Instead I will be focussing on the Better Business Blogging site where you will still be able to keep up to date with the advice, tips, thoughts etc. on blogging and new media that would have appeared on these pages.

You will also be able to find me on the BT Broadband Office blog where I will be writing on the use of blogging as a marketing and business tool for small and medium sized businesses.

I hope to be able to return to posting here later in the year but, as I say, if you come over to Better Business Blogging then I’ll make sure that you’re kept up to date on that!

In the meantime, thanks for reading and participating and see you over at BBB.

Tags: The Blog Coach, Better Business Blogging

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While the specific requirements will vary according to the goals and expectations, you should be able to answer the following questions from the start:

a) What do you want to do with your Business Blog?
It’s really important that you have a clear idea from the start of what you want to do with your Business Blog – this will help it to have the focus that will benefit it with both readers and search engines alike. The more focused it is, the more successful it is likely to be.

b) Who is your target audience for your Business Blog?
Avoid trying to make it “all things to all people” – it’s just not possible. It’s all about focus again and so decide on who your target audience is and then write the blog for them with content they’ll be interested in and a style that they will warm to.

c) What results are you looking to achieve?
It’s all well and good for me to say that you should be considering these elements if you want your blog to be a success, but just what is “a successful blog” for you? What goals do you have for your Business Blog and just as importantly, how are you going to measure them? You will need to show results for the time and effort involved - therefore, from the start, make sure you know what results you are looking for, what criteria you want to work with and how you wish to measure them.

d) How will it integrate with your other marketing activities?
Blogging is an excellent marketing tool. However, it is not a magic wand to cure all marketing ills, so take time and effort to use as well as possible with your other marketing, business development and customer service activities. (Check Marketing and Promoting your Business Blog.

e) What Blogging software to choose?
There are a number of options available, each with their own plus points and negatives – what you need to do is decide which is most appropriate according to the control, customisation or future-proofing you require. Probably the best advice I can give is to choose one which will grow and develop with you as well as fitting with your current business and technical requirements. Free hosted software (such as Blogger) will seldom do this or give you sufficient control, so look at Wordpress (full version) or Typepad as good starter points. [My own preference is for Wordpress.]

f) What to call your Business Blog?
Rule of Thumb: choose something which you are still going to feel comfortable with in a year’s time. Either let it reflect your company and branding, or make sure it contains your keywords … or preferably both. You might like to check some additional ideas on choosing a Business Blog name here.

g) Host it on your website or on a different domain
As a general rule, if it sits comfortably alongside your website and complements the information on it, then integrate it into your website. That will be good for your company both from a branding and a Search Engine point of view. If, on the other hand, you are looking to present an objective view on your industry or want to create a separate identity then a separate domain name would be more appropriate.

h) What domain name or subdirectory name to use?
Try to use something descriptive - if you are using a separate domain, then choose a domain name which either reflects the branding you wish to achieve or contains your main keyword (or preferably both!). If it is a subdirectory then describe the purpose it will be serving such as “Information Centre” for example. Please, please, please … only use “blog” as a name as a last resort!!

i) Look and Feel of the Blog
If you are using it as part of your website, then integrate the look and feel with the rest of the site. There is absolutely no need for your visitors to know that they are on a blog - and of course they really won’t care! Remember it’s the benefits that blogs offer that is important, not the technology. If it is on a separate domain, then design your Business Blog with the image you want to portray but don’t use the default template that comes with your blog software. Default template = zero differentiation!

With all of these elements in place then you are starting off on the right track and should have the foundations in place to create a successful Business Blog. By doing so, you will find that it will save you a lot of time and inconvenience in the future and will make the blog that much more effective in achieving your business goals.

Tags: Starting a Blog, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Blog Design, Blog Focus, Naming your Blog, Domain Names, Blog Appraisal, Blog software, Typepad, Wordpress, Blogger,

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Phil Cross, audience group manager at Microsoft, argues the case for corporate blogging and gives some good advice to those considering using a corporate blog in the process.

Ecademy Founders Share on ‘The Future of Social Networks’

looks at the way that social networks are likely to develop in 2007 and beyond in the opinion of two people who set one up.

