Business blogs

Posted Wednesday, August 20, 2008 by Chris Baggott

So I was privileged to teach a session on Advanced Business Blogging at the recent Blog Indiana event in Indianapolis. I learned a lot and there were some really smart people with some really good ideas and advice for Blogging in general and Corporate Blogging specifically.

But there was a LOT of Bull S--- too. I'm not normally one to go negative but some of this stuff makes me so mad that smoke comes out of my ears.

Blog Indiana Bad Business Blogging Advice, Comment Monitoring

The experience has given me an idea for a whitepaper: "Top Ten Lies about Business Blogging" (once I calm down, I'll probably change the word Lies to Myths)

This person (who's name escapes me) was doing a session on Business Blogging as well. A woman asked about comments and explained that her CEO wouldn't let them start a company blog unless he could review and reject comments he didn't like.

The advice?? Basically, it's better not to do a blog at all if you are going to actively manage comments!

I was incredulous.   Of course a corporation has to monitor not only comments, but blog posts as well. There is a lot of responsibility and liability for anything that appears on your site...including your blogs.

If Blog Benefits = 100%   Comments in general represent < 10% of that benefit.

The reality is that most business blogs never get that many comments anyway. Comments should never be used as a primary gage of success.   Think about Traffic, Search Engine Optimization and Conversions. Those are the real metrics of blogging best practices.

So my surprise was this idea that if you are not 100% you shouldn't do anything at all was just bad advice.

Stay tuned...I've got another 9 to go :-)

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Don't think "website in" think "search engine out".

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Lindsey Young

In our CEO Chris Baggott's latest white paper, he quotes William Flaiz of Search Engine Watch:

"“People don't go to Web sites anymore. Web sites come to them. This is, perhaps, the best way to explain the impact of search on the online experience.”

I was experiencing how very true this is, just last night. You see my fiance and I are huge Purdue football fans. (I went to Ball State, but I've been adopted in) I was searching for some new gear for us this season, namely some hooded sweatshirts, jersey's, etc. as we go to all home games. What did I do? I Google'd it. I didn't know any of those companies, or their website url's. But by searching for what I wanted, I sure did find plenty of people wanting to help me find my Purdue gear!

This is exactly why so many people are coming to Compendium for help with their business blogging. They want to be found, and we get them found! If you haven't already read this white paper, I'd highly recommend it to any potential bloggers. Go to our website and check it out! Blog for your business!

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Official Blogging Tournament Rules

Posted Tuesday, August 19, 2008 by Chantelle Flannery

The tournament began on August 11th and we are now moving into round two. Customers will compete to advance in a Compendium organized blogging tournament based on number of posts written by the client, week-by-week. The Blogging Tournament is designed to create some spirited competition amongst our customers in a battle of the ultimate team game—business blogging. You will be pitted randomly against another Compendium customer in the ultimate blogging championship.

Tournament Rules

You need do nothing to enter the tournament. To participate write blog posts as you normally would, or with a great deal more frequency to more effectively compete.
Winners in the tournament will advance from a field of over 100 on a weekly basis based on the amount of posts generated by each team.
If there is an equal number of posts between the two teams over the course of the week the previous week’s posts will be used to determine who will advance. We will review as many of the previous weeks as necessary in order to break the tie.
A week's worth of posts start on Monday and end on Sunday.
In order for a post to count it must be considered legitimate blog posts. This means that the post must be at least 5 sentences long and contain at least two keywords.
Remember that you’re writing on a corporate blog so talk about appropriate topics that relate to your industry and company.
Please note that sticky posts don’t count.

Tournament Prizes
The winner of the Championship earns a handsome trophy denoting blogging superiority and a bottle of Champaign. There will also be a $50 gas card for the account Administrator and a $50 gas card for the top blogger on the team. The other three final teams will receive a $50 gas card.

Tournament Contact Information
Please have fun with the tournament - use this as a tool internally to mobilize around content development. Keep an eye on Chantelle Flannery’s blog and the tournament bracket for updates.

Write content. Get found in search. Convert traffic. Demonstrate ROI. Crush the competition in business blogging, tournament style!

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Five Steps to Mastering Blogging and Online Marketing

Posted Sunday, August 17, 2008 by jeff lefevere

A Compendium customer, Lizan Brand, from Greenfield Liquors, was featured in the Saturday edition of the Indianapolis Star.

