My name is Douglas Karr and I'm VP of Blogging Evangelism at Compendium Blogware. My passion is for leveraging online technology to maximize its effectiveness. As a Blogging Evangelist, I provide consultation through this blog and privately with our clients to utilize their blogs across the Social Media and Online Marketing landscapes. Blogging is a fascinating technology that doesn't stop at the blog post - it can be integrated and automated through all your marketing mediums. I'll show you how!
My name is Douglas Karr and I'm VP of Blogging Evangelism at Compendium Blogware. My passion is for leveraging online technology to maximize its effectiveness. As a Blogging Evangelist, I provide consultation through this blog and privately with our clients to utilize their blogs across the Social Media and Online Marketing landscapes. Blogging is a fascinating technology that doesn't stop at the blog post - it can be integrated and automated through all your marketing mediums. I'll show you how!
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Posted Wednesday, November 19, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Since arriving at Compendium about a month ago, have absolutely marveled at the application and its architecture. Each week I meet with our development team to discuss bugs and with Ali, co-founder and president of Compendium, to discuss backlog items. The bug list is always tiny and the backlog is being plowed through. They are an incredibly talented group of developers!
This is how Software as a Service is supposed to work! SaaS should be all about enabling your clients' success by continuous improvement of the product that meets or exceeds their business needs.
One request we hear often from our clients is where to get content. In a couple days, Chris Baggott and I will be doing a free webinar on making content work for you - but I'd be remiss to talk about our latest feature we've rolled out in application! This week our development team released a content suggestion tool.
When I logged in today, I was met with some keyword suggestions for my post as well as some content ideas. Utilizing the combination of the keyword suggestion and content ideas made it a breeze and inspired me to come up with some great content for our readers, how to publish your Compendium Blog in Facebook.
Compendium is dedicated to making blogging simple for businesses and helping those businesses execute a blogging strategy that will drive business results. Coming up with content ideas is important, and this feature is great one!
This is how Software as a Service is supposed to work! SaaS should be all about enabling your clients' success by continuous improvement of the product that meets or exceeds their business needs.
One request we hear often from our clients is where to get content. In a couple days, Chris Baggott and I will be doing a free webinar on making content work for you - but I'd be remiss to talk about our latest feature we've rolled out in application! This week our development team released a content suggestion tool.
When I logged in today, I was met with some keyword suggestions for my post as well as some content ideas. Utilizing the combination of the keyword suggestion and content ideas made it a breeze and inspired me to come up with some great content for our readers, how to publish your Compendium Blog in Facebook.
Compendium is dedicated to making blogging simple for businesses and helping those businesses execute a blogging strategy that will drive business results. Coming up with content ideas is important, and this feature is great one!
Posted Wednesday, November 19, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of Facebook. I have a large network of friends and colleagues so I could spend all day in the application and never get a single piece of work done. I can never navigate to what I want to and all the noise is more of a distraction to me than anything else... but...
I realize that many of my friends and colleagues on Facebook utilize it effectively to network and communicate with one another. Part of executing a great social media strategy is to speak to people where they are rather than waiting for them to come to you. That's why Compendium puts a large emphasis on blogging for SEO. Prospective clients are on search engines... so that's where you need to meet them.
So, the single most important application in Facebook, in my humble opinion, is the Blog Network application. It allows you to publish your blog and favorite other blogs within Facebook utilizing RSS.
Be sure to add your business blog to Facebook today to share it with your network of friends and colleagues. It's all about social media domination and leveraging your blog's content is key!
I realize that many of my friends and colleagues on Facebook utilize it effectively to network and communicate with one another. Part of executing a great social media strategy is to speak to people where they are rather than waiting for them to come to you. That's why Compendium puts a large emphasis on blogging for SEO. Prospective clients are on search engines... so that's where you need to meet them.
So, the single most important application in Facebook, in my humble opinion, is the Blog Network application. It allows you to publish your blog and favorite other blogs within Facebook utilizing RSS.
Be sure to add your business blog to Facebook today to share it with your network of friends and colleagues. It's all about social media domination and leveraging your blog's content is key!
Posted Monday, November 17, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Some blog software applications have the ability to manage links within their system. Companies utilize those links to promote the latest articles or news items about their company. Links are important, though, and should not be constrained to your business blogging application.
If you're blogging for SEO, it's a great idea to share your links external from your blog. My favorite bookmarking system is Del.icio.us:
The nice thing about bookmarking systems like Delicious is that Search Engines utilize them to determine relevance... if a lot of individuals bookmark a link, it's relevant to the description and keywords that it's organized under.
