the crux of software management
Posted Thursday, September 25, 2008 by Dereck Martin
Managing software for different classes of users across a Windows or Samba domain can be both costly for a company and a headache for an administrator.  There are many software packages and methods available. In my experience, not many solutions provided a cost effective and time efficient way of managing a diverse range of software installers.

Some administrators choose the easy way and just give local admin privileges to the user on the machine.  It is then left up to the user to update and patch their system at their convenience.  This is not only poor administration practice from a security standpoint, but it is also a nightmare to keep track of rogue software installs and licensing.

As a supporter of open-source solutions, WPKG is a great solution for managing software deployment on a small or large network with Windows based machines.  It is easy to deploy, manage and saves administrators from hours of headache and frustration.

WPKG [www.wpkg.org] only requires a small service to be installed on the workstation.  The server side of the package is just a SMB share which contains XML configurations and available applications for deployment.  This means your file server can run Microsoft Windows, Linux or any other operating system that has the capability to provide network shares.

I recommend using the beta client which stable in all my testing. The beta client has better support for what WPKG calls "Laptop Mode" or "Off-line Mode".  This prevents the software from trying to do things when working off-line. All software is installed at boot time prior to letting the user log into the system.

As with all open-source software, it is recommended that the manual and all documentation be completely read before asking questions.  If you don't and the answer is in the manual or other documentation, you will probably be directed to read more.  However, the community is active and quite helpful with problems.

The software can be broken down into four main parts.  Three of them is server configuration and the other is the client configuration.  The first part is the hosts configuration. 

All settings for hosts is contained in a file called hosts.xml.  This file is easily editable and maintained from any machine with write access to the share.  WPKG has a basic reg-ex engine built in to help apply profiles to a group of similarly named machines.  This is ideal if machines are named and numbered based on department.  Below is an example of some hosts and specific profiles associated with those hosts.

The first is a static host name and it gets any software in the custom profile.  The second entry is for any machine that begins with sales will get software from the sales profile.  The third is the same but for another department.

hosts.xml
<host name="host1" profile-id="custom" />
<host name="sales.+" profile-id="sales" />
<host name="cs.+" profile-id="cs" />

The second part is for configuring the various software profiles.  Each profile has a set of software applied to it, and only those machines associated with that profile will get that software deploy, upgraded and removed.

profiles.xml
<profiles>
  <profile id="standard">
    <package package-id="firefox" />
  </profile>
  <profile id="sales">
    <depends profile-id="standard" />
    <package package-id="acrobat" />
  </profile>
  <profile id="cs">
    <depends profile-id="standard" />
    <package package-id="photoshop" />
  </profile>
  <profile id="custom">
    <depends profile-id="standard" />
    <package package-id="vmware" />
  </profile>
</profiles>

The third part of the configuration is the packages.  This is where all information for each application or script that is to be deployed out to the machine is stored.  With WPKG, not only applications but console commands and scripts can be used.  This makes it useful for doing other general maintenance.  WPKG uses various types of check and conditional checks to make sure software is only deployed when it meets certain guidelines.

packages.xml
<package
  id="firefox3"
  name="Mozilla Firefox 3"
  revision="302"
  reboot="false"
  priority="10">

  <check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Mozilla Firefox (3.0.2)" />
  <install cmd="taskkill /F /IM Firefox.exe">
    <exit code="0" />
    <exit code="128" />
  </install>
  <install cmd="%SOFTWARE%InternetfirefoxFirefox Setup 3.0.2.exe -ms" />
  <upgrade cmd="taskkill /F /IM Firefox.exe">
    <exit code="0" />
    <exit code="128" />
  </upgrade>
  <upgrade cmd="%SOFTWARE%InternetfirefoxFirefox Setup 3.0.2.exe -ms" />
  <remove cmd="taskkill /F /IM Firefox.exe">
    <exit code="0" />
    <exit code="128" />
  </remove>
  <remove cmd="%PROGRAMFILES%Mozilla Firefoxuninstallhelper.exe /s" />
</package>

The client settings can be configured with the GUI client and then exported for importing into the rest of the clients.  In my setup, I keep the settings on the share.  I then use a script to copy the settings to the local machine at log-on and import into the client.  This is so I can change the settings on the server and have it auto update the clients when they log on if required.

