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Web Seminar and face to face meet up this Thursday 7 June 2007-06-04 18:37:37 As you may be aware, I have started doing some blogging for British Telecom on their BT Business Blog which is aimed at providing small and medium sized companies with online information and news which will help their businesses.
In addition, I’m taking part in two linked events which are happening this Thursday
- one online and the other offline in London - both of which I hope will be of interest to you!
WEB SEMINAR
Firstly, there is a Web Seminar
on Online communities, Social Networking and Blogging which is just one of a series of web seminars that BT run as part of their Business Club activities. It’s free to particpate in and you can find a summary and how to register on their website.
As part of the web seminar, you will also have the chance to learn more about the BT Tradespace service which is an online community that brings small businesses and individual sellers together with potential customers to do business. Basic membership of Tradespace is also free so it i
ebay buys StumbleUpon 2007-05-31 18:34:21 More movement in the social bookmarking arena as yesterday ebay confirmed that they had moved in to buy StumbleUpon
for a valuation of $75 million.
Quite where the synergies are is yet to be revealed, but it is interesting to see the moves into this area by the big boys, perhaps hitching a ride on a growing bandwagon? There was of course the much bigger move in this arena by Yahoo at the end of 2005 when they bought deli.cio.us and no doubt there will be others in the wings.
As far as StumbleUpon goes, well there have certainly been lots of developments since I first stumbled across it (sic!) about a year ago - I was then recommended to have another look at it by Des Walsh earlier this year and certainly the functionality has advanced a great deal as have the number of subscribers using the system.
By way of a test, I am also trying a small experiment by marketing through them - specific pages are shown to people expressing an interest in the areas I nominate and a “per view&rdqu
Business Blog Design: Onpage Advertising 2007-05-29 18:26:11 [This is part of a series following on from a post called “Business
Blog Design“]
I see so many blogs that are clearly well thought out in terms of their content and seem to have a lot of things going for them which then go and spoil it by plastering Google AdWords adverts or other onpage advertising all over their blog.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against onpage advertising per se - it’s a perfectly good way of developing revenue from a blog, albeit one that is seeing diminishing returns for those who are merely “dabbling” with it, rather than looking at it as a business activity.
Planning and Goals
Once again, it comes down to the planning process and your blog’s goals. If you are looking to have a blog which has a primary goal of using onpage advertising to generate revenue, then of course you are going to make best use of the key areas on your blog and populate them with suitable advertising banners and links.
If, however, you are us Read more:Advertising
Blog SEO: What’s the most important element? 2007-05-24 12:21:17 There has been a recent revision to a report which first made an appearance last year, where 37 of the finest minds in the SEO
arena were asked to appraise the various elements which can be used as part of a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) programme - White Hat SEO programme, of course.
Their opinions and comments were recorded and distributed in Search Engine Ranking Factors V2 which is probably the most comprehensive report of its type in terms of listing and appraising individual factors that I have seen. In any case, particularly given the people involved, it is certainly something to take a careful look at as you embark on any type of optimisation of your blog.
So what is the most important?
The element which was given the greatest value overall, and hence considered the most important individual factor in SEO terms, was Keyword Use in Title Tag.
The Title Tag is used in two principal areas:
when you are using a browser, it is what appears in the blue bar right at the top of yo
Don’t be an expert blogger … 2007-05-22 03:20:49 … just be an expert who blogs.
I can’t be sure, but I have a sneaky suspicion that there are a number of people who start a professional blog not so much because they are looking for any business benefits or to inform, but rather because they want to be able to say that they are a “Blogger”.
This really is looking at blogging back to front. Their focus should be to show themselves to be an expert in their field who communicates this expertise through the medium of a blog, rather than portray themselves as a blogger who writes on a particular subject area. It might seem like a mute point, but to me this is an important distinction which really affects how blogging works as a business tool.
