New business cards coming soon! Inspired by Clayton, with another great cartoon from MacLeod.
Category: Blogs
Notable Blogs
A Blogger’s Nirvana – Windows Live Writer
If you are new to blogging, or even a seasoned professional, I highly suggest you take a look at Windows Live Writer. Even though it is still in beta, the application simply ROCKS!
Writer, integrates with a number of different blogging platforms including, Windows Live Spaces, Sharepoint, WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, Moveable Type, Community Server, and many other blogging services.
The application, is very easy to use and makes publishing blog posts easy. There are a growing number of plugins available, to enhance your blogging experience. Already, there is support for Flickr, Technorati, Delicious, Videos, ScreenCapture, Snagit, tags, maps and tables
As Writer is still in beta, there is only support for an American English dictionary. However, Scott provides an unsupported workaround, that will allow you to use a British dictionary for spell checking. Remember, this is an supported tweak though!
One of my favourite features is “offline blogging”. I can now blog anywhere, as Writer stores my posts locally and then publishes them directly to WordPress when I have an Internet connection!
One Final Thing… Its a FREE download
Brits are the web addicts of Europe!
For businesses looking to differentiate themselves with the use of Web 2.0 tools. The story below from silicon.com
makes interesting reading.
“The UK’s web fans are spending nearly a day and a half online every month – more than internet users in the rest of Europe or the US.
According to an internet activity study by comScore, the UK has the most active online population in Europe, with the highest average number of daily users (21.8 million), the greatest number of days of internet usage per month (21 per user) and the highest average time spent online per month per user (34.4 hours).
The average European accessed the internet – from home and work – an average of 16 and a half days in the month, and spent a total of 24 hours viewing 2,662 web pages.
But across Europe there are some wide differences. Germany has the largest online population, 32.6 million people age 15 and older, while the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries have the highest percentage of their populations using the internet. The average Swedish user views 4,019 pages per month – 51 per cent above the European average.
The study also revealed Google is the most popular website in 13 of the 16 countries covered by the study, followed by Microsoft in most countries, with Yahoo! coming third.”
With such an active potential market online. Can UK small businesses afford not to promote themselves with blogging? Today, differentiation is the key. The blog, or the “Voice of the Blog”, can help your business communicate with the wider market. Today’s markets are conversation, and your customers want to be involved. To communicate, to debate, to argue, to agree, to disagree this is all good stuff.
If you are not blogging about your business, offering value or insights, your competitors will be.
Can you afford to miss out?
41% of UK SMEs surveyed have not heard of Web 2.0
“With Web 2.0 increasingly being covered in the media,” said Andy Peart, Chief Marketing Officer at Mediasurface, “it was interesting to see that 41% of SMEs surveyed had not heard of it, implying that the message may be getting through to larger businesses but not as efficiently to the smaller business community. ”
He was speaking about a survey – carried out by Mediasurface in May at Internet World in the UK – in which 179 attendees, from businesses with a turnover of less than £5m, were asked some key questions about how they are using their websites.
“Emphasising this point, of those SMEs that had heard of Web 2.0, only 37% felt that it would have a positive impact on their business. There is still a great opportunity to show SMEs the true value of effectively managed web content and to illustrate that Web 2.0 is all about using the power of the web for business advantage,†Peart added.
Whilst 61% of smaller businesses do not believe that their website reflects their company’s brand, 52% of individuals in these companies are unaware how often their sites are updated.
These were two of the key findings of the survey that also revealed: A staggering 1 in 10 small businesses still do not have a web presence; 37% of companies update their website weekly and 11% undertake this monthly; despite the wide-ranging publicity on Web 2.0, 41% of people were still unaware of Web 2.0; and of the companies that are aware of Web 2.0, only 37% believe that it will impact their business.
It is also interesting to note, said Peart, that only just over one third (37%) of companies updated their websites more than once a week. Dynamic, current content is a key factor in delivering a positive impression to website visitors and to keep them returning so updating content regularly is a key factor.
The fact that 11% of companies who took part in the survey still do not have a website is a worrying statistic, added Peart. Since a website is a company’s ‘virtual shop window’ and often the first port of call for many potential customers, visitors are highly influenced by the look and feel, ease of use and accessibility of information. In any competitive marketplace, a company without a website can be overlooked and may not even be taken seriously; however the results of the survey reveal that 1 in 10 smaller businesses are still not taking advantage of this critical business and marketing tool.
WordPress Founder sounds off – CNET Interview
I came across a CNET interview video with Matt Mullenweg, co-creator of WordPress and founder of Automattic, the company that runs the blog host service WordPress.com. As you might expect, Mullenweg has an well-formed perspective on blogging. So what’s the state of the blogosphere? He sees the field as “nascent,” despite the presence of large and influential blogs that are well on their way toward challenging incumbent media
He offers some interesting insights about blogging, freedom of speech, and how candidates’ blogs in the U.S. are usually not much more than platforms for “pre-canned ideas.”
Also in this interview: how to make money from blogs (hint: Google), ICanHasCheezburger, how big the blogosphere can get and what could stop it, the potential integration of Twitter-like services into WordPress
Mullenweg is interesting to watch. He’s outspoken, articulate, and has a great perch to see this medium emerge.
Do bloggers need a code of conduct?
Do bloggers need guidelines about blogging conduct and civil behaviour? Tim O’Reilly is drafting a Blogger Code of Conduct, which is shaping up by the collaborative effort of bloggers on a wiki committed to the “Civility Enforced†standards.
O’Reilly has posted the first draft, which is also posted on the Blogging Wikia, where you can join in and edit the wiki and encourage others too. The final version will be posted on bloggingcode.org, along with the html to display the badge and link to the code. It is based on the Blogher community guidelines, that embrace the spirit of civil disagreement and declines to publish unacceptable content.
