© Olexandr Moroz | Dreamstime.com

The push for companies to blog is a recent trend in business; it is a wonderful way to connect with customers. If you’re wondering how and where to start, it’s always a good idea to remember to start small until you get the hang of it (once you’ve decided blogging is for you).

Blogs can be geared to any interest imaginable. They can target specific interests and hobbies, become a voice to the customer, or be designed for the benefit of other businesses. One my favorite small business blogs is SmallBizSurvival.com, where Becky McCray doses out words of wisdom for rural small businesses. She also writes a blog for her own liquor store at allensretail.com. Her retail blog is filled with interesting facts and tips about her products.

Her advice for small business people interested in writing a blog is: “Write down every basic question a customer asks you. Start today, and do this for two weeks. If you end up with a long list of questions you can answer, then you have enough material to start a blog.” Combine those questions with information about your products, and you’ll have the beginnings of your own commercial blog.

McCray adds: “The one big secret to making [a blog] work? Focus on what customers want to know, not what you want to tell them, about your business.”

Engaging with Your Brand on Your Blog

Once you’ve established a well-run, quality website, you can use a blog to improve the site’s overall organic search rankings. It may also allow you to brand yourself as an expert in your industry. Bottom line: Have a plan and an objective to focus on before you start writing your blog topics.

The following guidelines may help you decide whether or not it’s time for you to launch a blog:

• Post regularly. Ideally, you should make an entry at least two to three times per week. Blogging, as I said, needs to be done on a regular basis.

• Provide quality content. Your blog will not draw views if it merely provides a constant stream of what you do or your company does. The goal is to engage the reader’s interest, so don’t just write about business; write about topics that you enjoy. This way, your posts will offer useful information and let readers and customers know about your passions. Target your posts to your readers as well, and write about subjects they find interesting. If you desire, hone the focus to a narrow niche of broader-interest topics. This ensures that you won’t run out of new things to say.

• Post current customer service issues. Are your shipments being delayed by a snowstorm or floods? Is there a problem with one of your products that an employee or customer discovered? Your blog is the place to let your customers know about these matters, and provide them aid in dealing with them.

• Answer comments. If your readers post comments on your blog, be sure to respond. Address everything — negative and positive. Don’t let anything remain on the blog unanswered for days.

• Be transparent. The old-school customer service tactic was to send out press releases. Today’s customers prefer to be part of the conversation. Don’t fake positive comments on the blog. As the owner of your business, you are a reflection of your company. Always speak from your own point of view. Be available, honest, and understanding.

Keep in mind that for your blog to be a valuable resource for your business, and worth your time and effort, your customers need to visit and actually read it. There are countless blogs that receive just a few hits a day; if your customers are busy, a marketing-oriented blog may be the last place they want to visit. If, on the other hand, your content has the slightest relevance to them, the more Web-savvy visitors may subscribe to the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) stream and read it when new items are posted.

I keep my blog updated randomly, mainly because I’m active on various other sites across the Web. When I do update, I do so only with content that I feel will be of interest to my readers. I’ve found that this approach works for me as a brand. Aside from business ideas, I often post from a personal point of view. People seem to like it; they subscribe and comment often. Find the approach that works best for you by monitoring visitors using a service like Feedburner.com. In this way, you’ll be able to see which posts on your blog get the most views, thereby enabling you to tailor future posts to that particular area of interest.

As a business person, you may find that you have no time to spare for keeping a blog up to date. In short: If you don’t think you have the time to dedicate to a blog now, remember that you can do so later.

Reposting the Good Stuff on Posterous

As Web development moves faster, things are getting simpler. One site, www.posterous.com, makes it simple to blog your own ideas, plus share content from other sites on your own personal page. What could be easier? When you find information that’s interesting and related to your business, you can place it on your Posterous page. It’s blogging for nonbloggers. You can either post from the Web, or simply e-mail your content and photos. It’s just that easy.

Excerpted with permission of the publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. from The Ultimate Online Customer Service Guide: How to Connect with Your Customers to Sell More! by Marsha Collier. Copyright © 2011 by Collier Advertising and Promotion, Inc., and Marsha Collier. This book is available at all bookstores and online booksellers.