In conclusion, using WPKG as an open-source solution for software management is both cost effective and is easily managed in a network environment for any size of company.   You have also saved your company money that can be used for something more useful.



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My two speaking slots @ Blogworld
Posted Monday, September 15, 2008 by Chris Baggott
Blogworld Speaker, Chris Baggott, Compendium Blogware, Blog Marketing SoftwareI'm pleased to be hosting two sessions this year at Blogworld in Las Vegas.  If you haven't registered...well you should.  This is the biggest thing in blog marketing whether you are a Corporate Blogger or just a one person blog publisher...if you are focused on learning all the blogging best practices, this is the place for you.

My first session is called Corporate Blogging: Myths & Realities with panelists Paula Berg of Southwest Airlines and Mario Sundar of LinkedIn.   We'll be focusing on many of the current myths surounding Business Blogging, examine successful strategies and examine ROI.  This session will be held on Friday at 10 am.

I'm really excited about my Sunday keynote: How to Track, Measure & Adjust Corporate Blogs for Maximum ROI.  This session is on Sunday the 21st at 12:15.  There is so much miscommunication around the goals and success metrics of Corporate Blogs that I'm thrilled to have the chance to talk about how some of the biggest and smallest organizations on the planet leverage all that's good about employee blogging with the best practices of web marketing.   Don't miss it.

If you are going to be attending and want to hook up, please don't hesitate to send me an email.  chris @ Compendiumblogware.com





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Curious about Business Blogging?
Posted Thursday, September 4, 2008 by meghan peters
Get the Details Here!
If you have been trying to make up your mind about business blogging and still haven't come to a conclusion yet, Compendium just might have an answer for you! 

Clear your calendars on September 17, 2008 from 1-2pm EST.  Chris Baggott, CEO/CoFounder of Compendium will be hosting a Webinar covering his Whitepaper: Business Blogging: The Key to Local Search. 



You will learn:
  • What is local search?
  • How to maximize local search campaigns.
  • How content can influence local search (and what that content should be).
  • Why Blogging works for local search.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in and could possibly be the answer you have been looking for, click here to get more information!





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Search Spam and the Dangers In Linking
Posted Wednesday, September 3, 2008 by Chris Baggott
Search Spam Links Linking Compendium Blogware Corporate business blog blogging" When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends"
                                                                Japanese proverb


this is one of my favorite ancient Japanese proverbs (ok... my ONLY Japanese proverb)

So what does this have to do with business blogging and search spam?   A lot.

SEO's often focus on linking strategies as the best way to get a business  optimized in the search engines.  Corporations have many to thousands of keywords that they might wish to target and elaborate linking seems like a quick path to get the results they are looking for.

But, how does the search engine evaluate your "character"?  A big part of it is looking closely at who your friends are.   Those links that come to you are important...and the links that you are giving are important.  If Spammy sites link to you and you link to spammy sites...guess what?  You are judged poorly.   Successful business blogging really requires focus on linking credibitly.  

One aspect of Corporate Blog Hosting Software has to be control over linking.  There are lot's of very real liabilities associated with widespred employee blogging....There are lots of rewards as well, companies just need to mitigate their risk by using an approval process for every post.  Know who you (and your employees) are linking to. It's a blogging best practice and ignorance can have real SEO Ramifications.



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Blogging for Acquisition
Posted Monday, August 25, 2008 by Daren Tomey
Forrester, which is a tremendous research center, recently published a new report which, for a lack of better explanation, paints a very negative picture as to the future of  corporate blogging as a viable marketing medium.  The one area of their report which continues to strike a cord with me is that they state that corporate blogs are having trouble sustaining a conversation....

