Monster Blogging for Business Monster Technologies Lunch & Learn Program By Ted Demopoulos, co-author of Blogging for Business,
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates I finally got his attention “Your customers are talking about you and you’re NOT listening?”
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates What are your customers saying?
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates So, what’s a blog anyway? A blog is a simple Web site: – written in a personal style – frequently updated – most recently added information shown first – allows for feedback and interaction (comments)
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates
What’s the Big Deal? Transform the Web from read-mainly to read/write Anyone can publish content - as easily as sending
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates Benefits to Businesses Communicating with your customers, potential customers, partners, competitors, and more –Getting feedback quickly and inexpensively Adding personality to fairly impersonal “Company” images
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates Benefits to Businesses Establishing yourself as an expert Driving traffic to your Web site (search engines love blogs) Attracting a regular following of readers as blogs are dynamic and interactive Building familiarity
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates A tale of two blogging job seekers #1 Bob Cargill I’ve known him for about a year. I KNOW he’s great and passionate about marketing because he blogs about it. He also has no problem finding both freelance and fulltime work. We networked through blogging and have worked together professionally since.
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates A Jobseeker’s professional blog
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates A tale of two blogging job seekers #2 Anonymous (another marketing guy) I’ve known him for thirty years, but don’t know if he’s any good or not. He obviously enjoys blogging, especially the networking aspects, but they are all done in a non- professional environment. (still unemployed...)
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates A Jobseeker’s personal blog
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates Characteristics of Successful Blogs A somewhat experienced blogger: Read a few blogs first, before you start! Planning: "Driving to work naked is like starting a Biz Blog with zero planning. Both might start out ok..." Consistency: e.g., don’t blog on nuclear power for two months and then switch to clean water for the next month Conversational: Not formal business writing
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates Characteristics of Successful Blogs (2) Honesty: Builds trust – plus, it's easy to be honest Personal: Photo and an "about me" link are great ideas Patience: Unless you're already famous, don't expect massive and instant traffic!
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates Should every company have a blog? Of course not! Blogs are simply tools, and are appropriate in many circumstances Some corporate cultures may not be “blog friendly,” e.g. top-down authoritative regimes Some corporate cultures may not want (or perhaps trust) their employees to talk directly to customers
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates The ROI of Blogging Demonstrable ROI in some areas, e.g. SEO, customer feedback Every business decision involves risk, including to blog or not blog “If everyone sat around and waited for demonstrable ROI, Amazon wouldn't be selling books on the Internet, Google wouldn't have a search engine, and Henry Ford wouldn't have tried to compete with horses. Where was the provable ROI there?" - Jim Curtin, President and CEO Win4Lin
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates The Future Podcasts and Videoblogs – the next big thing? Business blogging becomes far more accepted. Blogs become more Website-like, Websites become more blog-like. The term “blog” disappears?
Copyright 2006 Demopoulos Associates Thank You Ted Demopoulos, Blog more profitably and effectively. Subscribe to the free BizBlog+ Newsletter for in-depth coverage of Business Blogging and more Web 2.0 topics. Click here or send an to Thank you!