Timeout - consider starting a blog today!

Use of the Internet gives an armoury of weapons for guerrilla marketing tactics for the small to medium business.  It is the key factor in the rise of the number of small businesses being created, but more importantly succeeding.  These days, you wouldn't think of starting a business without a phone, a fax and a website.  But what about the rise of the blog?  I think if you move the clock forward a few years, a company blog, or one written by the business owner/leader will be a normal, essential part of the marketing mix that will be in the plan without thinking about it.  I would suggest that you take time out of your busy schedule today and take some steps to starting one, so your organisation can be ahead of the curve.  If you've already started one, take some time to see how you could improve it.

The key thing about the concept is that it is a dynamic conversation with your target audience.  You get your message and ideas across in a way that the more static pages of your website don't do, and it invites feedback from your audience.  It doesn't have to cost very much, and you could even get started by using free tools like Blogger.  It will only cost you the time and effort to come up with the ideas, do the writing, and be disciplined enough to keep the content flowing.  However, if your passionate about your business, I'd be very surprised if you don't have enough material coming at you day to day that you'd like to comment on or use to emphasise your message.  You could even hire a specialist copywriter - contact me for some suggestions.

Obviously there are key things to get right, and mistakes you can make, and I'll be putting together some dos and don'ts, and pointers to resources to help over the next few days.  By coincidence Dennis Howlett, who inspired me on this topic in the first place, put a related piece on his blog last night.  This is part of the beauty of this media, because there will always be useful materials you can cross reference to reinforce your message.  His item confirms that his AccMan Pro blog is working, generating business for him. 

Note: I thought the cartoon was appropriate on the rise of the blog.  I don't know the author, but I found it here on PrawfsBlawg.
Technorati Tags : Marketing, blogging, Internet, business, Web2.0

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