I am happy to announce that I'm currently going through one of the most stressful times in my life...planning a wedding! I've done a lot of research on venues, churches, florists, bakeries, DJ's and etc. But there is one thing that I have found astonishing...not many people in the wedding industry have blogs! I know that when I do research on something the most important thing to me, like many people, is gathering other opinions.
I have a great example of how blogs would work perfectly for the wedding industry. My fiance and I were going around town touring reception venues and we narrowed our decision between two places. We were very interested in getting a tasting of the food to help us with our decision, but one of the venues wasn't equipped to have a tasting. I was shocked and started to actually consider becoming a wedding crasher to taste the food, when the venue told me they have 100 comment sheets from past weddings that I could look through. So they printed out all the sheets and faxed them to me for my review. This made me think how great a blog would work for them! Not only could they blog about their services, but the past brides could post comments for them. This idea alone would save 10 trees a year and along with saving the environment they could boost their bookings.
There are many aspects as to why business blogging can be beneficial to an organization no matter how they plan to use it.
Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008 by
Ali Sales
I don't care what kind of business you are, or what industry you're in. Your acquisition dream is probably pretty similar to mine. And it goes something like this:
1. A prospect that knows nothing about your company "Googles" a problem or a need that you can solve.
2. The prospect sees your result on the first page of Google in the organic results, and the title of the result matches the phrase, which causes them to click on it
3. The prospect lands on your webpage, does around 60 seconds of credibility checking, reading, light research, and likes what he/ she sees.
4. The prospect notices that there is a way to engage with you immediately and contacts you to start a conversation.
My dreams come true on a daily basis because of our corporate blogging program, and today was no different. Here's what happened:
1. A prospect with no knowledge of Compendium or our blogging platform "Googled" what the needed -- "Blogging Solution”
2. Prospect found Compendium’s “Blogging Solution” blog as the #1 organic result. Prospect clicked on blog, did brief research
3. Prospect clicked on "Instant Chat" available in the sidebar of the blog and immediately engaged with someone from our staff.
How can you make this happen for you? Well, funny you should ask...see that little "Instant Chat" ad on the side of my blog? Go ahead and click to talk to us. We're ready to share our blogging secrets anytime.
1. A prospect that knows nothing about your company "Googles" a problem or a need that you can solve.
2. The prospect sees your result on the first page of Google in the organic results, and the title of the result matches the phrase, which causes them to click on it
3. The prospect lands on your webpage, does around 60 seconds of credibility checking, reading, light research, and likes what he/ she sees.
4. The prospect notices that there is a way to engage with you immediately and contacts you to start a conversation.
My dreams come true on a daily basis because of our corporate blogging program, and today was no different. Here's what happened:
1. A prospect with no knowledge of Compendium or our blogging platform "Googled" what the needed -- "Blogging Solution”
2. Prospect found Compendium’s “Blogging Solution” blog as the #1 organic result. Prospect clicked on blog, did brief research
3. Prospect clicked on "Instant Chat" available in the sidebar of the blog and immediately engaged with someone from our staff.
How can you make this happen for you? Well, funny you should ask...see that little "Instant Chat" ad on the side of my blog? Go ahead and click to talk to us. We're ready to share our blogging secrets anytime.
Posted Wednesday, March 5, 2008 by
PJ Hinton
Online video syndicator Your Business Chanel is in the process of releasing a four-part video series on business blogging. You can view the clip sans registration at the Salem-News.com website.
Quoting a number of experts in blogging research, the nicely-produced first installment provides a quick run through the reasons for corporate blogging and tips for blogging effectively.
Some of the key points worth taking away the video:
It will be interesting to what will be featured in the next three videos.
Quoting a number of experts in blogging research, the nicely-produced first installment provides a quick run through the reasons for corporate blogging and tips for blogging effectively.
Some of the key points worth taking away the video:
- The migration from large scale marketing to conversational marketing is not only happening, it is a return to the way things were done before the advent of mass media.
- To be successful, a blog needs to be interesting (relevant), human (authentic), valuable, and updated frequently (timely).
- Blogging is suitable for businesses of all sizes.
It will be interesting to what will be featured in the next three videos.
Posted Friday, February 1, 2008 by
Chris Baggott
I wanted to thank everyone who attended our Top Corporate Blogging Trends for 2008 webinar yesterday. Comments from folks like Michael Lombardi in his blog Marketer Synergy were typical. If you missed it, we will be posting a whitepaper summary shortly and we are hosting another webinar at the end of February called: How to Measure, Track, and Adjust Corporate Blogs. So what role can webinars and whitepapers play in Corporate Blogging Best Practices. One word....Content.
Over the next week or so I'll be leveraging not only the top trends content, but also this webinar generated over 100 submitted questions. All of that becomes great blogging information and a basis for blogging research....in a word: Content Ideas (ok that's two words)
By doing webinars you have a live interaction and can actually see and hear what your audience is thinking about as it relates to your industry or business. That's a blogging best practice that leads to success.
All empowered by easy to use blogging software
Posted Sunday, January 6, 2008 by
Ali Sales
Yes. A lot
of people ask me about blog research and trends, with readership being a
related item. Most people interpret blog readership more as
"subscribing." In other words, they think that "reading" a
blog is all about coming back and reading over and over again. At one point,
blogging best practices led blog writers to believe that a consistent, steady
flow of returning traffic was a key indicator of success. (Reason being,
returning visitors leads to predictable impressions and the opportunity to
monetize a blog through advertising).
To clarify, there are
two ways that I think about blog readership: new and returning visitors.
There's a lot of value
in both. New visitors may show up, read the blog, and then take the next step
depending on what kind of conversion is offered to them. Returning visitors may
show up over and over again and never take a next step (perhaps there isn't a
clear call-to-action on the blog!). I'm not sure what the general stats are
when it comes to new or returning visitors, but I'm sure there are a lot of new
blog visitors (readers) who show up, digest a blog, and have no idea at all
that it's a blog they're reading. Why? Because a blog may look just like a
website or any other web page!
I point this out
because this blogging information recently came to my attention:
According to 2006
survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 39 percent of Internet
users, or about 57 million American adults, said they read blogs, up from 27
percent in 2004, or 32 million.
I think those numbers
are really low even though it's a big jump from 2004. I'm trying to find 2007
numbers but not having much luck. Just remember that when people throw out
stats like this, there is probably a very large group of people who read blogs
and don't know it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing -- what will make your
organization's blog successful isn't that people know it's a blog. It's how
they use it to gather the information and education and ultimately, start a
relationship with you.
