A quick comment on the Small Business 2.0 event: I enjoyed it very much and hats off to Dan and the Conference People team for putting it together.  It was a very telling sign of the times that the audience was not a bunch of “2.0″ nerds, but small businesses either looking at how to branch out from established marketplaces and become really multi-channel, or wanting to get more from the Internet than their traditional web site has given them to date.  There is a clear convergence of interest from SMEs with very different online backgrounds looking into how the Web can become a more effective part of their marketing and sales strategy.  I sincerely hope there will be more Small Business 2.0 events because the need is evident.  

And on that note, I will no longer feel like a miserable sinner and am getting back into the blogging saddle again … yeehaa!

I’m very flattered.  Blogging despite being a social medium is an individual activity and to build up readership takes the long haul.  Blogging communities such as Fuelmyblog are great sources of support, ideas and inspiration and of course readers.

So thanks Fuelmyblog! And now let’s do some blogging.

The article gives a good overview of how a blog can help a small business to market itself and build its brand and has some very nice supporting case studies. But the NYT does suggest that not all companies will be suited to using blogs as a marketing tool for a bunch of reasons, including that they may not have “enough to say”.

I don’t think the latter’s really the issue. Rather blogging (just like podcasting or using video) is a very new marketing tool for small businesses and the rule book hasn’t yet been written. As I’ve seen at BT Tradespace, SMEs are already using blogs in a variety of ways from a direct sales pitch, to source of advice, to general discussion. The level of experimentation is very high.

What is likely to happen is that in the hands of many thousands of small businesses, (the majority of whom will be coming to the medium for the first time), blogging itself is going to change. In fact many of the discussions about what is an appropriate use of blogging for marketing purposes may soon seem quite quaint as SMEs claim the medium for themselves.

As William Gibson said “the future is already here. It’s just not very evenly distributed”. My prediction for 2008 is that the use of blogging and other forms of social media as marketing tools will go well beyond the current niches and become mass market and that as a result we will see a new type and style of online marketing emerge with SMEs in the driving seat.