Why These Blog Posts Can Help a Business
My friend and Social Media smartie Mark Hayward has started a new platform for getting creative ideas moving in the field of Social Media Literacy at Mark-Hayward.com. The inaugural post has a list of 31 Blog Post Ideas For Small Businesses. This is a fantastic list (that was supposed to run to 52…) and I would recommend any of these as good ideas in nearly any business market. Hayward says:
As a small business owner in tough economic times, I thought it was time to assist others and provide information and inspiration for those in the world who either own a small enterprise, or for those who would like to take the next step and become an entrepreneur…
…Sometimes we are too busy to do anything else but act as customer service manager, webmaster, and head toilet scrubber. Thus 31 Blog Post Ideas for Small Businesses is my first offering to what I hope will become a space for collaboration and creative growth.
…The real power of blogging is not the hard sell, but rather, to help connect you and your (potential) business customers on a more human level.
Moreover, I have found that the most successful blog posts allow the reader to learn something new and provide some type of value. I tried to remember that as I brainstormed these particular ideas.
- What are you passionate about?
- Have you done something unique such as complete a marathon, serve in the Peace Corps, veteran, etc?
- How did you get started (securing financing, permits required, etc).
- What allowed you to move beyond fear and pursue small business ownership?
- What cause do you care about (refugees, stray animals, etc)? How has your business supported your favorite charity?
Hayward also asks the readers to contribute ideas in the comments, and my own addition is:
Interestingly, one of the commenters [ Creative Wisdom ] mentioned that “…the missing key - that is obvious to the rest of us is WHY these things would help a business. So many people don’t get the connection of blogging and biz. A more detailed explanation of the value might help them.”
I think that Hayward started in this direction when he described this initial post, saying that he “wanted to avoid posts that are nothing more than simply spamming folks with “My Business is Great” style missives.” There is the key, the blog posts that you write for your business are not necessarily about your business. If we take a look we can see that the running theme of these ideas is providing a larger context for your customers and competitors to perceive your business.
This larger context is what allows a genuine conversation to take place in the marketspace, a conversation where your business may not be the explicit topic but is the implicit foundation of it. What ideas do you have for a small-business blog post? Pop over to Hayward’s blog [ Mark-Hayward.com ], read the whole list, and leave a comment.
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Comments
Hey Steven - thank you for the kind words and for highlighting my post. :) We are all in this crazy economy together, so I wish you and your readers a terrific 2009!
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