When is a blog not a blog?

September 27, 2006 by The Blog Coach | Comments (8)
Filed under Setting up your Blog, Blogging News

Last week, Legal Week ran a story about trainees writing a weekly blog at the law firm Watson Farley & Williams. Hurrah!

Ah, but wait a minute, isn’t that just a page with some pdf documents on it? That’s not really a blog then is it? Stuart Bruce and Justin Patten would tend to agree and have already expressed their thoughts very clearly on the matter.

I guess that it is a “log” and it is on the “web” so in that sense it qualifies … but it is at that point that the similarities end. So what are the special characteristics that blogs have which make them blogs and such a potentially valuable business tool. Well, the main ones are:

• Readers can leave comments: your readers can respond to your posts so that you can get feedback, start conversations and develop relationships with potential clients, suppliers or partners. The perfect opener to creating a relationship and a network, though the more cautious among us may decide to moderate the comments first;
• Automatically organised: Blog software (which it is sensible to use) will automatically display your most recent posts first, making them easy to find, as well as organise all your posts into ‘categories’ and ‘archives’. This gives great organisation and structure to a blog, perfect for visitors and Search Engines alike and allows you to concentrate on the content
• Permalinks: every post and every category has its own individual address, forever! This means that you can refer to them in articles, emails, newsletters etc safe in the knowledge that they will always be found. Another great feature for the Search Engines.
• Multiple Authors: not only can one person add content but you can allow access to any number of people so that you have several authors contributing to a topic or a series of topics. It also opens up the possibilities for blogs as tools ideally suited to internal communications within a company.
• No technical knowledge required: you don’t need technical expertise to write a blog. You add pages or articles directly to the blog through a “Windows” type of interface with no need to rely on a web designer to update it for you;
• Internal and External Links: blogs thrive by links and referring to other articles so that conversations and ideas can be taken up and developed. At its best, this allows a viral effect in terms of promotion and helps develop both relationships and networks.
• Search Engine friendly: with regular posts, categorised content and search engine friendly links and addresses, business blogs become ideal places for Search Engines to find the type of content they love … and you can rank very highly! An added marketing bonus for your blogging!

I would also recommend any company looking to start its own blog to take the Green Cross Code of Blogging approach and make sure that they are aware of how other are using blogs and what they should be considering.

I do, however, see that Legal Week has just started its own series of blogs including an Editor’s Blog and a Daily Diary which look to be much more what we would expect. Good luck with those!

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The Blog Coach and why hire a Blogging Consultant

September 22, 2006 by The Blog Coach | Comments (1)
Filed under Setting up your Blog, Marketing your Blog, Blogging News

My eye was drawn earlier this week by a post over at Blog Business Summit called Why hire a Blogging Consultant. Professional interest or in search of justification for what I do?

Definitely professional interest.

While it is an interesting overview, I think that it skims over the business side of what a blogging consultant should be able to offer and focuses too much on simply their knowledge of the Blogosphere. Certainly that’s important, as is the passion - you have to know how things work and why they work before you can start to apply them to a business situation.

But you also need to understand the business requirements of the companies you work with, their customers and their other marketing activities if you want to truely integrate a blog and really add value. You should feel comfortable working with both the marketing and technical teams (as well as the general management) with larger clients, and potentially be able to provide both of these roles yourself with smaller clients.

What I did like was the split that was made, between why set up a blog and how to do it so that it really works for your business. In the conferences they are running, they are focusing on the “how” rather than the “why”. I have no doubt that in the US, this is the right way to go.

However, in the UK, we are very clearly in a situation where we need both - the majority of companies are still at a stage where they are learning what blogs can offer them and why they should be considering them. However, there are also a growing number who have identified where they can be applied and now require help and direction in achieving that.

It is for this reason that I now run two blogs aimed at helping companies with their Business Blogging and the split between “Why” and “How” seems like a good one.

• Why set up a blog? - Better Business Blogging will be looking primarily at these aspects by focusing in on the range of business uses/applications of a blog and the issues in business and corporate blogging;
• How to do it? - The Blog Coach will aim to address the need for specific advice on the implementation, development and marketing of blogs as well as offering services and workshops to help businesses achieve this.

As you might imagine, there will be overlap between the two areas as one flows into the other but the differentiation is a good starting point.

So, why work with a Blog Consultant or, dare I say, a Blog Coach? Well, certainly for the understanding of how the blogosphere works and what works best, but also for the ability to apply that knowledge by getting to the heart of your business and ensuring it will produce the best results for you and your customers.

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A Blogging Break …

September 10, 2006 by The Blog Coach | Leave a Comment
Filed under Blogging News

No sooner started than having a short break! What is the world coming to?

Just to let you know that there will be a short hiatus in updating The Blog Coach as I am having a few days break and the PC has been banned … just for a week, though.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as we are sure just what normal is (sic: Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy) - or alternatively on Tuesday 19th September.

There is, however, going to be a lot of information coming your way over the next couple of months on:

• specific ways in which you can use a Blog from a business and marketing perspective;
• how to use your Blog most effectively and get the best out of it;
• using RSS to encourage visitors and generate sales;
• integrating your blog with your other marketing activities;
• marketing and promoting your blog and therefore your business;
• … and a whole lot more.

So, do add The Blog Coach to your RSS reader and, just as importantly, drop me a line and let me know what areas you would like to see covered. My email address is mark(a t)theblogcoach.co.uk or you can leave a comment on this post.

See you soon!

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The Blog Coach is spotted!

September 9, 2006 by The Blog Coach | Comments (1)
Filed under Ask the Blog Coach, Blogging News

Once again the blogosphere shows one of its key strengths - news travels fast!

While I had been intending to keep the launch of “The Blog Coach” quiet until after my break next week to allow me to add some content and additional functionality to it, Easton over at the excellent BusinessBlogWire has as ever been keeping his eyes peeled and ear to the blogging ground. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that The Blog Coach has been spotted.

So why the second site on Blogging?

As you may know I run the Better Business Blogging site which is designed to help give all the information you may need when setting up, developing and marketing a Business Blog. This has been hugely successful in its goal of providing a wide range of information on Business Blogging and nothing will be changing there - in fact, I will be increasing that. (Watch that space, so to speak!)

What I wanted to do was to set up a site which would also support my Blog Consultancy and Blogging Training Workshops here in the UK, and rather than interfere with the Better Business Blogging site, do so through an independent blog. Hence, The Blog Coach was born. I also want to be able to highlight the developments in the take up and understanding of blogging in the UK which I felt would not be appropriate on Better Business Blogging.

Anyway, formal launch comes later in the month and in the meantime … Welcome!! … and please do get in touch with me at mark(at)theblogcoach.co.uk to let me know about your blog or how you would like to use a blog to help develop your business.

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