The Internet is full of great new ways to communicate and form relationships with your customers. While businesses used to rely on email they can now use forums, social networking sites, RSS feeds, and tons of other means. One great way to talk to your customers and colleagues is through blogging.

While blogging has gained a lot of popularity for social networking and keeping tabs on celebrities, it’s also a great way to keep customers up to date on news, products, opinions, or just about anything. Instead of having to send out bulk email or contact people individually, you can make a quick blog post online and be done. They can include links, products, videos, just about anything you want.

Nowadays, you see businesses claim that they know you or tell you that coming to them is like coming to a friend or neighbor. That’s because business has gotten so big and technical, customers are often treated like a number instead of a person. This is especially true online where there is often little or no personal contact. People like the feeling of knowing someone they are hiring. If they feel like you’re a friend to them, they’re more willing to hire you, buy your products, pay more, and tell their friends about you.

A blog is a great way to make your customers and potential customers feel like they know you and can trust you with their business. Sure, it’s not a real face-to-face conversation, but blogs give you regular contact and are generally much more personal than sales letters or even normal business email. They turn you into a person, not just a business.

If you have a good blog with great content, you can get people talking. If you foster an open environment on your blog, you can get great discussions going on your site. Eventually, people will start talking about your site. And the more people talk about you, the more people hear about you. The best part is, when they talk about you, they’re also going to link back to your site, raising your search engine rankings so even more people can hear about you. Before you know it, you’ve reached hundreds, if not thousands of new customers.

If you do it right, take time, and research your blog topics, you’ll be able to develop a reputation. People talking about you is great, but it doesn’t necessarily make them think you’re credible. A blog can help you build a reputation as an expert in a field. This is especially good if you’re thought of as a helpful expert.

The best part about blogging is that it’s easy. While you’re working on a large project, you can write short blog entries on your breaks. You can write a couple blog posts before you go to bed. Or, if you’re writing a large piece, you can reword parts you write as you go and save them later for blog entries to promote the topic.