One of the things that Lizan is doing that is really interesting is mixing in video--highlighting drink recipes, talking about wine and the sorts of things that contextually engage a reader.

In my personal life, I’m well in tune with wine & spirits video blogging as a wine blogger (vlogger) is ascending to national attention. In fact, wine online darling Gary Vaynerchuk from WinelibraryTV continues to grab the wine world by its shirt lapels and give a good, healthy shake.

Gary continues to not only lead the charge in creating a brand online for himself and his business by proxy, but he also continues to give advice, good advice, to folks interested in growing their business, any business.

Vaynerchuk did an audio interview with an Internet-based business coach and he provided some additional insights that are not just applicable to technology marketing, but marketing in general. You can find the audio portion of the interview here.

Find the text transcript here.

A couple of the nuggets that I gleaned are:

* Vaynerchuk on putting content out on the web: “If you put out great content, you will be found.”

* Vaynerchuk on leveraging your expertise: “So, if you are the best guy in your law firm in contracts, instead of waiting eight to ten years to become a partner, start (using technology) about what you know. Give away that content for free. It will come back to you in spades 800 times over.”

* Vaynerchuk on tapping your passion: “So you may be good at three or four things, but please site down and analyze where you feel you’re most passionate about, even if that is the most competitive genre, do it because that is where you’re going to win when you really believe it, when it goes through your blood, you’re going to win every time because even if you’re not seeing the mythical success, your heart and soul is going to be happy. That is going to push through to the point when you will start seeing success."

* The Interviewer on setting lofty goals: “you have to have high ideals. You have to have something that you’re shooting for that’s absolutely spectacular. What you have to realize is that’s the ideal, that’s not the goal. When you achieve a certain level of success, the people that are super successful don’t compare where they get to--to their ideal. The ideal is just where they’re focused towards. To be happy and to be excited about what you’re accomplishing, you have to look backwards to where you were. As long as you make that leap and you look backwards to feel good about yourself then you can keep that excitement going. If you’re always comparing where you are to the perfect (ideal) then it’s very hard to stay excited …

The frenetic interview wraps up with Vaynerchuk’ “Five Steps to Mastering Social Media.” If you replace the “social media” with “blogging” the same values hold true. They are:

1) Make sure you want to engage/learn it.

2) Now that you know you want it, spend every living second that you possibly can on it.

3) Put your toe in the pool. Get involved.

4) Humble yourself. If you’re the best basketball player in the world, you’re playing hockey now. Put on your skates.

5) Know what you want to accomplish.

Good advice for all and something Lizan, a Compendium customer, is doing successfully and so can you. Business blogging is hardly hard, it just takes a little bit of the above five items.

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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!

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Your Biggest Problem Solved

Posted Thursday, August 14, 2008 by Ali Sales

I've been trying to find a new briefcase for work. My intent was to purchase a really nice one -- like Tumi quality because I keep buying cheapos that look nice and then fall apart in a few months. Except I didn't want a Tumi because...well, I just don't like their styles all that much.

So what did I do, given that I knew exactly what I wanted, just didn't know who to buy it from?

I searched. I typed in "best women's black leather briefcase." Talk about being a dream prospect. I used a lot of descriptive keywords to indicate exactly what I was looking for.

Okay, so of course you're wondering what my briefcase dilemma has to do with you.

Well, as a marketer, I'm guessing this is the biggest problem on your hands.

You want people to find you. You want people to find you online. And you want people who don't know a bit about your company or brand to be able to find you online.

What you may not realize is that starting a business blogging program can help you solve this problem. Taking it a step further, a blogging solution like Compendium Blogware will help you target hundreds or even thousands of terms that have something to do with your company.

Believe it or not, people are going online and looking for the products and services you provide every day. They aren't necessarily looking for your company, your website, or your company blogs, but they are asking for something you can help them with.

Yet how satisfied and happy would they be if they did their search, found a result titled exactly what they were looking for, and clicked through to find a blog featuring friendly, educational content generated by several people within your company, and a way to act upon exactly what they are looking for, whether if be making the purchase directly from the blog or just requesting more info?

I'll end this with 2 things:

1. A really relevant quote from William Flatz of Avenue A/Razorfish

“People don't go to Web sites anymore. Web sites come to them. This is, perhaps, the best way to explain the impact of search on the online experience.”