As a reader, I don’t go out specifically searching for bloggers to read, what I do is look for people writing with authority on a subject that interests me. For example, I invariably read Jonathan Schwartz’s blog, and I do so because of my interest in what he writes about in h
Blogging in the news - 20 May 2007 2007-05-20 18:00:21
Some articles which have appeared in the UK online press over the past week which looks at blogging (primarily business blogging) and its uses. If you find any good articles that could be highlighted here, then please post the links below or send them to me directly at mark[at]betterbusinessblogging[dot]com and I’ll do the rest.
Who says blogging’s not journalism?An interesting take on the alleged conflict between bloggers and journalists in the wake of the Engadget / Apple memo issue.
Blogging
is a conversation not a codeA short article from Mike Butcher on the attempts to create a Bloggers code while referring back to the concept that blogging is about conversations.
Avis rolls out blog siteAvis has decide to set up and run a blog to support their customer service efforts - at last someone else is listening (about this use for blogging, I mean!!). Lots more posts to come on this!
Blogosphere threatened by Google downtimeIt may not sound a lot, but in my book part of th
Measuring the success of a blog 2007-05-17 20:53:26 Planning a blog and then spending both time and effort on creating and developing it is all well and good but, as a business, we are looking to see results which warrant this outlay.
Effectively, we have a business and marketing tool which has a focus, a target audience and a business aim – it also has costs attached to it, often principally in terms of time, which need to be justified. Like all marketing activity, we are looking for a return on our investment and to calculate this, we need to measure how successful our blog has been for us.
This is turn raises the question of what criteria we should be using to determine this. There are a number of people who have written on the subject, perhaps the most prominent of which is Charlene Li at Forrester with their report at the start of the year but here we are probably looking above and beyond the methods generally available to most organisations. There are also a number of intangibles that could be considered such as branding and p Read more:Measuring
Online viral marketing and PR in action 2007-05-14 07:07:37 David Meerman Scott has just launched his latest book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, and judging by the previous things that I have read written by him, as well as when I’ve heard him speak, then it will be well worth a read.
At the same time, it’s great to see David practising what he preaches. In launching and promoting his book, he has created a list of individuals and bloggers who appear in the book (myself included it seems) and has then linked to them from the post announcing the book’s release. This has created an initial viral effect as many (as I have done in this post) have mentioned the book on their own blogs which of course starts the ball rolling and “spreads the word” further afield.
I will be doing a review of the book once I have read it, but in the meantime you might like to check it out yourself or have a look at David’ s Blog over at Web Ink Now and see what else grabs your attention.
The complete list of those mentioned is
Business Blog Design: RSS Feeds & Subscriptions 2007-05-11 18:02:23 [This is part of a series following on from a post called “Business
Blog Design“]
RSS is a key element of blogs and for their successful use in business – it is also one of the 5 Rs that I consider to be key to business blogging. This is primarily because of the enormous benefits of what is effectively an instant and very efficient method of distributing information, as well as a great marketing tool.
For publishers, RSS should really have a similar importance as an newsletter sign up box because it gives you the same opportunity to communicate with people who have expressed an interest in what you have to offer. The added benefit is of course that you have an assured method of delivery which is not hampered by email filters and the like.
If gaining loyal readers (and hence subscribers) to your blog is important - and let’s face it, it is to 95% of business bloggers - then it’s important to consider where it appears on your blog design. Higher up the screen an Read more:RSS Feeds
Coming into land on your blog 2007-05-09 18:17:14 Whether you use a blog as part of your company marketing strategy or it is your only online presence, you’ll no doubt be looking to promote your blog as widely as possible.
Unfortunately, much like normal websites, it is not simply a case of “build and they will come” – there are, however, lots of ways to encourage visitors and readers, some of which are outlined in the52 methods of blog promotion.
Consider Landing Pages
Whichever ways you choose, I would encourage you to also adopt one of the key elements of successful online marketing and develop specific relevant landing pages to complement the marketing. In case you are wondering, a landing page is the page on your blog that visitors arrive at after clicking on your promotional creative, whether that is a Pay Per Click advert, email marketing link, magazine or newspaper advert or a Word of Mouth recommendation.
