This blogging business

I wrote a short piece about business blogging for this month's Real Business, a magazine for UK entrepreneurs. In all honesty I started out from the point of view that blogging is bad for most businesses, not least because most businesses, especially large businesses, can't handle the truth! (Or think they can't.)

But I've changed my mind. The old blogging mystique doesn't hold up. In a world with 100 million blogs, clearly the medium has room for all comers. All that really matters is whether you have something to say. So much the better if some bloggers are saying it as workers, managers or entrepreneurs. And if some choose to speak as brands rather than as people, more power to them.

After a some searching I found a some pretty excellent business blogs right here in the UK. Paul Woodhouse's The Tinbasher is one of the best. It supports a small sheetmetal company in Lancashire (although Paul himself spends most of his time in Cleveland, Ohio, and blogs about everything from tornadoes to rusty art).

Paul's got strong and readable views about business blogging, and since there was only room for a couple of quotes in the article itself, here's more from our interview:

You mention on your blog that you decided to start a blog because you thought it would help with marketing your two companies. Has that turned out to be true? Is there – dare I say it – ROI?

Ha ha! To put it quite simply - turnover has doubled and 90% of new business comes via the web. I'm afraid I can't (or can't be bothered!) to funnel exact referrals, but the blog is the engine room. All that costs is the hosting, and my retainer and commission on web-generated sales. There are also the added benefits of the free publicity it's generated, natural organic linkage and the weird and wonderful other things that develop every now and again.

You blog quite often. A lot of potential business bloggers may worry about the time involved. How do you keep that balance? Assuming you do!

It's my job when all said and done. You'll hear plenty of people saying it only takes fifteen minutes a day and sometimes it does and sometimes it takes much longer. I'd hate to feel forced to start and maintain a blog for whatever reason. It all depends on how much you depend on your blog to promote your business. If you're blogging to relay news or keep in touch with customers then it's not as time consuming as having to trawl round other blogs and leaving comments to get you and what you do known. But, it's something you can share amongst those who want to do it in your workplace - from the tea lady to the managing director. If you're willing for your blog to be your organic seo department, pr department, customer relations department, networking hub and website all rolled into one and you're willing to bust a nut or have somebody else bust a nut on your behalf then it's a doddle. Even though I try my best to organise my blogging week, it never works out that way. Something (like this interview) always pops up. I prefer organised chaos.

The other big hesitation seems to be around fear of saying something one shouldn't say (that might damage the business in some way). Do you worry about that? Are there topics you won't touch?

This is where common sense comes into play. It's also where your own personality and comfort zone come into play. You hear a lot about a blogger's voice; and essentially this is the personality the of the person blogging. It's nothing more than an online equivalent of somebody popping into your office for an informal chat over a brew. I will touch any topic if it remotely relevant or can be related in some way to the business or even myself. There are those who maintain that a business blog should have a tight focus, but I tend to fail miserably on that score. I'm also quite fortunate in that I have free reign to do and say what I want so long as it keeps everybody busy.