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Blogs are not only for retail or consultative businesses; one of the strengths of community blogging in specific is that it has some incredible benefits to professional networking organizations, charity groups, and other non-profit alliances.

Blogs by nature invite and encourage an active online dialogue to happen. This conversation does not need to be about money, it can be about ethics, morality, professionalism, community growth, or even the little league team of the elementary school down the street. When there is a subject that is true and dear to our hearts, it will create a sense of community. What better then, to discuss the subjects that are within our organizations?

10 Ways Organizations Can Use Blogs

Share events and conferences

The Blog Business Summit is a great example of this. Just visit www.technorati.com and do a search for BBS06. Many summits, events, and conferences are being exposed live on the net through blogging.

Involve your team and take advantage of their intellectual, creative, and motivational ideas

As I said in an interview a little while ago “the best asset of any community is the talent of its members”, take advantage of sharing ideas and working from an open dialogue within your own team.

Utilize volunteers to the best of their ability

Most organizations have members who have amazing abilities that are under-utilized or even left unknown. By having a community based conversation, members are exposed to projects and ideas that could benefit from their expert skills.

Document stream of thought and members work

Blogging allows ideas to be recorded and searched through later. How many times have you been in a conversation and heard “that is a great idea!” only to have everyone completely forget about it the next day?

Step beyond the internal team and gather support from community members

My quote ““the best asset of any community is the talent of its members” is misleading. I’m not talking about just your “members”. I’m talking about anyone you can involve in an active conversation about what you are doing. Example- I just had lunch with my friend Kevin Hoffberg- the conversation was free, and he gave some excellent professional feedback regarding several projects I’m involved with.

Get input, take action

When you find a rough spot in a project, don’t contain the problem. Turn to professional and involved community members and actively invite them into the conversation. What you perceive as a problem is probably a simple mistake that is apparent from a new point of view.

Get media coverage

Encouraging and recording community dialogue on a project is a great tool in a media kit. Radio stations are always looking to interview local organizations (and the FCC even requires they devote time to local topics), newspapers are looking to become involved anywhere local eyes are reading information, and television station love a good “home grown” story.

Give your team a chance to become an EXPERT

You know how skilled people in your organization are, they know how talented they are… so give them a chance to share that talent and skill with the world. By expressing themselves to the community, they bring a unique promotional tool to your organization as they become local industry experts who community members seek out.

Reach potential donors, multiply your social network, increase your membership

It is basic math: every person who works on a project in an organization is a key tool for reaching hundreds of possible volunteers and donors. For example: assume you have 10 members on your team. If all ten write a short commentary about an issue your organization is overcoming, they can all invite family and friends to participate in that dialogue. Fairly soon 10 members becomes 100 readers, and a 100 readers give you the tools you need to recruit 10 new members.

Some amazing facts about bloggers

In 2005, 50 million Americans (30 percent of all American Internet users) visited a blog. (Source- Comscore)

The average blog reader spends 23 hours online per week. Other web users average 13 hours.

Blog readers are 11 percent more likely to have an income of $75k or greater.

Blog readers are 11 percent more likely to have high-speed internet access.

Community members are joining the conversation. The question you need to ask yourself-

When will you give them a topic worth having a conversation about?

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