Big Blogger: week three

allows the Guardian Unlimited to deliver some of their favorite sports posts from blogs over the past week. Good to see people getting involved!

Companies ignore online brand ‘buzz’ at a cost

looks at the fact that companies, both large and small, need to keep an eye on what is being said about them online and particularly in blogs.

What is a blog?

where David Cox talks to Norah Ephron of the Huffington Post about blogging and journalism.

PS - you can find my own take on What is a Blog? (at least from a business perspective) by following the link.

Tags: Blogging News, Business Blogging Articles, Corporate Blogging, ecademy, Social Networks, What is a Blog,

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Making it easy for readers to get around your blog is essential - it’s also very sensible. You put a lot of time and effort into writing your posts, so you want to make sure that they can be found easily and any associated information also highlighted to your blog readers.

As I mentioned in the original article, if you have special elements - these could be promotions, services, products, giveaways etc. - that you are looking to highlight, then these should be positioned accordingly at the top of your blog, above the fold. This will make these elements easy to locate and additional variations to the blog, as they will no doubt vary over time as your business priorities change.

However, the rest of your content also needs to be shown off to best effect! The main methods will be via the individual categories and the archives and, from personal experience, the categories which will be most frequently used, so make sure that they are prominently positioned.

There are some other ways and means that you can include to help encourage people to explore your blog further and therefore allow you to gain maximum benefit from the time that you invested in your posts. Some that you might like to consider are:

Related posts

Link to other posts on your blog which contain information related to the post that they are currently reading – they are clearly interested in the topic, so help them find more details about it. In Wordpress, you can do this with a plug-in called Related Posts.

Links in your posts

Within your posts, reference other posts on your blog so that you make it easy for people to find them. Just as you should reference other people’s blogs in your posts as sources of additional information, there’s no harm in referencing your own as well.

Key posts

You probably have set of key posts (which I call Foundation posts) and which contain information that is key to your services and your business in general - so highlight them, perhaps by creating a list under the heading of “Key information”. If you can’t specifically identify ones, then check your stats package for the posts that attract the most hits or appear most prominently in the Search Engines and then highlight them.

Most Popular posts

Check which posts attract most comments or which have the most visitors (again a plug-in can help Wordpress users here) and make sure that they are highlighted so that more people can read and share them. The sidebar is a good place to create this list although you could alternatively make a special page.

Recent Posts

List your last 5 posts in the sidebar thus encouraging people to read your most recent (and possibly most relevant) offerings. You might avoid these on the main blog homepage as they will be visible but is great for individual post pages - a quick modification to your template will allow you to achieve this.

Recent Comments

With blogs being all about communication, show the last few comments in your sidebar so that people can read not only your initial posts but also the comments that your readers have taken the time to leave.

Show Categories in the Post headers

Include the names of the categories that the post appears in alongside the title or at the bottom of the post. It will help people to find other posts which are related and that you have categorised in the same way.

By using these methods, you are giving additional value to your readers by helping them find further information that is relevant to them - at the same time, you are of course promoting more of your own content and so helping the marketing of your blog. As an added bonus, you are also extending the internal linking within your blog which the Search Engines will be pleased to use and give you an extra “plus point” for.

Tags: Blog Design, Business Blog Design, Related Posts plugin, Wordpress, Wordpress plugin, Key posts, Internal linking, Popular posts, Business Blogs, Corporate Blogs

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Since business blogs can be both quickly and easily updated, and because they are inherently interactive, they provide the perfect medium both to display expertise and to help to start a relationship with clients. The additional benefits such as a more prominent profile with Search Engines is a clearly a plus but the ability to clearly demonstrate what you can do and the knowledge and experience that you can bring to a client’s situation are critical.

