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As blogging becomes more mainstream and a common element in strategic marketing plans, people will start shifting their question from “Why should we have a blog?” to “How can we create a good blog?”

The best blogs respect the reader’s intelligence, time and need for something fresh and different. Smart blogs teach, provide food for thought, trigger debate and discussion, and create good conversation. A blog should be a dialogue, not a monologue.

A good blog is not the new place to distribute your company’s press releases or blather about your products. Remember the old sales adage about not talking more than 20 percent of the time? That applies to blogs as well. If you are talking about your organization, your offerings or your specials of the day more than 15-20 percent of the time, you’ll never build an audience.

But it’s not just about the reader. I’m not suggesting that your blog shouldn’t reflect what your company is all about. That will happen naturally over time. When you write almost every day, you can’t avoid giving a glimpse into your company’s culture, beliefs and business practices. The key word, however, is “glimpse.” You don’t put your organization front and center. You put your expertise front and center.

Ultimately, a good blog is one that builds a community. A group of people with shared interests and a willingness to dive into conversations that, in the end, make the entire community smarter.

And ultimately, you win because that community will grow, will share your blog posts with their own networks and will position you as an expert. It’s word-of-mouth marketing on steroids.

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2010 Drew McLellan