Topic Research
Discuss the usage of blogging in businesses

1. Overview of blogging
2. What is business blogging?
3. What are the uses for business blogging?
4. Pros of business blogging
5. Cons of business blogging
6. Where can businesses set up their business blog?
7. Types of businesses using blog
8. Examples of businesses using blogs
9. How do businesses profit from business blogging?
10. Strategies of business blogging
11. How to be effective in business blogging?
12. Do you know how many people companies need to create a good business blog?

The keywords that the group is going to use are:

1. Usuage
2. Business
3. Blogging

The search phrases that include the keywords and variations are identified as:
(usage OR practice) AND blogging in business


1. Overview of blogging
Blogging is using a new medium for connecting and interacting with others around the world. It is a first generation tool built on, and taking advantage of, the unique attributes of the Internet. It has been dismissed as a self-centered passing fad and as the new model of interactive journalism, communication, and learning.


2. What is business blogging?


3. What are the uses for business blogging?
The uses of blogs includes:

• showcasing the organisation as having talent and expertise
• letting consumers be potentially better informed about the products and services provided in the company
• it helps the organization to develop stronger relationships and brand loyalty with its customers through interaction
• it would enable staff to share knowledge within the organization

4. Pros of business blogging
From our researches, the group has found a total of 10 advantages of a business blog.

The advantages are:

1. It is quick and easy.

A blog is easy to create, even for those who are not in the technology side. It is more like creating a website. There are several free blogging services and for those who feel that it's not ideal enough might want to install some application for the settings they want.

2. It is inexpensive to setup.

There are people in the organization will help you in setting up a blog at a minimal cost and outsourcing would not cost a bomb too. Blog would be a very powerful tool to do business.

3. It provides easy access to company news.

The biggest benefit is that blog would help to inform customers of any changes, the release of their new products, latest offers and much more which will lead to direct sales. A compelling content would allow organisations to have growing list in market leads.

4. It is search engine friendly.

Business blog can be found easily on search engines with the right and the different keywords. Search engines would love to promote blogs because it is frequently updated and offers huge amount of content.

5. It appears accessible.

Accessibility is often an hindrance for potential customers who prefer to deal with companies offline. Another plus factor would be to allow customers to freely post their comments on the site.

6. It appears authoritative.

Customer would purchase the organisation products and use their services when they see authority in a particular subject. It would be good if organisation gives their views on the latest events in their industry, offer reviews of related items and comparisons of several items.

7. It is to have brand awareness.

The more a customer hears the name of your company the greater the chance of remembering it. On average, it takes more or less, 7 times of direct communication between organisation and customer before making a sale. The more people mentioning organisation name would allow more people to actually remember it.

8. It helps in relationship building.

A blog would allow the organisation to speak more freely and informally which will allow users to actually feel like knowing the organisation and trust it to purchase the products.

9. It will gain an insight into your customers.

By allowing customers to comment on the post and view how the organisation would react, gives insight to customers.

10. It reduces calls and emails.

Blog can be used to pre-empt questions that customers might have. With users reading the blog, it will reduce the amount of questions that would be asked by customers.

5. Cons of business blogging
Although there are many advantages to having a website, we should still consider about the disadvantages of business blogging. Thee disadvantages are:

1. Boring entries
Most people do not have many things to say that is exciting, or are unable to write down their ideas in a captivating and clear manner.

2. No time to update the blog
People who have time to write down what they have to say got the least to say, and the people who have many things to say do not have sufficient time to write it. Thus, the real genius within the organization lays hidden, as one get lost in the maze.

3. Easy to start and hard to maintain
Blogs are Writing consistently is one of the most difficult and time-consuming jobs for a human being to attempt. Though blogs being a cheap strategy, they are a very expensive one, due to eating up time. As a result, many blogs are not updated, thus tarnishing rather than enhancing the reputation of the organization. Without strategic blog-related policies, rules and procedures, organisations face the potential for workplace lawsuits.