If you're a huge fan of Firefox, there's an incredible Delicious add-on that allows you to save, edit, and manage your delicious bookmarks right in the browser so you never actually have to visit Delicious.
Utilizing an RSS Sidebar widget in Compendium, we can publish your bookmark feed directly to your Compendium Blog. This approach is a vast improvement than managing your links strictly within the application because search engines see the links promoted twice now, once in Delicious and once in your sidebar.
That's better blogging - from Compendium.
If you're blogging for SEO, it's a great idea to share your links external from your blog. My favorite bookmarking system is Del.icio.us:
The nice thing about bookmarking systems like Delicious is that Search Engines utilize them to determine relevance... if a lot of individuals bookmark a link, it's relevant to the description and keywords that it's organized under.
If you're a huge fan of Firefox, there's an incredible Delicious add-on that allows you to save, edit, and manage your delicious bookmarks right in the browser so you never actually have to visit Delicious.
Utilizing an RSS Sidebar widget in Compendium, we can publish your bookmark feed directly to your Compendium Blog. This approach is a vast improvement than managing your links strictly within the application because search engines see the links promoted twice now, once in Delicious and once in your sidebar.
That's better blogging - from Compendium.
Posted Friday, November 14, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Just got back from lunch with David Castor. David's firm is utilizing Compendium Blogware to build traffic through search engines when folks are doing an attorney search. Alerding Castor will soon be expanding their efforts to draw more visitors to their attorney website by targeting additional keywords with their Compendium blogs.
In our conversation with David, I likened our approach to a dart board. We've built a system that enables prospects to find our clients by enabling targeted, relevant content to rank high in the search engines.
Our technology enables you to target keywords, but that does not mean you'll only be found for those keywords. In 1990, the original connection between England and France was simply a 2 inch boring. We use the same approach with keywords... it's a guide for searchers to connect with your company. When that happens, we open a freeway of traffic that can easily travel from one side to the next.
Compendium itself has a few hundred compended blogs, but we rank high for about 2,500 other keywords that draw relevant attention to our website. Does that make us one of The Wonders of the Modern Internet? I'd like to think so!
In our conversation with David, I likened our approach to a dart board. We've built a system that enables prospects to find our clients by enabling targeted, relevant content to rank high in the search engines.
I'd liken it to the engineers who worked on the Chunnel. The Chunnel has been named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The Channel Tunnel consists of three bores: two 7.6-metre (25 ft) diameter rail tunnels, 30 metres (98 ft) apart, 50 kilometres (31 mi) in length with a 4.8-metre (16 ft) diameter service tunnel in between (source: Wikipedia).
Search engines, like Google, are every bit expansive and difficult to control. There are millions of search terms and results out there, the trick is connecting the two. Google helps searchers to find you. Compendium helps you be found and organized by Google (and the other search engines).Our technology enables you to target keywords, but that does not mean you'll only be found for those keywords. In 1990, the original connection between England and France was simply a 2 inch boring. We use the same approach with keywords... it's a guide for searchers to connect with your company. When that happens, we open a freeway of traffic that can easily travel from one side to the next.
Compendium itself has a few hundred compended blogs, but we rank high for about 2,500 other keywords that draw relevant attention to our website. Does that make us one of The Wonders of the Modern Internet? I'd like to think so!
Posted Thursday, November 13, 2008 by
Doug Karr
We really do make it simple for companies to begin building traffic on search engines as well as having all the tangible benefits of blogging: trust, authority, building relationships, etc. While folks that blog on other off-the-shelf platforms, Compendium Blogware is more than an app - it's a service that comes with search engine optimization experience, blogging professional advice, and a team of people that ensure that your blog has a positive measurable return on investment.
Simply put, if you don't get results... we don't stay in business. Our approach is so unique that we're already attaining a great reputation in the business. The fact is - we love blogging and we want businesses to love it to. The first goal in doing that is by providing a proven system for developing keyword-centric strategies for our clients.
We want you to win search first, because that draws more relevant traffic to your company. When you have more relevant traffic, it's obvious that you're going to profit from that traffic. The relationships you'll build through us will last you a lifetime.
In many ways, blogging for seo is kind of an internet dating service to match our clients to their next big customer. Find your next love with us!
Posted Tuesday, November 11, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Last year I posted that 2008 was the year of 'micro', where folks have begun to gather and organize in their own niche groups. Of course, Seth Godin wrote the book much more eloquently as I could - Tribes.
