By Tina Hilton of Clerical Advantage

Last week I explained that if you’re interested in building an online presence for your business, the one element you had to have was a website that draws your visitors back repeatedly.  I gave several ways to do this, one of them being a blog. A blog can be an invaluable building block for your online presence. If integrated into your website it can help provide the ‘fresh’ content that we spoke of in last weeks post to keep your site from becoming stale and ’static’.  But don’t jump in over your head just because everyone else is doing it.
You should be sure that a blog is the right fit for you and your business.  First of all, you should understand that a blog is something to be updated regularly, not sporadically. There is a ton of really great blogging information for beginners over at ProBlogger in the ‘blogging for beginners’ area as well as Blog for Profit’s Building a Successful Blog series.
If after doing a little reading you feel that a blog is the right thing for your business, then you’ll need to make some vital decisions.  Are you going to write it, or will you hand that task over to someone else. Perhaps there is someone within your company who could do it, or you could work with a ghost or shadow blogger. There are strong opinions about letting someone else write your blog, but in the end its your decision.  When making that decision, you need to decide if you want your company blog to reflect your ‘voice’ or if someone else’s ‘voice’ would be just fine.
What content are you going to offer there?  This is where you should think about the needs of your customers or clients. What information might they be looking for that will keep them coming back to your blog for more? For example, one of my clients is a title company, they began a blog in which the owner answers real estate related questions. This serves several purposes, first it allows him to ‘advertise’ this service when he does closings, gives classes or is in other marketing opportunity situations. Second it keeps his visitors coming back to see what questions he has answered and possibly ask their own, and third, it gives him an interesting way to add fresh content on a regular basis. And this is just one idea of what you can do with a blog.
Don’t overlook having guests ‘appear’ on your blog.  Get your employees, co-workers, associates and peers involved. Chances are you know someone who has something interesting to contribute to your readers. You can even interview them and post the interview on your blog.  A podcast is also a great addition on occasion, letting your visitors actually hear your voice.
If you and/or your business is involved in the community, take pictures at the next community event you’re at and then post them on the blog.  As you take pictures, let everyone at the event know that you’ll be posting pictures on your blog. You’d be amazed at how many new readers you might gain.
Thinking of offering a new product or service?  Run it by your readers first by asking for feedback on the idea.  You can set up a poll or simply ask for them to leave comments. Use your blog as a way to truly speak and listen to your readers.
You can see why a blog can be a powerful tool in building your online presence, but it should be utilized only if you’re committed to keeping it up to date and useful to your readers.  A blog is just an option in building an online presence and we still have several more options to discuss.

Next week:  Try Twitter

If you have questions concerning virtual assistance or have an interest in working with a virtual assistant you can contact Tina Hilton or visit her business website for Clerical Advantage.