Ali Sales, Co-founder and President
Do you know what corporate blogging is all about?

Hint: It doesn't have a whole lot to do with being a world-class writer. It has everything to do with driving marketing ROI, sharing your organization's human side, and generating demand.

Blogs are one of the most powerful tools ever available to marketers -- read on to learn how to put them to work for your company.

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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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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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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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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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Your Acquisition Dream Come True
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.
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Why You're Wrong If You Think About Blogging This Way...
Posted Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by Ali Sales
Okay, I'm back to my comments about the Forrester report saying that B2B blogging is on the decline.

In my last post, I tackled one of my primary concerns about the report: The audience surveyed.

Now let's get to the heart of the matter: The message.

As a person with a marketing background, let me say that I think Forrester is a great resource and historically has turned out some pretty great whitepapers, studies, and analysis. But boy, I think they really missed the mark on this one.

My biggest problem with this whitepaper is the core message, which is that marketers should view business blogging as a way to build a community. Whether you are  currently thinking about corporate blogging or have already started down the path, just promise me that you will not make this same mistake.

Why do I think that it's a mistake to consider the major goal of blogging to be community? Because it's impossible, intangible, and quite frankly, it's not going to generate business for your organization.

What markets have to understand is that the goals of a blogging program are really no different than the goals of every other marketing effort that we put money into: generate new business opportunities, and make money.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to quote Jerry Maguire here: "Show me the money."

Back tomorrow with more thoughts.
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Why Blogging Has Taken a Nose-Dive
Posted Monday, July 7, 2008 by Ali Sales
Maybe you've seen this new report from Forrester Research, or just heard the buzz about it from MediaPost.

The 5 second overview is this: Fewer companies started corporate blogs in 2007 than in 2006.

Now the interesting parts are this:
  • Who Forrester paid attention to in the study
    • What caused the decline
    • First up, who Forrester paid attention to. Well, that would be Fortune 500 companies. Why is this problematic? Because I don't think that it paints a very accurate picture of what's happening within the business blogging landscape.

    Here's why. Fortune 500 companies a) have huge budgets, which tends to squash creativity and humanization. Why do something like creating corporate weblogs when I can run a commercial that will reach 10 million people all at once? Old habits certainly die hard here.

    b) Fortune 500 companies are the most afraid of blogs. Control and compliance is important to them, and with an increase (someone find this article, because I know it's out there) in employee-related blogging incidents, they're scared. And that fear prevents them from doing blogging the right way.

    Hopefully that's a good start to getting the wheels spinning and not necessearily taking this report at face value. I have a lot more to say on the topic, but I'll be honest. It's 6pm and I need to be somewhere. More tomorrow.
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    Cheers to Local Search and Blogging
    Posted Friday, June 27, 2008 by Ali Sales
    This year, local advertisers are expected to shift over $13 billion of their budgeted funds to the Internet, according to Borrell Associates. That number is up by 50% over the last year.

    Why is this relevant to you? Because we can't ignore the huge role that local search is going to play for nearly every kind of business, even national chains and enterprises who are stretching themselves for ways to get back to the basics of relationship building. And guess what?

    Business blogging will most certainly play a role in the migration of dollars from off-line to online and in the local search arena.

    There are a few key things driving this shift:

    1) People want to buy from people (i.e. Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, like in Cheers)

    2) People want to buy from people who *are like them* -- of course regional/local means common ground

    3) Search is the #1 online activity these days, right behind email marketing

    If you attended our Humanize Your Marketing with Blogging webinar this past week, you know that company blogging leverages all of these factors. If you were unable to attend, here is a link to the instant replay.

    The numbers and actions of advertisers and all kinds of companies will continue to prove that local/personal marketing is the way of the future. Starting a business blog is one of the best things you can do to get headed in the right direction and jump on a trend that's going to become the norm.   
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    Write a blog post in 8 minutes...
    Posted Wednesday, June 25, 2008 by Ali Sales
    It's 1:52. I have a meeting in 8 minutes. That's not a long time to get much of anything done, but I'm going to write a blog post during it. Why? To prove that generate content for your business blogging program doesn't have to take a ton of time.

    Here are a few quick tips for writing good, quick content:

    1. Use your arsenal of existing content. We tend to forget how much content all of us accumulate over just a few weeks. There is nothing wrong with re-purposing content for your corporate blogs. Some places to look:

    • Newsletters
    • Whitepapers
    • Old articles
    • Your inbox
    • Industry News
    Tip: Subscribe to Google Alerts for the terms you care most about. For Compendium, that means things like "blogging software" and "business blogs."

    2. Just do it. You can't waste too much time thinking "what should I write about." Look at your arsenal and start typing.

    If you're using Compendium Blogware, you'll see the things you should write about on the righthand side of your user account, so that should help you get focused. More doing, less thinking is good for all of us sometimes.

