1. STOP!!
Before you rush in and publish your first post on your new blog, stop. That’s right, stop, hang fire, wait, take a chill pill, or whatever phrase you care to use. First, let’s do a little bit of thinking and, heaven forbid, planning before we rush over to the nearest free blog site to register an inappropriate name, choose a bland design and start to write things your customers don’t have any interest in.

2. Plan what you want to use it for
[Sorry to mention “plan” again so early on] If the answer to this is that you don’t know, it’s just that your competitor has just set one up, then go straight to jail, don’t pass Go and don’t collect £200. You need to be clear what you want to do with your blog right from the start or else you are quite simply planning to fail and join the ranks of businesses with forgettable (and most likely forgotten) blogs. At a basic level, decide if you want to focus on company branding, or perhaps differentiating your services by writing about your specific expertise or perhaps carrying out market research with it … in fact any use other than “Well, I’m not really sure”.

3. Decide who you want to read it
Everyone … anyone … someone?! Try to be all things to all people and the likelihood is that you’ll fail to appeal to anyone. The best types of business blogs tend to be specific in nature so, if you know who you are writing for, then you should be able to write things that are going to interest them. If they are interested then they’re going to come back and read some more and maybe even pass on the news to others that they’ve found a company who really knows what they’re talking about. Sounds like a plan to me! (‘plan’ – sorry)

4. Check out other blogs in your market
When you move to a new neighbourhood, you’ll always want to visit the area first, have a look at the other houses, see what’s going on, maybe talk to some people and listen to what they are talking about. See who people take notice of and who runs the local sports club that you are interested in. You get to know the place before you move in. Do the same with blogs – get to know the blogs that already exist in the market you are going to be writing about. Use a Blog Search Engine like Technorati or Google Blog Search to see who’s talking about what and how the blogs are being used. You might get some ideas for when you’re planning and putting together your own!

5. Decide what you want the blog to achieve
And while we are thinking about the blog from a business perspective, how about some targets? You just know someone, sometime, somewhere is going to ask about Return on Investment (particularly in corporate blogs) so make sure you can tell them what you planned to achieve and whether it hit those targets. You’ll need to measure the results of course and decide on your criteria - sales enquiries, newsletter signups, referrals, reduction in customer support requests or reader numbers are just some of the ones you could use. In any case, if you don’t know what you want to achieve then how can you tell if you are doing the right things?

6. Decide where to run your blog
And don’t say Blogger! (I still prefer to have control over the information in my blog when it’s such a key part of my marketing.) My question is really whether you want to have it on your own website or run it from a separate domain? Lots of variables you can take into account but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, if it complements what you have on your website then integrate it; if you want to take a different stance in your blog which doesn’t sit comfortably with your main site, then use a different domain. From an SEO perspective, no issue – same domain.

7. How much time to spend on it
Blogging takes time - there is the research as well as the writing that you need to consider and although there are lots of ways to help streamline this process, the posts still have to be written and you are going to want to maintain the quality of what you produce as well. The posts can take a number of different forms from Foundation posts at the start to long involved articles or simple link referrals - all are valid if they add value to your readers. Anyway, I digress. Plan how much time you are willing to dedicate to your blog, you’ll find it much more relevant than deciding how often you want to post.

8. How do you want it to work with your business?
As I mentioned in a recent post, no blog is an island, so you need to make sure that the blog can work with other parts of your business. Plan (damn, damn, damn) how you want it to work with the other activities that you have ongoing or at least that you know how you are going to achieve it. A blog can do lots for you on its own but it can do even more when used in conjunction with the rest of your business.

9. Check if you really need a blog
This may sound bizarre given all that I do here to help people use blogs to promote their business, but it’s a really valid question. You’ve looked at the other points above? Have you got answers to them and, with those in hand, do you still want to run a business blog? It’s good to be clear from the start that a highly effective tool when used correctly and worse than useless if you are going to start it with lots of enthusiasm but no planning, only to let it die as soon as that initial enthusiasm wanes. However, if the answer is still “Yes”, then great - now you can get started properly!

10. Plan
As you may have noticed, there is a theme running through all of these elements and that is … planning! Planning, or rather the lack of it, is the root cause of more blog failures than anything else, either because they lose focus in terms of content or business focus, or because the author(s) lose impetus. All things that can be avoided with prior planning. So don’t fall into that trap and before you start your Business blog … stop and do the planning which will ensure your blog is a success.

