Web site maintenance, website management and web consulting services

Imagine a world where clients tell you exactly what they’re thinking. In this world, your clients don’t hold back. They give you hell when you let them down. And they praise you (sometimes) when you do things right. If you’re at all interested in building a great company, this should sound like a great idea?

Now imagine that this supplier/client interaction takes place online, where anyone can see it. A quick search on Google will show exactly what people think of your company and your products. Not so keen any more, are you? Traditionally business people haven’t seen any point in airing dirty laundry. They try to fix problems with clients quietly, making sure nobody else hears about it. But things have changed since the birth of blogging. People who feel like ranting just rant. And if you’re not around to fix their problem as soon as they hit the ‘publish’ button, you’re probably going to take some serious flack.

If you’re a small business owner or manager, I recommend this approach. Instead of hiding from your clients online, give them an outlet. Start a company blog and ask your clients to give you feedback. You’ll need to be on your toes to keep things under control but it’s actually quite enjoyable once you get started. And your new blog will help your company in a number of ways. For example:

• As the company blogger, you can become a bit of a personality with your clients and suppliers. People like to hear a human voice.
• Sure your blog will attract some negative feedback from clients. But negative feedback can be harnessed and turned around into great PR if you deal with problems quickly.
• Publishing blog posts helps you get information out to your marketplace faster than your sales reps can.
• Building a community of clients online gives you instant permission to market to them (just don’t overdo it).
• Most blogging software has built-in systems to help you spread information, monitor feedback and gather the thoughts of your readers.

A good place to start is to research your competitors. Some of them may already be blogging. If they are, watch how they interact with their audience. You’ll soon see patterns emerging, like the number of RSS subscribers they have, the average number of comments each blog post attracts, the topics they write about and the tone of the writing.

If your competitors are blogging, join them. If they aren’t, start now before they do and get the advantage of being the first person in your industry with the guts to grow your business through public interaction.