You may have already chosen an author for your small business blog, but hopefully you didn’t forget to think about how that person will represent your business across the Internet during their marketing efforts. It is unlikely that your blog’s author will spend all their time on your blog as it’s a basic necessity of blogging to get out and promote your blog in as many online venues as possible.

Your blog’s author can have all the time, passion and knowledge in the world, but that won’t help your blog in the publicity war fought daily across the blogospehere. They need to be actively spreading the message on blogs, forums and other online venues where your prospects spend time and to do so in a professional manner. There are times when people may not agree with what they have to say, and how they handle their response could make or break how prospects view your business or blog before they’ve even had a chance to visit it for a first time.

Your blog’s author has to be diplomatic in all their correspondences and should attempt to help people with every comment they leave instead of just spamming your blog’s address everywhere they go. Remember, your author is basically the face of your company on the Internet. Maintaining professionalism is not difficult in the confines of your small business blog, but out in the vastness of the rest of the Internet, it’s quite easy to forget that you are representing something other than yourself and to keep that in mind at all times.

Your blog’s author is very likely going to have to answer questions from media or other bloggers interested in your business, as well. Being professional during these conversations is very important because one wrong answer can be easily spread across the Internet in literally minutes, causing irreversible damage to your company’s reputation. This professional consistency is yet another reason why it is best to have the business owner write for your blog, but if this is not possible, you may want to have occasional training sessions for whomever is chosen to author your blog. In these sessions, you can stress the importance of maintaining a consistent personality regardless of where the author is representing your business online. You can also discuss how to reply to possible questions so they are prepared ahead of time, reducing the chance they say something offensive or embarrassing.

Whether it’s on a blog, a forum, a social network or a social media site, your blog’s author needs to understand the position they are in. They are more than a blogger and should be trained to understand that they are the face to your company, even when posting a comment on a MySpace page or participating in a debate on a competitor’s blog. Prepare your author for as many circumstances as possible so that they don’t post something inappropriate in haste and to craft consistent messages that will progress your marketing efforts instead of damaging them. Your blog’s success may just depend on it.

For the other tips in this series, click a link below:

Choosing An Author Tip #1 - Knows your business inside and out

Choosing An Author Tip #2 - Can put the time into blogging consistently

Choosing An Author Tip #3 - Has passion to blog thoroughly ever day

Choosing An Author Tip #5 - Can represent your company outside of the Internet

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