Are you blogging yet?

I have already mentioned blogging in a few entries and now here is an article from the New York Times that discusses blogging for your business.

Blogging is an excellent way to keep your customers up to date on what is happening in your business and to make you a little more personal. Do you think the manager of Wal-Mart has a blog about his store? Maybe one or two may but for the most part is just not part of their job.

One thing the article says that I disagree with is that if you're a restaurant or clothing manufacturer blogging may not be a priority. While I agree that it may not be high on your priority list it should be.

So what can a restaurant blog about?

You can blog about your specials. You will have to plan them a maybe a week in advance but it can pay off. Say you blog on Monday about your specials from Friday and Saturday. One of your regular customers who was not planning to come in next week but sees his favorite dish will be a special, comes in anyway. It did not take you that long to blog and it just sold you some meals.

Other ideas for a restaurant blog would be to put on recipes and have your chef personalize what he does. Now you don't want to give away any important recipes from your restaurant but there why not share some easy to make recipes that your customers can try at home. While some may worry that the customer will stay home instead of coming the restaurant, remember going out is something special and if the customer likes the recipes you give, you will be in their memories.

Just think of the possibilities.