UPDATE: John Battelle has a great post up on OPEN Forum about Small Business Blogging using his local hardware store as a case study.  If this is a topic of interest to you, his post is a must read.

A few days ago, I stumbled across hyperlocalblogger.com, a blog about hyperlocal blogging (very meta, I know).  It’s written by Matt McGee who is using hyperlocal blogging to help his wife’s real estate business.  Matt has been writing a series called How To Start A Hyperlocal Blog.  His series is targeted primarily at local businesses who are looking for ways to create deeper connections with thier customers and find new business.

I’m a huge fan of hyperlocal blogs.  I think that they are a great way for neighbors to share information about their neighborhoods with each other.  At Neighborsville, one of the centerpieces of our platform will be the Neighborhood Blogs.  This is a chance for neighbors to share their thoughts about their neighborhood with each other and discuss the issues they find as most important.

But Matt brings up a different point and that is blogging for small businesses.  Every small business owner has a specialty whether it’s books, real estate, plumbing or whatever that most of their customers have little or no experience with.  There’s tremendous value for a business to establish themselves as an expert in their field for people who are looking for information.  Yet for some reason, very few business owners blog.  This is a function of two things.  First, it takes time…and that’s something that small business owners have very little of.  Second, blogging is not one of the things that they are experts in.

We think it’s critical for small business owners to have an outlet to share their expertise with their customer base.  At Neighborsville, small businesses will have the opportunity to blog along side their neighbors about what they know best without having to setup or maintain their own blog and they’ll be able to do it in a forum that’s readily accessible to the people in the neighborhoods they serve.

Part of our mission is to give small business owners the tools that they need to create deeper connections with their audiences.  We’re designing simple tools that will allow small business owners to easily create new content that their neighbors want to see–not banner ads or search ads.  Imagine a local restaurant sharing some of their favorite recipes or a landscaper talking about what the best kinds of shade trees are as summer approaches.  Sharing these key insights is critical for businesses to create stronger relationships with their customers and expand their reach to new customers as well.

If you’re a small business owner, I encourage you to read Matt’s series and see how blogging might be able to help you reach your business goals.