Some articles which have appeared in the UK online press over the past week which looks at blogging (primarily business blogging) and its uses. If you find any good articles that could be highlighted here, then please post the links below or send them to me directly at mark[at]betterbusinessblogging[dot]com and I’ll do the rest.

Thousands of bloggers unite in blitz of green tips
The Blog action Day on the 15th October seems to have been a success with thousands of bloggers participating and raising awareness on climate change and environmental issues.

Going the Whole Blog: The Benefits of Social Networking
Jackie Cameron explaining why blogging and social networking work so well together for her and in her work. Nice personal account.

Newlyn processor joins seafood ‘bloggers’
Another sector looks at blogging for a range of different uses – and it’s good to see a sector such as this trying blogging. As the article states, “Its a great example of using modern technology to promote the industry in an unusual and engaging way”. I can think of some other industries that would do well to follow the example.

Slow Starters: Blogging in the Building Industry
As Phil Clark so eloquently puts it, “The construction world isnt exactly full of bloggers, but if even Sir Terry Farrell is chatting away online these days, it might be time to start taking it all a bit more seriously.” A second hurrah!

Playing Footsie with bloggers
CEOs should be considering whether corporate blogs are important – a little controversial in places but underlines the potential influence that blogging has in business and people’s perception of businesses if nothing else

Was this post useful? Then please share it!

Well, clearly Amazon believes that they have an important role to play in guiding potential customers to their site. They have just launched a series of widgets that bloggers and online social network users will be able to use, primarily as part of Amazon’s affiliate program.

And just why is this avenue so important to retail organisations? The reason is that the personal recommendation is a powerful tool for retailers – in fact probably THE most important one they have if used correctly. Quite simply, we all rely very heavily on the opinion of friends or colleagues that we trust when making a buying decision.

Online word of mouth, as I mentioned in Blogs, Peer Review and the Retail Market, holds enormous sway with customers and is going to be increasingly important. This is primarily down to the massive increase in the levels of online communication via blogs and social networks. But, importantly, this is not only the case with the so called Generation Y but with people of all ages as the increasing average user age of both MySpace and now Facebook is clearly demonstrating.

So as a small business looking at retailing online, what can you do? Well, we will be looking at this in more detail next week as part of the Small Business Series on Better Business Blogging. But in the meantime, take a leaf out of the “big boys” book and think about making your own widget which you can distribute yourself to help publicise your online shop or products.

For some ideas on creating widgets yourself, have a look at All about Widgets which is an excellent start point – it will also direct you to places and resources that you really should visit.

In the meantime, try to keep an eye on what the main players in your own market sector are doing and, where possible, employ similar tactics to raise your own profile!

Was this post useful? Then please share it!

Firstly, a thousand apologies for being a little quiet of late – I wish that I could blame it on a long summer break but alas it’s been a case of catching up on work having over stretched myself over the past weeks on a number of fronts. I guess there’s always a balancing act in managing all the elements of running a small business world and sometimes the seesaw just tips too far one way or the other.

I’ve also been taking the time to catch up on some reading as well as planning some of the elements that I want to write about here. So I thought that I would share those with you.

In amongst the other posts, there will be two short series over the coming weeks focusing on Specific small business uses for Blogs and also on RSS.

Specifically, for the Small Business series, I’ll be trying to look at:

• Blog websites rather than simple blogs for small businesses


• Blogs as a Search engine optimisation aid for local search


• Blogs complementing a small business’s online shop


• Internal blogs as intranet alternative

The RSS series will address:

• RSS made simple


• Benefits of RSS for the publisher


• Benefits of RSS for the subscriber


• RSS working for small businesses


• Marketing with RSS

Hopefully both will have elements which will be of interest. I’m certainly looking forward to getting back to the blog this week and starting the series next week, so hope you’ll tag along!

Was this post useful? Then please share it!

Some articles which have appeared in the UK online press over the past week which looks at blogging (primarily business blogging) and its uses. If you find any good articles that could be highlighted here, then please post the links below or send them to me directly at mark[at]betterbusinessblogging[dot]com and I’ll do the rest.

Welcome to our new look site
Clearly convinced of the medium, Technology Guardian has relaunched and redesigned their blog as part of their overall site rebranding apparently taking it from Web 1.5 to Web 2.0. So I guess that’s only half a redesign then?