Posted Tuesday, November 11, 2008 by
Doug Karr
If you get the opportunity to pick up a copy of Age of Conversation 2, please do. All profit goes to charity and the book is a collection of short stories from Social Media and Marketing professionals from around the globe. It was an honor to be on the author list of this fine book! Special thanks to Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton for doing all of the work to bring it together!The book hits on all chords, "Why Don't They Get It?" provides 237 different stories on the turning tide of marketing in our culture. It fully supports why blogging for business is such a necessity!
Thanks to all the authors who gave selflessly of their time to write this incredible book: Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G. Kofi Annan, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going&Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne&Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw and James G. Lindberg, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem
Posted Saturday, November 8, 2008 by
Doug Karr
With the global economic woes looming, you might wonder what the future is of a Corporate Blogging Application like Compendium. Quite honestly, we're incredibly optimistic. Traditional mediums like newspapers, television and radio are having an incredibly hard time staying afloat as consumers move to the Internet.
The cost of digital advertising is so much less that even magazines such as US News&World Report have decided to quit printing operations and move solely to the Internet. Even the Internet has its challenges, though. Consumers are becoming blind to intrusive advertising online and are looking to find relevant content through search engine results. Where the consumers go is where the advertising budgets go.
This new report provides some insight into the challenges our economy is facing and how it's impacting industries - especially with respect to the Internet. Late in the slides you'll find a telling slide about where the most growth is occurring: search. Search marketing strategies are inexpensive, have a high return on investment, have measurable and actionable results, and can be produced with minimal resources.
Blogging has the distinct advantage of being both an acquisition and retention strategy for companies. As you develop your marketing budgets for 2009, you might want to look at these advantages and begin shifting your budget where it's going to have the largest impact.
The cost of digital advertising is so much less that even magazines such as US News&World Report have decided to quit printing operations and move solely to the Internet. Even the Internet has its challenges, though. Consumers are becoming blind to intrusive advertising online and are looking to find relevant content through search engine results. Where the consumers go is where the advertising budgets go.
This new report provides some insight into the challenges our economy is facing and how it's impacting industries - especially with respect to the Internet. Late in the slides you'll find a telling slide about where the most growth is occurring: search. Search marketing strategies are inexpensive, have a high return on investment, have measurable and actionable results, and can be produced with minimal resources.
Blogging has the distinct advantage of being both an acquisition and retention strategy for companies. As you develop your marketing budgets for 2009, you might want to look at these advantages and begin shifting your budget where it's going to have the largest impact.
Posted Friday, November 7, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Date:11/11/2008 (Download to Outlook)
Time:
Workshop - 3PM
Open Networking - 4-6PM
Free Appetizers&Cash Bar
Location:
3PM - Comedy Sportz Mass Ave&College
4PM - 45 degrees Mass Ave&College
Cost:
$15 for online pre-registration
$20 at the door
Panel Discussion: Why is Corporate Blogging Critical to a Company’s Success
You’ve heard so much over the past few years about the importance of
web-presence and dynamic web 2.0 sites and now the latest buzz in the
marketplace is blogging. The Confluence panel discussion brings
together Indy’s best Blogging talent to uncover why Blogging is a
critical component that needs to be prevalent in your 2009 corporate
marketing initiatives.
The group of executive-level panelists will
share techniques on how to start your corporate blog, how to keep your
corporate blog fresh, how to enlist contributors, and how to judge the
market reception and key performance indicators of a successful blog.
Panelists include: Erik Deckers, Chris Baggott, Rhoda Israelov, Rodger Johnson, Kyle Lacy and me!
Posted Friday, November 7, 2008 by
Doug Karr
One way to have add an incentive for your employees to blog for your business is to put their goofy mug... on a mug!
Maybe not... but I really did get a kick out of this, though. Thanks to our Marketing Department!
Posted Tuesday, November 4, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Many companies are initiating costly (but revenue-generating) landing page strategies. What's a landing page and how is it different from your web site? A landing page is specifically constructed for a consumer to land on from an advertisement, form submission, email link, or search result.
A landing page is typically invisible to the visitor on your website. For example, if I owned a chocolate store in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, I might have 3 search engine optimized landing pages - each page's content would concentrate on the geographic location of my shop as well as what folks might be searching for.
Best fudge in Ohio would lead me to the Ohio page. That page would have compelling content as well as a distinct call to action.
Think about it... a search engine landing page has 3 distinguishable characteristics (Additionally, I would expect it to have tracking as well!):
A landing page is typically invisible to the visitor on your website. For example, if I owned a chocolate store in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, I might have 3 search engine optimized landing pages - each page's content would concentrate on the geographic location of my shop as well as what folks might be searching for.