4. Negative comments appears in blogs
There may be negative postings or comments written in the business blogs.

6. Where can businesses set up their business blog?

1. Gizmodo
It is a weblog about everything about gadgets and gizmos for those who want to remain on the cutting edge of consumer electronics. As a web magazine, Gizmodo is quickly building a specialized audience in consumer electronics with an advertising business model.

2. Research Buzz
It is an excellent resource tool for Internet research. An information provider, Research Buzz provides advertising and a special paid edition of their newsletter.

3. Joel on Software
It is a blog that displays Joel Spolsky's knowledge and views on software development. The blog acts as a method for Joel to highlight his expertise and promote his small business, Fog Creek Software.

4.Jupiter Research
A top business market research company has a blog for each company analyst. The weblog provides analysts with the means to connect with their audience on a regular basis.

5. Loosetooth.com Shop Blog
It is set upby Brandy Agerbeck, is an online art shop blog that provide customers with a way to get to know the store owner. This blog is an e-commerce site with buy and shop options.

6. MacroMedia
It is a software company provides a customer service blog for users and staff to share solutions in an organized fashion.

7. Types of businesses using blog


Business blogs can be classified into six different categories.

1. Sales blogs – external

Purpose: To market or sell products/services, make citizens aware of public services, get donations for charities or political parties etc.

Blogger: The organization itself, or more specifically individuals within it writing on behalf of the organization.

Target groups: (Potential) clients/customers and citizens, that is persons and/or other organizations that are directly involved with the publishing organization, or those it wants to reach with the purpose above.

2. Relationship blogs - external

Purpose: To create, uphold or strengthen relationships.

Blogger: The organization itself, or more specifically individuals within it writing on behalf of the organization.

Target groups: Often smaller and more specified than with sales blogs. Examples are support blogs aimed at customers of a certain product, finance blogs for IR purposes, PR blogs for media, blogs trying to reach students, future employees, politicians/officials etc.

3. Branding blogs - external

Purpose: To strenghten the brand, the profile, of the publishing organization or individuals within it.

Blogger: Not necessarily the organization itself. Individual employees' or executives' blogging ("insider blogs"), if supported by the organization, can be viewed as a branding blog. The same goes for adverblogs and blogs that are not apparantly connected to the organization.

Target groups: See Relationship and Sales blogs.


4. Knowledge blogs - internal

Purpose: To give employees information and insights relating to their work assignments; news, business intelligence, reports about ongoing projects etc.

Blogger: The organization itself through one or more designated bloggers, or potentially all employees through a entirely open blog publishing model.

Target groups: All employees with a certain interest.


5. Collaboration blogs – internal

Purpose: To provide a working team with a tool for research, collaboration and discussion.

Blogger: The team

Target group: The team.


6. Culture blogs – internal

Purpose:To strengthen organizational culture. Typically through informal content of social or non-work related character.

Blogger: The organization itself through one or more designated bloggers, or potentially all employees through a entirely open blog publishing model. T

Target groups: All employees as employees, and not as professionals (developers, managers, assistants and so on).

Despite the different blog content in the categories of blogs stated above, they still share the common characteristic that is to deliver their organization message to the public professionally. An organization that professionally incorporates blogging into its communications strategy will likely prioritize one purpose (for each blog).

8. Examples of businesses using blogs

1. Rococo
The blog of Rococo Software, to promote their softwares.

2. Sony Playstation blog
It aimed fairly and squarely at game players and developers of the Playstation product range.

3. Sony Electronics blog
It is from that arm of the company which intends to focus on “Electronics-related activities, products and customers in the U.S.

4. Johnson & Johnson
A big pharmaceutical company that promotes their products.

9. How do businesses profit from business blogging?

1. Easy to use
Blog software is easy to use. Simply write your thoughts, link to resources, and publish to your blog, all at the push of a few buttons. Blog software companies such as, Movable Type, Blogger.com and Typepad all offer easy blogging tools to get started.

2. Lost cost
Blogging is a low-cost alternative to having a web presence. For small business owners without the time to learn web html or the money to hire a designer/developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get your company's name out on the Internet.

3. Does not require a physical space
(eg. does not need a shop to start the business)

4. Quick to update
Updating the weblog is a much quicker process than contacting a web designer with changes or doing the coding and uploading yourself.