Blogging is ten, maybe twelve, or twenty-four years old
A little bit of navel gazing on just where this blogging thing came from and how old it might be together with a reference to the Wall Street Journal’s article “Happy Blogiversary which discusses it further.

Air Cargo Blog Goes Live
Feels a little bit like the guest publication round from “Have I got News for You” but Air Cargo News has launched its blog with its coverage of ‘every major issue affecting the Air Cargo industry’. Link to the Air Cargo blog here. Good luck to them , I say!

Playing by modern marketing rules
Interesting short piece from “Director of Finance Online” which acknowledges the change (and need for change) in advertising and marketing practices with new media forging ahead.

Builder’s blog to report on progress
Nice use for business blogs from an unexpected source in that technology hotspot that is Norfolk. Builders keeping clients updated on building work and asking for feedback – whatever next?

How blogs and social networking sites can be used to commercial advantage
Good piece looking at a BT roundtable event which looked at blogs and social networking sites as well as BT’s BTTradespace offering.

Was this post useful? Then please share it!

Some articles which have appeared in the UK online press over the past week which looks at blogging (primarily business blogging) and its uses. If you find any good articles that could be highlighted here, then please post the links below or send them to me directly at mark[at]betterbusinessblogging[dot]com and I’ll do the rest.

The 50 best business blogs
I’d have to take issue with the title of this blog but there are some excellent ones in there along with at leastone that probably doesn’t even deserve the name “blog”, but there that’s probably me being fractious. If you spot them, leave me a comment! :0

The best business blogs – the readers strike back
Clearly had comments back about their original list but we really need to be getting a few more from the UK in here – also I have issues with semantics about what a business blog really is. Looks like some people want it to be a blog about business topics such as leadership, productivity etc. Absolutely not a pre-requisite for a business blog in my opinion.

Blogging smashes job prospects
Comes back to being sensible – in a business world, if you are not prepared to stand by what you say, then you’re better off not saying it at all. Surely that’s an important rule on or off line?

Buyers look to blogs for advice
It seems that both blogs and their social media partner, podcasts, are having a larger impact on buyers of HR services than traditional forms of advertising.

Pupils lead the way with blogging
... and who are tomorrow’s consumers and corporate employees?

Blog lets you hone business ideas
Another interesting way of using blogs in business, I feel.

Was this post useful? Then please share it!

Liz Strauss of Successful Blog fame has recently been running another wildly successful Group Writing exercise where she asked her readers to define their own metaphor for blogging, ideally to help explain it to those coming to blogging for the first time.

A huge range of really good and incredibly diverse metaphors were forthcoming which it seems appropriate to share here so that you can peruse them at your leisure.

There were also some “winners” chosen – randomly I might add, since my own Blogging Metaphor was one of them – who will be receiving a copy of Lorelles book “Blogging Tips What Bloggers Wont Tell You About Blogging“. The ten winners were:

• 10 reasons why blogging is like dating”
  
  at Romance Tracker


• Bloggers, Brains and Metaphors
  
  at BrainBasedBusiness


• Blogging Metaphor: Why blogging is like a Mommy
  
  at Moments of Clarity


• Whats Your Blogging Metaphor? Teaching by Bits (and Bytes)
  
  at ModernMagellans


• Singing the “blogging song” around the campfire
  
  at Live the GREAT life you desire


• One BIG small town
  
  at Runners Lounge


• Blogging Metaphors
  
  at Lena M Holmberg


• 10 Basic Tips for Starting a Blog Using Gardening as Metaphor
  
  at Circular Communication


• 7 Ways That Blogging is Like Opera
  
  at Randa Clay Design


• Blogging Metaphor
  
  at Better Business Blogging

The complete list is given below. Enjoy!

Was this post useful? Then please share it!

Some articles which have appeared in the UK online press over the past week which looks at blogging (primarily business blogging) and its uses. If you find any good articles that could be highlighted here, then please post the links below or send them to me directly at mark[at]betterbusinessblogging[dot]com and I’ll do the rest.

Six Apart turns blogs into full Business Web Sites
A part of the recent Six Apart PR offensive – we have been able to do this for a while with Wordpress though. An example is the Heal Naturally website here.

