How Can Business Blogging Help my Business?

What is blogging?

History

Once upon a time, when people wanted to add something to their website, they hade to modify a cryptic code called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Then they had to upload that file on the web server, set permissions for who could access the file, and set it to be accessed.

Then someone figured out a way to log into a website with a password and add entries into a database. Then the website would show those entries just like a normal web page. This was the birth of "dynamic" websites.

About a day after that, someone decided to use a dynamic website to post an online diary, or log. Or a WebLog, if you will. Violating the law of monosyllabication on internet, the cumbersome "WebLog" simply became "Blog".

These blogs then evolved to include a (mostly) standard set of common features that make up the services that are included when we talk about blogging.

Standard Features

• An Easy way to update a website, using a login and password
• A way for other people to comment on the stuff you write (optional, but goes a long way towards building credibility)
• Due to comment spam, many people have foregone comments on their blogs. Many other people manually approve all comments (time consuming), or use a comment spam filter (you thought you got enough spam in your email, didn't you!)
• A way for people to link to your posts on their own blog. A key success factor in the spread of blogs was this ability for bloggers to see who was linking to them. This notification, sent from one website to another website is called a trackback.
• As of lately, due to trackback spam, many people have foregone trackbacks on their blogs. Many other people manually approve all trackbacks (time consuming), or use a trackback spam filter (you thought you got enough spam in your email and comments, didn't you!)
• A way to communicate all of your blog posts in a standard way, just like every other blog. This standard format is called RSS, and it's one of the most useful technologies created by a college kid since that Google thing.

Pitfalls

• There's spam here too, in the comments and the trackbacks! Fortunately, spam filtering systems for these are fairly reliable, and result in nearly no false negatives, and a minor amount of false positives.
• You are leaving your site open to comments. Someone could come and trash you. You could then delete their comments, but that tends to look worse then not allowing comments at all (and people generally know when that's happening). More on this in the authenticity section below.

Where to Blog

• Your Website
• Pro's: Ability to keep a unified message, look, and feel. Customers never need to leave your site.
• Con's: You have to add it to your site
• Blogger.com (owned by Google), MovableType, and other Blogging services
• Pro's: Sign up and go.
• Con's: Less Credibility, more spam, less configurable

The Reason Blogs Work

A lot of discussion has gone into this topic lately, but what it really boils down to is authenticity. To say it's about transparency is true, but it misses the essence. As the corporate world adopted the political correctness mentality, their messages became standardized and boring. People couldn't talk to people anymore when they called, because it was more efficient to let you talk to a computer. And then email replaced phone communications. Companies even sent nasty letters from their legal departments to kids who sent in product comments.

And no longer could people connect with people. We love our machines but we miss connecting with people. Corporations are the most unauthentic entity to ever exist -- just one step above PR people. So now corporate is out. Personal is in. Blogging lets us connect to people with our machines in authentic ways. Using your authentic voice is the key to blogging.

If you curse a lot, you should probably curse on your blog. Be yourself. Expose your weaknesses. It is our weaknesses that make us human, it is our humanness that inspires us to connect, and it is this connection that you are trying to make. To me, the word I like to keep in mind is "warts". They're ugly and gross, but they happen. Warts are authentic. "Warts" has become the term to express our imperfections.

I read about 100 blogs a day, totaling about 400-500 posts per day thanks to my RSS reader (more on that later), which takes about 90 minutes per day.