You see, their findings are probably correct based on the corporate blogs that they reviewed during the research phase, but those are not an accurate depiction of what business blogging or corporate blogging really looks like today.

It is really interesting, once a prospect goes through one of our webinars, such as the one that Chris Baggott is hosting on Tuesday, August 26th on Demand Generation through Corporate Blogging, or speaks with one of our consultants, those individuals get what corporate blogging is all about.  It is not about developing a dialogue, it is about generating highly engaged traffic via organic search which converts quickly into recognizable revenues. 

For more on the topics of blogging for business or if you are looking for help to create a corporate blogging strategy, I recommend that you contact a consultant at Compendium or register for an upcoming webinar.



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Blogging Indiana!
Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 by Sarah Sedberry
This weekend marks a great event in downtown Indianapolis, and no I'm not talking about Gen-Con.  I'm referring to Blog Indiana 2008!

Blog Indiana is a 2-day blogging and social media conference, hosted at IUPUI, that aims to promote education, innovation and collaboration among Indiana’s fast-growing blogging community. There will be several keynote speakers at the conference, including our very own Chris Baggott. 

This blog conference for both experienced and new bloggers alike. Sessions will include topics such as blogging for beginners, using blogs in your business, monetizing your blog, political blogging and more advanced topics. So if you are a blogger looking to get started, looking to add a corporate blog, or wanting to capitalize on the success you're already having with the blog for your business - this is a conference you should attend.

Compendium Blogware will also have a booth at the conference, so feel free to stop by and say hello to two of our Business Development Managers, Jenni Edwards and Eric Romer.  They will be happy to help answer any questions you may have about blogging for your business.

Happy Blogging!

Blog Indiana 2008



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Boating... and business blogs
Posted Monday, August 4, 2008 by Eric Romer
I had a great weekend at a friend's lake house, which consisted mostly of relaxing, boating and eating.  However, I managed to sneak in some talk about business blogging as well. 

One of my biggest struggles with being on the cutting edge of a new blog software is how to break it down to layman's terms.  In any form of communication, you have to speak the language of your audience.  If I'm talking to a business that is well-versed in SEO and Paid Search Advertising, my discussion will be more granular and technical.  However, some people don't want to know how the engine works, they just want the car to run.

Our host for the weekend, Harry, was intrigued by Compendium's solutions for business, but needed a quick explanation.  OK... so what's the best way for me to describe what we do, cocktail in hand on the boat, so it's relevant to Harry?  I got it... his hip replacement surgery next week.

Me: So, before your surgery, did you do any research?
Harry: Well, yeah, of course.
Me: Did you use a search engine?
Harry: Like Google?  Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did.
Me: Well, what we do is provide software to businesses, and in this case it would be a doctor/surgeon/health care provider, to tell relevant stories about hip surgery and recovery.  So, when you, the potential patient, goes to do research, you find a human being giving you up-to-date, relevant information.  It looks similar to a website, but with more of a conversational, personal communication.
Harry: Sounds like it makes sense...
Eric: (pulls out iphone) Here, let me show you...

Then I went on to do a Google search of a Compendium client.  If you want to hear how this process works from one of our clients, Tampa Bay Convention & Visitor's Association, click HERE to sign up for the Webinar Thursday, Aug. 14th.




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Why We Should Host Your Blog
Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by Kristen Raves
In an article from Duct Tape Marketing, by John Jantsch, he talks about the benefits of hosting a blog on your own server.  This is a feature that Compendium Blogware provides for you.  There are many benefits to NOT hosting your own software. 
  1. You do not have to learn how to apply the upgrades to your existing software.
  2. We walk you through any questions that you might have so you fully understand the functionality of your software.
  3. Any problems that you experience with "free" blogs, you are expected to fix.  We take the guessing game out of it by fixing the issues for you.
  4. Our company is open for suggestions that you have for product requests.  Therefore, you get to use a software that you are comfortable with. 
Our blog hosting software is always changing and improving to fit the needs of our clients.  If you are considering utilizing an organizational blogging platform look no further than Compendium.