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I’d love to be able to describe a blog as an all powerful “magic wand” which will single-handedly solve all your marketing woes. Unfortunately, in spite of what some over eager blogging enthusiasts might have us believe, it’s simply not the case. What blogs are, however, are excellent tools which sit perfectly at the centre of your online marketing activity and which you can use to drive your business development efforts. Now … that’s not too shabby, is it?

The problem is that that, all too often, a business blog is set up and run in isolation within the company rather than treated as part of a larger set of activities. No matter how successful you make your blog, it is still important to consider it as part of the overall mix - any company thinking of running one in splendid isolation is just guilty of actively stopping it from fulfilling its full potential. Running it in conjunction with other activities will prove to be far more effective both for the blog and your company.

If, as is often the case, the blog is designed to help market the company and its offerings or enhance its branding efforts, then treat it as a part of the overall marketing mix. Make sure to link it with the other activities you are using or even use it as a hub to coordinate them online and gather the responses they generate.

Ideally this coordination should happen at the planning stage so that the main interlinking set out in advance and all of the marketing strands can work in tandem. If not, then you will find that a blog is flexible enough to be able to adapt to a change in focus and direction later on if required. Employing this approach will give results which go far beyond those you could achieve using any of the activities on their own, boosting your blog and the overall campaign. The diagram above, while clearly only giving examples of the many online, offline and social media marketing methods available, tries to show the type of integrated approach that will produce the best results.

Likewise, if you are using the blog for Customer Service or Product Development reasons, then again make sure that it is part of the overall process, integrated with your Call Centre, your Developers or your Product Marketing team and not stuck out on a limb under the control of a separate department. Use the information that your customers provide through it and share it with others. Treat it as the tool that it is, rather than a solution to all ills, and you will be able to tap into a collective resource that your readers and staff can jointly add to - you can then in turn make that available to all those who visit and use the blog, both internally to your company as well as externally.

So, whatever the job you have in mind for your blog, make sure that from the planning phase onwards you run it in conjunction with the other activities you have in the same area. A blog can be a real hub for your customers, prospects and staff alike so don’t isolate it … connect to it and through it!

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While there is a growing recognition of the pivotal role that social media can play in business marketing and the key role of a business blogs at the very centre of that activity, I still get the feeling that some companies often wonder whether they could also benefit from this or if it’s just for others.

Personally, I feel that there are very few cases where businesses cannot gain enormously from using a blog in the key area of interaction with their customers. Clearly they need to focus (and perhaps plan - heaven forbid!) to deliver real results and that, as always, is key. This applies whether they are using the blog as part of their marketing and business development activities, their customer support, their product development or as another key touchpoint. The benefit would then feed back into all parts of the business.

There are also certain “company types” which would particularly benefit from elements that a blog could give them; a few examples include:

Companies needing to differentiate themselves: on occasions, professional services organisations have been accused of all having a rather “grey” image, causing them to blend into the background. By using blogs to help break down these preconceptions, companies can really differentiate themselves as well as reveal some of the personalities carrying out the work together with their expertise - this can only help in developing greater trust with your potential clients in a generally very competitive and customer focused environment.

Companies which rely on their specialist knowledge to attract clients: consistently demonstrating expertise in a chosen field can quickly help to build a positive reputation and encourage potential clients to contact you. Client case studies go part of the way, but displaying both your general and specialised knowledge over a period of time and giving the opportunity to interact helps develop this more than a sanitised case study can ever do. Think of it as multiple case studies on steroids if you like. This is particularly relevant for independent consultants and specialist consultancies.

Companies which have progressed beyond the “hard sell” approach: direct advertising and the hard sell has become less and less successful as a business development approach. We tend to be put off by “interruption marketing” nowadays rather than be attracted by it. However, an educational marketing (or relationship marketing) approach, where you provide potential clients with information on which to make their own informed decision on their purchase, has gone from strength to strength. Help your customers decide they want to buy from you rather than go all out to sell to them.

Companies wanting to become more of a partner than a supplier: engaging with potential clients through your Business Blog helps develop trust and a relationship which can position you as a partner rather than a simple supplier. People prefer to work with and buy from people and companies that they trust - a blog will allow you to achieve this.