Looking at it from an overall business perspective, some of the main benefits that can be achieved through business blogs are:

• Differentiate your business: help to break down the impersonal corporate wall that can surround professional services companies and provide a personal face to what you do. The knowledge and expertise that you bring is of course, but who you are and your personality are also key to a successful commercial relationship, as well as being critical branding elements and business tools - so USE them!
• Educational Marketing approach: use the developing content of your blog to show your potential customers what you can do. This is a much more powerful approach than traditional direct selling methods and it will help to build better relationships with your marketplace. It will also help you to become a “partner” rather than simply a “supplier”.
• Demonstrate your Expertise: as you offer a specialist service, then gaining recognition as an expert in a certain field and being able to demonstrate real credibility is hugely beneficial. A blog can act as a shop window to these skills and is doubly effective if it is THE place to go for information in a specific niche. Using the internet for research, potential customers will certainly find the information they are looking for - so make sure that they find it on YOUR blog!
• Interact with your marketplace: open up the services that you offer and the benefits they provide by letting people interact with you by commenting on your articles, case studies or news releases. When your service offering is strong, then the more that people know about you and have the chance to talk with you, the better your situation will be.
• Knowledge Leadership: when people are interested in what you are writing about, they will want to hear more and will recommend you to others. By expressing your ideas and thoughts openly you will encourage this and help position yourself as a leading exponent in your field. But to be considered a leading light in your area, first you need to communicate your ideas with others.

There is still a reticence on the part of companies and individuals alike to open up and share more about what they can do - they prefer to keep that under wraps until a contract is signed or reveal parts only behind closed doors.

In today’s environment where information is readily available, the likelihood is that there will be many others in the marketplace offering similar services to you. To ensure that customers find you first, it is critical to broadcast the knowledge you have - the greater the level of quality information that you share, the greater the chance of being found and your services being demanded.

Your blog can help you to achieve just that.

Tags: Professional Services, Accountants Blogs, Blawgs, Legal Blogs, Consultant Blogs, Small Business Blogs, Business Blogging, Marketing with Blogs

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While I’ve written on this subject before, I feel that it is worthy of inclusion again as part of the Business Blog Design series.

It’s all about communication!

When we talk to someone face to face, either at a personal or business level, there will be a point when the conversation turns to questions such as “what do you do?”, “where are you from?” or something akin to “what team do you support?”. Why? Because we are interested in knowing more about the people that we deal with - it’s in our nature

In the same way, blogs are really all about communication too, as well as interaction and conversation. Personal blogs approach this with certain goals in mind - getting in touch with people with common interests or just wanting “to be heard” for example - while companies using business blogs have a different agenda and may be looking to generate trust, differentiate themselves and ultimately develop additional business.

In both cases, you need to make sure that people can find out more about you … and also find you! When you are reading a business blog and find what is being said interesting, it can be very frustrating if you want to contact the person or find out where they are based only to discover that that little (but crucial) bit of information is nowhere to be seen. Not only is this frustrating but it can also be damaging from a business point of view too!

Make your details easy to find

So make sure that you provide your readers with a clear way of finding out about the person who is writing the blog and who they are communicating with. They’ll already have a good idea but what you write and how you write it but help them on their way - always remember to put up a profile up on your Business Blog as well as a way for your readers to get in touch with you, though of course those can be on the same page.

If you prefer to include your details as part of your sidebar then keep it short and sweet – that’s part of your “prime real estate” that we talked about in the original post so you’ll have lots of business specific stuff that you also want to be highly visible there. I personally prefer a link through to a separate page where you have a little more space to include whatever details seem appropriate to you. And a photo … always remember a photo! Most of us work visually, so that help your readers picture you, even if you’re not totally comfortable with it like me.

What to include?

Some profiles will focus on past work and experience ( no CVS though, please), others will have more of a current focus and outline future plans. What ever you put there, try to make it personal though and don’t forget that picture as well! Remember that from a networking perspective, your Business Blog acts as the hub at the centre of that network - people are therefore going to be interested in the “real you” and what makes you tick so give them some insights into the person behind the Blog.

You also want people to be able to contact you. They can do this by posting comments on your blog, but they may also want to get in contact with you directly. So, make sure that you also have your contact details on your blog, either as part of your profile or in a separate section – or both!

Don’t forget your legal obligations

Finally, in Europe at least, a new law which came into force at the beginning of 2007 requires that emails and websites (and hence blogs) to display certain details about the company and/or individual that is writing them so make sure that you comply if necessary. There’s more information about this here.

