by Charles Simmins

Created on: March 10, 2009   Last Updated: October 15, 2009

A company blog brings value to a business's public relations efforts. Company blogging is about brand building, customer contacts, problem resolution and selling the utility and value of your product.

Blogging will allow a business to place important and necessary information in a place that is easily accessible and available 24/7. Companies blog about common product questions, upcoming product improvements, recent changes in the industry, employee promotions and awards and other information which may be of interest to the community of people that surrounds the business.

Every business is part of a community that wants information. In the past, memos, press releases and PA announcements served to pass out information to the community. Those methods were haphazard and often failed to reach people that wanted the information. Blogging takes the day to day interactions a business has with its employees, customers, vendors and the general public and opens those interactions to the possibilities of the Internet. All of those people make up the community that is a business and blogging builds that community.

A company blog connects the company to people who want that connection. A mass mailing results in 90% of the people it reaches just tossing the piece aside. A television commercial get muted or bypassed on the DVR. A blog is read by people who are looking for that blog, the company it is written about or the products sold by that company. Every single person reading a company blog is already a part of that company's community or a potential member.

One of the easiest ways for a company blog to operate is to post product advice. Not purchase advice, but advice about how to use the company's products best, tips and tricks, answers to common questions. This information is what salespeople pass on to customers, what the help line tells callers, and it costs the company nothing to give this information away. With a blog, a reader can comment, add to the information, ask for more information or even criticize. A business receives immediate feedback on its blog.

Blogging is also a great way for a business to handle a problem. A product recall can be explained in depth. A law suit can be discussed. A layoff can be detailed. In a company blog, a company can post as if the reader were sitting down with a company executive and talking with him informally.

Readers will come to a company blog because they want to. They are part of the community of employees, vendors and customers that already exists. Or, all the better for the company, they have an interest in the products or services the company sells. There is no more effective form of public relations that to present information to people interested in it.

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