I was chatting, a couple of days ago, over a coffee with a friend of mine who in all fairness could not be called "computer literate" he uses a computer but aside from knowing where to click and how to generate the odd email message has not felt the desire to get involved further. I was trying to explain to him the benefits of a blog, but sadly his only experience of blogs was the few he had come across while browsing on the web. These consisted of the badly spelt musings of a collection of goths and emos whose collective aim seemed to be to ensure that their readership was as depressed and angry with the world as they were.
However for those of you who have more to do during each day than to bemoan the death of Kurt Cobain or list all the things in your immediate world which "suck", a well crafted blog can be a positive boon especially to the smaller business with an eye to costs and a desire to maintain a good working relationship with their customer base and this time of credit crunch and job cuts a good customer base is a positive boon.
First find your blog; there are plenty of site that will let you host your blog for either free or a small subscription. This blog as you will probably be aware in at www.blog.co.uk but there are others, Blogger owned by Google is highly recommended, as is Wordpress. Simply choose the one you like the look of, regsiter and get started.
Nearly all blog software will let you do more than simply write. Most will have the facility to upload pictures and video and links to picture and video hosting sites like Youtube and Flickr (see below) Controls are general easy to you and the only real chore is finding something to write about. Blogs support internet and email links. This means you can use the blog to direct customers to your own website.
Blogs score over mail outs for two reasons firstly because they are much quicker and more immediate - once the blog entry is written it is out in the wild and secondly because blogs are generally opt in and customers will already be interested in anything new. Customers are likely to feel much more involved in the company if they are kept regurlary update and a blog puts a human face to the process of selling which again wlll help sales.
A final point to remember is that blog have the facility to let people comment on what you have written, in that sense they are right there in the Web 2.0/Cloud computing pheomenon. Post a blog entry on a new subject and you could have your customer feedback in minutes. Provided your respondents are offering reasoned critism and support this could be a valuable resource. Generally customers who contribute will be keen to make positive entries but even critism can be beneficial.
If you are a small business consider a blog for your company, you may find its worth the effort and a little more.
For help and advice on how to make the best of your blog contact me
