Comments on: Business Blogging 101

By: thomas maximus

thomas maximus — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:45:02 +0000

Everybody can be a business man or women with so many opportunities which is coming on the line. So make use of it as it is for your own good.
________________________________________________________
thomas maximus
Home Based Business

By: N Miller

N Miller — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:30:14 +0000

Thank you for this very informative post. I had so many questions on how to write, promote and manage the small business blog we started. Every one of my questions were answered and I got some great ideas to work with. Thanks again!

By: Andy MacDonald - SEO & Marketing Tips

Andy MacDonald - SEO & Marketing Tips — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:17:46 +0000

A great and informative post. I have just linked to this post from a blog post of mine which will be published on the 9th January, so hopefully my users will gain some good knowledge as a result of this post.

Nice work Darren. Keep it up mate.

By: Business blogging tips at twopointouch: web 2.0, blogs and social media

Business blogging tips at twopointouch: web 2.0, blogs and social media — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 14:08:00 +0000

[...] A few tips for business bloggers. The do’s and don’ts section encapsulates things. Update: Bah. The StarTrib has moved the story behind their paywall… here’s another article instead Filed under: blogs, business, Asides | Tags: No Tags [...]

By: OM

OM — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:48:28 +0000

Looks like this is going to be the fastest development in the blog world.
Business rules !

By: Dann

Dann — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 16:44:39 +0000

Apart from a clear objective, time will always be an issue. And how do we calculate the return on investment for the staff’s working time allocated for blogging?

By: Terry Zulit

Terry Zulit — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 04:20:28 +0000

You know, from reading this thread, I don’t think I could ever blog for someone else. Can’t imagine just writing just for the sake of commerce. I suppose blogging for the passion of it is old history now. I mean of course their are many “passion blogs” still (thank god), but there is going to be a massive amount of blogs created only for business reasons.

I wonder if business blogs can actually keep up with personal bloggers who write for the pleasure of it? It’s great seeing personal blog being the sources of envy for corps!

-Terry

By: John Paul Micek

John Paul Micek — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 18:48:11 +0000

Blogging for business allows owners and marketers can be found in the long tail. Yes, there’s the obvious interact vie nature of business blogging, which positions business owners to benefit from the irreversible trend of participatory media. But the thing that often gets glossed over or missed completely by those who understand blogging is the tremendous search engine optimization power that blogs have for business.

When a business understands how to select and integrate the right keywords for their product or service, they can achieve results that previously cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars per month.

The primary goal of business owners and marketers online is to be found when prospects execute a search. Capturing their attention and initiating the relationship that builds trust comes next. Armed with the right business blogging strategy business owners and marketers can do both very efficiently while saving thousands of dollars on marketing and search engine optimization.

To compliment Brian’s PajamaMarket.com case studies, check out the Blogging for Business category over at Advanced Business Blogging.

By: Liz Strauss [dot] com Blogging in Action

Liz Strauss [dot] com Blogging in Action — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:51:21 +0000

[...] Darren Rowse, THE PROBLOGGER led the best example of blogging in action yesterday, when he posted Business Blogging 101. The post began with an email from a reader asking his advice on how to develop a business blog. In the most authentic and transparent voice, Darren took on the challenge of offering his personal expertise while at the same time asking his readers with more direct experience of business blogging to help out by filling in areas where Darren might not have experience. [...]

By: HART (1-800-HART)

HART (1-800-HART) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 06:56:26 +0000

Commercial Businesses are not ready for blogging,(i.m.o.) unless their business is about blogging. Blogs are just software that is a content management system (i.e. you don’t have to hire a webmaster to change your website anymore, you can do it yourself in 20 seconds). Having said that, then they should just be product blogs (as we affiliates know them as) or an online resource library of information. Use blog software to add new products or remove obsolete products or information or news. That’s it. Employees should not be blogging, Remember freecell? Solitaire? Times that by 100 factor by unproductive hours.

Blogging by consultants and individuals in business who charge an hourly rate for their services are only in it’s infant stages. Self-Employed people thing they have to show off what they know, instead of portraying who they are. It makes sense that they can contribute to show how much knowledge they have but, if I’m looking for a lawyer, I just don’t care about the guy blogging for the law firm.I’d personally be leary about the lawyer that blogs too much, and maybe you wonder if he actually does law or not. Also, those that “leak” too much information about their business or their clients is just not good and in most cases reprimandable by their professional organization… not to mention stuff about subject to the privacy act, or other confidential agreements, stated or implied.

One of the most fascinating things to me in early 2005 BEFORE Win sale (besides reading Problogger blog when it was about 400 feedburner count) .. was being able to add Mr. Jason and Mr Nick’s RSS feed in my reader in my own Bloglines .. and listen to the ramblings and nonsense and business accumen thinking of these very public and prominent businessment. Yes .. I said “MR” because of my respect still for them! And, if they talked about their own site and products? or somebody elses? I certainly clicked on that link.

So – when an existing client asks me to set up a commercial blog for their business, I just nod my head ‘no’ and offer to train them in an hour how to create a ‘Blog About Nothing’ (like Seinfeld show) .. and suggest that if the owner himself writes a blog .. I’d read it .. not the people who I train. But, that’s me .. missing opportunities and living paycheque to paycheque.

By: Brian Brown

Brian Brown — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 22:20:59 +0000

May I humbly suggest reading some of the reviews of Small Business Blogs at my website. My reviews point out things that companies are doing right–and wrong–on their business blogs. I believe my site is currently the largest directory of active business blogs available.

http://www.pajamamarket.com

Cheers,
-Brian

By: Yuwanda Black

Yuwanda Black — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 19:01:33 +0000

Darren:

You covered everything so thoroughly, gosh darnit, that this comment is just an aside” to your brilliance.