    3. Don't be afraid to reiterate and repeat. Assuming that you're blogging for SEO, you can expect that it will mostly be new visitors returning to your blog. They haven't seen your best stuff yet, as content is continually getting pushed down to the bottom of your blogs.

    It's 1:59 and my post is finished. I didn't have to spend hours coming up with content (I got the idea for this post based on the conversations taking place at Compendium headquarters around time commitment and content). I logged in. I started writing. I used my keyword suggestion tool, brain, and eye on the clock to keep my content on track.
    Comments (0)

    Blog Potomac Questions: Answered
    Posted Thursday, June 19, 2008 by Ali Sales
    As a follow up to my last post, I'm going to put together a response for each of the questions I heard during the Blog Potomac conference last month.

    I'll start with this question because it's the one I get most excited about:

    How can I track the impact of corporate blogging?

    Easy. Are you currently tracking the impact of your website? Are you tracking the impact of your Pay Per Click campaigns, email marketing, and any other online activities?

    Good, I thought so. Then you can most definitely track the impact of blogging. There are a few key things:

    1. You must have a goal when you start your blogging program. If you have no goal, then how will you measure against it?

    2. You must have a call-to-action or conversion point accessible from your blogs. Take a look at the sidebar of my blog. Notice those conversion points? It's no secret that I want to build a relationship with you. So of course I need to provide ways for you to express more interest in my business.

    3. From that conversion point, drive the visitor to a landing page that a) is specific to the blogging program or b) includes a tracking string so you can trace conversions back to that URL

    4. Use your CRM system. To use Compendium as an example, we use a hidden field named "blogging program" as a source for prospects that come from our blogs. We also use Campaigns in salesforce.com so that we can track how a prospect from our blogging program progresses into a client opportunity for us. Campaigns in salesforce are great because they will automatically calculate your ROI!

    I'll end my response with a pretty powerful snapshot of how blogs will change your business.

    Compendium's blogging program generated $15K in new business over the last two months, is our second best online activity from an ROI standpoint (we assume that we would pay for our own software when we calculate ROI), and has a new client close rate of 35%.

    The beauty of blogging is that it's online, trackable, and...it works.
    Comments (0)

    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.
    Comments (2)

    9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online Traffic (Part III)
    Posted Tuesday, June 10, 2008 by Ali Sales
    Here we go again...5 points down, 4 to go. To view points 1-3 on evaluating your online traffic, go here. For points 4-5, go here.

    9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online Traffic (cont)

    6. Be aware of navigation paths
    Nearly all of us have an ideal way that we'd like visitors to navigate through our business blogs or website. The question is: do your visitors follow that path, or do they create your own? Go ahead and take a hard look at "where" you're driving your traffic to -- where do you want them to go after they show up? Are you hoping that a click or two will lead them to take the next step? Will a download that you want to put them over the edge actually take them away from the path you've mapped out? Ideally you are getting your visitor to take the next step with as few of clicks as possible. That comes down to usability, which is an entire issue in itself!

    7. Tie in conversion
    This comes back to point 3, which encourages you to pay close attention to traffic quality versus traffic quantity. Tying in conversion numbers should not be an after-thought. Anytime you're evaluating your online traffic, you should be pulling conversion into the equation. Traffic numbers alone can be misleading...there's an end goal you're driving to, and traffic alone won't get you there.

    When I first sat down to put these thoughts together, I didn't think that 9 key points would be a stretch. Here I am at point 7, wondering what I've left off the list so far. I could really use a little help.

    Is everyone else applying these things to their evaluation of their blogging program or website? What else comes to mind? 2 points to go!
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    9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online / Blog Traffic (Part II)
    Posted Friday, June 6, 2008 by Ali Sales
    Welcome back to my top 9 list for ways to evaluate your online traffic. (Find the top 3 on my last blog post). I'll let this shake out into a few more posts, with points 4 and 5 included here.

    9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online Traffic (continued)

    4. Pay attention to new vs. returning visitors
    I've heard a lot of marketers rejoice when they see their "returning traffic" % go up. "Yes, they liked what they found before and they came back!" Well, not so fast. I encourage you to really think about your business blogging goals before you draw this conclusion. In my business (and maybe in yours) someone who comes back to my website over and over again is not necessarily a good thing. They're lingering. They're not moving onto the next step that will help us develop a relationship.

    That why, to me, new visits are a more important metric to me. I don't plan on my website or my corporate blogs serving as a long-term nurturing site; I want it to engage people right off the bat so they can quickly move on. Obviously this may be different for membership-based businesses, etc.

    5. Keep an eye on bounce rates and time on site
    This is a basic one, but a lot of us ignore it. Would I rather have 50 people show up to my blogs and do nothing, or 10 show up, learn a bit more, and convert? Some of the classic issues that come back to high bounce rate are lack of relevancy, lack of fresh content, and bad design.  If you have a professional blog or website with fresh, relevant content, you should see good results here.