You should make the page completely relevant to the keyword phrases they have been searching on in the case of
Blogging Metaphor 2007-06-10 18:28:24 Recently, Liz Strauss set out a challenge to those of us who blog - write a blog post using a metaphor to describe blogging to help introduce or explain what blogging is to others.
In taking up this challenge, I decided to do so looking at business blogs which is where both my interest and my professional focus lies. From this perspective, I would liken a business blog to a Swiss Army Knife (SAK).
Like the Swiss Army Knife, I consider a Business Blog to be a tool which has 101 possible uses. All self contained, it gives the owner a range of options as to how to use it which will vary according to the situation that they find themselves in at the time. Often, the trouble is understanding all of the possible uses and then deciding which is the most appropriate for a given situation.
It is something which is easy to use at a basic level but if you want to use it properly then it demands time and attention. When someone has taken the trouble to explore and understand the tool, has discover Read more:Blogging
, Metaphor
Blogging in the News: 9 June 2007 2007-06-09 17:16:01
Some articles which have appeared in the UK online press over the past week which looks at blogging (primarily business blogging) and its uses. If you find any good articles that could be highlighted here, then please post the links below or send them to me directly at mark[at]betterbusinessblogging[dot]com and I’ll do the rest.
Six Apart turns blogs into full Business Web SitesA part of the recent Six Apart PR offensive - we have been able to do this for a while with Wordpress though. An example is the Heal Naturally website here.
Third of Bloggers “risk the sack”Rather provocative headline - work with your employees and have blogging policies in place and you can worry about email again as the biggest security issue, rather than blogs.
Six Apart scales up Movable Type Blogging
Good to see Six Apart continuing their development of their main corporate blogging platform - now all you need to do is try our Blogging Workshops and in-house training to see how best to us
Business Blog Review - Avis 2007-06-12 18:30:12 I mentioned Avis’ new blog in the News items recently and so I was particularly interested to see that e-Consultancy have published an interview today with Xavier Vallee who is Avis’ UK Head of Marketing and presumably the person responsible for the Avis blog.
I was glad to read that Avis has been adopting the methodology I recommend in the Green Cross Code of Blogging. They have taken the time to examine and listen to the conversations which have been taking place about Avis around the internet / blogosphere before starting their own blog and have clearly thought through their own goals for creating a blog.
Equally, judging from the interview, Avis have defined what they want to achieve from the blog and presumably the criteria which they intend to use. The aims are quite wide covering “branding, PR, customer service and product development” so keeping track of responses will be important though they appear to be working with Market Sentinel here which is good Read more:Business
Pharmaceuticals enter the fray with corporate blogs 2007-06-18 18:30:19 Over the weekend, I was chatting with a friend who used to work for one of the larger pharmaceutical companies here in the UK and, as you do, I mentioned my professional involvement with corporate
blogging. Having given her a brief overview of how the business world is using blogs, she commented that she felt it was unlikely that there would be many blogs from the main pharma companies, and I agreed … in part.
My own thoughts were that, on the drug side of the business, the legal elements would be too stifling and would never allow the openness and free comment that a blog requires. However, I felt that on the consumer side of the business, product blogs would be the perfect vehicle for some product lines - the example I gave her was from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where I felt the Lucozade line would benefit immensely from a product based blog linked with their other online and offline marketing activities.
Well, I decided to do a little investigating today, what did I find? Not one Read more:enter
A whole host of blogging metaphors 2007-06-16 18:45:20 Liz Strauss of Successful Blog fame has recently been running another wildly successful Group Writing exercise where she asked her readers to define their own metaphor for blogging, ideally to help explain it to those coming to blogging for the first time.
A huge range of really good and incredibly diverse metaphors
were forthcoming which it seems appropriate to share here so that you can peruse them at your leisure.
