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As you might have experienced, surfing the web was a fairly passive activity in the past. Like reading or watching TV or a bit of a combination of the two. The website as such, was all designed to be a rather one-way informative medium. Then came the advent of the ‘blog…

So what on earth, er, the World Wide Web, is blogging? Abbreviated from “web log” a blog is simply a stream-of-consciousness kind of writing. Whether you are a major celebrity or a high school kid, you can blog. It requires no technical skill at all and costs almost nothing. They have become amazingly popular and are continually in the news. Recently, some people have been fired by major corporations for blogging about the goings-on at work! So you know there are plenty of readers out there.

What’s the buzz and what’s in a blog anyway?

What can be included in a Blog?

What could you include in a blog? Practically anything that comes to your mind.

In many instances, the discussion depends upon the theme of the website or a web page itself that is associated with a blog. Blogs are an excellent way of expressing personal opinion. These range from discussions about news, current events, sports, hobbies, careers, and various other topics. If you can think it, and you can type, you can blog it, more or less.

Blogs are being used effectively now by businesses as well. As stated earlier, Blogs are fast gaining popularity as an efficient marketing & advertising tool that helps businesses promote their products and services. Much more on this in a moment…

Why Blog?

As described earlier, blogging does not need any sophisticated programming skills, and even does away with complex coding. With almost no barrier to entry, it is estimated that there are more than 10 million blogs on the Internet today and growing.

Since bloggers enjoy the freedom and power of posting their thoughts and views instantly, blogging empowers visitors with a sense of instant gratification.

We all might want to blog – just ramble on and often complain! – for personal reasons or for fun. We perhaps want to stay connected to the big wide world out there, get something off our chests, or try to entertain far-away friends.

Blogging, much like a website, gives you a worldwide reach. Besides creating and maintaining a blog is far easier, quicker and cheaper compared to managing a website.

Are you starting to see the business potential here?

When the world of blogging got buzzing with activity, the interest it generated did not go unnoticed by profiteers.

Business Blogging, sometimes called B-Blogging, is a recent development, but it’s growing fast and you’ll see why.

Today blogging emphasizes being informational rather than promotional. Unlike mass marketing, blogging gives the organization a human face. In other words, marketing your business with blogs is as close as it gets to face-to-face marketing. And this is something that is seen as the biggest advantage of blogging…it’s a personal thing. Not some scary company talking, but a real guy or gal.

Hence, blogging for business is a strategic activity designed to promote the organization’s vision, provide an online brand, secure untouched markets, and establish the company as the leading voice in the industry…all by making the company seem more human, low-key, and accessible.

Small Businesses and B-Blogging

Small businesses have the opposite problem – they often want to seem bigger and less personal.

You will find that a large number of small business owners are partnering with business bloggers and search optimization firms, because of the potential rewards it holds for them.

It’s increasingly obvious that large numbers of eyeballs don’t matter to most online businesses – it’s the right eyeballs. The key is to get visitors who are actually interested in your products and services. Blogs do just this.

According to recent studies, around 10 % of small businesses have already incorporated blogging as part of their marketing approach. Further, another 16% plan to include blogging in their plans in the next two years! These are big numbers, and growing.

What’s the appeal?

You will find many instances where blogging can be useful for the small business community. A few segments, where blogging can be especially useful, are as follows:

1. Business Consultants: As a business consultant, you almost certainly need to maintain closely-knit contacts with the business and industry. You also need to nurture these links with a lot of hard work and skill over long periods of time. Blogging can help business consultants keep in touch with wide spectrum of the business community, nurture further contacts and keep networked with other business consultants.

2. ‘Bread and Breakfast’ Businesses. Bread and Breakfast business depend to a great extent on seasonal traffic; hence keeping in touch with old clients is important to get repeat business from them. You can use blogging to stay in touch with these individuals through the year.

3. Specialist Retail Agencies: As a specialist retailer, you may have an edge over other retailers if into selling specialist products, say, mountaineering equipment or exclusive skiing equipment. Blogging can help you to interact with a niche clientele, by including news and posts about such specialist equipment and exclusive product updates.

4. Non Commercial and Not for Profit Agencies: If you are a non commercial agency spread over a large geographical area, you can include blogs to keep members informed about meetings, activities, and further developments.

5. Crisis situations: Blogs maintained in crisis situations help people keep in touch with the latest developments, rescue operations and can even provide information about missing or injured loved ones.

You will also find that encouraging customers to provide feedback is an excellent way of utilizing blogs. They help generating new ideas as well, as they are an excellent way of getting a customer’s message across to the company.

a. B-blogs should be updated on a timely and routine basis. Never should stale information be left lingering on a b-blog.

b. As a blog is informative, its content should be crisp and natural, and not ordered or planned like that in a newspaper. Also, it should be easy to access old blogs in an archive.

c. Develop a theme, and form an original writing style. This will make you a unique blogger, and give you a strong and loyal audience.

d. Clarity and simplicity in a blog is of utmost importance!

e. Use keywords extensively to entice search engine robots. This includes visibility in search engine listings. Use key words in titles as well, though titles should not be more than 10 or 12 words long

f. Frequently published blogs will mean search engines will come back later to index the site.

g. Use your spelling and grammar checkers!

h. Syndicate your blog with RSS service (discussed later) to boost readership.