Friday, February 05, 2010

How to profit from your business blog

Blogging evangelist Grant Griffiths, founder of BlogforProfit.com, posted a recent article on “44 Ways To Use a Blog as a Small Business Owner.”

He believes so firmly in the power of blogging for business that he now runs a business helping companies maximize their R.O.B. (Return on Blogging).

How can your business benefit from blogging? In his article Griffiths breaks the benefits of blogging down into four categories:

1. Build Trust, Authority and Credibility: This includes discussing issues in your marketplace, answering common questions about your business or product, celebrating your accomplishments and noting upcoming events (e.g. awards you've won, speaking engagements). I also like another tactic Griffiths suggests: Promote your competitors when they have earned it and deserve it. A great way to show off your confidence and professionalism!

2. Market Your Business or Firm: This includes explaining what your company does and how it does it, profiling deserving team members, talking about new initiatives, offering discounts, soliciting referrals, etc. Griffiths also suggests publishing testimonials on your blog. (All I ask is that you keep the hard sell to a minimum.)

3. Listen to and Engage With Your Customers and Readers: Encourage reader comments, write about what is working and not working for you and your products, ask readers for their opinions, and invite readers and customers to write “guest posts.”

4. Grow Your Online Presence and Network: Link your blog to your other online presences, such as your Twitter stream, your Linkedn profile or your Facebook Fan Page. Ask readers to follow you on Twitter – that way you don't have to wait for them to visit your site before you talk to them again.

It’s a great article that will get you thinking. Read the full story here.

3 comments:

Several tips said...

Good post.

LynnetteR said...

Thanks for the post. There are a few points that I need to follow up on.

Grant Griffiths said...

Thanks so much for linking out to my post on using a blog in a business.