The word blog comes from the phrase 'web log'. Blogs started as online journals for people to note down their feelings and thoughts, like a diary. There are millions of blogs that exist nowadays that aren't personal diaries, and blogs can offer businesses a great, informal way of communicating with their audience. Instead of websites being just formal presentations of a business, a blog adds an element of conviviality and a chance to publish fresh and regular content on a given subject.

Blogging is not suitable for all businesses. But, if you like writing (and are good at it, or a member of your team is); if you genuinely know your stuff and are passionate about your product or service; if what you are blogging about is genuinely interesting and useful; if you are prepared to blog fairly regularly (once a week is fine) - then I would say that it will help grow your business to begin blogging.

Here are a few of the main benefits of blogging:

Increase natural search traffic with your blog
We all know that content is key when it comes to getting indexed regularly by search engines and being ranked highly for popular search phrases pertaining to what you offer. So it makes sense that if you produce a weekly blog on related subjects you will start to be regarded by Google et al as a more important resource than when you had a 5 page website with very little written content on there. When you write a blog, think about how it could attract traffic: try and write the title so it is similar in its phraseology to what someone may type in if they were searching for information on that subject (the title of this blog is a good example; someone may well type in "How to use blogs to grow your business" or something similar, and in time this page will begin to attract traffic on that subject). Remember though, good copywriting and blogging should never at the expense of SEO. As with all content a blog should first and foremost serve to improve the user experience.

Open a dialogue with customers and to show the human side of your company
When writing a blog, if you can, try to end with questions and encourage comments so people start to become engaged in a conversation rather than it being one way. Especially if you are someone they wouldn't normally get to talk to, this is quite an exciting and empowering concept for an end consumer - to talk the the top people in such an accessible setting. It's OK to be yourself when writing a blog; it's a good opportunity to build yours and other team members' profiles and show the human face of the company rather than The Brand.

Increase the perception of yourself as an expert with your blog
By blogging on a subject regularly and building up a following, you are telling the world about your expertise on the subject. People want to buy products and services from other people who know their stuff; it instils a sense of trust in them and they are more likely to purchase. There is no better place to show how knowledgeable you are, as well as communicate your personality a bit too.

Extend the reach of your communications
Offer an RSS feed of the blog titles that people can subscribe to and read via their preferred reader, with a link to read more. Set up a Twitter account and Tweet your blog headlines (I will be blogging about some simple ways to use Twitter effectively soon too). By distributing the content like this you are leveraging your communication and enabling a potentially much bigger audience to see it.