Company blogs are often referred to as a must-have item but the truth is that not all companies benefit from having one. The benefits of business blogging include exposure and visibility within your industry and a higher rate of conversions but there are also some risks to consider. Here is a breakdown of the benefits and risks of business blogging that you can use to determine whether or not it is right for your company.

The Benefits

The benefits of business blogging are numerous. For example, you can increase revenues from sales, build an audience among your target market, grow your company, and much more. Specifically, you can keep customers and prospects up-to-date by offering company news. You can also connect directly with your customers and provide them with support via your blog. Networking with your customers, prospects, colleagues, and others in your niche also becomes a lot easier when you have a blog.

Blogs are a powerful way for businesses to receive feedback from their customers. This means you can do market research for free just by asking your customers for their opinions and reading your customers' blog comments. You can also use your blog to sell your products/services and increase sales revenue as a result. In fact, you could even make money from blogging alone if you allow PPC and other forms of advertising on your blog.

Furthermore, blogging builds brand awareness. People will start to recognize who you are from seeing your blog around. If you consistently publish excellent blog posts, you are bound to build an audience. This will help to position you as an authority in your market and build your reputation.

The Risks

Although business blogging has several benefits as you have seen, there is also a downside to it. In fact, if you aren't careful, you can even lose business and damage your reputation with a business blog. For example, if you publish a blog post in a rush and then have it pointed out to you by a reader after the fact that there was false or misleading information in it, your company's reputation and credibility will be damaged. If your posts are libelous, you may even be threatened with legal action.

Comment moderation is a touchy subject in business blogging. For example, you can sour relations with your customers if you delete comments that give even the slightest amount of criticism or get sassy with commentators.

The ultimate goal of business blogging or blogging in general is to educate, entertain, and inform. It's also important to interact with your audience and encourage them to comment. Your company will lose credibility and the trust of customers if all you do is blog for the sake of improving your site's SEO or to sell your products and services.

Last but not least, you can affect the productivity of your company if you dedicate too much time to blogging and using social media. While blogging and social media are often an important component of marketing your business, you can't lose sight of the bigger picture. The fact is that blogging and using social media can be very time-consuming and your labor will bear little fruit unless you utilize both properly.

How to Decide Whether Business Blogging is Right for You

Many companies choose to blog because they feel that the benefits outweigh the risks. Nonetheless, each company is unique and must devise a marketing/PR plan that fits their needs. Weigh the benefits and risks to decide whether business blogging is right for you. Blogging is a huge commitment and responsibility. You or someone else in your company has to be willing to keep the blog updated on a regular basis and respond to comments in a thoughtful way. Otherwise, your blog will only end up affecting your business negatively. If your company is ready to commit to blogging and you feel that the benefits are not worth passing up, decide what your blogging goals are and get started creating an engaging and successful blog!