McCray started her blog because she wanted to share material she was collecting on rural economic development with the people in her community. "I found myself connecting with more and more people about small-business issues," she said.

One of the top concerns for most small towns and their businesses is having a good Web site. Many don't have a Web site at all, and those that do are not very skilled or motivated at updating them. As a result of numerous blog requests, McCray taught a course on Web site design, which resulted in three local businesses launching their own Web sites.

"Comments on my blog have helped me understand the broader picture of what's going on in small-town USA," Kirsch said. "This has prompted me to be more vocal around town about things. This has resulted in pitching a redesign of a local town's Web site and the local paper wanting to establish a digital version of its weekly print edition. My church has also shown an interest in getting a Web site."

With a blog, the newest content is at the top, making it easy for the readers to see what the current stories are. Individual pages can be designed for businesses and other organizations. "It can be daunting to set up, only because of the size of the task," Kirsch said. "Adding buttons to share the content, whether to Facebook, Twitter or a multitude of other places, leaves you with just a couple mouse clicks to share with friends and family."

Promote Local Events

Deb Brown is a business owner and blogger near Waterloo, Iowa. She is also a chamber of commerce member and a board member for the local historical society and tourism board. "My community has been very unaware of social media," she said. "We have created a blog for the historical society. The chamber has made a Facebook page and updates it frequently. There is also a blog for the tourism board. Results have been positive—readership is up, advertisers are starting to call us and people are commenting to us about it."

Blogging is not for every business, Brown stressed. "It's also not for promotion of your business. Blogging should be for telling stories and creating a human face for your business."

"Small-town blogs can be strong advocates for ‘shop local' campaigns that can significantly impact your hometown economy," McCray said. To further support these initiatives, McCray created a downloadable, step-by-step guide to starting a "shop local" campaign.

Cody Heitschmidt, a blogger who owns LogicMaze, a marketing/Web design firm in Hutchinson, Kan., is a big believer in supporting local events through social media. "With all the technology these days, it is so easy to spread the word, grassroots style," he said. "Send e-mails, Facebook, Twitter or a text. Even if you aren't going to the event, throw it a little publicity with your crowd. Some of your friends may want to go and may not know about it. If everyone in Hutchinson got five people to come to the fair from another community, the economic impact from gas station purchases alone would be incredible."

Hutchinson (population 40,000) is home to the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, a Smithsonian Institute museum. Heitschmidt recently organized a blogger "fan tour" for the center and Hutchinson. "We brought in 11 bloggers, mostly from the Midwest, for two days,"

Heitschmidt said. "We took them on a tour. They blogged and tweeted like crazy. They took photos with their phones and sent them out over the Internet. The Cosmosphere's Web site traffic increased almost 300% and could be tracked back directly to the blog posts. Right now there are about 1,400 photos, 60 videos and 100 blogposts on the Internet about the Cosmosphere and Hutchinson. That incredible exposure only cost us about $3,400."