I love the movie, “Jerry Maguire.” It’s very inspirational and exciting even if you’re not a sports fan. But a small business owner can learn an important lesson through one of the messages delivered within the script.

Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruise, is a 35-year-old sports agent working for a popular player management firm. When he leaves his firm to go out on his own, Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) decides to remain with Maguire for representation. Throughout the movie, Maguire and Tidwell develop a strong relationship because of their trust and affinity for one another. By the end of the movie, this strong bond between player and agent becomes evident, leaving other players to question their agents why they don’t have a similar relationship.

In any business, it’s important to have this kind of relationship with your customers. Having a blog helps you build this kind of a relationship.

Blogging has the ability to deliver fantastic customer loyalty and increased sales because of its customer engagement and marketing capabilities. A blog is a great way to provide information to your customers. More importantly, though, is that it’s a fantastic way to give your customers a sense of community since you’re giving them a voice, and establish and strengthen your relationship with them. Blogging makes it easy for customers to post comments and thoughts, giving them a critical voice in what they think and how they feel about the company. Over time, this community and open forum goes a long way towards driving customer loyalty and brand excitement.

A second benefit to blogging is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). By posting articles or posts on your blog once or twice a week you are providing new content for search engines to review and rank you for. With some time and a little effort to post regularly you can start to improve you search engine rankings and increase traffic to you site.

Fortunately, it’s never been easier to set up a blog. And every single business can start one.

Wordpress and Blogger are two more popular applications to help you set up a blog. Both are very easy to follow. Check out this post to learn a little more about starting your own blog. When done correctly, a blog fosters a deep sense of community and provides an easy way to make updates and posts so fresh content can be added daily.

The value proposition of having a blog is even greater if you’re a small business since it is a great way to have an online presence and show your expertise in your industry. And since blog content has the tendency to be viral, your online presence can grow exponentially, making your business appear larger than it really is. Micro-blogging through Twitter can help significantly with this.

For more information about blogging for your business, make sure to check out the #smbiz Twitter chat on March 31st from 8-9 p.m. eastern.

Are you thinking of setting up your own blog? Have you already found success with a blog? Tell us about it here and leave a comment.