Blogs and Business: The New Communication Tool--Sept. 18, 2009
The power of blogs and their impact in today’s business world highlighted the September installment of the Main Street Institute educational series.
Manjit Trehan, an adjunct faculty member at the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis, led a crowd of about 60 professionals on Sept. 18 in a discussion of how to best utilize a blog to grow your business. The presentation included tangible steps to maneuver the blogosphere whether the person was a novice or social media expert.
“Blogs are about creating a relationship. It’s for building a community,” said Trehan, a long-time employee of the University Information Technology Services. He also teaches computers and business to undergraduate students at Kelley Indianapolis.
The Main Street Institute is a partnership with the Kelley School of Business Indianapolis and the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce to provide ongoing educational opportunities for small businesses in the region.
Trehan took time to distinguish between the purposes of a company’s website and the blog. While a website includes many bits of useful information, the striking difference rests in the fact that a blog, by design, must include dynamic content.
“A blog is not a static page,” he said. “We want something that is changing on a regular basis.” Among the other important attributes of the blog are:
- It is easy to update.
- It encourages repeat visits.
- It builds trusts with users or customers.
- It involves two-way communication to create a community.
From a business perspective, Trehan said blogs either can be used for making money, where the blog itself earns revenue through advertisements, or as a corporate tool to communicate internally or externally or both.
“If you’re new to blogging, I would first recommend that you go out and subscribe to and read some blogs,” Trehan said. “You also need to determine your intended audience, whether it is for employees in the company or for anybody who is interested.”
Selecting the purpose of the blog is crucial to its success, as is making the commitment to continually update its content, he said.
It is estimated more than 40,000 new blogs appear online each day. Most of those are not successful because the content is too static and does not attract repeat visitors. Trehan suggested scheduling time to write your blog just as if you were scheduling a meeting on your calendar.
“It’s kind of like starting a business when you start a blog, because you have to put in the same research and commitment that goes into it,” Trehan said.
The next edition of the Main Street Institute is slated for Nov. 13 when the topic will be “Entrepreneurial Women in Business.” The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the lower level of the auditorium of the University Library, 755 W. Michigan St. To register, please visit indychamber.com.
For more information, please contact Dave Hosick, coordinator of communications and media relations with the IU Kelley School at Indianapolis.