There were also some “winners” chosen - randomly I might add, since my own Blogging Metaphor was one of them - who will be receiving a copy of Lorelle’s book “Blogging Tips — What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging“. The ten winners were:
10 reasons why blogging is like dating”
at Romance Tracker
Bloggers, Brains and Metaphors
at BrainBasedBusiness
Blogging Metaphor: Why blogging is like a Mommy
at Moments of Clarity
What’s Your Blogging Metaphor? Teaching by Bits (and Bytes)
at ModernMagellans
Singing the “bloggi
Business Blogs aren’t about Conversations 2007-06-27 18:35:16 Business blogs can’t be considered to be just about conversations, naked or otherwise.
For me, a conversation in business which doesn’t have an impact or an outcome is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Therefore, I consider that when it comes to business blogs, it’s important that we focus on the idea of connections rather than simply conversations.
Conversations are great for personal blogs, that’s really what they are looking to achieve: dialogue with people, interaction or a sense of community. That’s not to say that business blogs don’t work at this conversational level too - they do. We still want those same personal elements in our business dealings – as the Cluetrain Manifesto so succinctly put it, “markets are conversations” and we need to be participating.
But with business blogs, we need to go further.
Meaningful dialogue on a business blog, I believe, is different. It is about taking that one step extra. It’s still built on the basis that pe Read more:Blogs
, Business
Keep your Blog content safe - back up your database! 2007-06-26 17:20:04 In the digital based world in which we live, if there’s one thing that we can be certain of, it’s that from time to time computers will break and data will be lost. Granted, hardware and memory is becoming ever more secure so information loss no longer happens with quite the same frequency as it did during my days at Psion during the 90s (now that ages me) when I recall people losing their agendas and address books on a fairly regular basis.
Nevertheless, we hold more and more company critical information in digital form on PCs and servers which we would we lost without - as no doubt some of us have already discovered to our cost!
Well, in your blog, you have another key business tool whose information needs taking care of, just like any other. For this reason, a word of advice - and one that I give to all of my business blog clients - remember to back up your database on a regular basis. Furthermore, just as you should be doing with the information on your PC, keep a cop
Blogging in the News 2007-06-24 18:07:40 Some articles which have appeared in the UK online press over the past week which looks at blogging (primarily business blogging) and its uses. If you find any good articles that could be highlighted here, then please post the links below or send them to me directly at mark[at]betterbusinessblogging[dot]com and I’ll do the rest.
The 50 best business blogsI’d have to take issue with the title of this blog but there are some excellent ones in there along with at leastone that probably doesn’t even deserve the name “blog”, but there that’s probably me being fractious. If you spot them, leave me a comment! :0
The best business blogs - the readers strike backClearly had comments back about their original list but we really need to be getting a few more from the UK in here - also I have issues with semantics about what a business blog really is. Looks like some people want it to be a blog about business topics such as leadership, productivity etc. Absolut Read more:Blogging
Business Blog Design: Comments 2007-06-22 18:24:40 [This is part of a series following on from a post called “Business
Blog Design“]
Being able to open up a dialogue between author and readers by leaving comments is one of the key aspects of a blog and one of the elements that make them as effective as they are. They open a door onto the interactive side of the web and give the opportunity to engage with people, start conversations and create connections.
However, just as in the real world, it’s important to show that you are willing to talk with people rather than turning your back on them (proverbially or otherwise) or give the impression that you are unapproachable and aren’t looking to engage with them.
Allow and learn to love comments
You should always allow people to comment on your blog, unless you have very specific reasons why not – at the same time, you should make sure that you have the ability to deal with the comments that come back. I don’t just mean in terms of time (for most that will not be an issue Read more:Comments
Anatomy of a Corporate Blog: Layers and Building Blocks 2007-07-02 07:50:26 When creating a successful corporate blog, there are a number of elements which come together to make it what it is. The content itself is key to this, but the words just form the final part of the blog and one which is supported by a number of other layers or building blocks. Together, they help to determine the blog’s focus and its effectiveness.