Companies wishing to be THE information resource for their market niche: most of the information that your prospective clients are looking for is available somewhere on the web. It’s just a case of finding it! So rather than let potential clients wander round the web looking for it and perhaps finding it on a competitor’s site, provide it yourself or provide links to it on your Blog. Become the preferred place to go for this type of information and let this attract anyone interested in your niche to your blog.

Companies organising conferences, seminars and exhibitions: blogs are the ideal focal point for collating and distributing information to attendees pre-Conference and for gathering feedback from them during and after the Event. You can update the conference details and add new information yourself, and you automatically develop a powerful online Search Engine marketing tool as well.

Companies looking to develop a network or community around themselves: as a networking tool, a business blog can help in many different ways but one of its most powerful is when it allows the creation of a network of like minded people interested in a particular area. It is particularly positive for the company setting this up and running it because they find themselves at the centre of this network and therefore in a high profile position.

Companies developing new products or services: customer feedback and input is essential in the product development process. By taking the step to allow this feedback to take place on a Blog, you are allowing discussions and generating ideas which can be invaluable to the process. Added to this, you have a group of people who have contributed to the product and so are likely to be its strongest evangelists and advocates.

Ah, so many options! What other types of companies would you consider to be ideal candidates to consider using blogs

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Earlier this month, I wrote briefly about company blogging policy as part of my commentary on a piece covering the Blogging Guidelines issued by the IOC ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Yesterday, I read a news story by Anne Broache at CNet News.com entitled Corporate employee blogs: Lawsuits waiting to happen? which looked at some legal issues that Cisco are currently experiencing regarding one of their managers who had been anonymously running a blog on patents where he had commented on cases regarding Cisco without revealing his connection with the company.

This particular case is quite specific but there are certainly some lessons to be learned from it which have a more general impact on companies, irrespective of their size, which are developing blogging guidelines of their own.

One element which Cisco has added to their own Blogging Guidelines following this case, covers the premise that where there is responsibility then there also needs to be clarity. This may be simply that the blogger works for the company in question or that they have a specific commercial role covering the subject area of their blog which means that their opinion is no longer objective. Their addition states:

“If you comment on any aspect of the company’s business or any policy issue the company is involved in where you have responsibility for Cisco’s engagement, you must clearly identify yourself as a Cisco employee in your postings or blog site(s) and include a disclaimer that the views are your own and not those of Cisco.”

To restate this in general terms, I’d normally advise that bloggers do not hide their identity and certainly not their business affiliations - they should also clearly state on their own blog that the views expressed are solely theirs and do not reflect those of their employer.

This is of course presuming that they are discussing subjects related to their work - if it is on a hobby or non work related topic then clearly there is no potential for professional bias coming into play and hopefully no conflict of interest. This is nicely summed up by Bob Pearson, VP at Dell who makes the comment:

“If someone is a fisherman and they want to talk about fly fishing outside of work, then that’s not our business, it’s personal. But if someone is going to talk about notebooks and anything related to Dell, they have to say they’re from Dell.”

The same is also true of leaving comments on other blogs, something which should also ideally be covered in a blogging policy. If it is a subject related to the company you work for then you would be wise to state your connection - in these matters transparency is everything and it can be potentially damaging if you are discovered trying to pull the wool over the eyes of others. You may remember the fall out from the “Walmarting across America” fake blog - if you are leaving ‘fake’ comments in a close knit community that you want to work with, then the impact on your company’s reputation can be equally damaging. So don’t!

For me, I think that in many respects the less formal take on it that Microsoft adopts is good, and focuses on the use of common sense. However, having said that, I have come across a noticeable absence of common sense from time to time, so their use of a list of FAQs which deals with how employees should apply existing company policies on confidentiality and other matters to the blogging world seems to be a sensible approach to take. When you create your own guidelines, do make sure that they are readable, accessible, understandable and applicable -then you won’t go far wrong.

If you are looking for help or guidance in creating a Blogging Policy or Blogging Guidelines then please get in touch. Alternatively, below you will find some links to documents which cover either internet or blogging policies from a range of companies that you may find useful as well:

• BBC’s Blogging Guidance
• Cisco’s Internet Policy
• Sun Microsystems Blogging Guidelines
• IBM’s Guidelines
• Yahoo Blog Guidelines
• Dell’s Online Communication Policy

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This is the first of a 3 part series looking at blog optimisation. When people talk about how to optimise blogs, they are generally referring to Search Engine Optimisation – while this is important, and something I’ll be looking at in depth in part 2 of the series, it’s only part of what we should be thinking about when we optimise a blog.

