Many of you may have heard about blogs. Short for Web Log, a blog is an online diary that captures important opinions, valuable articles or very bizarre ruminations. Blogs can be kept by anyone, from CEO’s, MP’s, School Principals or just people with interesting lives - if someone might read it, there’s a person’s blog to cater for it. The beauty of blogs is that they provide very specific information, be it subjective, on millions of different topics.

And what topic could be more important than your business. Let’s look at a few examples of how blogs could be used to great effect in your business:

Example 1, for medium to large businesses: The blog has become a valuable tool for CEO’s to keep an open line to their entire organisation. Previously, many employees may have complained about not knowing what the future direction was of the company they worked for; that an annual address at the AGM or Christmas Party just didn’t cut it. Now a weekly entry by the CEO to his or her blog that has its link to sent to staff keeps those employees feeling that the old "silo" effect is a thing of the past. Government departments, medical institutions and the education sector are particularly good examples of this.

Example 2, for small businesses: One of the hardest aspects of developing a small business is building credibility. Granted, you can spend 5 years developing a client  list that helps spread the word about your products and services. Or you can position yourself as an expert  in your field NOW by writing regular articles about your area of expertise in your blog. Are there competitors who know more about your industry? Maybe. But how many of them promote that expertise beyond their annual catalogue or a 3 inch ad in the local paper? Not many.

And who will subscribe to this blog, you ask? The same customers who provide their email addresses to you via your contact us page on your website, that goldmine of leads that may not buy from you this month, or next month, but maybe the month after that, or at the very least, tell their friends about you.