2. My briefcase outcome. After picking through countless websites for places like LeatherTree.com, I decided that I'd had enough and went straight to Target, where I spent $30 on a new briefcase. Sigh. Briefcase retailers, are you out there? It's time to start blogging.

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Corporate blogging is like gardening

Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Eric Romer

Or traveling to Florida for vacation.

Or throwing a party.

Or building a house.

OK, so my point is, you can fill in just about any analogy and it would work. The desired outcome is an award-winning garden, or arriving in Florida, or having a fun party everyone talks about, or seeing the house in its final stages. How you get there is by using the proper tools or tactics.

This is mostly inspired from reading a great post by Shel Holtz, co-author of "Blogging For Business", along with other communication-focused books. (Not to be confused with Shel Israel, co-author of "Naked Conversations", another book on corporate blogging)

Gardening Tools
I've talked about the issue of time in several posts on this blog, and you can count this as another. My biggest issue with that argument related to business blogs is that it's an excuse, not a valid reason.

If all of the sudden, there was a revolutionary new tool that could improve the way I garden, I'd probably want to know about it. I would never say "I have no time to use that tool." Take the picture above. There are a lot of different tools that a gardener can use to achieve his/her end goal - to make it the most healthy, attractive garden around. (if that's not the goal gardeners, speak up) The end game is the same, but the tools are up to each individual gardener.

It's the same thing with business. Any business has to communicate with it's shareholders, employees, existing customers, and most importantly potential customers. To drive business, you need leads. You need to introduce your business to a qualified prospect, build trust, prove value and convert them into a happy customer.

Blogging is just a tool. A simple, easy tool that scales content and allows you to communicate more effectively.

Shel writes:
Blogging is a new communication channel. Before blogs became widely available and accepted, executives made do with the channels available to them: one-on-one phone calls, conference calls, speeches, road shows, letters, email and so on. I have heard from a number of CEOs that blogs are more effective than any of these tools for a variety of communications. Therefore, they have replaced the use of such channels with blogging. In aggregate, though, they’re spending just as much time fulfilling their role as the company’s chief communicator.
And he's just highlighting an executive's reason to blog. We at Compendium preach to allow employees, not just C-level exec's, to blog for your business. As the Edelman Trust Barometer shows us, an employee blog is "five times more credible than a CEO blog." Shel also has some good tips on time management, group blogs and ROI. Read the rest of his post HERE.

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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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Page titles are so money. By money, of course, I mean search-awesome.

Posted Monday, August 11, 2008 by mikey mioduski

If any of you are just getting the hang of this SEO thing, like me, you, like me, may have recently discovered the grande importance of page titles in SEO. This is relevant to blog titles as well.

In his whitepaper, What is Blogging’s Role in Search Engine Optimization & the Social Networking Phenomenon?, Compendium Blogware Co-Founder and CEO Chris Baggott quotes SEO expert Steven Bradley:

By far the most important piece of writing you’ll do on any given page is your page title. Search engines consider your page title to be very indicative of what can be found on the page.

Chris goes on to make the following recommendations.

Think about your keyword strategy for PPC and use that as a guide for your blog titles. For example, if ExactTarget wants to rank well on the search term “blogging best practices,” they should name a blog this. And by “name,” I mean that they should title it “blogging best practices.” Titling by the appropriate keyword phrase is a highly scaleable strategy, meaning that ultimately, you would have a blog titled with every one of your PPC keywords.

Along those lines, here are some tips:
• When writing page titles, place your keywords as close to the front of the title as you can.
• Don’t “stuff” with keywords. Titles still need to be readable and need to convince someone to click on them, even in the organic results. (Remember, it’s the actual page title that will show as your result and link in the search results. Obviously results that include the search terms that the searcher has used will be the most compelling ones!).
• Be wary of using titles such as “Rob’s Ramblings.” Every blog should have a meaningful title that includes specific keyword phrases for which you want to rank.

Page titles are money. They're like this huge bear, with these massive claws. Search engines are like this cute little bunny, and if you don't have a relevant and powerful blog title, that little bunny's going to slip away off to some other big bear's cave. Search engines love blog titles, and we should too.

So I changed my blog title to something that may be more search-awesome, in hopes of catching that beautiful baby bunny. We'll see what happens. Who's the big winner here tonight in Indianapolis? Anyone blogging for business that's who.

