Like anything involving business, a blog should be part of an overall web-based business strategy. It should serve a purpose and that purpose should be clearly defined and understood. Moreover, if a business decides to blog, they should learn a bit about how to best use engage the blogosphere.

Lee Goff from GetUWired asked the question a while back, do you need a blog? He wrote:

Many small businesses are finding that a business blog is the best way to both establish a web presence and disseminate information to clients, customers and employees. …The best small business marketing blog allows a company to handle all kinds of dynamic information exchange internally and with the public.

Now his writing is a little dry for my taste – and he never really answers the question – but it did get me thinking…why do small businesses and service-oriented professionals need to be blogging? What do they gain? And what are they missing out on if they don’t blog?