5. Share expertise and knowledge
Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience. A powerful benefit for consultants and knowledge workers.

10. Strategies of business blogging

1) Offer RSS & Feed Subscription Buttons which makes it easy for readers to subscribe.

2) Make sure you have descriptive posts titles utilizing keyword

3) Post often - don't let your blog become stagnant

4) Use tags and ping Technorati

5) Name your images with keywords! Not 36580477 jpg.

6)Create a signature line to end every post with! Fill it with keywords and a link somewhere!

7) Make sure your permalinks are structured well.

Most blogging platforms allow you to change from the standard numbered permalinks to this style of search engine friendly ones. And just in case the blog platform you use has funky dynamic URLs for each entry, you will want to ensure that the bots can crawl them easily or use a mod rewrite to create a good structure such as in the example.

11. How to be effective in Business Blogging?

The 5Rs that need to know:

• Read: first of all you need to create subject matter which will encourage people to visit your blog and then read what you’re writing about.

• Return: once they have visited for the first time, you have the opportunity to give your readers something they’ll wish to read more of, hence encouraging then to return to your blog.

• Reply: you are looking to encourage dialogue and communication so you must find subjects and a style which encourages them to express an opinion about it and reply to the post.

• Refer: provide your readers with enough compelling, relevant and interesting content and they’ll want to recommend it to everyone.

• RSS: encourage them to sign up and receive what you are writing as and when it appears using RSS either directly or via email.

12. Do you know how many people companies need to create a good business blog?

1. Researcher
To keep an eye on the RSS feeds and Google Alerts.

2. Writer
To pen down the things to be blogged.

3. Storyteller
People love stories. So if you can convey your message as a story when you write it, that will make it all the more memorable.

4. Editor
Some tough decisions sometimes have to be taken to keep the writer in check, so you’ll need to have an editor in you working hard to keep the writer on the straight and narrow.

5. Expert
With the research done, the expert in you come shining through to add the depth to the post.

6. Project Manager
To keep the whole thing together!

7. Designer
you need to have the blog looking the part in order to support your business goals. Luckily there are some good templates available and, if you can’t do it yourself, people who can help you to stand out from the crowd.

8. Technician
With your technical hat on, you may want to get “under the hood” which for Wordpress would include the set up, adding plugins etc. Even with the other systems, understanding how a blog works will allow you to make your blog more targeted to your readers.

9. SEO expert
To ensure “Title Tags” and ‘friendly’ permalinks it’ll help.

10. Social Networker
It is great way to develop awareness and contacts, while online by your contributing to other blogs, it helps immeasurably to raise profile and awareness.

11. Market Researcher
To make sure that companies are writing on topics that your readers are interested in so make sure that you carry out market research.

12. Marketer
To market the products and the blog.

13.Diplomat
Sometimes you’ll get comments on your blog which aren’t so favourable but be the diplomat, argue your position and remain your persuasive (but polite) self.

14. Businessman
At the end of the day, your blog is therefore for a business reason, so make sure the businessman/woman in you doesn’t let you have flights of fancy which aren’t helping those goals.

15. Strategist / Planner
You’ll want to make sure that the blog is heading in the right direction and that it’s developing properly, so keeping developing the plan of where it’s going and how it’s helping your business.

16. Housekeeper
Sometimes there’s a lot of extra jobs you need to look at to keep the blog in order so try to tidy up loose ends when you spot them, answer comments, update software etc.

17. Accountant
To keep an eye on the bottom line even with a blog. There are costs involved and the main one is your time so try to remember that you’re looking for a return on your investment of time here.

18. Analyst
To keep a check on what posts are attracting most readers, where you are getting referrals from and whether you are getting the search engine positions you wanted.

Bibliography

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2004/nt_2004_08_23_blogging.htm
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/bus_blog/
http://danbricklin.com/log/businessblogging.htm
http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/blogging_part_1.htm http://contentcentricblog.typepad.com/businessblogs/2004/08/a_hrefhttpwwwge.html http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/ecommerce/a/bblogs.htm
http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/ecommerce/a/bblogs.htm