All Entries Tagged With: "personal blog"

Is Business Blogging Really That Different?

Is business blogging different from personal blogging? In a certain sense it is, but then in another sense it isn’t. It really depends on your goals as a blogger and as a business.

Most corporate blogs couldn’t get away with personalization. You have to maintain a business image and make sure all of your communications stays on track with your message. Everyone’s got to stick with the talking points.

A small business, however, can make their blog almost as personal as a personal blog. You still have to watch your p’s and q’s, but you can get a little personal. It won’t hurt you. To some extent, a corporate blogger may get away with it if done correctly.

But where a business blog and a personal blog go there separate ways is in the mission of the blog itself. A business blog is making marketing, making money, and increasing the size of your market share. You want your readers to become customers. And to do that you have to write it in such a way that you attract buyer-oriented readers. But you don’t want to push them away with strong sales pitches on every blog post. You want to draw your readers in with valuable content and get them to start a conversation about doing business with you. Is your blog doing that? Why not?

Personal Blog Vs. Business Blog: What’s The Difference?

What is the difference between a personal blog and a business blog? I mean, besides focus.

In a word, the primary difference between a business blog and a personal blog is that of style and content. A personal blog tends to focus on the personal thoughts and experiences of the blogger while a business blog focuses on marketing a specific business or communicating with that business’s target audience.

That doesn’t mean a business blog has to be stodgy and stuffy. Many business blogs actually use a conversational tone just like their personal blog counterparts. But what you won’t find in a business blog, usually, that you will find in a personal blog are blog posts related to the virtues of one’s cat, the intimate details of last night’s dinner date, and what you ate for breakfast. Business blog readers don’t generally care about those details.

You can monetize a personal blog just as well as you can a business blog. But you can also use a business blog to promote a website that is separate from the one on which the blog sits. That doesn’t generally work too well for a personal blog. You might also do a lot of outbound linking on a personal blog than a business blog, although there are plenty of business blogs that do a lot of outbound linking as well. In fact, outbound linking has its own strategy as it relates to business blogging.

Both personal blogs and business blogs do better when there are search engine optimization efforts behind them. Well-written content seems to attract more readers on both types of blogs. And making social connections improves the performance of both blogs as well.

If you have a business to promote, I recommend you start a business blog. It’s OK to have a personal blog on the side, but don’t meld the two. You’ll kill your business blog if you do.