Business Blogs: Demonstrate Your Unique Style
February 6, 2008 by Liz Fuller
Filed under Social Media
As I sit here writing this post, the still-beleaguered city of New Orleans is in the final hours of this year’s celebration of Mardi Gras; meanwhile across 22 states (not Louisiana) votes are being counted to help determine the next Democratic and Republican nominees in the US Presidential Primary elections.
I can’t tell whether it is Fat Tuesday or Super Tuesday that is causing me to want a drink.
But whichever it is, I find myself thinking about wine and wine blogs. For some reason, a blog by a wine expert is one of the examples I always hear when people are talking about businesses that are a natural fit for blogging. “Wine enthusiasts and consultants” the experts always say, are natural fits for the benefits of blogging.
I’ve never actually looked at a wine related blog and I started to wonder with so many out there – would they all look the same? So, I took a look at several and was delighted to discover a variety of themes and styles:
Wine Blog List
Vinography: A Wine Blog
This round and full-bodied blog describes itself as ”wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world”. The posting is frequent, the writing is intelligent, and it has a lingering intensity.
Fermentation: The Daily Wine Blog
This blog is medium-bodied with some richness and excellent balance. Posts are frequent and varied ranging from politics to friendship to cinema to jazz; there are newsbites, stories, editorials and interviews, all naturally-linked to the subject of wine. Intriguing with light oakiness, and a long finish, tasting of boysenberry, toast, and black licorice.
Brooklyn Guy’s Wine and Food Blog
A highly recommended blog that educates and entertains with a strong focus on personal experience and increased knowledge. Refined in character, this blog is luscious and concentrated, with intense aromas/flavors (litchi nut, rose hip, violet, raspberry, smoky oak, and nutmeg), good balance, and tremendous length. Simply exceptional.
Wine Burps – a wine blog for the rest of us
This unpretentious little blog gives reviews of wine and wine accessories for the everyday reader. Recent post topics: a warning list for white wine (it can make you think you are whispering when you are not!), cool marketing like a bottle of wine with an embedded DVD, and interactive wine maps. Screw cap. Extremely distinct: simple, fragrant (berry jam, boysenberry, pepper), soft tannins and acidity.
Wine Library TV: Garry Vaynerchuk’s daily wine video blog
And now for a dessert blog: full bodied, ripely flavored, supple in texture, and well balanced; a blog with generous fruitiness (boysenberry, blackberry, cherry), with overtones of pepper, cedar, clove, and tobacco. Fine value and a lot of fun.
Includes numerous videos: Don’t miss the one with Gary educating Conan O’Brien’s palate by having him suck on sweaty socks and chew on tobacco and dirt!
So, five wine blogs, each with their own distinct style and their own appeal, attracting followers with very different tastes.
The point of our little tour was to demonstrate that being unique is not dependent on being singular.
So what if there are lots of others in your particular business who are already blogging?
Blogging is all about showcasing your own personality and your own style. It’s about making an authentic connection with your current and potential customers.
So, go ahead. Create a blog. Make it your own. Don’t be afraid to have it reflect who you are, what your business is about and why you are the best fit for your customer.
The more authentic, real and human you make it – the more likely you are to make a connection, build a community and develop loyal customers.
I leave you with only one word of caution: Don’t Drink and Blog!
I don’t have a business that I need to blog about but if I did, I would definitely use a blog to get my name and information out. My husband owns a small business that I am not sure would benefit from a blog. He owns his own parking lot striping business. He paints the lines that you park your car between or on top of if you aren’t a good driver or if you don’t want someone else getting too close to your new car. He is not a computer literate person and I am too busy with my own blog on my spiritual journey through life to want to take on setting up a blog for him.
The reason for this comment is to say that if I can learn to set up a blog, anyone can. I have only had a computer for a few years. A friend sold me the step by step information to set up my blog through an eBook tutorial that he had written. It was invaluable to me. I have now been blogging since June 2007.
Hi Patricia
Congratulations on setting up your blog and on the spiritual journey you are exploring. I have read some of your posts and they are very moving. You are obviously putting your heart into the path you are on.
Blogging is a good marketing tool but it is not right for every one and every business. I’m sure your husband has methods he uses for marketing his business that work for him. Another person in the same business might choose to use a blog, and possibly forgo some of the methods your husband uses.
Each business needs to decide for themselves. We just encourage them to consider blogging before they assume it couldn’t work for them.
I’m glad you stopped by. Hope you come back again.
Liz