When Is Not Blogging Good for Business?

There are some who will argue that blogging is always good for business. This isn't exactly true. There are certain times, no matter what your business is, that blogging isn't good for business. For this reason it is important that you invest time and effort into deciding how committed you are going to be to the blogging process and whether or not you are going to go to the effort of sticking by your blogging plan. The real question begins to become, how can blogging be bad for business? It is possible and to avoid this possibility you should be on guard against certain things so that your blog doesn't become a liability to your online business efforts.

When can blogging be bad for business?

1) When readers find it offensive. The written word is tricky. It lacks the inflection that spoken word can often bring and leaves a lot of room for interpretation and, in this day and age, to seriously offend. The problem is that it is very difficult to undo damage that has been done. You've heard that you can't un-ring a bell. The same holds true when you post something offensive in your blog. Be careful in the words you choose and the type of humor you try to insert into your blog. Even innocent remarks have a habit of coming back to haunt you. The best way to avoid offending someone is to carefully review every word before it is printed to ensure that there is nothing the least bit off color in the blog post.

2) When the language isn't professional. Blogging allows you to be a little more casual than many other means of professional communication. Some bloggers take it too far. Depending on what your business goals are you need to keep your blog professional sounding, while not sounding corporate. Watch the use of profanity, slang, and other terms that may be considered less than professional and pay attention to grammar, though the rules are often a little more relaxed for blogs it is still a good idea to pay attention to some of the more basic and widely expected rules of grammar.

3) When it is negative or trashes other professionals. While the rant works well for celebrities like Dennis Leary, it doesn't really go over very well when it comes to a professional blog. If you really want to make a good impression and bring in business then you need to keep it positive and upbeat. Trashing your competition is definitely not the way to make people want to buy your products. In fact, it will often backfire and have them checking out your competitors.

Blogging in general is good. Responsible blogging is even better. At the same time, making bad decisions about the content of your blog can be the kiss of death and cost you more lost business than you'll ever realize. Negative statements or unprofessional comments and remarks in a blog have a bad habit of going viral before you can do anything to take them back. Make sure this doesn't happen to your blog or it could be very bad for business.