If there is one small business owner I could point to as a model for others, it is J.D. Iles, owner of a four-person custom sign shop in Lincoln, New Hampshire.
J.D. started his blog Signs Never Sleep in 2004 because he needed an easy way to update his otherwise static Web site and blogs fit the bill.
In the beginning, J.D. confessed he didn’t know what he was doing. He posted about his work, but mixed in posts about both his family and the local area. (Not a bad idea in my opinion if done in moderation.)
One of the strategies he began to use that proved to be highly effective was showing photos of signs in the process of being made. Not only did it demonstrate his artistry and craftsmanship, but served as good PR for his clients as well. Seeing a sign being made, there was no question that J.D. completely understood his craft.
He later experimented with the use of video, but quickly returned to a combination of photos and text. “While I could shoot the video in a few minutes, editing proved to be a time-consuming process. I determined it wasn’t the best possible use of my time,” he said. “I backed away from video pretty quickly.”
When asked what part his blog played in his overall marketing plan, his response was straightforward and concise: “The blog has been my only form of marketing. I even pulled my yellow page ads!”
Based on his extensive experience, J.D. sees a number of benefits to using a blog, search engine optimization being chief among them. He has found the medium as a way to generate leads and close sales. “People will call me who have seen the blog and say ‘You’re doing our sign, no questions asked.’”
When asked what advice he would give to small business owners considering the use of a blog, J.D. says it’s certainly worth a try. “Many industries are not using blogs at all and being in a first mover position will give you great advantage. Not only that, many of those who are using them aren’t doing so effectively,” he states.
One caution he gives is to be patient and understand that it will take time, but that blogging will pay off. “If you blog for a year, no one will be able to catch up with you on Google,” he says.
J.D. has become a mentor to others in his industry and has turned his blog into something of an online community for custom sign-making. “It is another step in my blogging evolution,” he says. However, J.D.’s influence extends far beyond his industry. His story has been written up not only in my book, The Digital Handshake, but in a number of others dating as far back as 2005.
Because of his experience and success using blogs, J.D. serves as a model for any small business and is proof positive that social media can and does work.

It depends on your goals
Every blog needs to have a reason to exist. Let me suggest a few:

1. Inform or educate the public
2. Encourage dialogue with current and potential customers
3. Convey a sense of company personality and culture
4. Entertain readers and customers

If either of the last two are goals you have for your blog, such “behind the scenes” content could (and should) be included.
Relationship marketing
It has long been established that blogs are useful relationship-building tools. They put a human face on a company and allow customers to connect with real people, not just brands. As Future Buzz blogger Adam Singer put it, “On the web, people are what matter, not brands.”
Frankly, I believe that people would rather do business with people rather than businesses and, better yet, people they know. While that may seem to be less important where B2B is concerned, think about this: It is not so much a matter of making prospective customers like your company, products or services, but helping them to like you and gain a greater sense of loyalty and trust as a result. What better way to do that than through your blog.
One client of mine a few years ago, a fitness equipment manufacturer, maintained a blog largely focused on fitness and health tips. Its goal was to do #1 from above, educate and inform.
On occasion, however, posts would be included that share some insight about the people who made the products. Those posts were at times informational, inspirational, or even humorous. One that was especially memorable showed a photo of the CEO sliding down the rail of an escalator at an airport while on his way to a tradeshow. That photo told a story and gave readers insight into the CEO’s personality. (“He is a fun guy.”)
Not only that, but now that brands are connecting on what is the most personable of social networks, Twitter, there seems to me to be natural relevancy to including some anecdotal-style posts.
How much is enough
Whille there is no rule-of-thumb to what makes for a healthy balance of informative posts vs. slice of life, let me suggest that “less is more” and “a little goes a long way.”
One B2B company that does a great job of mixing fun posts with informative ones (and sometimes a given post is a mashup of both) is Hubspot. Their Hubspot TV video series is affable enough to tickle anyone’s funny bone (take their You Oughta Know video as a case in point), yet doesn’t predominate, but fits comfortably in with more informationally-oriented ones.
We’re attempting to use the same tact with our company blog at Bizzuka. Mixed in with posts on CMS workflow management and announcements about new sites and platform components you’ll find a post about snow in south Louisiana, our COO’s trip to Alaska and an inspirational one about Thanksgiving. While I admit it’s a bit hodge-podge, the blog serves each of the purposes listed above.
Keep it in good taste
I realize that is a) stating the obvious and b) very subjective. My preference is to err on the side of caution. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. It’s not just a matter of taking care not to offend customers and prospects either, but members of your board and investors as well.
Search engine optimization issues
Not only are blogs useful for relationship marketing, they serve a vital SEO role as well. Sometimes, those two benefits can run counter to each other. In an effort to tell your company’s story from both more personal and professional angles, you can send mixed signals to Google.
For the sake of search engines, it’s best to keep your company blog singularly focused. That does not, however, prohibit the occasional inclusion of ancillary information. Again, I reiterate, “less is more.”
The aforementioned commenter included this well-stated remark: “It sounds as though the best thing to do is to try and strike a happy medium between the individuality and character of a social blog and the professionalism and content of a business blog. Am I on the right track?”
Again, depending on your company’s goals, I’d say the answer is yes. What do you think?