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Is Blogging Only for SEO Wrong?
Posted Friday, July 25, 2008 by Ali Sales
Blogging for SEO isn't wrong, but it can't be your only goal. Why? Because it's the tip of the iceberg. Of course you want your business to get found through search as many ways as possible, but your goal can't stop there.

You want a prospect to find your business blogs through search, and then what?

There is a next step. What is it? You want them to find one of your corporate blogs and then read sixteen posts before leaving the page? You want them to find one of your blogs and then subscribe to an RSS feed in order to come back over and over again and do nothing but read?

You see what I'm getting at here of course.

Your corporate blogging strategy can't focus on only the search engine optimization aspect. SEO is a means to the end, and your end is to make money by creating new relationships. That's it. If someone clicks to your blog from search and finds a webpage that's impersonal, unprofessional, and full of pointless information, then your blogging program is completely falling flat.

Today Compendium's very own Chris Baggott, will be hosting a webinar that goes into more detail on these topics. The webinar will also cover blogging tips, blogging best practices, and more.  This is a great opportunity to ask any burning blogging questions. Get details and sign up for the webinar here.



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This Browser Best Surfed Before...
Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by PJ Hinton
CMP trade publication Information Week ran an article today on a recently published paper which argues that web browsers should have an expiration date, just like perishable food.

The recommendation is based upon an estimate in the study that found over 45 percent of the internet population is using out-of-date browser software, leaving these users vulnerable to all kinds of known security threats.

The paper's authors make a provocative claim about the relative safety of different browsers:
Firefox 2 is considered to be the most secure Web browser because 83.3% of its users worldwide are running the most current version. Second, third, and fourth places go to Apple Safari 3 (65.3% of users running the most current version), Opera 9 (56.1%), and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Internet Explorer 7 (47.6%).

 "It is noteworthy that it has taken 19 months since the initial general availability of IE7 (public release October 2006) to reach 52.5% proliferation amongst users that navigate the Internet with Microsoft's Web browser," the paper says. "Meanwhile, 92.2% of Firefox users have migrated to FF2."
The reason this claim is prone to controversy is because one could make the plausible argument that the latest-and-greatest browsers aren't necessarily bug free. It's more likely that they, too, have security holes.  The only difference is that their security holes are still yet to be uncovered. Regardless of which side you fall on the never ending browser war, do yourself a favor by keeping your browser up-to-date. 

As someone who is responsible for developing a hosted blog software service that must work on several different browsers, I'll confess to having an ulterior motive for encouraging this.  Migration away from older browsers, like IE 6, reduces the need for web standard non-compliances workarounds, making the task of coding web pages a much simpler one.



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Icann Domain Name Confusion: Why you have to start corporate blogging now.
Posted Tuesday, July 1, 2008 by Chris Baggott
Many of you may have noticed the announcement last week regarding ICANN dramitically increasing the suffixes available for domain names.   Here is a blurb from the New York Times:

According to new rules unanimously passed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, at its meeting here, any company, organization or country will soon be able to apply for a new Web address extension, called a top-level domain.

That could smooth the way for Web addresses that end in city names, brands and generic words. It could also sow confusion in the minds of Web users, create a host of new ways to exploit the Web addressing system and start a wave of legal skirmishes over applications to register trademarks — .coke, for example.

Uggh!  What a mess this makes for normal businesses & organizations.  People are already having a tough time keeping track of your web address.  By adding basically an unlimited number of  .anything  branding by domain becomes just about impossible. 

If anything is going to drive people even more into the arms of the search engines, it's going to be this.

What are you going to do? 

Incorporate blog management software company wide.  The biggest benefit of enterprise or business blogging is Search engine optimization.   The more people you have blogging, the more relevant content gets created, and the more likely you are to be found accross a lots of keywords.  

