What is a Blog Anyway?

Before I get too far into the topic of business blogging, we should probably cover one of the absolute basics — what is a blog?

If you already have a company blog, you can skip this one. But if you’re a small business owner thinking about adding one to your website for the very first time, you might not understand what all the fuss is about. Let me give you a quick run-down.

What is a Blog?

Simply put, a “blog” only has two requirements:

  • A blog is a series of content published online in reverse chronological order.
  • A blog is a social medium (as opposed to a megaphone-style one-way publication — in other words, your readers can interact with you).

That’s it. Really. If you cover those two things, you have a blog.

What is a Business Blog?

There are quite a few different types of blogs, ranging from personal online journals to company blogs. Let’s look more at the latter, because that’s what you’re here for.

A blog’s content needs to have an overarching purpose. That might be:

  • To inform
  • To educate
  • To entertain
  • To persuade

Any of these can be appropriate for a business blog depending on your audience and brand (entertaining would be less common). But no matter which you focus on, you ultimately want your readers to do something:

  • To buy from you
  • To contact you
  • To learn about your company
  • To learn about your industry
  • To learn about your products
  • To feel a certain way about your brand

If you’re thinking of launching a new blog for your small business then, that’s all it comes down to: content published in reverse chronological order, which allows readers to interact with you, and which adheres to a broader content strategy.

Need help coming up with that blog content strategy? Do you want a professional blogger to manage your blog content or write a few initial posts to give you a foundation to build on? Contact me and tell me about your goals, and I’ll tell you how I can help you realize them.

Jennifer Mattern is a freelance business writer, professional blogger, consultant, and publisher.

Jenn has 25 years' experience as a professional writer and editor and more than 20 years' experience in marketing and PR, specializing in digital PR and new media (with significant experience in social media, online marketing, SEO, and thought leadership publication). She also has 19 years' professional blogging and web publishing experience, including web development, mostly in the WordPress environment.

In addition to offering client services, Jenn also developed and runs numerous online publications including All Freelance Writing, Freelance Writing Pros, NakedPR, and Kiss My Biz.

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