Author's note: I refrained form embedding one of my all-time favorite scenes from Swingers here, as there is no made for tv version that I could find on YouTube. If you know of the whereabouts of the bear-claws-rabbit scene online, sans colorful language, please comment on this post! Gracias.

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What do Rafting and Blogging Have in Common?

Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by Ali Sales

A lot if you're an employee at Compendium Blogware. A few weeks ago we took the entire company on a whitewater rafting trip to Pennsylvania. The event was planned by our very own Kaila Woodside, who was a whitewater rafting guide for several years in Ohiopyle. Not only is she a fantastic part of our sales organization, Kaila can steer you through a drop the size of Niagra Falls.

Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but as someone who's never rafted below, that's just about what it felt like for me.

What did the company get out of our whitewater rafting event? Of course we got team building, bonding, and all sorts of great stories (and pictures), but we also got a lot of great blogging content. And that content helps visitors that show up at our business blogs understand that yes, we are a company that provides blogging software, but we're also an organization full of smart, fun, and hard working individuals who aren't afraid to roll up our sleeves, dig in, and kick some butt.

A big part of any company blogging program -- regardless what industry you're in -- is showing your human side. That's why I'll leave you with this great picture of me and my raft mates on the Yougheny River!

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My Facebook Addiction and Blogging

Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by Jenni Edwards

I admit, I have a slight Facebook addiction and through my self justification of this time waster --- I realized a few of the reasons I am so addicted to Facebook:

There is always something new to see, whether someone has added new pictures or updated their relationship status. I believe there is some certain interest in anything new --- most of these 'new things' I couldn't care less about in real life and would never seek out the information -- but its there right in front of my face and NEW so I look at it.
It's real --- real people, that are also at their computers updating their status, adding pictures and adding friends. These people are LIKE ME.
Pictures and videos -- I read all day...emails, the paper, notes...how nice is it to see engaging PICTURES and VIDEOS. The cheesy line of "a picture says a thousand words" isn't too far off when it comes to looking through someone's Facebook photos.

The thing is...these three things are the same reasons that blogs are so great to engage prospects! Now, being focused on business blogging, my end goal isn't to get someone to visit my corporate blog five times a day, but it is to engage the reader and the same tactics that make social networking so addictive can work, even for the non-social networkers that are out there searching for the solution to their problem on search engines -- having a well search engine optimized business blog that includes the newness factor along with real, human interaction (showing people that I am normal and like them) and having some great engaging videos and pictures can be a great tactic to engage your prospects in a deeper conversation to learn more about your business, just as Facebook can be a great place for individuals to learn more about one another (whether necessary information or not).

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Compendium Welcomes the Eugene Chamber of Commerce

Posted Friday, August 8, 2008 by Kristen Hanschu

Compendium Blogware is happy to announce that our newest client, Eugene Chamber of Commerce, is blogging. Not only are the blogging, but they are already seeing results! In just one month of posting content they have seen all but one of their keywords ranking in Google.

How have they accomplished this in such a short time? The answer is, and will always be, content. The way to get better rankings in the search engines is by adding updated and relevant content on a regular business.

Blogging for SEO is a growing business trend that companies are continuing to see the benefit of. Our blogging platform is easy to use and makes blogging fun. The Client Success Team at Compendium will help you get your blogs off the ground and provide you with continuing support for the life of your blog. We are here for questions, consulting, and getting your company the results that you are trying to achieve. What other blog software can say that? Well, none to be exact.

If you would like to view Eugene Chamber's Blog click here. Leave them a comment while you are at it!

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BBC GOES APE...

Posted Tuesday, August 5, 2008 by mikey mioduski

BBC teams up with the Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett for a pretty sweet rendition of an Ancient Chinese folk tale, "Journey to the West." If you weren't stoked about the upcoming games, and if you can get down on some tasty beats and stunning visuals, this might just get you in the mood.

To me this shows that creativity doesn't need to be confined to a 30 second tv spot. This particular video has only been up on YouTube for a little over one week and has 355,000 something views. Like Chris Baggott commented on Greenfield Liquor's approach to blogging for business, video can be a powerful and fun approach to communicating your message.

Compelling content (like a monkey flying on a cloud and kicking ass all the way to Beijing) will get mad views. This voracious viewage will stir up some crazy conversions once the traffic floods into the target homesite from the place where the killer content is held (ie YouTube or your better yet, your very own Compended blog). These crazy conversions turn into radical return on investment. Shizzam.