Here is what the blogger conduct code says now –
1. We take responsibility for our own words and reserve the right to restrict comments on our blog that do not conform to basic civility standards.
2. We won’t say anything online that we wouldn’t say in person.
3. If tensions escalate, we will connect privately before we respond publicly.
4. When we believe someone is unfairly attacking another, we take action.
5. We do not allow anonymous comments.
6. We ignore the trolls.
7. We encourage blog hosts to enforce more vigorously their terms of service.
You may not agree on many of these points. So they have also decided on a “anything goes†badge for sites that want to warn possible commenters that they are entering a free-for-all zone.
Should “fake” blogging be made illegal?
Sam Coates, political correspondent for The Times newspaper published an interesting article on 10th February 2007. It appears that in the UK, a few hotels, restaurants and online shops have been writing “glowing reviews” for their own products or services, in order to win more business. However, from 31st December, such “fake blogging” will become illegal, as a new European directive will ban businesses from “falsely representing themselves to consumers”
I believe that blogging can be rich e-marketing tool. However, how strong is the temptation for a business to embelish its products and services to win more trade? Is a small white lie acceptable in the online world?
Firms must realise that even in the online world, ethics and integrity are just as important as they are in the “offline” world. Its nice to see legislation is keeping up to date with the rapid developments in the blogosphere.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1361968.ece
Bouncing from The Web Pitch Blog to….. The Good Pitch Blog?
Todd Defren’s, “The Good Pitch blog“, showcases the PR industry’s good work..
I especially like his Squidoo Lens, entitled “PR, Blogging, Web 2.0: Mucking About In The Marketing Mix”
Why small firms should blog…
Credit goes to Steve Clayton (Microsoft) for this post on his blog.
An article was published by Phil Muncaster in the UK’s IT Week magazine (October 9th 2006) – http://www.itweek.co.uk/itweek/news/2165262/businesses-failing-cash-blogs that was entitled “Businesses failing to cash in on blogs”. It got me thinking.
“According to research of 2000 UK SME’s by Fasthosts that Phil quoted, nearly half of SME firms understand the business benefits of corporate blogs (which I doubt highly) but only 3% have plans to start one”. Mad eh? Here is why Steve thinks they should:
It’s a differentiator: clearly this research shows your competitors are not blogging so maybe you should? Get in there early, lead the way and grab your audience. That’s what English Cut did with significant commercial success.
Your customers will soon expect it: well they will as soon as your competitors give them a way to talk to them and have an ongoing dialogue in a way this is becoming increasingly common. If Dell, GM, Carphone Warehouse and others are doing it (and benefiting) shouldn’t you be?
It’s not as hard as you think: creating a good blog is time consuming but it’s getting easier and easier with tools like Technorati helping you raise your profile, Windows Live Writer making it as easy to blog as write a Word document,
You control the message: Steve attended a great seminar with Matthew Stibbe about how to write well (I’ve got lots to learn) and one thing that Steve took away is that ad agencies, PR companies and those kind of tactics have their place but often dilute your core message with marketing doublespeak. When you control the message, it’s likely to be more respected, authentic and honest. Which means people are more likely to listen.
People will find you: Trust me, search engines make you very find-able. I often look at my referrer logs to my blog (use Statcounter for free) and you’d be amazed at how people find you with the most obscure searches on Google imaginable. Write your stuff, do it frequently and be honest and people will find you. Trust me.
The Google effect: I know several small businesses who pay money to appear on Google (and MSN) sponsored ad links. They get some business from it for sure and it’s clearly a good business for Google. Here is my secret though – I have *never* clicked on a sponsored link on Google for the simple reason that it is sponsored – to me it’s artificial and I bet I’m not the only one who loses the use of their right eye when using Google and doesn’t even see that list of sponsored links over there. What does this mean though? Well if you blog often enough and with intelligent use of titles and keywords you will organically rise up the Google rankings. I’ve been amazed at my own rise for pretty broadly used words like Vista so it proves it can be done. I’m pretty sure that if I wanted to appear top of Google’s search for “Chiswick High Street” I could do so within about 3 months with some focused blogging. It’s a reasonably popular search on Google and has low competition for keywords. I setup my CHS store directory, blog about the place, generate some decent traffic and then sell some links to Foxtons, Barnard Marcus, Lom Bok and off we go…hmmm
You will find your voice: the Fasthost research showed people were put off by what to say and how to say it. I was when I started blogging but your friends and customers will soon help you shape that as they did for me. There are tonnes of places to get advice on this anyway and I’ve listed some below. Frankly, that’s just a crap excuse.
Handy Resources
Suw Charman/MSN’s How to Blog for Business – A Guide to Corporate Blogging
ProBlogger’s 31 Days to Building a Better Blog
Beginner’s Guide to Business Blogging – Originally a limited release, now available for free
The Rise and Fall Of The Hit by Chris Anderson
The Corporate Weblog Manifesto by Robert Scoble
Naked Conversations
The HughTrain
The Stormhoek Guide To Wine Blogging
English Cut is a great case study on how a business can promote its services through blogging!
However, are there other small business blogger success stories? Contact me please, I’d love to interview you!
The birth of an idea…
The Web Pitch (or blog speech) is a brief overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The pitch is so called because it can be delivered in the space it takes to fill a web page or blog (say, 100-150 words).
The term is typically used in the context of a blog, pitching an idea to a future consumer or customer. Customers often judge the quality of the pitch by the number of individuals ranked responses from other web users. The basis of the quality of its web pitch, is to quickly weed out bad ideas.
This blog examines how individuals or businesses can use the web pitch, Web 2.0 technologies and social networking to better position their goods and services to customers on earth.
(c) 2007 Jasdev Dhaliwal