The more that I work with companies (large and small) on their business blogs, the more I see how these different layers must work together to give the right results. This is the case whatever the size of the organisation, though the timescales can vary enormously. A large corporate blog may take several months to come to fruition, not because there are additional elements but due to the number of “interested parties” involved. With a small business blog, the decisions are often made instantly and so the timeframe is shorter; however, the business challenges are similar.
In both business and corporate blogs, the structure a Read more:Blocks
, Building
, Layers
Spotlight on UK Blogs - 8 July 2007 2007-07-08 18:51:37 Now back again on Better Business Blogging, I will be highlighting from time to time some of the Business Blogs
which exist in the UK. The aim is to show a cross section of what people and businesses are writing about and how they are approaching the task of using blogs in their business activities. As a result, you’ll find that these posts will contain a mix of Blogs displaying a range of topics and styles.
In addition, I am working with others to build a list of Business Blogs in the UK. So if there are UK blogs which you have visited and would recommend (including your own!), then please let me know by leaving a comment or sending me a message. Thanks!
Dangerous Thinking
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing … luckily Dangerous Thinking from David Rosam seems to contain a lot of knowledge on SEO and Marketing. Does that make it an oxymoron?
The Diary of the Diary
Extracts from Alistair Campbell’s diaries with some added pieces thrown in as well for good measu Read more:Spotlight
When is a blog post not a blog post? 2007-07-16 07:46:58 I am confused.
This won’t come as a shock to some of you who know me and have watched the increased addling of my brain through sleep deprevation caused by fatherhood. Just at the moment, though, I feel wide awake and a little bit peeved (yet still confused) by Jakob Nielsen’s latest offering “Write Articles, Not Blog Postings“.
As you might imagine, I was intrigued by the title, so I started to read. The summary of Nielsen’s article states:
“To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough value added content that attracts paying customers.”
So far so good. I agree totally - this is the basis of a good focused business blogging strategy, particularly for consultants, topic experts and professional services companies such as accountants and lawyers. Value added content is the perfect way to develop and enhance your reputation as well as encourage the spread the word about your expertise - in t
Business Blog Design: Categories, Archives and Search 2007-07-18 02:44:01 [This is part of a series following on from a post called “Business
Blog design“]
One of the key elements which makes a blog easy to use (as an author) and to navigate (as a visitor) is the fact that it is self structuring and self organising. The main way this happens is that posts are automatically stored in both Categories
and Archives
. However, even aspects like these can be used to our advantage if they are used properly.
Categories
Essentially, the categories on a blog allow you to organise your posts by filing them into various folders according to their subject matter. From a usability and navigation point of view, this has three main results:
it makes it easier for people to find what they are looking for either browsing through the subjects covered by the blog
it allows them to go directly to an area they are interested in
from the author’s point of view, it gives us the chance to try to direct their investigation of the blog rather than just let them searc Read more:Search
Comments, comments, comments … 2007-07-24 18:07:08 I’ve often talked about just how important comments are in the make up of a blog, most recently as part of the Business Blog design series - indeed you could say that they are just as important as the post itself because they are what actually facilitates the communication element of a blog.
Anyway, Mashable has published a nice list of plug-ins for Wordpress which relate to comments which is well worth having a look at. Pick and choose a couple from there which are particularly relevant to you and try them out on your own blog - I’d suggest concentrating on those which encourage your readers to contribute or make it easier for them to do so.
Another one not mentioned which I also think would be worth including is Subscribe to Comments which allows those who have already left a comment to receive notification when additional comments are made on the post - great for encouraging them to return and develop the conversation further.
In the same vein, this might also be a relev
Reasons for not Business Blogging are entirely valid … for some 2007-07-22 18:00:44 Trust Seth Godin to come up with a nice little soundbite which so nicely sums up the attitude of many companies when it comes to taking on new ideas or new ways of working.
Granted he wasn’t referring specifically to blogging or the take up of social media marketing but he could very well have been because, in corporate organisations of all sizes, this attitude certainly exists.