BBC can track the real return on their ill investment just by tracking the number of views on YouTube and the traffic flooding in to their site thanks to their mind-blowing content.

CONTENT DRIVES TRAFFIC. Know this.

Get your games on!

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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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Using Corporte Blogs to Disclose Information to Investors

Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by Megan Glover

The SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) announced this week that corporate websites and other forms of online media such as blogs will be a permissible vehicle to disclose information for investors.

Here's a good article that gets to the heart of the ruling.

So why is this so important for enterprise blogging solutions, like Compendium? Couple reasons:

1. Need - the need for corporations to have blog software is only going to increase.

2. Legitimacy - occasionally we'll get the question, "is blogging a fad?" We know the answer is "no" but now we have the federal government promoting blogging for business as a "recognized channel for distribution."

And, for businesses - gosh what better time to embrace a blogging strategy, and save up a little cash that would otherwise go to releases! So now among other things business can blog to:

disclose information
get found in organic search
humanize their marketing
and, blog to acquire new business.

There couldn't be a more profitable and deserving time for businesses to start blogging.

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Developing Blog Post Content

Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by jeff lefevere

Have you ever wondered how others find time in their day to write consistent (and consistently good) blog posts?

You may think to yourself, “If only I had the time.”

It’s easy to de-prioritize blogging in order to stay caught up on email and the real core of your business -- growth.

De-prioritizing your blogging, however, is a mistake, especially in the face of your in-box and business growth.

Simply, you likely write close to two thousand words a day in email. One blog post is the equivalent of 250 – 300 words. So, in the course of business, on a daily basis, you likely write at least 8 blog posts, at a minimum. And, likely, at least half of those emails are internal and operationally oriented, not affecting the acquisition of a new customer.

Secondarily, as an adjunct to your daily email, your real daily focus is helping the business run smoothly and drive growth.

When you think about where you can save time, or shift time to focus on blogging, it would have to be getting out of the email in-box and into the blogging platform.

I say this not for the obvious reason that time spent emailing and blogging is a one-to-one trade-off, instead it’s because blogging for business allows you to create content that is optimized for search engines and that traffic subsequently leads to customer acquisition and a flow of potential new customers.

These two factors combined make daily blogging a no-brainer.

Am I positing that time spent blogging instead of emailing will lead to growth in your business? Yes I am.

So, say no to those four emails that don’t advance the situation forward, though they may advance your opinion forward, and drive that energy into growing the business, using blogging as a tool to do so.

A couple of tips to take your creative brainpower into overdrive:

1) Start to view your work life in terms of story vignettes

The customer situation yesterday that was resolved and made the company look good? It makes a perfect blog post!

2) Think about your business and blogging tangentially.

That Fortune, Men’s Health or Cooking Light magazine you read in your personal time is a treasure trove of cultural currency that can be cross-pollinated with your business for pop culture relevancy. That article about the healthiest cities in America? Well, if you’re a healthcare blog, there has to be some relevant tie-in to your business

3) Keep a notebook handy to scrawl down the genesis of an idea when it strikes

You won’t remember the idea later, but just the scribbled note will jog your memory.

I hope these tips help drive your blogging success forward.

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The Best $0.87 You Can Spend on a Business Blogging and Internet Marketing Book

Posted Friday, August 1, 2008 by jeff lefevere

Some people like to know what time it is. Others want to know how the watch works.

As a nation of learners, oftentimes, we want to understand context, the situation around the situation. Besides a mellifluous voice, this is probably one of the reasons that we enjoy radio personality Paul Harvey so much; he helps us understand the “Rest of the Story” in regards to a situation concerning business or humanity.

This story/back-story element also is a reason why blogging is such a rich tool for the marketer. In addition to being “human” with your prospect you have a tremendous opportunity to present context, which aids sales.