Allow me to respond to the first in this post followed by a response to the second tomorrow.
Single voice or many voices
There is ample precedent for either approach, but I think the choice comes down to a matter of a) the availability of personnel resources and b) the company culture.
For example, I work for a small software company with 30 employees. We’ve made a conscious decision to incorporate blogs and social media into our marketing paradigm. In fact, we’re in the process of rolling out a new multi-blog site called User Friendly Thinking (yet to go live) and have nine employees contributing to it. Well, we are supposed to have nine contributors. The last time I checked, only three posts had been written.
That’s not a castigation of either our employee contributors or the company. It is a statement of the fact that these people have other things to do and the time they have to blog is limited.
The lack of activity also speaks to the fact that our company has yet to fully embrace the mantra that “markets are conversations” and “participation is marketing.” We’re only now coming to grips with the philosophy that marketing is no longer relegated to the marketing department.
I suspect that’s a mindset shared by many companies, large and small. Take into consideration that, according to Burson Marsteller, only 15 percent of Fortune 500s are making effective use of blogs and that percentage far exceeds the number of small businesses engaged in some form of social media marketing and my point is made.
Enough complaining Paul…answer the question!
Given that a company could commit personnel resources and has adopted a transparent, participatory mindset, if I had my druthers, I’d choose to have many voices speaking to the blogosphere rather than one.
The reasons are manifold:

• For one, it gives the company much more Google juice, especially if the blogs are outside the company’s own server/IP range.
• Second, it increases the amount of content available for both search engines and humans to consume. That translates into the potential for higher traffic, a greater likelihood that others will link to the content, and improved SERPs.
• Third, it gives the company many human touch points.

Take Microsoft for example. What started most famously with Robert Scoble has now spread across the vast expanse of the organization to include approximately 4000 employee bloggers, according to the Blog Council’s Michael Rubin. The company has even created a portal to house them. (Some of them at least. Many employees maintain their own personal blogs.)
While it’s still only a small percentage of the total employee base, it’s not the number that’s of greatest significance, but the philosophy that says rather than have one human touch point, why not have many.
Dell takes a similar approach. Their digital media team consists of 46 employees (yes, 46!) who contribute to a dozen blogs and who constantly monitor and engage the blogosphere and Twitterverse for mentions of Dell. (One of the team members well-known to many of you, Richard Binhammer, told me via Twitter that it’s becoming “everyone’s” job.)
Good for them, but I own a small business
I come back to my original premise. It’s a matter of available personnel resources combined with company culture. Organizations who have adopted a mindset that social media is no longer merely the purview of the marketing or PR departments are succeeding at building a positive reputation and stronger brand online.
If a company’s resources are limited to the degree they can only afford to dedicate one person, I say one is better than none. It’s important to have a voice in the blogosphere, even if it’s a soloist.
The question then arises, who should that person be? The marketing director? CEO? Customer service manager?
If you have someone at the helm like Michael Hyatt, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing, then absolutely the CEO. Michael has a transparent spirit and a unique, warm and engaging voice that’s been honed over years of blogging. He has led his company to embrace blogging – including company blogs and book review blogs – to the point where it’s part of their corporate DNA.
Unfortunately, not many companies are blessed with someone as well-suited to blogging as Mike Hyatt. In that case, I would suggest finding a person, up or down the line, who is already actively engaged in the social mediasphere and who understands the environment, regardless of their departmental affiliation or position. Give them a new title, Chief Blogger, or even a new job!
A great example of this is a New Orleans oilfield services company, Halo Supply. When Halo commissioned their new site they needed someone to maintain it and found an employee, Tyrus Smith, who worked, believe it or not, as a delivery truck driver. Tyrus had, on his own, learned HTML and Web design. One day he was driving a delivery truck and the next managing the company Web site. (You gotta love that!) Now, Tyrus is putting a number of social media forms into play, including YouTube videos, Picasa photo albums and, very soon, a company blog.
Finally, what about the “faceless voice?”
My answer is straightforward — absolutely not! Both the blog and social mediaspheres are built on twin cornerstones of authenticity and transparency. Having a nameless, faceless “voice” in no way represents either of those ethics. Not only that, social media marketing is really “personality marketing.” Just read Rohit Bhargava’s new book Personality Not Included and you’ll see what I mean.
Bottom line, if your company can devote multiple personnel to blogging and social media engagement, I encourage it. If not, commission at least one person to be your voice crying in the wilderness. And it doesn’t have to be the CEO. Given Halo’s example, it might be someone you’d never expect.
Tomorrow I’ll answer the sequel question, “Should a company have one person as it’s ‘voice’ in the market via various social media platforms?”
Got questions about the “how-tos” of blogging or social media? The handyman is here to help. Either leave a comment or email me at pchaney at gmail dot com. I’ll be happy to address them.
(BTW – Sorry for the latency in posting of late, especially considering I just started. Not exactly a good precedent. However, New York City beckoned and my wife, Amie, and I had to heed the call.)

The term “handyman” morphed into an even more descriptive one that subsequently led to Ann extending an invitation to blog here as the “social media handyman.” I love it, as the moniker truly fits my approach to all thing social media related. After all, everyone needs a handyman from time to time.
Along with the privilege of blogging here comes responsibility. Ann has tasked me with a job, in fact, that of answering your questions about how to use the tools of social media for marketing and business communications purposes. Therefore, I would like to ask you to submit questions in the form of a comment to get the ball rolling.
I’ll be covering topics like:

• How can blogs help me market my business?
• How can I use Facebook for marketing purposes?
• What’s the deal with Twitter?
• What are the best social networks to use in building my social graph?

The list is truly endless, but rather than me presupposing what social media tools and techniques you’d like to get a better handle on, let me ask you to submit a question(s) via a comment to this post. Alternatively, you can email me at pchaney [at] gmail [dot] com.
I plan to update at least once per week (my frequency depends on how many questions I get). In between, you can check out The Social Media Handyman blog for more updates. Now, it’s your turn — ask away!