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As a business owner who likes to stay up-to-date on the latest marketing methods and technology, you probably already know how blogging can help your business. There are many benefits of having a company blog, and a great many business owners have already discovered the advantages that are to be had. But if you aren’t sure how to use your blog for your business, here are some ways that your blog can be used.

Customer relations are one use for a company blog. Opening up the lines of communication with your customers is the first step to excellent customer service - and you can learn a great deal from your customers. Print the URL for your blog on receipts, business cards, and brochures to build interest. You can also use your company blog to get customer feedback about your products or services. Again, you can learn a lot from your customers, and use the feedback to improve your products or services and give customers more of what they want in the future.

Company blogs are great research and development tools. You can ask your customers questions about what they want or need. Tell them what you have in development, and what it will do, and ask them how you can make it better. You can even run contests for your customers through your blog, offering the product in development as a prize to the person who comes up with the best idea.

Once you have developed new products or services, you can use a company blog to introduce your new product lines. Keep your customers up-to-date on what is developing or changing at your company. Past customers should be your first customers for your new products and services - and this will happen if they have had a positive experience with you in the past. A blog adds to that positive experience.

You can also use your company blog to teach customers how to use products or services. You can use the blog to answer technical support issues as well. Many companies turn their blogs into a series of how-to articles that are to be used primarily by their current customers. This method has also been found to increase interest - and sales - for products as well. People always want to know how to improve something in their lives, and you should use this need to your advantage!

You can drastically improve employee relations with a company blog. Your employees have private lives, and often, they have happy news that they want to tell the world. Allow them to tell their fellow co-workers their happy news on the blog. Some companies hire a person to maintain and up-date the company blog. People within the company contact the blogger with their news, and the blogger blogs it. This is a great way to boost moral at your place of employment. You can also use the company blog to keep employees up to date on projects, new products, training sessions, or company policy.

If you will be allowing your employees to add entries to the company blog, it is a good idea to implement a blogging policy. There is a great deal of controversy today about company censorship of blogs, so even if you don’t have a company blog, you might want to implement a policy concerning any mention of your company in personal blogs as well.

Get your company blog set up and operating today.

Jason frequently gives tips like this to the subscribers to his newsletter. Visit his blog at Adventures In Internet Marketing and subscribe to his newsletter today!

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Blogging, the hottest trend in online publishing right now,
is currently spreading like wildfire across the Internet.

A cross between an online journal and a bulletin board,
everyone from rock starts, politicians, business leaders
and your average “Joe” or “Jane” can instantly become a
center of influence online using blogs.

But, as with any social interaction, certain rules apply
(my grandma calls them manners) in order to be viewed as
behaving “properly.”

One of the things that gives blogging such strong appeal as
an online publishing method revolves around “comments.”

Blogs that allow “comments” enable readers to respond and
elaborate on the information posted by the blog owner.

These comments and the free exchange of information,
opinions, links, and new ideas creates the dynamic and
growing content that makes blogging such a popular online
activity for both publishers and readers.

However, rules and unwritten customs about the proper use
of “comments” on a specific blog are also where most of the
problems and controversy will arise.

Since a successful blog eventually becomes a community of
people (albeit in cyberspace), proper social behavior is
critical to be an effective and accepted member of the
community.

Keep these basic rules in mind when approaching a new blog
that allows commenting by readers so you won’t find
yourself on the wrong end of a scolding by people who
operate with a different set of rules than you.

As with any social circle, violating the group’s rules and
customs will instantly cause a negative backlash.

** Keep It Relevant **

Stay on topic with the post you’re commenting about in a
blog.

Nothing will earn you the wrath and disdain of your
fellow posters and the blog owner faster than posting an
off-topic comment.

** Watch What Others Do **

Different blogs operate under different rules. What rates
acceptable in one blog would earn you a verbal thrashing in
another.

Before posting (especially if you have not posted to a
specific blog before), look to see the types and quality of
posts others make regularly.

Are they long or short?

Do they contain a link to the person’s website?

Is there a “signature” under their name?

** Be Polite **

It’s fine to disagree with people when making a comment,
whether it’s the blog’s author or a comment made by another
reader.

It is not, however, acceptable to launch a personal attack
on anyone or make nasty comments in someone else’s blog.

If you feel the need to do so, do it in your own blog.

It’s the same principle of you can say whatever you want in
your own house, but when you’re in someone else’s house,
you act right (and better than you do at home).

** You Can’t Respond To Everyone **

If you operate a blog and someone asks a question, try to
respond, but both sides should understand that you can’t
respond 100% of the time.

We all get busy and a blog, unless it maintains a paid
membership, is often supported as a labor of love.

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.IGottaTellYou.com/blog/

About the Author:

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to
use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Simple “Traffic Machine” brings Thousands of NEW visitors to
your website for weeks, even months… without spending a
dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

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1. It is perfect for creating a web presence for independent professionals who have something to say and who need people to get to know them and what they can do for them.

2. Having your own business blog gives you credibility and a forum where you can show your expertise.

3. Readers can comment directly onto your blog, creating interaction and interest.

4. No more waiting for your web designer to update your web site.

5. You can post to your blog yourself, about any issue, daily if you wish, and get it broadcast into the blogosphere instantly.

6. The search engines love blogs and will pick up your keywords easily, boosting your rankings, making it easier for people to find you on the web.

7. Customers are drawn to personality behind the business. Human voices convey intimacy beyond PR-babble. (To read about this topic read The Cluetrain Manifesto. The first chapter is available free online: http://cluetrain.com/apocalypso.html.)

8. You can network and build up a community of like-minded readers. You blog, people comment. Others blog, you comment. Before you know it, more people have heard of you and your business because the buzz gets passed around.

9. You can test out new ideas and get instant feedback. Get your customers and prospects in on the act now and let them help you help them - invite them to talk back! Let them see how you develop your products and services and they can show you how to best to serve them.

10. You can use your blog side-bars to promote your products, your affiliate products, run blog ads, sell books, and any other product or services you have. You don’t have to include this in the body or content of your article; therefore your posts - your writing - can remain content rich and free of promotional hype.

Finally, email marketing and electronic newsletters are struggling because of over-crowded inboxes, spam problems and filters.

- On the average, 64.7% of the business e-mail you send is not even opened, let alone read. [source: Q3 2004 Email Trend Report, DoubleClick ]

- E-mail marketers are seeing their open-rates range from only “mid-20s to just over 50 %” [source: ClickZ.com]

- That means that you are losing at least 50% of your prospective buyers or readers. How much does that amount to in losses over the course of the next few years?

- AOL receives roughly 2 billion e-mail messages a day, of which about 75 percent are blocked and another 4 to 7 percent are sent to the bulk folder. [source: ClickZ.com]

Sit up and pay attention. The time to start blogging for your business is now.

Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. You can read and subscribe to their blog at http://www.buildabetterblog.com

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