    To be continued again soon...what metrics are you using to evaluate your online traffic?
    Comments (0)

    9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online / Blog Traffic
    Posted Monday, June 2, 2008 by Ali Sales
    I started thinking about this a few days ago after an in-depth analysis of our website traffic versus our blog traffic.

    I have several thoughts on this subject, but I'm afraid it might turn into a meandering essay if I'm not careful.

    For that reason, I'm going with the top 9 things to watch for when viewing your online traffic. I'll include 1-3 here and finish up the list over the next few days.

    9 Ways to Evaluate Your Online Traffic

    1. Benchmark your website against your corporate blogs.
    This is pretty self-explanatory, but so many organizations do not do this. Typically this responsibility falls on the marketing team -- maybe they even provide weekly/monthly metrics reports. The blogs should be included in these reports, and you should constantly keep an eye on how these results compare. You might find that your website isn't needed if your business blogs are consistently outperforming it.

    2. Get into the weeds.
    What I mean by that is that it isn't enough to say, "The website gets more traffic than the blogs." Or, "The website gets a ton of traffic, so it's doing well."

    Where is that traffic coming from? Hopefully one of your largest traffic sources is through the search engines, like Google, and you're able to determine exactly what those keywords are, how many times they referred traffic to you, and what they did once they arrived.

    It's worth it to pay attention and get your hands dirty. You'll find some of your best keywords to target and keywords that aren't worth your time. This will also give you some insight into traffic quality, which brings me to my next point.

    3. Focus on traffic quality -- it will lead you to quantity.
    Here's an example situation:

    Let's say your website gets a million visits from various traffic sources each month. Let's say your business blogs get only a fraction of that - around 100,000.

    At first glance, you might think: my corporate blogging program is a deadbeat!

    But then you find that visitors who arrive at the blog stay twice as long as those who arrive at the website and convert at 15% opposed to 2% on the website. That's high quality traffic, and instead of increasing your spend to get more people to your websites, it would make sense to drive more people to your business blogs.

    Even if the conversion % for the blogs stays the same, by now increasing the quantity, you will be even better off. In other words - it will lead you to do more of what's really working and making more than a superficial impact on your business.

    Stay tuned for 4-9 in my next two posts. Also, here is a shameless commercial plug for a new webinar you may be interested in:

    Free Webinar: How to Humanize Your Marketing
    Learn more here.
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    Who's Winning Your Most Basic Search?
    Posted Thursday, May 29, 2008 by Ali Sales
    A funny thing happened today when I Googled the company name of one of our clients. The results rendered, and nearly every single listing on the first page was a blog.

    The problem?

    None of these blogs belonged to the company. Yes, one of their business blogs appeared on the second page, and an obscure page of their website was a few results behind.

    It made me think about the very most basic search that we all want to win -- our company name.

    Have you Googled your organization lately? You might be surprised at what you find. My guess is that if you're like most companies, your corporate website is getting killed by blogs. They could be beating your website out all together, or they are close behind your website and may surpass it in the near future.

    The reason as to why blogs are filtering to the top of the search results is pretty simple - Google is looking for fresh, relevant content to deliver to the searcher. The freshness of the content alone shoots many blogs to the top of the search engine results pages.

    So what can you do? Good question. Of course it involves starting your own company blogs. And the benefit to business blogging that takes blogging best practices (such as recency of content) into consideration can help you win lots of searches outside of those that involve your company name, which is exactly what you want.

    I've included a screen capture of what comes up when I search Compendium Blogware. I'm actually happy that our website wins this search because it wins on very few terms (while our blogs dominate on terms that do not include our company name). But our blogs are just a few results behind (if I were a Photoshop genius, I'd be able to include this).

    Either way, we're the ones telling the story on the most basic searches related to Compendium. Who's telling yours? 
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    Why Can't I Use a Free Blogging Solution (Part II)
    Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008 by Ali Sales
    To set the stage...we have a lot of organizations ask us this question:

    "Why shouldn't I just use the free blogging solutions out there to start my blog?"

    They've heard of Wordpress or Blogger or TypePad, and the $0 price tag is enough to make them think twice.

    The easiest way to answer this question is by asking you, the individual who is evaluating various blogging software, what you're trying to accomplish.

    You probably fall into 1 of 2 buckets:

    1. You want to use blogs for your personal benefit (or someone in your company's personal benefit - maybe the CEO). Your goal is thought leadership, expertise, and maybe even some ad revenue. 

    2. You want to use blogs to help your business generate leads, acquire customers, and get found in the search engine rankings.

    The buckets are very different because the goals are very different. So it makes sense that the blogging platforms that fit each bucket are different, too.

