Your blog is an excellent way for you to control your message. The inherent properties of a blog make its use helpful in controlling the content published about your business: timeliness, the ability to offer a behind-the-scenes perspective, the ability to host multiple writers, and the ability to publish your information to other channels.

Your blog may be a hosted Blogger or Wordpress.com account or a self-hosted Wordpress.org installation. It may be a Tumblr.com or Posterous.com account, or it may be a Drupal site with complex functional elements.

Whichever format you choose, your blog establishes a presence that shares your unique perspective on topics and issues relevant to your company.

Tip #1: What to Blog About:
Typical blog topics include industry news, information about your business, key players in your industry, upcoming events, original research you've published, and general musings on your company's growth.

Tip #2: How to Behave:
As you interact with readers, demonstrate graciousness, calm, steadiness, and support. By doing so, you contribute to the growth of an expanding network of fans, friends, followers, and connections. You also provide a window into what it is like for a customer to do business with you.

Tip #3: Demonstrate Respect & Show Gratitude:
Treat your community with respect and value your connections with others by operating your blog with respect, gratitude, and integrity. Your blog is an excellent way to maintain ongoing posts to update friends, associates, and customers.

Tip #4: Extend your Reach:
Consider inviting your website and blog visitors to join your opt-in mailing list. Options like Google Groups, Constant Contact, Vertical Response, PHPList or other solutions allow you to send targeted messages to people who demonstrate interest in your work. Consider developing a Feedburner.com feed from your blog posts - people may subscribe in a reader or via e-mail to access your posts whenever you publish them.

Tip #5: Resonate with your Readers:
Your goal with blogging is to find others who resonate with you and your message. You want to have 10,000 fans who love your product, instead of a 1,000,000 people who don't really pay attention. Your blog readers provide a window into your customer base and they provide an excellent first point of contact for building your community list. By providing an authentic point-of-view, you will find others who resonate with your values and message.