Best fudge in Ohio would lead me to the Ohio page. That page would have compelling content as well as a distinct call to action.
Think about it... a search engine landing page has 3 distinguishable characteristics (Additionally, I would expect it to have tracking as well!):
- Search engine optimized construction.
- Compelling content
- A Call to Action
- Search engine optimized construction.
- Compelling content
- A Call to Action
Posted Saturday, November 1, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Site Search, SEO and Email Marketing Ranked Top Three E-commerce Technology Tools of Choice by U.S. Retailers, Reports SLI Systems Survey.
Blogging for business has a direct impact on Search Engine findability. The ability to be able to be found on Search Engines has direct impact on sales. And blogging has an impact on purchasing behavior. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for retailers to position themselves over their competitors!
- 91% of the retail companies surveyed cited site search as critical, very important or important to their online businesses.
- Of the retailers that have measured the impact site search has had on their businesses, 87% reported positive results.
- 54% saw an increase in sales as a direct result of adding new site search capabilities, while 44% experienced greater conversion rates and 40% cited better customer satisfaction.
- Of the retailers polled, close to 60% said they would be likely to consider a hosted (SaaS) site search solution over a traditional installed application to reduce costs, lessen the strain on IT resources and make for more rapid deployment.
Blogging for business has a direct impact on Search Engine findability. The ability to be able to be found on Search Engines has direct impact on sales. And blogging has an impact on purchasing behavior. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for retailers to position themselves over their competitors!
Posted Saturday, November 1, 2008 by
Doug Karr
It's a lot of fun working for an organization that seeks out to assist others when they can. Compendium is one of those organizations! Today's fun... Photoshopping a huge mustache for Kiva! Every photo that's submitted will result in a $1 donation to Kiva, an organization that helps those with money lend it to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Chris and Kaila already added theirs!
Whaddya think?
Whaddya think?
Posted Friday, October 31, 2008 by
Doug Karr
This is an ongoing topic in the SEO business, but I believe we have a proven record where a blogging subdomain approach is more effective than a blog subfolder.
- Your domain has already established authority and pagerank, so adding a subdomain and content will 'latch' onto that authority and you'll see some good results quicker. This is advantageous to both, but a blog subdomain has other advantages...
- Since Google treats a subdomain as a (somewhat) separate domain, your site or blog can take advantage of backlinks between the two. Backlinks are a gold standard of relevance in the SEO industry. The more backlinks your site or blog has, the more search engines believe the site to be relevant.
- Consumers are tuning into blogs to make purchasing decisions, so we love the fact that our clients prominently put blog, blogs or blogging in the subdomain. Blogging denotes honesty and trust and that's what we want search engine users to see.
- Real estate matters and by having both a domain and subdomain showing up on search engines, you're literally covering a bit more of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). If your blog is in a subdirectory, you'll get a single entry, a subdomain will add an additional entry.
- Providing a distinctive difference can be advantageous to differentiate your 'polished marketing' from the 'voice' of your company.
Posted Thursday, October 30, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Many of our customers and prospects are PPC (Pay Per Click) geniuses. PPC is a fairly simple approach to 'buying' traffic to your site. PPC also has the added simplicity of generating fantastic toolsets to gauge the competitiveness and cost of keywords and key phrases you're trying to obtain.
We pay a lot of attention to PPC at Compendium because its a great indicator for our clients when we review their compended blogs and what keywords and phrases they are after. However, there are some very important differences between Pay Per Click and Blogging.
We pay a lot of attention to PPC at Compendium because its a great indicator for our clients when we review their compended blogs and what keywords and phrases they are after. However, there are some very important differences between Pay Per Click and Blogging.
- PPC ads have a very short title and description as opposed to a blog. A blog offers both can leverage a full post title and lengthy description so a blogger can write incredibly compelling content that a searcher can decide on.
- PPC ads obtain 5% of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) where as Organic Search results obtain 95% of the click throughs.
- Blogs are seen as trusted resources for conscientous purchasers online. So not only do more people click-through, they're more likely to purchase after reading a blog rather than a web site.
- A PPC advertisement is a one-time event that you have to actively pay for for the duration of the campaign. A blog post is there for as long as your blog is alive and well - always ready to be a relevant response to a visitor's request.
- PPC ads don't 'combine' to build trust nor authority with Search Engines. Blogs do! The more content you post, the smarter you're making the search engine on how your website is relevant to searchers.