He comments:
Most organizations need a good reason to do something new.
All they need is a flimsy excuse to not do something for the first time.
And they often need a lawsuit to stop doing something they’re used to.
But should we really be surprised? After all, organisations, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. Some of us take on new ideas very early and others are more cautious, preferring to wait to let others try, evaluate and report back.
This is certainly the case with Corporate Blogging
, with companies moving at very different speeds in taking these new marketing opportunities on board. Read more:Business
, Reasons
, valid
Blog Design Series - a Business perspective 2007-07-26 10:00:26 Well, this may not have been the quickest series that I’ve ever written, but over the past weeks I’ve written a series of posts looking at some of the business elements to consider when designing a Business
Blog.
As I’m no graphic designer, I’ve been focusing on blog design in terms of how to use the layout and key components of your Business blog to your best advantage from a business perspective.
Anyway, here are links to the posts all together.
Business Blog Design
: Initial Post
Business Blog Design: Profile and Contact Details
Business Blog Design: Navigation and using your Content
Business Blog Design: Generic Blog Templates
Business Blog Design: RSS Feeds & Subscriptions
Business Blog Design: Onpage Advertising
Business Blog Design: Comments
Business Blog Design: Categories, Archives and Search
Do let me know if they’ve been useful and also what other things you considered when you set up your own blog and perhaps they can be included in a foll
Sony Blogs - Two blogs divided by a common brand 2007-07-30 18:12:53 Well the last time I looked at a Sony
blog, it was with mouth open wide in disbelief as the ill conceived and executed ‘All I want for Xmas is a PSP’ fake blog hit the blogosphere and was in turn hit by it.
Things have moved on and, over the past two months, Sony has launched two new blogs for different parts of their business:
one is the Sony Playstation blog aimed fairly and squarely at game players and developers of the Playstation product range;
the second is the Sony Electronics blog from that arm of the company which intends to focus on “Electronics-related activities, products and customers in the U.S.”.
Two very different blogs, aimed at different audiences and done in very different ways but both ostensively Sony corporate blogs.
Sony Playstation Blog
The Sony Playstation Blog is run by Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) and is a highly stylised blog built on a Wordpress platform which is being written by a host of authors across a range of di
Blogging in the News - 29 July 2007-07-29 05:19:11 Some articles which have appeared in the UK online press over the past week which looks at blogging (primarily business blogging) and its uses. If you find any good articles that could be highlighted here, then please post the links below or send them to me directly at mark[at]betterbusinessblogging[dot]com and I’ll do the rest.
Welcome to our new look siteClearly convinced of the medium, Technology Guardian has relaunched and redesigned their blog as part of their overall site rebranding apparently taking it from Web 1.5 to Web 2.0. So I guess that’s only half a redesign then?
Blogging
is ten, maybe twelve, or twenty-four years oldA little bit of navel gazing on just where this blogging thing came from and how old it might be together with a reference to the Wall Street Journal’s article “Happy Blogiversary which discusses it further.
Air Cargo Blog Goes LiveFeels a little bit like the guest publication round from “Have I got News for You” but Air
Writing your Blog - BBB Quick Guides 2007-08-02 17:45:04 Writing a business blog can be time consuming but it is also an excellent and successful way to develop your business and to connect with your customers as well.
Here are some suggestions of things that you might consider keeping in mind as you get into writing your posts and start to develop your blog.
a) Publish on a regular basis
You should aim to publish posts on a regular basis - this doesn’t mean that you need to post every day, although it’s better to post more frequently than not. Aim to post two to three times a week and then keep to that regular rhythm. If you leave it a long time between posts then people will tend to wander in and out rather than become dedicated followers, but if you are going to be away or know you won’t be able to post for a while then simply let your readers know in a post! However, one last reminder – don’t post for the sake of it. Better not to post than sacrifice quality!
b) Stay on planned topics
Try to avoid mixing lots of differe Read more:Guides
, Quick
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