6 Blogging Ideas For Your Small Business Blog

You've created a blog for your business, picked an easy-on-the eye design and gained a following on Twitter. Now, people are expecting to read something... but what do you write about?

It's happened many times in the past to me. I open Blogger, click 'Create new post' and am confronted with a blank screen and no ideas to fill it with. It's inevitable.

But fear not - over this series I will give you some ideas and inspiration to use to create content for your small business blog:

#1 Profile your employees

Introduce your staff to your customers! This is a great way to generate content (providing you have a few members of staff) and build trust with your readers.

It's simple to do: take a photo of your staff at work (smiling, of course!), then ask them a series of questions. Maybe along the lines of:

· Name?

· Age?

· How long you've worked here?

· What role do you play?

· Best thing about working for us?

· Worst thing about working for us? (Use your discretion when publishing these answers...!)

· What you do in your spare time?

· Etc, etc, etc

By doing this readers will see the faces behind your company. They can see you are all hardworking, real people. You can either do this as a series (maybe one a week) or as a one-off where you profile everyone in one post. Just make sure you profile yourself as well!

#2 Make an FAQ post

What do people ask you when they come into your shop/office/restaurant? Do they often email or ring you with questions? Creating an FAQ post will prove valuable when people search for information about your business.

Gather together the most obvious questions people tend to ask - whether they are about your prices, location or opening hours - and answer them briefly. And don't worry about missing things out because you can always update the post as new questions arise.

#3 Give away a trade secret

This is a brilliant one for any kind of small business. Not only does revealing a secret give your customers free advice they may find very useful, it helps cement you as an expert in your trade.

Maybe it will be "The best thing you can do to treat split-ends" for a hairdressers or "How to keep your pizza base crispy" for a pizzeria. Remember, just because you think something is obvious it doesn't mean your customers will - for them it may be a revelation and another reason to go to you next time they need to spend money! 

#4 Give a behind the scenes tour of your business

Whether it's a restaurant, a florists or a computer repair shop, chances are people only ever see the front of house. Beyond the counter is a mystery to them. Why not quench their inquisitive side with the opportunity to see what the back rooms look like and what goes on there. Take photos of your staff doing their jobs and write about it.

#5 Write about your typical day

This is similar to the previous tip, though it concentrates on you as the busy owner/manager of the business. Write a chronological time line of what you do on a typical day - including opening up, checking stock, making products, doing deliveries, cleaning and closing. Remember, it's fine to exaggerate a little and combine a week's worth of work into one day, to give your readers an interesting flavour of what you get up to.

#6 Show off your charity work

Does your bakery run a Christmas raffle to help a local charity? Or maybe your business gives back to the community in other ways? You'll want to show off your charity work - not just for the good publicity for your business, but for the exposure it will give to the charity you help. Explain why you support them, how you support them and what you plan to do for charity in the future. Remember to use plenty of photos or - even better - a video clip, which you can embed on your blog from YouTube.