One of the first pages I visit when I go to a company’s website is the “About Us” section. Small companies tend to be great about putting up this type of information, although, with many throwing up sites now just to make money, this is less and less so. BUT, I digress.

I think companies — big and small — need to let more of their people shine through in their blog. Eg, meet Sherry, the executive assistant to the president. She’s an avid snowboarder and always keeps the office informed about where to find the best powder during ski season.

This could be a section of the blog, of course (eg, our “Spotlight Employee of the Week”); not the whole blog. Most companies tout that their employees are their most valuable assets — well, give them a chance to shine.

This would accomplish two things — one, create employee loyalty; and two, scale even the largest corporate conglomerate down to a “human” level.

Once again, fantastic topic.

P.S.: I do heed my own advice; I’m retooling my site, so the About Us section will be back soon.

By: BusinessBlogWire

BusinessBlogWire — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 17:58:32 +0000

Darren Rowse Shares His Basic Business Blog Tips…

Darren Rowse, one of the world’s most famous professional bloggers, has taken a stab at basic business (corporate) blogging tips. While he admits is from the perspective of one who doesn’t have corporate blogging experience, Darren’s advice is…

By: Werner Absenger

Werner Absenger — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 13:04:26 +0000

Darren:

Once again you arouse the blogging community with your excellent article about business blogs. I would have to ad to the great comments above, that a business blog is a chance for a company to step from behind the corporate veil and let its people shine. For example, I purchased a MINI COOPER and found great information on their website before and after the purchase. One can even physically go to England and tour the facility. Anyway, they introduced some people behind the scenes, but what would have put the icing on the cake, would have been the ability to post back and forth with Jon Cowan, the test driving coordinator, and ask him all kinds of stuff about putting the rubber to the road.

Enjoy your upcoming “vacation.”

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 01:31:38 +0000

nice to have you here John.

By: John

John — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 01:18:10 +0000

Hey Darren,
One of the guys over at http://www.abestweb.com tipped me off about you and this blog. It looks like I can learn a ton here.

By: chris halvorson

chris halvorson — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 00:37:57 +0000

If you fill a business blog with promotional copy, no one will read it.
If you fill it with interesting stories, written by interesting people—maybe or maybe not related to the widgets you sell or your bottom line–you will attract readers. If it’s well written, you’ll attract even more readers. Use a blog to tell the stories about that busines that you would tell to your families at home at the end of the day, or to your best friend over drinks. Talk to your niche markets. Ask readers to tell their own stories. Begin a conversation. It’s that easy.

(chief blogger at Stonyfield Farm and, now, business blogging consultant)

By: Real Estate Blog Pro

Real Estate Blog Pro — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 00:07:25 +0000

Picasa Web Albums released, A Yamanner Worm warning and a bit on Blogging for business…

…

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 22:06:37 +0000

Great post (as always) Darren.
I work with an international finance company and have suggested we use a blog for customer service issues. I think the interactivity would be very useful and create a strong link between the company and readers.
There are a number of issues though that need to be considered in addition to what’s been posted:
1. Reputational Risk: how will the information be used by readers? This isn’t “opinion” anymore when it’s a business blog it’s the corporations “view” and as such can be taken any which way. Therefore, there needs to be a sanity check on the content.
2. Timeframes: corporations tend to talk long term but operate short term (shareholders being what they are!!) so a business blog needs to be seen as a long term issue and allow the ups and downs that we all experience as we get started to be catered for in the strategy. For example, the comments may start off being quite negative but if the corporation sees this as a “venting” issue and only moderates a little, they will build a very loyal readership because they are ‘not’ censored. (think of controversial journos who people love to hate but would never stop reading their columns)
3 It ‘is’ about PR: no two ways about it. I don’t mean PR in the sense of advertising but in the sense of opening up to the public and allowing a two-way conversation that the public will find engaging. I believe the business blog to be so powerful it could actually be a ‘point of difference’ and one that is sustainable because it would be written by a unique personality/ies that people would gravitate to.
4. Personality: if the blog is purely ‘business’ it won’t work it MUST have a personality and that means a there needs to be one or two people managing and writing for it. (it would be posssible to have more who write under one or two assumed names but over time I think this would lose it’s uniqueness.)

The points I’ve made are in addition to Darren’s post and other comments. It will be interesting to see how this goes. I’ll look forward to more comments and ideas.

By: razib

razib — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:09:15 +0000

Great post Darren. I just finished reading a great post by Scoble titled, “Why Wall Street didn’t believe Steve Ballmer (and what he can do about it)” (http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/06/14/why-wall-street-didnt-believe-steve-ballmer-and-what-he-can-do-about-it/) in which he has talked about the power of grassroot (bloggers) people. I like to quote from his post:
“That’s an easy one. Cause he didn’t convince the grass roots influence networks first. Why have Google and Apple done so well in the last three years? Cause the grassroots loves them. That’s the powerroot of the industry. Ideas here don’t come from the big influencers and move down. No, they start on the street and move up. Anyone miss how Google got big? Not by throwing a press conference.
Ballmer should not listen to his PR team and instead should live the blogging way.
Huh?
Did you miss that I turned into an international news story that has gotten more attention than everything Microsoft announced at its big TechED conference this week?.”
(Sorry for the long quote. )
So, every company that wants to start a business blog should focus on blogging instead of trying to do business. Only then, blogging can become helpful for a company. Otherwise, the idea of business blogging will only backfire. Attitude is very important here.