In addition to chat rooms, instant messengers, and electronic mail, the emerging innovations help people build opportunities for interaction outside of their turf. With the advent of personalized and human-like online communities, the technological landscape of the Internet is slowly changing.
Weblogs, also known as blogs, are one of the most notable gifts of Internet technology to people all over the world. Through such platforms, users can share personal entries whether it be on trivial or extraordinary topics. A blog is essentially an online diary – there are videos, links, photos and documents that people can post in order to document any issue or event of interest. Moreover, users can create newsletters or express their opinions on a variety of topics through these digital outlets.
Ideally, a blog should not sound intimidating or too formal, as it is meant to welcome the insights and opinions of all. The basics of blogging should be written in a conversational tone to reach the intended audience. If you want to put off your readers, this sort of blog is a sure way to turn them off.
Individuals reach out to other individuals through blogs. Having a blog has its own set of benefits:
- Freedom of Expression. If you want people to hear you out and share their opinions, this is the best way to do it;
- Having a blog is a great way to exchange genuine ideas from consumers with you as a marketer. Having sound opinion and point-of-view is better than just showing the price;
- A new way to advertise products, blogging is a refreshing change from traditional advertising outlets, and it is cost-effective.
- You can gauge public opinion about your products and services by writing catchy titles with new ideas in your content. This will ensure quick and repeated responses from your readers. A blog is a great place to exchange ideas between a seller and a consumer, as well as measure public opinion about both services and products.
- A useful tool for internal communication that builds a knowledge-based community of employees, as well as identifying human resource issues before they arise.
- As well as search engine optimization (SEO), your blogs will be seen often by as many people as you wish.
There are many blog hosting services on the Internet. But which one will be the best to start up your business blog program? For beginners, it is best to study first the services offered by blog hosts. Business people are generally unaware of recent technological advances that would help them maximize their marketing potentials. An ineffective business blogging program may damage marketing opportunities rather than enhance them.
Depending on the company’s needs and capacity, it can choose to host its own blog, pay someone else to host the blog, or setup a “blog aggregator page” and ask employees to choose their own blog hosting services. Individuals can choose between paid and free services.
If business blogs do not have the latest blogging features, they will not be able to maximize their marketing, public relations, and SEO potential.
Blogs should have the following basic essentials:
In business blogs, welcoming comments provide an opportunity for dialog. This improves customer relations based on loyalty and trust. Blogging is an innovative way to communicate with your customers.
With this service, consumers are able to get back to you with more posts and updates without having difficulty finding you. This helps in maximizing your company’s and products’ exposure. The chances are that if your blog is popular in a particular online community, links will be found everywhere online, on other blogs or websites.
CATEGORIES AND TAGS. These both help in classifying blog searches for ease of navigation and on site search. They function as libraries because they categorize posts by subject matter, such as business, distance learning, e-commerce, online auctions, etc. Tags, especially in the blog search engine Technorati, help in the classification. New customers and clients can find blogs about certain topics of interest just by clicking the tags.
It is the feed from your blog that is sent over the internet, and collected by newsreaders and aggregators.
If you are setting up a business blogging program for your organization, there is a variety of hosting companies to choose from. Free blog hosting services may be popular solutions, but they are better suited to individual online journals. Look into the paid blog hosting services which offer comprehensive packages that fit your company’s requirements. Before making a decision, it may be beneficial to check out some blogs hosted by the company and evaluate their layout and design. Make sure that adequate technical support is also available.
A team should be prepared to plan the design and structure of the blog after choosing the blog host: The team should:
- Create a style that meets the audience’s needs;
- Establish an open and credible tone;
- Weekly blog updates – ideally, a few times a week;
- Include links to other websites and blogs;
- The blog post should be written in the first person;
- Focus on the purpose of the business blog; and,
- Maintain an honest, engaging conversational tone.
You and your company are reflected in the look, style, and content of your blog.