Forget people remembering your domain...focus on getting found by using corporate blog tools.



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Software Forecast: Partly Cloudy
Posted Friday, June 27, 2008 by PJ Hinton
The big buzzword in the computer trade press these days is cloud computing, the idea of hosting an application, or key components thereof, on a third party service in a way that is easy to set-up and scale. 

Amazon has been the trailblazer in this area, with internet services for computing, message queues, file storage, and databases.  There are a growing number of startups with plans either to challenge Amazon or develop solutions that make leveraging Amazon's services easier.  Google has been making inroads with the limited beta of its App Engine.  Microsoft is still trying to figure it out.

Yesterday, CNet blogger Dave Rosenberg wrote a post on his blog Negative Approach, asking just how far will the move to cloud computing reach.  Quoting from the post: (emphasis mine)

I started to wonder whether everything really will go to the cloud and all of our open-source musing will go away, as software becomes consumed versus installed.

Realistically, there is a vast array of software that really can't move outside the enterprise in the foreseeable future. Consider, for example, banking and stock-trading systems, or telecommunications infrastructure. On the other hand, consider pretty much everything else.  Even when you take into account the complexities of back-office systems, odds are that in a green-field situation, you could find a software-as-a-service application to solve your problems.
So here's the paradox that I think about: Let's consider a company like Google, which writes, buys, and installs a lot of software. Some is unique to its business and isn't available as an online service. Other products are packaged applications. Yet it wants the rest of the world to stop buying software, instead just consuming it from Google.
I'm not seeing a way that on-premise software disappears forever...
He's probably right about on-premise software retaining some degree of presence, but I think we'll see a transition of viewpoints.  Right now, the default (and prudent) stance is to take a wait-and-see approach to putting apps completely in the cloud.

Given that there are burps and glitches, it'll be some time before businesses can move critical functions to hosted services like Amazon's.  With time for the technology to reach maturity, I suspect that the burden of proof will shift, and the default question will become, "Why should we buy this software and host it ourselves?"

Fortunately for us, corporate blogging just happens to be a "green field situation" for many businesses. With our ever growing list of features and a firm technological foundation that's built to be reliable, it's easier for us to make a compelling case that instead of building and maintaining a blog with consumer grade software, a business should instead adopt our hosted blog software as a part of their corporate blogging strategy.

When higher organic search results and better customer engagement become the norm, the last thing Compendium customers of will be accused of is "walking around with their heads in the clouds."



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blogging for brownies
Posted Wednesday, June 25, 2008 by Kaila Woodside
Who has the best clients? We do. This past week I have been working with Hilary and Travis @ Fairytale Brownies on a blogging for business strategy. Fairytale Brownies is an Arizona based company that was started in 1992 by Eileen Spitalny and David Kravetz (friends who met in Kindergarten) using a family brownie recipe!

Hilary, the web designer @ Fairytale Brownies needed a strategy to help enhance their web presence and blog for Search Engine Optimization. Being a privately owned and operated company, they needed an affordable blogging software package that would allow them to leverage thoughts from multiple individuals within the company, monitor the message for spelling and grammatical errors and create GREAT content! Also working in a hosted solution allows their strategy to be web based and easily accessible by all.

So congrats to Fairytale Brownies and coming on board with the best blogging software - from Compendium Blogware!

Did I mention that Hilary and Travis sent me BROWNIES?



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Humanize Your Marketing through Blogging
Posted Friday, June 20, 2008 by Megan Glover
Last week we wrapped a co-hosted Webinar with Vontoo called: Humanize Your Marketing with Blogging and vMarketing.

You can read more about Compendium's Webinar here but what I really want to focus right now is this: why blogs are the perfect vehicle to humanize your brand. But don't just take my word for it!

According to the 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer Study:

It's clear that when it comes to traditional authority figures – whether they're chief executives or heads of state – people trust them less," says Mr. Edelman. "Employees are the new credible source of information. We have data that shows an employee blog is five times more credible than a CEO blog – and I say this as a CEO blogger.

