One of the most important reasons for having a blog is to establish or enhance your ad agency or business as an expert in a particular niche. Being seen as a credible, trustworthy and knowledgeable source that provides useful (as opposed to self-serving) content can have big payoffs down the road.

Your organization’s blog also gives you continuous opportunities to demonstrate that you:

•       Are an effective communicator

•       Have the ability to solve problems

•       Are well connected within your industry

•       Know about important industry developments and trends

There are three basic approaches to business blogging:

1. Become a subject matter expert (SME) who provides fresh thinking, insights or commentary on a topic.

2. Make the blog a news channel that reports information readers may not yet have come across.

3. Create a blog that’s a mix of the two—part SME and part news channel.

There’s nothing wrong with using your blog as a news source, but ask yourself this: Is a prospective customer or client going to be more impressed with someone who is current on the latest industry buzz or with someone who’s creating it?

“The benefits of being an SME depend on the specifics of the industry, but the universal benefit is differentiation. And differentiation usually equals more business. For example, it could mean more leads or the ability to charge a higher hourly rate for consulting, speaking, or training,” writes Mark Faggiano, founder and CEO of Brand5, an Internet marketing consulting company.

I’ve been blogging for nearly three years now, and my content has been a mix of PR tips, insights and commentary combined with PR news. But after reading in Mark’s excellent article in Social Media Today about ways to become a subject matter expert on Twitter, I’ve challenged myself to apply his advice to blogging by focusing on creating more original content and less reporting of news throughout 2012.

Don Beehler provides public relations consulting services to advertising agencies and businesses.