First of all, I think that it’s important to look at optimising a blog for the people who really count - your readers! It’s in your interest to make sure that their experience is as pleasant, productive and straightforward as possible. Why? Because these are the people that you want to connect with, the ones you want to talk to, the ones you want to work with and the ones that you want to recommend you to others. Be nice to them!

You need to make sure that you help them to find the information that they are looking for, point them in the direction of other subjects they might also find interesting and generally ensure that they stay around to concentrate on the content you are offering without struggling to find or use it.

So, in this respect, what are the areas that we should be looking at and how can we help our readers really benefit from what we write in our blog:

1. Write posts on topics which interest your readers

I know that we come back to content time and time again, but it really is so key that I’m afraid it’s worth repeating once more here. Write things that your readers will find useful, relevant and interesting! You already do? Great - then concentrate on the rest of this post and the other two in the series because they’ll support what you’re doing every step of the way. If you’re still looking for help then, when you’ve finished here, may I suggest checking out Brian Clark at Copyblogger - recommended. Seriously.

2. Consider the layout of your posts

Try not to have great swaths of text which create an often impenetrable barrier between your readers and the ideas you wish to communicate. Make sure that you break it up, have areas of white space and use subheadings to highlight your points - where appropriate, use bullet points as well and generally make sure that the layout supports your content rather than hides it.

3. Good Navigation

Good navigation should be consistent, easy to find and easy to follow. When your readers are on your blog, the last thing you want is for them to be floundering around trying to find other posts or searching unsuccessfully for them. Why not? Because they won’t keep searching - they will have already left and gone to find it elsewhere.

Try to keep the main navigation menus in the same place on each page and if you use the general blog conventions such as the home page link being in the header, then remember that you are also looking to attract non blog readers who will be looking for a ‘home’ button. Bottom line, make navigation as intuitive as possible for everyone and let them concentrate on your content.

4. Easy Subscriptions

Whatever you may be using for subscription forms, make sure that it is easy for your readers to sign up for - this goes for both your RSS feed and any newsletter sign up you might have. For your RSS feed, offer an RSS via email option (and link to a quick overview of what RSS is and its use to your readers) and for your newsletter sign up, include it on all pages, reassure about your privacy policy and perhaps include a giveaway as a sign up sweetener too.

5. Help them to read more

If someone has been interested in what you have written then make sure they can find other posts on your blog which might cover the same or closely related topics. Either in your sidebar or following the individual posts, give them a list of the most popular, frequently read or other related posts which they would be interested in. Any element of this type, well placed, will help to direct them to other related posts helping, in turn, to keep your blog “sticky”.

6. Use Descriptive Categories

Blogs in general offer you a wonderful automatic filing system in the form of categories and archives - Wordpress also offers you the option of using tags as well to help classify your posts. When it comes to naming your categories and selecting your main tags, choose them carefully and make them descriptive as they will provide another method for your readers to find relevant posts which will be of interest. If the category names also contain your key words then there will be additional Search Engine value as we will see in part 2. As they will also act as a type of secondary navigation for your readers, try to keep them consistent.

7. Search

The Search function is another element which needs to be on every page – if someone has arrived at your blog for the first time and is looking for something specific, then the search box is likely to be their first port of call. So make it visible … and make sure it works!

8. Don’t forget to link out

Although conventional wisdom on normal websites says that linking out equates to losing a potential customer, this is not so on a blog. Links out are of great benefit to your readers because it takes them to sites that you deem to be worthwhile to read, hence developing further the trust they have in you and your recommendations. So when you write posts, don’t forget to link out where applicable either to support your arguments or to direct your readers to other valuable resources.

9. Make Commenting easy

Comments should really be the lifeblood of blogs which enable you to develop interaction with your readers and ultimately a community feel, so make sure that you make it as easy as possible for your readers to leave them. At the same time you do need to safeguard your blog against spammers so what would be the best solution? Making your readers sign up or log in to leave a comment is likely to dissuade all but the keenest commenters and especially first timers. So do your comment moderation behind the scenes and use spam filtering software such as Akismet.

10. Can they contact you?

Try to ensure that you are as easily accessible as possible. I know a number of bloggers who are reticent to do this, but in a business blog it is imperative that your contact details can be easily found, ideally on a specific contact page. You should also have a “Profile” page so that people can get a little more background on you and what you do which again should contain contact details. It might well be to your benefit!!

