Business blogs can’t be considered to be just about conversations, naked or otherwise.

For me, a conversation in business which doesn’t have an impact or an outcome is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Therefore, I consider that when it comes to business blogs, it’s important that we focus on the idea of connections rather than simply conversations.

Conversations are great for personal blogs, that’s really what they are looking to achieve: dialogue with people, interaction or a sense of community. That’s not to say that business blogs don’t work at this conversational level too - they do. We still want those same personal elements in our business dealings – as the Cluetrain Manifesto so succinctly put it, “markets are conversations” and we need to be participating.

But with business blogs, we need to go further.

Meaningful dialogue on a business blog, I believe, is different. It is about taking that one step extra. It’s still built on the basis that people prefer to do business with people they like and trust, but surely that means going above and beyond a simple conversation. In business, it’s only when these conversations lead somewhere that they become truly useful in commercial terms. For me, that is about creating connections.

But, what are connections?

Well, it’s not the so called ‘connection’ that people make on networking sites such as LinkedIn or eCademy, where the number of connections tends to be linked with an individual’s popularity or networking prowess. Many of these are often nothing more than an exchange of pleasantries online (if that!), much less the interaction that a conversation on a business blog achieves. I’m also not thinking about achieving immediate sales or signed agreements - that comes later still and, while perhaps initiated by a connection through the blog, should never be the immediate goal.

Instead, a connection is when communication on business blogs makes an impact or really strikes a chord with those reading them. The type of connection when something “clicks” as you talk with someone … at whatever level. Ideas, commitment, personality, integrity, presentation perhaps. It’s the type of link up which actually signifies something because of the mutual interest it creates. It’s this which indicates an intention to make contact with that person again rather than a conversational exchange and then a parting of ways.

To give an example. If you are using your business blog for customer service purposes then the conversation it provides is valid - it reassures and it informs. However, it is the connection you make with the customer by way of the action that you take as a result of it which is the key. It is that which will validate or change your customer’s opinion of you and encourage them to take action in terms of recommending you or developing the relationship.

In the same way, I have mentioned elsewhere that I am a fan of Jonathan Schwarz’s blog at Sun Microsystems – to couch what he does in pure blogging terms, I would have to say that he writes a CEO blog with both passion and authority in a way which comes across as very authentic. By doing so, I feel that he connects with his readers, myself included. He’s not just engaging in a conversation … somehow he has taken it a step further because of the way that he presents himself.

Two very different types of connection, yet both producing results. And both, from a referral or networking perspective, likely to give much better results by focusing our efforts on developing conversations into connections, rather than concentrating simply on encouraging the conversation.

So, as we develop our business blogs, keep the faith with the main principles that underlay blogging in general … but stretch them! Certainly, blogs are viewed as great communication tools (which they are) which are ideal for creating opportunities for conversations (which is also true). But for business blogs, I believe that we should be looking one step further - we should be focusing on developing connections.

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