Make sure that your profile and your contact details are clearly visible on your Blog - make it easy for others to find out more about you and contact you!

Tags: Blog Design, Business Blog Design, Planning a Blog, Setting up a Blog, Starting a Blog, Contact Details, Blog Profile

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talks about another product aimed at monitoring brand mentions in blogs and other social media. Key thing to take on board though the price tag on this product is only for the bigger players, one feels.

Best of Brit Blog Awards 2007

announced by Metro which is jointly sponsoring them this year. But, horror or horrors, no Business Blog category!! What is the world coming to … will they never learn … oh dear …!

Irish Blog Awards attracts international voters

in contrast to the Brit Awards and across a wide range of categories which encompasses a whole range of areas … including Business Blogs!! [Have I got the message across yet?]

Top 10 Marketing Blogs

A nice run through of some excellent marketing based blogs, some of which may take your fancy.

Lufthansa supports blog program

shows how advertising on blogs is taking off (sorry!) in the mainstream press as larger companies consider their benefits.

LIVE BLOG: Ireland vs. England

Not exactly a business blog but a nice use for one and a clear demonstration of the immediate publishing ability that it offers businesses. Pity about the result of the match though!

Tags: UK Blogging News, Sway, Creston, Brit Blog Awards, Metro, Vox, Ask.com, Irish Blog Awards, Business Blogs, Marketing Blogs, Rugby Blog,

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Why are Post Titles important?

Well, they’re important in the same way that a newspaper headline is - they attract our attention, offer an insight or a “teaser” as to what the post contains and hopefully encourage us to read the full article. With the huge amount of information that we have nowadays, it is so important to grab people’s attention in the short space of time that we are given before they move on to something else … and generally we only have the post title at our disposal to achieve this.

However, there is an added complication. We need to remember that we are in fact trying to attract the attention of two groups: readers (or should I clarify by saying ‘human readers’) and Search Engines.

If they both reacted in the same way to words then things would be easy, if a little boring. However, they don’t and nor are they attracted by the same things. While human readers are attracted by humour, nuance, plays on words as well as information, Search Engines are attracted purely by the words which we provide.

Where do we see the titles?

However, we also have to bear in mind what people actually see in different situations and places - bear with me here, it’s important! The first obvious place is on your blog itself - at the top of your post is the title which will hopefully inspire you to read the post below it. Nevertheless, you are already on the blog, so in some ways the battle is already half won!

The title of your post also appears in the main Blog Search Engines such as Technorati or Google Blog Search and in the RSS Feeds that people receive in their readers. As people browse here, then the title is critical in attracting their attention as they skim through the articles on offer. The more information that we all try to process in as short a space of time as possible then the less time we’ll have to attract attention and the more critical it will become.

Post Titles and Title Tags

However, when it come to the main Search Engines, things are slightly different. What appears on the results pages of Search Engines such as Google and Yahoo is not actually the title of your post but the “Title Tag”. This is distinct from your post title and something which you can control separately. The “Title Tag” is doubly important because it is an important element that the main Search Engines look at when ranking pages - they do take note of the title of your post, but they take much more interest in the “Title Tag”.

So which way to go? My own preference is to keep the title interesting without making it too cryptic, and I always try to include the main keyword for the article. In addition, I make sure that, where necessary, I modify the “Title Tag” to ensure that that is keyword rich. (More details in my SEO series on Better Business Blogging and a great Wordpress plug-in from Stephen Spencer to help you).

In other words, I try to appeal to both audiences. You are best placed to know what will appeal to your readers and you can guess that, for Search Engines, the principal keyword phrases for the post are going to be key. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to combine both as well as you can.

This you have to read

So where to find more information about titles, headlines and how to write them? Well, if you only go to one place, then head on over to Copyblogger’s posts on Magnetic Headlines. Highly recommended!

Tags: Business Blogs, Writing a Blog, Writing Blog Posts, CopyBlogger, Headlines, Title Tags, SEO Blogs, Search Engines

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This year, as I have already written, I am particularly chuffed because two of the finalists in the Best Business Blog category are businesses that I have worked with and so I am naturally very pleased to see that they are so highly recognsied here. While I haven’t included all categories (I do after all focus on Business Blogs and their benefits), I have included as many as possible.

