experience your organizations journey along with you. Creating your own company blog can also be a great way to get immediate feedback about what works for your organization and what does not.

Even though blogs are very easy and efficient, there are some disadvantages to creating one for your business. Many organizations cannot update their blogs very often because they don't have much to say that's interesting enough to grab audiences attention. Blogs are easy to start and create however, they are difficult to maintain. It is very time consuming for someone that has a job and works long hours to sit down and take the time to update the blog. This becomes more of a hassle on the organization than anything, because the blog never gets updated and would eventually crash bringing down the organizations reputation with it.

There are in fact some business's that have working blogs and keep them updated for their audiences. For example, Gizmodo, it is a blog about all gadgets and gizmos for those who are interested in keeping up to date with this information.

Blogs can either really help your organization or it can become a burden for the employees working on them. However it would be a good idea for any firm or business to understand how blogs work so that they can branch their company onto the internet.

Sources:

McGoverm, G. (2004, August 23). Blogs and blogging:advantages and disadvantages. Retrieved April 7, 2010, from New Thinking: http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm

Zahorsky, D. (n.d.). What a Blog Can Do For Your Small Business. Retrieved April 7, 2010, from About.com: Small Business Information: http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/ecommerce/a/bblogs.htm