How to use a Blog, Part 4: The Business Model

You spend time and put effort into your blog. You have readers, regulars and reviews.  Why not make it a business?  That's a question more than one blogger has successfully asked him/herself, and there are a couple ways to make that happen (but more on that later).  This is about how to use a blog as a business

The Corporate Blog

Companies haven't missed out on the fact that blogs are a great way to drum up business and support for their goods or services.  Many have even used blogs to reach out to customers, adding blogs to their main website and they've used these blogs to start conversations with both customers and potential-customers alike.

Many companies have taken to using an informal style in their blogs, to help customers understand the company as the real people behind it.  The results can mean better transparency, better brand recognition and better sales, as consumers understand a business's morals in the marketplace.

Apple, BBC and Southwest Airlines all have successful and popular company blogs, but tons of smaller business, independent firms and even individual workers have also taken advantage of the business blog, giving readers peaks into the business world, the corporate culture and putting faces on the faceless companies they work for and with.

Southwest Airlines in particular has taken this idea to heart, with their blog 'Nuts about Southwest'.  In the User's Guide, Southwest wrote,

"Our goal with the new Nuts About Southwest remains to give our visitors the opportunity to take a look inside Southwest Airlines and to interact with us…We want to build a personal relationship between our Team and you, and we need your participation."  

The blog is written by people from every position in the company, from pilots to executives, and even the CEO.

Southwest Airlines really gets corporate blogging

Businesses have successfully taken the idea of blogging and used it to promote their brands.  They can communicate, collaborate, connect, and converse with their customers, all while making their company seem more accessible and open.

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