Small business: to blog or not to blog, that is the question

Our 6 (or so) posts per week will resume next year. Meanwhile, here's a quick one.

Today the New York Times rounded up some opinions on whether or not a small business should blog.

The skeptic's quote came from Guy Kawasaki (noted blogger, marketer, author and VC):

If you're a clothing manufacturer or a restaurant, blogging is probably not as high on your list as making good food or good clothes.

Er, right. But that doesn't answer the real question: should a small business that makes a good product use blogging as a means to get the word out? (Important note: Guy may well have had a more useful answer as part of a longer discussion; the above could have been a poor selection by the NYT writer.)

With the popularity of food shows on TV, a restaurant seems like a reasonable candidate for a blog. As for clothing, I happen to know of an example (not covered in the article) of a success story attributed to blogging, English Cut:

I'm very fortunate to be so busy these days. I'm not even able to accept orders from my existing clients, that's how busy it is, so sadly I'm unable to consider any new ones.

(The "motivating force" behind English Cut's blog: Hugh MacLeod of gaping void.)

Read the article for more examples.