As a final check, if you are able to make sure that your readers don’t have to jump through hoops when they want to do something on your blog, then incorporate it. What do I mean? Well, look at it from your readers’ point of view – as a test, go onto any blog or website and any time that you hesitate or aren’t sure what to do next on it, try to think why and then make sure that situation doesn’t happen on your own blog.

To paraphrase the well used phrase - “they hesitate, you lose”. So make sure that your readers don’t have to hesitate but can find their way around your blog and around the information it contains.

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Before anything else, I’d like to apologise to those of you who follow the blog. As you will be only too aware, I have taken a sabbatical from this blog over the last month which should have been better announced and pre-announced to you. I am, however, back and I hope writing posts which will prove to be full of interesting news and tips which I can share with you.

While I have been off, I have of course continued to follow the news and a story which caught my eye recently was about the guidelines which are being put in place for the athletes wanting to write their own blog at the Beijing Olympics. The very fact that the Internetional Olympic Committee (IOC) even feel the need to put guidelines like these in place demonstrates the unique position that blogs hold at the crossroads of journalism, business, corporate marketing and personal expression, particularly when they overlap in such a visible way.

Whether they are the right and appropriate guidelines or indeed whether they are enforceable is not something I want to debate here (that’s for another time) - the thing that struck me most is that the IOC had issued them at all and I applaud them for that. What they have done is make it clear what their position is and what they expect from the athletes. In doing so, they have also given themselves the opportunity to stop those who are stepping over the mark.

Businesses would do well to follow their example. Whether they take the route of a full blogging policy or, more likely, incorporating a section into their HR policies on both blogging and social networking, they will have stated and communicated their position and so be able to enforce it where necessary. Without it, they are in a much weaker position and employees may overstep the mark without even realising it.

Here are some elements to consider as you look at developing a corporate blogging policy or guidelines:

• Deal not only how to write on the company blog but also what approach employees should take if they write about the company on their own personal blogs.
• Ensure that they are clear about the company’s confidentiality policy and that they also respect the company’s stakeholders (ie. the company itself, employees, customers, partners, suppliers etc.)
• Have someone who is ultimately responsible for your company’s blog – ideally this will be an internal person, though they could be external
• Ensure that there is a stated person whom the blogger can ask if they have doubts about what would be appropriate to include in their blog
• Try to set an agreed tone and editorial policy for the company blog and also ensure that you have a stated policy on how to deal with comments left on it
• Take the time to educate your bloggers on how to get the best from the blog, what its benefits are and also what the risks could be and how to avoid them
• Make sure that you monitor your own blog as well as what it being said about it and your company on other blogs

Whatever is actually in it, the most important thing is that there is one in place which is easily accessible and represents the way that the company wishes to approach the question of blogs, blogging and other social media.

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This is part of a 3 part mini-series looking at the planning phase of setting up and starting your business blog.

Each post will focus on one of the 3 key questions that you should have clear answers for as you set up your blog before you start to write it.

Question 2:
Who are you writing for?

Unless you are writing a personal blog, and that’s really not what we are dealing with here, then you are writing your blog with a business purpose in mind – just as we looked at in the 1st Key Question. This in turn means that you are writing for someone, for an audience, who you are hoping will not only read your blog but react well to its content and to you as the author.

To achieve this, need to be clear about this audience - your readers - and what they are going to expect from you and from your blog. You’ll also need to know how best to go about getting those reactions and building on them. This knowledge needs to influence every aspect of your blog including:

• what your blog looks like
• the content of your blog
• the style of how you write it
• the length and frequency of the posts
• how you elicit comments and feedback

In fact, what you are looking for is to encourage your target audience to engage with you and your blog in what I term the 5Rs:

• Read: first of all you need to create subject matter which will encourage people to visit your blog and then read what you’re writing about.
• Return: once they have visited for the first time, you have the opportunity to give your readers something they’ll wish to read more of, hence encouraging then to return to your blog.
• Reply: you are looking to encourage dialogue and communication so you must find subjects and a style which encourages them to express an opinion about it and reply to the post.
• Refer: provide your readers with enough compelling, relevant and interesting content and they’ll want to recommend it to everyone.
• RSS: encourage them to sign up and receive what you are writing as and when it appears using RSS either directly or via email.

