Blogging is a low-expenditure, high-reward tool that can manage marketing and public relations, raise the company profile and build the brand. Although blogs may be beneficial to many small businesses, even blogging experts don’t advocate it for the majority. One prolific blogger put it this way: “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.”

Not every small business has the large time commitment and writing skills that blogging requires.

But there are companies that are well-suited to blogging. The most apparent candidates, says Aliza Sherman Risdahl, author of “The Everything Blogging Book”, are consultants. “They are experts in their fields and are in the business of telling people what to do.”

For other companies, Ms. Risdahl said, it can be arduous to find an appropriate reason for blogging unless the sector assisted has a steep learning curve (like wine), a lifestyle affiliated with specific products or service (like camping gear or pet products) or a social mission (like mending the environment or donating a portion of income to charity).

Still, within those niches, Ms. Risdahl said that companies must focus on a strategy for their blogging and decide if they have enough to say.

An attractive motivation for blogging, particularly for companies that desire to be identified as mission-oriented or socially responsible, is transparency.

For businesses in the technology realm, maintaining a blog is pretty much required. Still, Tony Stubblebine, the founder and chief executive of CrowdVine, a company that designs and implements social networks for conferences, said that one of his primary considerations for blogging is to demonstrate that his business model is unlike the typical technology start-up.

Countless small business bloggers reach their goals even if only a handful or a few hundred people read their blogs. But some companies aim much higher.