How to create a better office environment with furniture, supplies, and products

In light of Business Week's brand new (and cool) article; Social Media Will Change Your Business - I thought I'd offer a couple of posts this week on business blogging.

The Business Week article relates that you should catch up and get a business blog together or you may lose big time,  If your office or business (big or small) does not offer a blog, you may be losing out on customers and valuable interaction with both consumers and the business community. That said, business blogs are not right for every business.

Decide if a business blog is right for you, by asking yourself the following questions.

Will I Update Frequently?

If you have no time to update your blog with fresh posts, then a business blog may actually work against you. Nothing looks worse, or less credible, than an empty, infrequently updated blog. Plan on posting at least every other day. If you know your schedule won't allow for this, then don't start a business blog.

Will My Blog Be Useful?

Without traffic, a blog isn't providing benefits, it's just using up your time. To get blog traffic you need to write useful content. You need to be prepared to write compelling, useful, interesting content. Your business blog can't simply list sales and products. You'll need to post information customers can use. Tips, product advice, and company stories are examples of useful content. If you have lots of creative ideas, a business blog will gain traffic and customers.

Can I Play Nice With My Competitors?

Your competitors blogs are more likely to link to you than non-competitors. Why? Because, niches love like-wise niches. It benefits a consulting service to link to other reputable consulting services. If you happen to be a consulting service linking to cake baking blogs, it'll just be weird, and not at all useful to potential customers. You want to be buddies with your niche peers; to gain links, share news, and build a more valuable customer resource. If playing with "the enemy" fills you with dread, a business blog may not work for you.

Am I Going to Optimize?

Your business blog needs to have different characteristics than a personal blog might. Examples include a professional platform, and excellent category and keyword planning. A good, traffic heavy, business blog requires more planning, and more blog marketing, than a personal blog. Are you prepared to research and plan?

Am I Patient?

If you're looking for instant marketing perks, a blog is not for you. It takes time to build traffic. It takes more time to gain reader and customer loyalty. Building a great business blog is beneficial, but not beneficial overnight.

Do I Want to Be a Blogger?

If you want a successful business blog you'll become a blogger. Real bloggers read other blogs and leave comments. Real bloggers submit to blog directories, and build a great blogroll. It's very hard to have a successful blog without first embracing the blog community, and all its little quirks. If you can't be a blogger, don't blog. A blog without a real blogger won't earn traffic or benefits. If you know you don't want to be a blogger, one option is to hire a professional blogger to run your company blog.

If too many of the above questions made you cringe, try another form of social media for your business. Although, as noted in the last section, you can always hire a problogger to run your site for you.