Welcome to the Blogosphere
Well hello there! My name is Jim Hyslop and I am a BDM with Compendium Blogware. I am excited to have entered into this new, and exciting porthole of the blogosphere that is focused on blogging for business. The blogosphere is a powerful place and when leveraged correctly it can bring unmatched levels of trust and comfort to your clients which in turn correlate to huge returns for your organization. 

My goal as we head out on this journey together is to be able to advance our knowledge of the benefits of a corporate blogging solution and even have some fun along the way. I am sure there will be a lot of questions that arise as we share thoughts, ideas and beliefs so speak up!!!! If there is one thing in this life that I have learned it is this; it is the combined ability to look, listen, learn, and communicate that enables us to clear our path to creative solutions for success. With that being said let's clear our minds....woohsah...... and explore the blogosphere to develop ideas,  imagine success, and create blogging strategies that work!!! Buckle up......
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Finding Time to Blog
Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Jim Hyslop
So I know that I have already blogged about this issue but it seems to come up a lot. In fact I just read a post by Shel Holtz where he also addresses the issue that I hear all the time, "my staff is already maxed...we just don't have time to blog" and it got me thinking again.

The truth is by saying you don't have time to blog you are really saying I don't have time to communicate. I know I would never hear the same answer in regard to email or phone calls. The idea of not communicating by phone would be unheard of! We need to re-tune our minds to look at the blog in this exact way....as another form of corporate communication with our clients and business prospects on a human level. The beauty of the blog is now our method of communication is  serving multiple purposes. Engaging our prospects, optimizing your company in the search rankings, and turning visitors into customers by your ability to do both of the first two things. But to do so you need the tools that allow you to do this.You need to incorporate methods of advanced business blogging.

The real time issue with managing a corporate blog does not come from communicating...it comes from managing the blog for ROI. There is a lot of lifting that happens to leverage that communication for your maximum benefit. At the end of the day if your company uses the right blogging tools to do this for you, you will inevitably secure the many benefits of blogging you deserve while at the same time never allowing your clients and potential customers to rank below the number one spot on your lists of priorities.

Driving business comes from the ability to acquire new customers by communicating to them you have exactly what they need. So by saying you don't have time to blog you are really saying I don't have time to obtain new forms of revenue. From a business perspective that just doesn't make sense. Blog for SEO. Blog for engagement. Blog for ROI!!!!

Business growth = Good Stuff..........Happy Blogging!
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Finding Time to Blog
Posted Monday, July 28, 2008 by Jim Hyslop
It seems as we move along in this new realm of blogging with a corporate focus for search engine optimization and return on investment one of the largest concerns expressed by management is access to the resources necessary to make a corporate blog successful. What we need to remember here is blogging is simple. Do not over think it. We all know a lot about our business  but we don't have  to get it all out in a single post. That is the Beauty of a blog.It is not America's next best selling novel instead it is a coffee talk conversation and should be focused on human engagement.

Best practices in blogging- by Compendium tell us that these posts should take 10 -15 minutes MAX! 200-250 words MAX!  Remember...the key to SEO is recency and frequency of your blog posts NOT how much you say per post. So don't be worried about who will contribute and how much lost productivity may come from people needing to allocate time to blogging, instead think of it this way, by allowing people within your organization the 20-30 minutes they need each week to contribute a couple posts they will actually be building your lead generating machine. 
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logs Provide Good Directions
Posted Friday, June 27, 2008 by Jim Hyslop
I recently have been on a vacation with my family to beautiful Destin FL. Sun, sand, and surf were the main intention but even still I couldn't stop thinking about blogging. I figured it made sense to talk about it in relation to our recent road trip.

When looking for things that you aren't familiar with the first thing you need to do is get directions. I know they helped us find our destination successfully and they can do the same for you and your business when navigating the internet.

Jefferson Graham with USA today recently sat down with Matt Cutts, engineer with Google and active blogger, and discussed achieving visibility in Google's organic search rankings and surprise, surprise his advice was to start a business blog for your company.

He outlined 5 easy tips on how to optimize your site:

1. Spotlight your search term on the page
2. Fill in your tags
3.Get other sites to link back to you
4. Register for free tools
5.CREATE A BLOG AND POST OFTEN


Or, if time is limited for you and those in your company like most of our clients, you can skip 1-4 by letting Compendium do this lifting for you on the back end. We have created our blogging software with organizations in mind for the goal of SEO and customer acquisition while at the same time cutting your 5 tips for optimization down to one, create a blog and post often. Easy as that!

If you have been exploring blog tools to allow your company to be found I suggest letting us provide the road map for your customers. It will free up your time to allow you to do what you do best...tell people about your business.



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Blogging for Human Engagement
Posted Tuesday, June 17, 2008 by Jim Hyslop
Over the past couple of weeks I have been involved in a lot of conversations about one of the coolest features of the blog; the ability to engage in conversation in more of a human to human setting.

It is always interesting to think about the way in which you conduct your research process when looking for information,or reviews of products you are looking to buy. Over the years this process has evolved as the ability to buy online has become much more secure and convenient. Being a 30 year old guy my search always starts online. I find the most relevant sources of information (usually blogs by other people that already own the item I am looking at) and I read many posts, good and bad, to get a general feel of the publics opinion on this item. Once armed with the culture and feeling around this item I am off to the store to  talk specs and  technical jargon with the guy on the sales floor.

BUT, WHAT IF...JUST WHAT IF...I could actually achieve that same sense of comfort I now find in the store, online utilizing a corporate blog? The answer to that is simple......my path to purchase is much easier and I am a happy shopper who will probably be back to buy more in the future.

Before I was visiting two places, the internet and the store, before making my purchase. But lets think about how simple,and efficient my process could be if I could engage in a business blog where the customers had a presence as well as the guy on the sales floor so I could find all of the information I need to feel comfortable making a purchase in one spot. I would imagine the next time I needed to buy I would have a good idea of where to start looking.

In short the benefits of corporate blogging tools will definitely not only bring value through SEO but also through the idea of humanized marketing for conversion. People want to buy from other people and they want to talk to other people to feel comfortable with their buying decisions why wouldn't an enterprise want to provide their customers that opportunity at the point that is closest to the point of purchase. Makes sense right?
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