Expose yourself a little

Tonight I was doing research on two dissimilar topics. First, I was researching a little on web marketing. Second, I was doing some research on HP's Web Jetadmin utility. Here is what I found. Enquiro Research's Jody Nimetz has a post from last week about the reasons why a business should blog. There are some great points there as to why people may blog. I like the list of reasons a business should blog. Here is the list (but you should check out the full post here):

• To interact with your clients and customers.
• To build your authority on a topic of interest.
• To communicate the upcoming launch of a new product.
• To build brand awareness.
• To address reputation management issues.
• To build trust with others.  Blogging can help humanize you and your business.
• To provide a feedback mechanism via comments where users can address your point of view with one of their own.
• To generate a viral buzz about your product, your company or your industry.

There is one thing that I think should be on the list. That is to provide a forum of discussion about you that you can control. I have found that a business blog is an opportunity for a business to have conversations with many people at one time... an opportunity for people to leave feedback (negative or positive) and give the business an opportunity to address concerns that may be left to talk elsewhere. How does this relate to HP WebJet Admin? Well, I was doing some research and read the HP LasterJet Blog. In April 2007, Vince Ferraro of HP wrote an article on the blog about the benefit of HP Webjet Admin. What a great opportunity for HP to talk about their offerings. I think that the post was well written... but here is the rub: the comments. For the next six months, there were 11 comments from various readers, but only two from Vince in response. The comments indicated frustration that although the post sounded great, HP fell short in providing the software. For example, one commenter said, "Where is web jet admin v10? This is typical of HP, They have not even updated the web site to state the ETA. How unprofessional!!" Finally, after six months of readers wondering where the download link was, a reader (not the author) said, "Just unearthed an FTP download..." and then provided the link. It was a missed opportunity for HP to provide valuable, timely feedback to its readers. For every one that comments on a blog, there are countless others that feel the same way. Countless others feel the frustration and simply want to be talked to. When you have a blog, be prepared... you are going to expose yourself... a lot. Make sure that you use it as an opportunity to grow, to learn and to be better. Use it as an opporunity to provide timely communication to your customers. If you don't, people will say that your poor performance is "typical."

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Corey Smith is a co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free.