Read the full report here.

There are two take aways from this particular quote:

1.) People buy from people and they buy from people just like themselves.

2.) Consumers trust blogs. They trust blogs to gather information, communicate your brand, they find blogs "credible".

Now, think about the ways your company is communicating to your prospects. Do you have a blog, and if so who are your bloggers? If you aren't blogging what marketing vehicles are you using you humanize your message?

We'll answer all of these questions and more... after the Webinar. So, if this has perked your interest at all then please accept this personal invitation to attend.




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Live (sort of) from BlogPotomac
Posted Sunday, June 15, 2008 by Ali Sales
This past Friday, I traveled to Washington D.C. to take part in BlogPotomac, a casual conference (it took place at the State Theater, host to mostly concerts).

I took a lot of notes and had every intention of posting while at the conference, but here I am a few days later after a very messy day of travel home.

Some of the key topics of discussion included:

1. How do I motivate people in my organization to not only dip their toe into corporate blogging, but consistently fuel the business blogging machine with updated content?

2. What are the right means of social networking for my business? i.e. There's so much buzz about Second Life, FaceBook, blogging, etc....how do I move forward without trying to do too much, and doing the right things?

3. How can I track the impact of organizational blogging?

4. Do I have to have a corporate blogging policy...how can I control content?

5. If we participate in the blogosphere, what kind of engagement should we expect to see (i.e. comments) based on what others have seen in the past?

Excellent fodder for several blog posts (perhaps you're wondering about some of the same things), and I have some good quotes from the variety of speakers who took the stage.

Because I'm excited about these questions, I'm hereby declaring my "How to Evaluate Online Traffic" series over (this is one of the best parts of business blogging -- you have flexibility in what you do or do not want to talk about) because I found out that MidMarketer has a great whitepaper on the topic. Why recreate the wheel?

A link to the MidMarketer Web Analytics: What to Look at whitepaper is here - they have several other great resources on their site.

I'll spend my next few blog posts addressing the topics above.



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The Human Element
Posted Wednesday, June 11, 2008 by Eric Romer

So, I was flipping channels last week, and I stumbled upon CNBC's "The Business of Innovation" hosted by Maria Bartiromo.  I only caught the last five minutes of the program, but it was focusing on the "Human Element" of business and innovation.  There was an all-star panel weighing in on the topic, including Jack Welch, former CEO of GE.

What really jumped out to me, so much so that I scrambled for a pen and pad, was the statement from one of the panelists that "engaging your employees is the key to innovation".  Wow.  That is a really powerful statement and observation.  And it really drives home the benefits of top corporate blogs -- they empower employees to contribute content. 

At Compendium, a blogging company in Indianapolis, we often stress the importance of being "found".  That first step in the customer acquisition cycle is "how are people finding you?".  Professional blogs are very friendly with search engines, and with proper blogging techniques, companies can be "found" on a wide variety of search terms.

However, the power of the human voice, and how that affects both the internal and external reputation of a company is sometimes overlooked.  People like to buy from people.  People want to hear from the employees that make up a company, not just the top executives.  Empower them to create relevant content about your business -- make it part of your company's culture!

But don't listen to me, listen to the Jack Welch's, Gil Cloyd's and Bob Johnson's of the world.  They realize that to be a true innovator in business, you must engage employees and have a human element to your messaging.



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Commentary on Comments
Posted Wednesday, June 4, 2008 by PJ Hinton
Charles Cooper at CNet's news.com website has a thought provoking article about commenter rights.  He mentions a blog post at Disqus' corporate weblog that proposes a bill of rights for comments.  Support for comments in business blogging software is important because it fosters one of the most important blogging benefits -- customer engagement.

I took a look at the list of rights he mentions, and while the question is interesting, I think that the scope of the rights as proposed verges on overkill.

