Your Best Internet Marketing Asset Is Your Business Blog:
When writing your business blog, keep in mind that you’re running a business. Talk to your customers in your blog about topics related to your business that will benefit them. Stay focussed on your customers needs, not the needs of the business or the needs of the business owners.
Never insult your audience by discussing topics that are not pertinent to their goals and save your personal agenda for your personal blog or you may “darken your door” by your own behavior.
I only found a few dive shops out there in the blogosphere, but for the most part, those I found are interesting to read and pertinent to their business and customers needs. They were positive and uplifting… they made me want to visit their shops and dive with them. A good example is the Akumal Dive Shop blog. Unfortunately, with the good came the bad and here are a couple of prime examples of things not to do in a business blog:
- A dive shop business blog challenged their local community politics and berated a highly regarded member of their community. Where this may be an acceptable topic in a personal blog, all business marketing wisdom would strongly suggest against this behavior. Personal or business irritations should not become a post for its business patrons because it has nothing to do with scuba diving. Needless to say that a business should never make its problems a problem for its visitors and patrons.
- A dive shop blog used one of its potential customers as a negative example of what a diver should not expect a dive shop to do. Where the dive shop may be correct in its position, I soon discovered that this post was most distressing because that customer knew that they were being made out to be somewhat of a villain and worse yet, others in that local dive community were able to deduce from the discussion who that customer was!
A business blog should be one of your best assets to present your value to those that may wish to frequent your business in positive, exciting, invigorating, honest, and respectful ways. Customers will be magically and charismatically drawn to value and pushed away by negativity.