Third of Bloggers “risk the sack”
Rather provocative headline – work with your employees and have blogging policies in place and you can worry about email again as the biggest security issue, rather than blogs.

Six Apart scales up Movable Type Blogging
Good to see Six Apart continuing their development of their main corporate blogging platform – now all you need to do is try our Blogging Workshops and in-house training to see how best to use of blogging in business! Anyone notice the blatant plug?

Blog is but a list of names
A case in point – to write a successful blog, you need to find out what interests your readers and it seems that a list of dinner parties just isn’t cutting it for this councillor.

Google buys blog and RSS tool Feedburner
One of my favourite tools, Feedburner, has been bought by Google – another big player getting heavily involved in RSS following Microsoft with the IE7 and others.

Telegraph launches RSS reader
The Telegraph seems intent on adding to their online offering and an RSS ensuring that they keep readers onsite even when they are reading others’ news is a very sensible step.

Was this post useful? Then please share it!

As you may be aware, I have started doing some blogging for British Telecom on their BT Business Blog which is aimed at providing small and medium sized companies with online information and news which will help their businesses.

In addition, I’m taking part in two linked events which are happening this Thursday – one online and the other offline in London – both of which I hope will be of interest to you!

WEB SEMINAR
Firstly, there is a Web Seminar on Online communities, Social Networking and Blogging which is just one of a series of web seminars that BT run as part of their Business Club activities. It’s free to particpate in and you can find a summary and how to register on their website.

As part of the web seminar, you will also have the chance to learn more about the BT Tradespace service which is an online community that brings small businesses and individual sellers together with potential customers to do business. Basic membership of Tradespace is also free so it is certainly worthwhile finding out more about it and setting up an account.

SOCIAL NETWORKING MEET UP
On the same day, BT are also holding a small social networking evening in London, partly to follow up on the topics raised in the Web Seminar as myself and other participants from the seminar will be attending. Apparently, there are still some places available, so if you are in London then you should consider coming along to chat with other like-minded business people, learn about blogs and online communities for business … oh, and there’s some light refreshments too!

The event is taking place in the private Royale room of RubyBlue, Leicester Square, London from 6pm. If you would like to come along, just complete the short registration form on the BT Business Blog and hopefully I’ll see you there.

Was this post useful? Then please share it!

More movement in the social bookmarking arena as yesterday ebay confirmed that they had moved in to buy StumbleUpon for a valuation of $75 million.

Quite where the synergies are is yet to be revealed, but it is interesting to see the moves into this area by the big boys, perhaps hitching a ride on a growing bandwagon? There was of course the much bigger move in this arena by Yahoo at the end of 2005 when they bought deli.cio.us and no doubt there will be others in the wings.

As far as StumbleUpon goes, well there have certainly been lots of developments since I first stumbled across it (sic!) about a year ago – I was then recommended to have another look at it by Des Walsh earlier this year and certainly the functionality has advanced a great deal as have the number of subscribers using the system.

By way of a test, I am also trying a small experiment by marketing through them – specific pages are shown to people expressing an interest in the areas I nominate and a “per view” payment is made. You can also specify people your site is shown to by geographic region and age which allows better targeting. So far no-one has gone on to explore my site further having “Stumbled Upon” it or taken up any of the calls to action, but I’ll keep monitoring and report back.

All in all, interesting moves afoot and I foresee an early start in ebay pushing traffic StumbleUpon’s way.

Was this post useful? Then please share it!

Some articles which have appeared in the UK online press over the past week which looks at blogging (primarily business blogging) and its uses. If you find any good articles that could be highlighted here, then please post the links below or send them to me directly at mark[at]betterbusinessblogging[dot]com and I’ll do the rest.

Who says blogging’s not journalism?
An interesting take on the alleged conflict between bloggers and journalists in the wake of the Engadget / Apple memo issue.

Blogging is a conversation not a code
A short article from Mike Butcher on the attempts to create a Bloggers code while referring back to the concept that blogging is about conversations.

Avis rolls out blog site
Avis has decide to set up and run a blog to support their customer service efforts – at last someone else is listening (about this use for blogging, I mean!!). Lots more posts to come on this!

Blogosphere threatened by Google downtime
It may not sound a lot, but in my book part of the reason why Blogger is never going to be the best choice for a business / corporate blog.

Was this post useful? Then please share it!