A comment posting feature helps to encourage reader participation.  Where I think the commenter rights goes off the deep end is the implicit assumption the comment area is the sole venue by which the conversation must continue.  I think it is just one channel, and to make commenting as feature rich as proposed would turn a blog into a bulletin board where only one user is allowed to initiate a thread.

Rather than a complicated system of post, edit, track, and remove operations, backed with policies that determine whether an after-the-fact edit is OK, why can't we just live with a simple social contract?  A blogger shall allow comments from anyone.  A commenter is free to write what he or she wants.  Either party may delete the comment, but once the removal has been done, it's irreversible.  That saves the commenter from regret for posts written in the heat of the moment, and at the same time it prevents the airbrushing that Cooper worries about in his post.

In other words, the relationship between blogger and commenter is that of a host and a guest in a house.  The host invites guests, and has the right to dismiss them for bad behavior.

The question of comment ownership from a copyright standpoint is a bit tougher.  Of all the comments that I have left on blogs, I've never felt a sense of ownership in the sense that I thought a blogger would needto seek permission to republish my content.  If a reader is that passionate about retaining the right to determine whether the blogger can republish, he or she should probably write the comment as a full post on his or her own blog and then post a link in the comment section.

The level of discussion that the bill of rights has raised should give pause to companies rolling out a corporate weblog.  Let your readers speak freely and don't be too quick to decline comments.  Your customers may not always be right, but they are definitely worth listening to.



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Misconceptions about Blog Content
Posted Monday, June 2, 2008 by Chris Baggott
I'm totally lifting this paragraph from a comment I saw posted by Scott Henderson of Mediasauce about Corporate Blog Content and who should write....I promise I will send him a link:

"..Another big challenge is the misperception of how to blog. It’s not lengthy white papers, stilted memorandums, and corporate speak, but needs to be more akin to engaging coffee house/cocktail party conversation The savvy corporations tap people who are great minglers and conversationalists, who can host a great conversation as well as partake in the other conversations out there (i.e. visiting and posting on other blogs)."

Right on!   Advanced Business Blogging whether it's Enterprise or Small Business Blogging depends on frequent content creation and very narrow focus.  Find the people in your company who are the most passionate, and have access to the most stories about your company and most importantly, your products or services.

I'll give you a hint...they probably are not C-level.





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New Can't Miss Webinar!
Posted Tuesday, May 13, 2008 by Megan Glover

You're Invited!


Topic: How To Use Blogging and Email to Generate Leads and Delight Customers

Date & Time: May 20th, 2-3pm EST

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Is Blogging Worth Your Employees' Time?)
Posted Wednesday, April 30, 2008 by Ali Sales
Compendium TeamThis question just came up during a webinar that Chris Baggott hosted today (5 Compelling Reasons SMB's Should Blog. Slides coming soon), and I couldn't resist responding to it myself.

So here is the question: Is allowing your employees to blog at work a bad use of their time?

Well, yes and no. (You thought I was going to give a firm no, but hear me out). Let me give you two scenarios to demonstrate the different ways this can play out.

Scenario A: Your employees are using the blogging platform of their choice (one geared toward citizen journalism like Wordpress or TypePad or whatever their heart desires). There is no consistency. The employees write about whatever they want. There is no administrator to review content before it is published.

Do I think this is a good use of time? No way. And you shouldn't either. Now how about this example...

Scenario B: Your employees are all using the same blogging tool (like Compendium). They understand that their content is the driving force behind the company's ability to acquire leads and customers through the search engines. The employees are encouraged to write about topics that are relevant to their position within the company, but can still add their personal touches and keep a genuine voice. An administrator can review the content before it's published

So do I think this kind of business blogging is worth the time? You bet.
With the right blogging software, end goals, and focus that you provide to those who will be writing the content, Scenario A can easily turn into Scenario B, which is hugely beneficial to every kind of organization.

And yes, the picture above are some of Compendium's favorite bloggers.



We Know Business Blogging.
Take our 60 Second Blogging Challenge, and you will too. Start here

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