    Here at Compendium, we do not consider Blogger, TypePad, or any of the freebie blogging tools to be our competitors. Their audience is entirely different from ours.

    We are focused solely on helping group 2 accomplish their goals, and we provide powerful blogging software, client support, and best practices to make it as easy as possible to start and maintain a business blogging program.

    If you're currently evaluating different blogging solutions, the best place to start is by figuring out which bucket you belong to. That will save you a lot time, research, and get you started down the right path.
    Comments (0)

    Why do I need Blogs if I have a Website?
    Posted Friday, May 9, 2008 by Ali Sales
    Are you wondering the same thing? We hear this question a lot at Compendium, which is why we're currently putting together a quick whitepaper on the subject.

    Having a website isn't enough, and here's why:

    Your website is probably boring, stale (staler than this stale bread)...

    And it doesn't have the things that search engines (and people) want to find.

    That makes it difficult for your site to act as a lead generation tool. 

    That's a bold statement - do I have your attention? Good, then time to explain....

    Your website is where you control your corporate presence. Back in 1999, someone said, "Every company needs to have a website!" and so we marketers all built websites hoping that it would help us be found. A lot of us haven't updated them since. Ask any marketer why that's the reason, and we'll say that it's too hard.

    For those of us who do update our websites, we do it in release cycles. We try not to put too much content on our sites (specifically the homepage) because it interferes with design and usability.

    The problem? An abundance of content is what helps our website get found through the search engines!

    Recency and frequency of content are huge factors in getting your website found when people come searching. It makes sense, right? People want to find fresh recent content online, and search engines want to deliver it. A stale website doesn't get you there.

    Maybe you are thinking, "That's not a problem because I'm going to do a website redesign, and I will put more content on it!"

    Well, it is still a problem. Because another thing that people and search engines want are credible information. When redesigning your site, you will probably tear down content and replace content. You completely miss out on the "age" factor that people and search engines want. Keeping old content around is a good thing, as long as it's supplemented by fresh content.

    I mentioned that your website is probably generic. It's not your fault.

    A lot of us don't have a good idea of what our website visitors want. We try to be all things to all people - need contact info? We've got it. Need to learn more about our products? Sure thing. We try to convey a lot, and in doing so, we make it hard on the visitor, who has to dig and dig and search through our site for what they want.

    By trying to "do it all" on our website, it's hard to be relevant to each specific searcher. That's a major hindrance when it comes to lead generation and conversion.

    It's also hard for a corporate website to convey more than a single personality -- typically that of the marketing department.

    We all know that people buy from people that they like and identify with, yet the only personality we serve up to them is an impersonal, canned one.

    OK, so I've made my points and my hope is that you are now nodding in agreement, saying, "There has to be a better way. My website isn't the end all be all to my online presence. The nature of my website is going to make it very difficult for me to accomplish my lead and demand generation goals."

    What will? Business blogging. Corporate blogging. Blogging for search.  No matter what you call, it's going to help. Stay tuned for my next post to find out how...
    Comments (1)

    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.
    Comments (0)

    Japan, Your Goal, and a Bit of Pre-Vacation Insight
    Posted Friday, April 18, 2008 by Ali Sales
    Tomorrow I'm leaving for a little vacation to Japan with my family.

    Now I'll admit that I'm about the world's worst traveler. No sense of direction (literally, 0. Just ask me which way I think North is, and I will send you toward Florida), hungry all the time, old lady feet, etc, etc. You can hear me whining already, right?

    And I generally hate doing research before I go somewhere. I like to take in the culture and relax and have someone tell me what to do, which is precisely why I've done nothing to prepare for this trip. I haven't even packed yet. (Did I mention I leave tomorrow)?

    We're going on a fully guided trip, which will be fantastic for a traveler like me, and the slightest bit of research that I have done has been on a blog. Okay, not even a business blog or corporate blog. And I wasn't the one who found this blog. My dad found it, and it has some pictures of where we'll be staying (a traditional Japanese ryokan) and type of cuisine served.

    The reason why this blog makes me so happy is because of this: my dad wasn't looking for a blog when he found it. He was looking for information on the ryokan, and when he went to Google, Google decided that a blog was one of the best results to present him with.

    And guess what? This is completely relevant to organizational blogging (you knew I would come get to this topic again).

    >As Chris Baggott has simply said, "Millions of people every day are simply typing their wants and needs into that little box and waiting for the good marketers to deliver their solutions.  The goal of marketers is to be the one presented on that page saying:  “yeah, I do that."

    You can't assume that the person looking for your organization has prior knowledge of your company or your website or blog. Case in point, my dad just wanted information; not a destination.

    Blogging provides the perfect opportunity to be present when someone comes searching for what they want or need.

    And yes, of course I'll have a few pictures to post when I return from the trip.
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