You have a business to run and just when you thought you were okay with the computer, e-mail and websites on the internet…. everyone started talking about interactivity, search engine optimization with blogs, social network marketing using things like Facebook…. and what the hell is Twitter?
Most small companies are very frustrated since they do not have web design experience and cannot design their site or worse they pay someone a lot to design it and then it is out of date and they have to keep paying to update it. The answer to this problem for small businesses is to use a blog platform for their web-site. This isn’t just for small companies either the advantages to the blog platform just got a PR boost when the US Government used a blog platform for its brand new site.
Why a blog?
Your company website can be on the standard web platform or it can be built on a blog platform. What’s the real difference between a blog and web site? The difference between blogs and web sites is steadily vanishing. These channels are definitely converging.
In fact, they started out converged. After all, a blog is nothing more than a kind of web site that is supported by a content management system ( this means you can easily categorize the information and change the content and update it without losing earlier information). Too often, blogs are primarily described or defined as personal online diaries. While it’s true that many blogs are personal ramblings about daily life, that is only one aspect of the blogosphere – and a fairly trivial one at that. Keep in mind that blogging is far more versatile than it used to be.
You can embed video or audio or photo galleries in your posts, use the blog as a base for a podcast, integrate widgets or interactive tools, and have separate static pages, which if set as the home page make the blog almost indistinguishable from a traditional website. It’s not just text. Posts on blogs each have an individual “permalink” which is it own unique web address. This allows the post to be accessed by a search, even years later. Blog platforms also allow for comments and user participation which is becoming the standard ( web 2.0) for how individuals get involved in the companies that do business with.
Better Definition
Blog was the word that came from the combination of web and log, and Weblogs ( blogs) are a kind of web site. They represent an easy and versatile way to publish all kinds of content – news and journalism, education, analysis, humor, personal observation and opinion, and more. They are published by groups, organizations, and individuals. They are intended for all kinds of audiences and purposes. They may be very rigorous and formal, or extremely informal and haphazard. They may exist on the web or within an intranet or other private online enclave. Quality, credibility, and tone vary widely.
However, today’s “blogging tools” generally can do so much more than mere blogging. For instance, WordPress, which I use, started out as an “open-source” ( one that allows others to add to it and grow it) blogging platform, has grown to become a full-fledged content management system. Blogging is just one part of what you can do with Wordpress. You also can integrate static pages ( pages where the content stays the same, like a regular web page), media libraries, and virtually anything else you’d want to have on a “web site.”
As a group, blogs are united mainly by:
• Format. The main page of a weblog features items (postings or articles) in reverse chronological order. The most recent item appears at the top, and previous items get pushed further down the main page as new items are added. A weblog posting can include virtually any kind of content.
• Linkability. Each blog item is assigned a unique, persistent web address (URL) which allows people to link easily and directly to any item at any time. In terms of connecting your blog to the public conversation, this is a huge benefit over systems that rely on dynamic URLs and framed content – which are difficult or impossible to link to directly.
• Production tools. Weblogs usually are produced with blogging tools, which are a very basic kind of content management system (CMS) that delivers content to the web or an intranet. Blog audiences typically find and view this content with a web browser. Blogging tools include software which tech-savvy bloggers install on their computers or servers (such as Moveable Type or WordPress). Some bloggers or organizations even write their own custom blogging software. Nontechnical bloggers generally use hosted (web-based) services such as BlogSpot, TypePad or Blogger to build and publish their weblogs. A few bloggers actually code (HTML) everything on their weblog by hand. The advent of versatile, easy-to-use blogging tools and services is what spawned the blog explosion of recent years.
• Features. Most weblogs offer some or all of the following features:
o Comments, whether open or moderated. These are posting-specific (appearing on the same page as the posting), not a general comments page for the entire blog or site.
o Feeds: which allow audiences to subscribe to instant updates of fresh content.
o Trackbacks: a system of notifications (pings) that allows a blogger to see who has seen the original post and has written another entry concerning it.
o Categories, a list of general topics covered by the blog. Any posting can be assigned to one, several, or no categories.
o Site search, usually by keyword (very basic but powerful).
o Permanent archives which can be browsed by category, date, and/or author. These are provided because blogging tools store postings in a database, and assign metadata (descriptive information) to each posting.
All of those features are optional. It is possible to have a blog without comments, categories, trackbacks, feeds, etc. These features therefore do not define blogs. However, most blogs offer at least some of these features – so when you see them, chances are good that it’s a blog.
Other than that, the field is wide open – and extremely diverse.
On-line Social Media Strategy including Web-Blog
The first steps in developing a Blog/site involve an assessment of the goals of the company and the image they wish to portray. This is done by going over the business plan and then asking such questions as:
• Who is the target audience?
• What look and approach appeals to this target market
• Which lines of business do you want to promote
• What do prospective clients want to get from the site.
• What image does the company wish to project.
Now with Web 2.0 ( technology allowing two- way online interactivity) to be successful a social media strategy must involves two elements: listening and participating. Step one is to develop a continuous, action-focused listening strategy that tracks your custom¬ers’ conversations. Step two is to engage your customers with simple and genuine “people talk.”
Some of the Tasks Involved
• Determine type of blog
• Identify blog author/s and teach them the technology
• Develop content strategy and timelines
• Develop comment guidelines and blogger guidelines
• Work with graphic artist to ensure blog look and feel is consistent with: goals and objectives, branding, etc.
• Develop url, blog title, title tag
• Employ linking strategies that build community
• Internal organization communication campaign
• Building relationships and community
• Submit to major directories
• Monitoring blogosphere and mitigating negative responses
• Traditional and interactive marketing tactics
• Optimize for traditional website search engines through organic search strategies
• Optimize for blog search engines – tagging and pinging
• Learn how to update blog/social media sites.
• Learn Conversation etiquette
Evaluating: results analysis
• Identify and tracking success metrics
• Identify analytic tools
• Monitoring social media pick-up
In summary, the bottom line is that people want to do business with people they know and like, and consumer-generated media strongly influences the way your brand is perceived and how purchase decisions are made. Whether through Facebook, You¬Tube, blogs or another new media entity, your company forfeits a critical competitive advantage if it is not an active participate in the conversation.
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