So just how do you find out what they want? Well, first and foremost, you are as much a part of the target audience as you are the author! It’s your area of specialism, so bear in mind your own areas of interest as you write, but a also look at what you are doing and writing with a critical eye from time to time and check you are still on track. In addition, take the time to listen to your readers. Listen to what they are saying in the comments they post on your blog or in the emails you receive from them. When you are at conferences and exhibitions, note down what are the hot topics that everyone is talking about – they are literally giving you your killer content posts on a plate!

But do remember that different blogs have different aims and therefore very different audiences. An internal blog, for example, will be aimed at talking primarily at employees, while an external blog with a customer support focus will need to provide exact information and specific answers within tight timeframes. Of course, the more than you can prepare for this in advance of starting the blog, the better focused and (probably) more successful it will be.

To take a look at how all elements of a blog come together to fit with the audience it is targeting, I’d like to recommend that you take a look at Sony and the two blogs that they launched last year for different parts of their business and for very different audiences.

1. The first was the Sony Playstation blog which is heavily branded with a very specific topic range and audience in mind which has been attracted in droves to the site. Everything about the blog caters to this audience, their interests and ultimately the games that they are being encouraged to find out about and buy. Language, content and imagery all support this beautifully.

2. The second was the Sony Electronics blog dealing with a very different part of the business, a very different product range and therefore a very different audience in terms of both interests and priorities. The frequency and content were both targeted towards their expected readers and they responded in their own way which, of course, also needed to be handled correctly.

In summary, you need to ensure that you are always encouraging your readers to act on an appropriate aspect of the 5Rs. So, make sure that your business blog has a well defined theme and, once you have decided that, write your posts with it firmly in mind (remember keeping your aims on your monitor). Don’t forget to use your RSS reader to keep up to date with what is happening in the areas that your blog covers and keeping offering your opinions on relevant and interesting items in your posts. Finally, keep encouraging feedback from this target audience and make sure that you respond to the comments that your readers leave.

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This is part of a 3 part mini-series looking at the planning phase of setting up and starting your business blog.

Each post will focus on one of the 3 key questions that you should have clear answers for as you set up your blog before you start to write it.

Question 1:
What you do want to do with your blog?

This may seem like an obvious question or rather you may think that the answer to it is obvious. Great! If you have a clear idea of what you want to do with your blog and how it will help your business, then write it down and stick it on your computer screen. Keep it in mind as you write your posts, make changes to your blog and work on promoting it because that sort of focus is going to be all important if you want to achieve the best results.

It does seem to be the case, however, that many companies (and this applies equally to multinationals as it does to small businesses) still look at blogging as something which needs to be done to “keep up with the Joneses”. Unfortunately, blogs set up with this in mind often suffer a swift demise since they generally have no real substance, identity or direction.

Blogging will cost you time and therefore money. In my case, if I am writing posts for my blogs, then I cannot be doing paid work on blogs or online marketing campaigns for other companies, engaging in other marketing activities, carrying out my duties with my accountants hat on etc. So plan what you want to do with your blog.

Marketing focused blog as an example

Let’s take the example of a business blog which has a marketing focus, one where you are essentially looking for it to communicate your expertise or the benefits of your services or products, and to start to generate interest and trust in them (and you of course!).

So to get the right balance and focus in the blog, you’ll want to incorporate important influences both from within your company and from the market you work in ie. from customers, partners and competitors etc. You also need to look at how it fits in with your other marketing activities and the general direction of the company. If you can incorporate all of these, you’ll then be developing a marketing tool which will reflect the company’s goals, will work in tandem with everything else you are doing and will allow you to communicate with your target audience in as unfiltered a form as possible.

Other business uses for a blog

Of course, marketing is just one of the many uses you could put your business blog to and as the focus of your blog changes, so of course will the influences which are important to it. If you are looking at an external blog to support your customer service or technical support activities, then the targeting and format of the blog will change to suit that goal. Likewise, an internal blog to help your internal communications or perhaps one dedicated to pre-sales / sales team information sharing will be different again.

Other ideas of possible ways to use a blog as a business tool, both externally and internally, might include:

But at the end of the day, whatever you decide to use your blog for, it needs to reflect the requirements of both the company and your target audience, and add value to both parties. Do that and you are well on the way to creating a business blog which will prove an invaluable asset to you.

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