Always on the hunt for inspiration and ideas, I am constantly searching for and reading lists. Whether it is the ten best this or worst 50 of that- I am list obsessed. I blame my childhood ritual of listening to Rick Dees and the Weekly Top Forty for this obsession.  Anyway, I stumbled upon a provocatively and somewhat hilariously titled list called The 100 Must Read Blogs… by Women! posted last year on Blogtreprenuer. As I perused their choices (Ann Coulter and Michelle Maklin?!?) I noticed what all of these blogs should have in common besides the whole being created by women thing is that they should all contain that kind of more…

When blogging first came on the scene it got a lot of flack as being a useless mouthpiece for individuals that had nothing better to do. But time has proven blogs to be useful resources for individuals and businesses. Now more than ever, blogging offers powerful benefits for entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes. So as a business, why should you blog? Here is

1. Establishes you as an expert in your field. When you write on a regular basis about what you know, you can’t help but deliver what you know about your business. You may take it for granted that your manufacturing technique for making widgets is unparalleled. A blog can be a great platform to educate potential customers about your expertise.

2. Gives your brand a voice. A blog is like a story. Every company has one. By offering up an inside look into your day-to-day operations, you are able to humanize your brand in a way that you really couldn’t do in a brochure, television commercial or print ad.

3. Content enhances SEO. While you may have a great SEO or SEM strategy in place, great content updated on a daily basis can really help make your company more findable on the internet. The more content you write that utilizes strategic keywords related to your business, the better your chances are ranking higher on the SERPs for those keywords.

4. A chance to connect with other industry specialists. Many bloggers start off as lone writers, but find there’s a larger community of bloggers out there writing on similar subjects. Tapping into this community by commenting on other blogs can offer relationships that would not otherwise be available.

5. A chance to initiate a two-way conversation. A good blog invites conversation with the outside world. This affords you the opportunity to get first hand market research on how your company is doing, what you can do better and what your customers think about your brand.

6. Link Juice. Getting other related sites to link back to you can help with SEO. If you are a shoe manufacturer, you may want to link to sports related sites to further legitimize your site with the major search engines.

7. Incubate new ideas. Good bloggers ask their audience for their advice on any given subject matter. Or better yet, you can use a blog to crowd source new ideas for products or services. You already have the attention of an audience that is clearly interested in your brand. Why not let them take part in create it with you?

8. Instant feedback. Blogs can be used to beta test new products or services to fans of your blog. By collecting data on who is following your posts, you can reach out to people interested in your brand instantly with an email or a direct invitation right on your blog. In the past, companies would have to hire special focus group companies to find potential customers and gain valuable market research information after an interview. Blogging can help you bypass all that.

9. Self-promote. OK, this one may be obvious. But you really don’t need to hard-sell anyone with a blog. The mere fact that you are offering up content related to your industry will put you on the map. Blogging great content on a regular basis will keep people coming back for more.

10. It helps you focus. Blogging forces you to focus your ideas and to really evaluate why your brand is unique. Do this on a daily basis, and you won’t be able to help but hone in on your company’s unique selling point.

If you have a company and you don’t have a blog, you may want to consider getting one up and running. If you don’t have the resources or time to create or manage a blog, you may want to consider hiring a company like Brandsplat to handle it for you. Either way, blogging can offer lots of great benefits for any size company.

What makes good content? I can wax on and give you the latest ten tips for making great content, but instead I’m going over simplify it because I’m in that kind of mood. Content is just like art. There’s good art and there’s bad art, depending on your perspective. My perspective is I like the kind of art that takes an everyday object and gives it a twist that in turn gets a reaction out of me. Any reaction will do. Here’s an example; I came across a post that documents unique street signs in Lyon, France.   I’ve passed street signs with the international cross-out symbol like these in my travels abroad and here at home as well, yet I have never stopped to take notice of the design. In a matter of milliseconds, my eyes see the sign, synapses fire off registering it as a sign, I may or may not heed the instruction, then the eyeballs get bored and find something else to feed off of. Poof, forgotten seconds after the experience. But these French signs are memorable. There’s a lesson here. Content should be thought of in the same way. Why not approach your next article, newsletter, video, social media campaign etc., with the same kind of goal? Take the everyday concept and put your own personal spin on it. Recycling the same old information that anyone can find on the intertubes is easy. Coming up with a unique angle on a concept takes a heck of a lot more effort and creativity. Do the latter. If you do it right, people may just stop and take notice.