1. I don't have time to read them. Yes you do. With the right tools, you can read blogs amazingly quickly. Thanks to feeds and a good feedreader, you can easily read dozens of articles from a variety of blogs in just a few minutes.
You know how the same comic strip can appear in many different newspapers? That comic strip is automatically fed to each paper every day. It's a feed. A feedreader is like your personal digital newspaper, where you can pull feeds to you of anything you want. And since you choose what blog feeds appear in your reader, you won't have to waste any time sorting through topics that are unrelated to your business.
2. I don't have time to write one. Yes you do. How long does it take to send an email? Publishing a blog entry is as easy as sending an email.
3. I don't like the idea of a personal journal at work. But would your clientele, actual and potential, like it? Perhaps so. Maybe they'd like that even more than the idea of not knowing what you are up to at work. Now of course you don't need to be cheesy or give away company secrets. But you can easily use a blog to make you more personal, more approachable, and more appealing to your present and future customers.
And who ever said a blog had to sound like a journal? You don't have to write "Boss's Log, Stardate Whatever" at the top of each entry. You can say whatever you want. Just think - what would people like to know about your business? What would help people find and use your business?
4. It will just give people the opportunity to flame me/my company. With the negative comes the positive. A business blog simply moves the discussion to a public forum. People will say bad things about your business no matter what. They'll also say good tyhings no matter what. The point of having a blog isn't just to put a forced positive spin on your company - at least, if you try to do that you're likely to have a hard time of it. A blog is extremely conducive to reader input. So you can more easily talk with those who have opinions of any kind about your products or services. You can preach your own gospel to the naysayers and make new preachers out of your biggest fans. And the gospel shall roll forth from your own business blog more quickly and cheaply than you can probably imagine.
I'm sure that you can think of more fears business people have about blogging. Please let Diane or me know how you would counter those fears - we've got a lot of businesses to convert!
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Wonderful post on business blogging. I think that it's a tool that many small businesses should use to get their name, product and service out to the world.
Posted by: Burton Kelso | April 11, 2006 12:42 PM | Permalink to Comment