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Small Business Saturday: The Blog is Your Friend!

One of the nicest things about operating a small or home-based business is the personalized customer service you can offer.  Your clients or customers will frequently come to know you, up close and in person, instead of some faceless voice on the other end of the phone.  The personal touch makes a WORLD of difference when it comes to the growth of your business.

 

What do you do, however, if you own a website and are gaining most of your business from it?  You still want your visitors to feel like they "know" you, but it's hard to reach across the desk and fill up their coffee when you're, well, offering them a cyber-cup!

 

Enter the weblog, or "blog".  As you can see, PRMama happens to believe in the power of the blog.  (You're getting to know me, right?)  As blogging becomes more prevalent in today's techy society, more and more business entities (from freelancers to sole proprietors to multi-billion dollar corporations) are beginning to see the many uses of the blog.  Some businesses are creating blogs on their main sites, others are just dipping their toes in by only using a blog...and still others are linking offsite from their regular domain to their blog.

 

When it comes to PR and marketing, the blog can be a killer or it can be a lifesaver.  As I'm sure you can imagine, there can be serious ramifications if a well-known blogger posts about the lousy product he got from XYZ Company, or the horrible customer service she experienced at the ABC Bank in Town.  (All the more reason, folks, to make sure your customer service skills are up to par.  You don't want that nasty conversation you just had with Joe Client ending up all over the blogosphere.)

 

I was honored to have an incredible conversation with La Shawn Barber, one of those aforementioned well-known bloggers, at the GodBlogCon earlier this year.  You can see what La Shawn had to say in the Winter 2006 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  (Frankly, I think you should subscribe, too, if you plan on marketing to homeschoolers!)

 

One of the things that I know only too well is that you, the home-based or small business operator, may be on a budget.  That's one more place the blog comes in.  Through free blog hosting services (like this one, HomeschoolBlogger.com!), you can set up a free weblog.  Use a template provided by the host or, if you're tech-savvy, tweak the offerings and design your own business blog.

 

Don't just listen to me, though...take a look at the kind of exposure you can get from a blog for free.  The following visitor numbers and information are for HomeschoolBlogger.com, JUST for the month of November. 

 

Almost 75 THOUSAND uniques for November!

Well over 3 MILLION page views!

Close to TWO MILLION total visits!

Main countries linking in (in this order are) US, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Japan, EU, Great Britain, New Zealand, China, Netherlands, Germany and South Africa. But that's nothing; there are 12 more countries linking in, too.

 

I suggest that you take a few minutes to create a blog, post your first entry, and start toying around with your template and the options available to you.  Sit down and plan out some interesting blog entries and make sure you blog at LEAST three times a week.  Share some newsy information about your business, some personal information, and some of the fun stuff about why your products will appeal to your market.  Don't forget the spell check...and have FUN with your blog. 

 

Just like that voice on the telephone, it's easy to tell when someone is smiling.  Even in the blogosphere...over a cyber-cup of joe.

 

 

 

(HomeschoolBlogger.com Stats courtesy Gena Suarez, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC)

 

 

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