I hope that all the finalists - and indeed everyone else who goes along - has a great night at the Irish Blog Awards night!

Best Business Blog

• Allagi Blog
• Argolon
• Ask Direct
• BH Consulting Blog
• Biz Growth News
• Ice Cream Ireland

Best Blog

• Arse End of Ireland
• ArseBlog
• Beaut.ie
• Blogorrah
• Nialler9
• Twenty Major

Best Blog Post

• Annie Rhiannon - Three years too late
• Arse End of Ireland - Where do you get your smoke from?
• Blogorrah - Rochegate: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?
• Conor’s Bandon Blog - You may feel a small prick
• Twenty Major - A thousand words

Best Political Blog

• Bock the Robber
• Dominic Hanngian’s blog
• IrishElection.com
• Slugger O’Toole
• The Tuppenceworth Blog

Best Group Blog

• Blogorrah
• In Fact Ah
• One Breast Less
• The Community At Large
• The Dublin Blog

Best Technology Blog/Blogger

• Bernie Goldbach
• IQ Content Blog
• Michele Neylon
• Conor O’Neill
• Tom Raftery

Best Designed Blog

• Beaut.ie
• Fustar
• Ginger Pixel
• Nialler9
• Twenty Major

Best News/Current Affairs Blog

• An Spailpin Fanach
• Dublin Opinion
• IrishElection.com
• The Limerick Blogger
• Sarah Carey

Best Specialist Blog

• Ask Direct
• Beaut.ie
• Ice Cream Ireland
• One Breast Less
• The Waiting Game

Best Newcomer

• Arse End of Ireland
• Beaut.ie
• Blogorrah
• Style Treaty
• The Waiting Game

Best Podcaster

• 2 Irish Geeks and a TV
• ArseBlog
• EdgeCast (Conn O Muineachain)
• Letter to America
• Oldbones
• Podcasting.ie
• Twenty Major

Best Podcast

• An Lionra - 06 12 06
• Arseblog - Episode 1
• IT@Cork - Eddie Hobbs
• Letter to America - The Irish Blog Awards Podcast
• Oldbones - The Favour
• Twenty Major - Scientology

Tags: Irish Blog Awards, Best Business Blog, Krishna De, Biz Growth News, Allagi Consulting, Blogging Awards, Blog Design

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Two very different sites as well and it’s nice to see that they have been so well received after all the hard work put in by Krishna De and Ann Greene who write and run them.

Biz Growth News - Krishna De

A traditional blog in terms of format, though one that is absolutely full of information for a business looking for ideas and new information about anything and everything to do with developing business and building a brand online and offline. Podcasts, webinars and offline seminars as well as the blog itself and yet that is still only scratching the surface of what Krishna offers.

In March, we’ll be looking in a little more detail at the thought processes that went on in terms of the modifications and the implementation of the final result that you see now. However, as you read the posts, you will see that all that this does is complement the great content that Krishna provides. A blog which just cries out to be in your RSS reader!

Allagi Consulting - Ann Greene

This is a full Blogsite (that’s to say a complete website including a blog which is all built using Blog software) which has given Ann Greene, who runs Allagi Consulting, total control over the whole of the site in terms of being able to add and change content as she requires, as well as the ability to add pages and so grow the site when she needs to - with little to no intervention from anyone, including me.

The site also incorporates the Allagi Blog which Ann uses to great effect to look at her specialist area of expertise of team building and team development. Although it’s still in its infancy, the blog was already considered worthy of a place in the shortlist and you can’t say fairer that that!

Do check out both blogs and I wish them both the best of luck in the final which will be announced at the Awards Dinner on March 3rd. In the meantime, so as you don’t miss any, I will be listing the nominees in the main categories in a special version of Spotlight on UK Blogs (in this case Spotlight on Irish Award Blogs) this Friday.

Tags: Business Blog Design, Irish Blog Awards, Krishna De, Biz Growth News, Allagi Consulting, Ann Greene

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