- PPC ads are only an acquisition tool, to get people to your site. Blogs are both an acquisition and a retention tool to obtain new clients and continue to maintain a relationship with them after they are on board.
- PPC can only be won by spending more money than the next person. Blogs can win organic search simply by being more relevant. The popularity of a blog through trackbacks, number of blog posts, and the richness of the content can drive your result to the top of the Search Engines.
Posted Wednesday, October 29, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Curious, if you owned a retail establishment what you would do if a customer stood up and started screaming, cussing and demeaning your company in front of your other patrons. You'd most likely ask him to keep his voice down and usher him some place where you can find out why they carried on and what you could do for it.Chris Brogan has a great post today on Corporate Blogs and Commenting Policies. I wholeheartedly agree with his post - a blog isn't a place to set up a stage for rude visitors to begin yelling. You must protect and preserve your company when blogging. Chris goes into the following details:
- It's not wrong to protect your living room
- Allow for dissent and discourse
- If you're going to moderate...
- There are off-topic and rude comments
It's okay to protect and preserve your business!
Posted Wednesday, October 29, 2008 by
Doug Karr
One of our Client Success Managers, Sarah Sedberry, received an out of office notification the other day from one of her clients, Cantaloupe. It wasn't just any normal out of office notice, though:
What a fantastic opportunity that Jon captured! Think about every touch point in your office today where you could have pointed someone to your blog for additional information!
I'm currently out of the office and won't be returning until Monday, November 3rd. If your matter is urgent please contact Jon DiGregory.
If it's not urgent and you have a moment to learn about internet video marketing, you can check out my Cantaloupe blog:
http://blog.cantaloupe.tv/blog/marketing-with-internet-video
If it's not urgent and you have a moment to learn about internet video marketing, you can check out my Cantaloupe blog:
http://blog.cantaloupe.tv/blog/marketing-with-internet-video
What a fantastic opportunity that Jon captured! Think about every touch point in your office today where you could have pointed someone to your blog for additional information!
Posted Wednesday, October 29, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Though we're in the middle of an economic crisis where some of our mortgage industry might deserve it, flogging has a different connotation as discussed by Dr. Vaine. Dr. Vaine discusses forced blogging and speaks (tongue in cheek) about how to drive your corporate blogging productivity into the ground.
The humor is a bit dry in the video but the message is clear. Strapping on rules, regulations and a ton of overhead to your corporate blogging strategy is a surefire way of killing it. I had a boss who once told me, provide your employees with every opportunity to succeed - and they will.
Provide your employees with the freedom to blog - and they will.
Of course, Compendium has the added safety net of an administrative approval process in the application. That's not to stop a bad employee, but provides an opportunity to coach a great one.
Posted Tuesday, October 28, 2008 by
Doug Karr
Traveling amongst your favorite sites and blogs can take quite a bit of time each day. Thankfully, modern browsers have RSS subscription capabilities built right in. If you're using Microsoft Office 2007, it's easy to subscribe to your favorite corporate blogs. Utilizing Google's Blogsearch, you can even subscribe to your keywords or key phrases in searches of blogs on the Internet.
If you're using Outlook 2007, the first step is to set the default program options in IE7 or Firefox to open RSS feeds with Outlook rather than the browser or other program. Open Tools > Options and select the Applications tab. Scroll to Web Feed and select other for the program and navigate to Outlook.exe (Usually C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice12Outlook.exe)
Now you can easily subscribe to RSS simply by clicking the orange RSS button viewable in the Address Bar:
You'll then be presented with a subscription option in Outlook:
Now, when those sites publish their content, I am instantly updated within Outlook and need not navigate back to the website. One downer with Outlook, though, is that it won't play audio nor video in an RSS feed like Google Reader does. I hope Microsoft expands the flexibility of Outlook in the future to support those features.
If you're using Outlook 2007, the first step is to set the default program options in IE7 or Firefox to open RSS feeds with Outlook rather than the browser or other program. Open Tools > Options and select the Applications tab. Scroll to Web Feed and select other for the program and navigate to Outlook.exe (Usually C:Program FilesMicrosoft OfficeOffice12Outlook.exe)
Now you can easily subscribe to RSS simply by clicking the orange RSS button viewable in the Address Bar:
You'll then be presented with a subscription option in Outlook:
Now, when those sites publish their content, I am instantly updated within Outlook and need not navigate back to the website. One downer with Outlook, though, is that it won't play audio nor video in an RSS feed like Google Reader does. I hope Microsoft expands the flexibility of Outlook in the future to support those features.
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