If you’re interested in picking up a book that will give you incredible context and “The Rest of the Story” to blogging and social media, the best $.87 you can spend is a series of 95 theses written in 1999 and posted on the Internet before being born in book form in 2000. The Seminal book, “The Cluetrain Manifesto” is as good of a primer as any that I can think of to help somebody make sense of some of the large, seismic dynamics that are taking place in the Internet space, a space you are presumably participating in or considering by developing, executing and continuing to enhance your blogging for business program. The preface of the book says:

The Cluetrain Manifesto is a set of 95 theses organised and put forward as a manifesto, or call to action, for all businesses operating within what is suggested to be a newly-connected marketplace. The ideas put forward within the manifesto aim to examine the impact of the Internet on both markets (consumers) and organisations. In addition, as both consumers and organisations are able to utilise the Internet and Intranets to establish a previously unavailable level of communication both within and between these two groups, the manifesto suggests that the changes that will be required from organisations as they respond to the new marketplace environment.

Some of the “theses” of the book are downright Nostradamus-like. When the book first came out, it was heralded and then dismissed as a part of the collateral damage that occurred with the downturn in the economy. Now, these simple maxims, some eight years later, couldn’t be more on target, correct and downright visionary, especially since they were released in the pre-blog era. A couple of examples:

* The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

* Companies that don’t realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity.

* Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If they blow it, it could be their last chance.

Go to Amazon.com, search for “Cluetrain Manifesto” and buy the book used for under a buck. For $0.87 you can’t even buy a cup of coffee and I guarantee this book will have a more lasting impact than a Venti with cream and four sugars.

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Video and Business Blogging: Fun and Profitable

Posted Thursday, July 31, 2008 by Chris Baggott

Big Corporatations try and make things so complicated. I always say that innovation starts at the bottom...the so called Minor Leagues. Think sports marketing, everything cool in sports marketing (bat night, concerts, fireworks...even frisbee dogs) started in Minor League Baseball.

This is especially true in business blogging. With the advent of Affordable blogging software, some of our best bloggers turn out to be coming not from the ivory towers of the fortune 500, but from the SMB's. Forget Jonathan Schwartz or Robert Scoble...

If you want to emulate great Blogging Best Practices, pay attention to Lizan Brand.

Lizan is focused on Blogging for Search. She highlights high value and unusual products using all the best SEO tactics including the right keywords, geo targeting and blended search favorites like video. Why?

So when someone is looking for a specific product or a drink recipe in Greenfield or any of the surrounding communities like the big city of Indianapolis, she's the number one choice.

As a result, she has been featured in the Indianapolis paper which is over 20 miles from her store. This week she was featured in DMNews (trust me, she doesn't consider herself a direct marketer) and the things that she blogs about, she is now buying by the case. This is the best thing about Business Blogging, telling a great story about things that move your business forward.

Sure Greenfield Liquors sells 6 packs of cold Miller Lite, but her profits come from high end wine and Liquor. Blogging on these topics rings the cash register.

Watch this video and see if you don't end up thirsting for a Root Beer Cocktail :-)

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Reach Retail Shoppers With a Company Blogging Solution

Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by Eric Romer

A recent article in eMarketer, a leading source for Internet market trends, highlights retail shopping statistics that show consumers hit the web first... before talking to family & friends.

This is great data that really drives home the importance of a blogging solution for retailers.

I'd be interested to see the breakdown of how many people start with a search engine in that 58% . It's probably a conservative estimate to say it's at least half, which would be about the same amount that visit local stores. Think how much effort is dedicated to in-store displays and hiring smart, capable employees to service needs of shoppers. Based on this data, why would a retail business not provide that same experience online??

Blog for your business. Show consumers you are in tuned with your industry and the needs of your customers. You will be found in search engines more often... on a wider range of keywords. And, with a measurable blog strategy, you will convert those visitors into paying customers.

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Does the Thought of Corporate Blogging Make Your Head Explode?

Posted Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by Ali Sales

You're not alone. This article, 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog, made me think of how daunting business blogging can be for any kind of organization.

There are some good tips in this article, don't get me wrong.

It's just a lot to think about, and you're a busy person, right? I am a big fan of using subject matter experts (SMEs) as much as possible. I don't want to be an accounting pro or a legal pro -- I want to have a basic understanding and then pay and rely on people around me to help.

Okay, so you know where I'm heading with this:

Wouldn't it be great if you could do the same thing with a corporate blogging program?
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a blogging partner who can worry about all the details so that you can focus on writing content for your company blogs?
Oh, and wouldn't it be great to use a blogging solution that lets you log in, type your content, and then the blogging software itself structures that content in a way that helps you get found in the search engines?

Well, stop the head explosion and accept that you don't have to know all the answers in order to get started. You just have to find the right partner, and by default, the right blogging tool.

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