{"id":15461,"date":"2014-02-10T11:59:51","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T11:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.learnbloggingsecrets.com\/?p=1820"},"modified":"2020-12-21T07:06:18","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T07:06:18","slug":"44-ways-to-use-a-blog-as-a-small-business-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/44-ways-to-use-a-blog-as-a-small-business-owner.html","title":{"rendered":"44 Ways To Use a Blog as a Small Business Owner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you spend as much time talking to small business or professional service firms as I do, you probably get some of the same questions too. One of the most common is, \u201cHow can I use a blog as a small business owner?\u201d Of course, we are assuming they know what a blog is in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are 44 ways a small business owner can use a blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Build Trust, Authority and Credibility<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
  1. Answer those common customer\/client questions\u00a0you get all the time<\/li>
  2. Share your own opinion, insight and experiences in your particular niche or market place<\/li>
  3. Give your readers links\u00a0to other interesting post and articles you think they might find interesting<\/li>
  4. Blow your own horn when you deserve it by showing your company featured on other sites or in the media<\/li>
  5. Share content with your readers and customers that is great quality and relevant to what they are looking for<\/li>
  6. Share information about your industry, even about your competitors<\/li>
  7. Promote your competitors\u00a0when they have both earned it and deserve it (this one should get some comments)<\/li>
  8. Post video\u00a0of you speaking at events and even share your slides with your readers<\/li>
  9. Are you going to be speaking at an event, promote it in a blog post<\/li>
  10. Be one of the first to break hot news that concerns your niche, market, industry or what your customers are talking about<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Market Your Business or Firm<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
    1. Talk about what your mission statement is for your business<\/li>
    2. Keep your readers informed about the events you or your business will be attending through out the year<\/li>
    3. Reward your readers by offering discounts or other special offers just for them<\/li>
    4. Talk about your business and those who work with you there<\/li>
    5. Unless it is a trade secret,\u00a0talk about what new stuff\u00a0you have coming for your customers or clients<\/li>
    6. Show a human side to your business, your customers will respect you for it<\/li>
    7. Really discuss your business with your customers on a blog, who you are and why you do what you do<\/li>
    8. Sow and harvest referrals from your blog<\/li>
    9. Offer a way for your readers to\u00a0subscribe to that brand spanking new newsletter\u00a0and build that list<\/li>
    10. Connect with your vendors and offer them a way to promote what they do<\/li>
    11. Conduct a poll or survey to get your customers input<\/li>
    12. Getting testimonials (you should be), use your blog to\u00a0publish these testimonials<\/li>
    13. Allow your customers to engage in the conversation by allowing comments<\/li>
    14. Use a blog to direct traffic to that static website you may have for your business<\/li>
    15. Share reviews of other products you know your customers use<\/li>
    16. Admit and handle any complaints about your product or service (be proactive not reactive)<\/li>
    17. Holding a contest, promote it on your blog<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Listen to and Engage With Your Customers and Readers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
      1. Allow comments on your blog but moderate them<\/li>
      2. Encourage your readers to get involved in the conversation<\/li>
      3. Answer comments and engage with your readers<\/li>
      4. Really listen to what your readers are saying about you, your business and your product<\/li>
      5. Use your blog for market research<\/li>
      6. Write about what is working and not working for you and your products<\/li>
      7. Write about what is working and not working for your customers<\/li>
      8. Write about how your customers may be using your product in ways you did not even imagine<\/li>
      9. Write about how your customers have provided input to you and you have used that to improve your product<\/li>
      10. Ask your readers and\/or customers for their opinion on your blog and listen to it<\/li>
      11. Use your blog to announce holdups, mishaps or anything which may affect your business or product (proactive not reactive)<\/li>
      12. Have your readers and\/or customers guest post for you<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        Grow Your Online Presence and Network<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
        1. Put a link to\u00a0your twitter account<\/a>\u00a0on your blog<\/li>
        2. Include the twitter widget of your twitter stream<\/li>
        3. Put a link to your\u00a0Facebook Fan Page<\/a><\/li>
        4. Include the widget for your Business\u2019 Facebook Fan Page<\/li>
        5. Put a link to your\u00a0LinkedIn Public Profile<\/a><\/li>
        6. Have a\u00a0special page on your blog\u00a0that your twitter followers find on your twitter profile.<\/li>
        7. Ask your readers to follow you on twitter<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          This list is certainly not all of the ways a small business can use a blog. Please share your own so we can grow the list further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you spend as much time talking to small business or professional service firms as I do, you…","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"default","csco_page_header_type":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blogging-tips","7":"cs-entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heerentanna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}