2. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006.The benefits of blogs for your business Short introduction The current state of the Romanian Blogosphere - oportunities Advantages of blogs A short guide for writing a blog Timsoft dialogue with you about blogging Carmen Holotescu Director Timsoft – http://www.timsoft.ro Author eLearningBlog - http://www.timsoft.ro/weblog

3. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 The term weblog appeared in 1997 - Jorn Barger; called shorter – blog in 1999 - Peter Merholz 2004 – the year of blogs; 2005 – podcasts; 2006 – vlogs Weblog / Blog Definition - Dave Winer, The History of Weblogs “A weblog points to articles elsewhere on the Web, often with comments, and to on-site articles. A Weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a human guide who you get to know. There are many guides to choose from, each develops an audience, and there's also comraderie and politics between the people who run weblogs, they point to each other, in all kinds of structures, graphs, loops.” Blogs are about communication, collaboration, facilitation of dialogue, learning together, responsibility, implication, spaces with no external pressure I. Short introduction

4. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 Blogs + RSS feeds = World Wide Web - real-time, alive, validated Web Blogosphere = a treasure of information, experiences, knowledge Worldwide - 50 million blogs - 6 mil active, Technorati report USA - 10 million blogs ( 4% of population ), Pew / Internet report Japan - 4 million blogs ( 3.13% la population ), The Blog Herald - Blog Count for July Europe – 8 million blogs, European Blogosphere wiki Romania – 15000 blogs - 2-3000 active ( 0.06% of population ) – estimation based on blogging systems; more than half were opened this year I. Short introduction

5. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 Robloggers Survey – designed and run by Carmen Holotescu & Cristian Manafu ( manafu.blogspot.com ) in august 2006 promoted by word-of-blog – 104 blogs 272 bloggers responders, 402 blogs results - http://www.timsoft.ro/weblog/surveyhttp://www.timsoft.ro/weblog/survey sections: demographic data, information resources, monitored blogs, edited blogs, opinion on the Romanian Blogosphere II. The current state of the Romanian Blogosphere

6. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 Sex – worldwide 68% of blogges are women Studies – quality of information on blogs II. The current state of the Romanian Blogosphere Age – oportunities: public for advertising, it’s time for the experienced people to imply, for education

7. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 Geographic distribuition – oportunity for the voices outside Bucharest to be heard and listened 55% - Bucharest 35% - other cities 10% - abroad Information Resources Activity Field 25% - ICT 28% - pupils & students 20% - Media & Marketing 6% - Teachers II. The current state of the Romanian Blogosphere Blogs credibility – compared with traditional media

8. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 Monitored blogs Edited blogs II. The current state of the Romanian Blogosphere

9. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 III. Advantages Advantages resulted from Robloggers Survey

10. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 Types of blogs in companies Brand awareness/Brand positioning Business development Issues management / lobbying Crisis communication Media relations Recruitment marketing Customer support Reseller / dealer support Part of community of practice III. Advantages corporateblogging.info To give employees information and insights relating to their work assignments To provide a working team with a tool for research, collaboration and discussion To strengthen organizational culture. Typically through informal content of social or non-work related character. It’s your decission when to start – but your competitors are already in

11. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 IV.Short guide To open a blog is the same easy as writing on a paper – what you put there is important; when it’s the time to start? Prepare for blogging: Learn to search / listen / monitor / communicate Find valuable blogs - from blogs blogrolls, Romanian blogs directories, Technorati, Bloglines, Google BlogSearch Learn to monitor blogs ( other sites ) sites using RSS; create search feeds Learn to search information about you and your company on blogs Comment blogs / comunicate with the others Compare blogging styles, types – determine what is suitable for you Develop a content strategy Compare blogging platforms – see which Romanian bloggers use in survey; choose one ( OS ) Work with /imply your team in all the phases

12. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 IV.Short guide Start blogging: Learn / improve to communicate / collaborate Keep informed Provide useful information, analysis Write at least weekly Facilitate comunication on your blogs and in blogosphere, draw connections, be sncere, human, participate Create / improve your blogging style Track conversations Don’t be afraid of different opinions Time management is important Continue!

13. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 V. Timsoft dialogue with you about blogging eLearningBlog – about Romanian Blogosphere, Tips on RSS / Blogs Romanian Collection of RSS / Blogs – categories, tops, blogs on map, notoriety information, BlogsBattle tool Online courses on Blogging in Education and Business

14. Biz Days: The benefits of blogs for your business Bucharest, october, 27, 2006 Thank you! The floor is yours now