It’s another form of customer service, because it’s another way to “touch” their customers and provide additional services.

As for trying to “encourage your customers to share their experiences with your business with local search engines like Yahoo! Local or Google Local.” Yeah, sure. It’s hard enough to get them to fill out a customer survey even when you offer incentives.

I just convinced a group of small business owners to start their business blogs - each company a blog for themselves.

The good thing about this:
Even if the companies are only dealing with local or at least regional customers, they belong to a nationwide franchise-group.

Adding to all the advantages, mentioned above, come the point: That whenever a customers come to one of their blogs, and gets interested in the philosophy of the company and the group, he can easily klick on to that local company, which is next to him.

Does blogging make a business more findable? Approachable?

I think there are many ways a pizza joint can use blogging to improve their bottom line. I also think Mike’s suggestions are solid - but to ignore blogging could prove unwise down the road.

I also think that this is particularly true for small businesses that offer near-commodities (dry cleaners, hardware store, dog groomers, etc). They MUST differentiate themselves, and their customers must perceive them as different from the alternative. A blog is a far better tool for doing that than a few reviews on a local search engine.

Second, I think you’re approaching small businesses blogging from a macro perspective, me from a micro one.

Your travel business example is great. It’s a local shop but it has services with a macro appeal, so you’re right, blogging may have a measurable return. But for a local pizza joint, like the example I used, it’s all about a micro appeal, and blogging doesn’t make any sense for that sort of business.

Appreciate your perspective on this…