Some more thoughts on blogging...and my new blog

Blogging being a journal means there should be regular posts. Mea culpa. With the many pressures of work and family, the update of a blog seems to go down in priority to everything else. (I should really practice what I preach.)

Last weekend, I attended a seminar on Internet Marketing. It was very similar to the one I attended last year. It was, after all, given by the same people--the Internet Marketing Center.

Mind you last year, the CEO, Derek Gehl gave the seminar, but the guy this year, Jason Bax, was also pretty good. Though, I liked the previous venue better. Telstra Stadium, compared to Syndey University, this year. (No offense to the university, but we had tables and chairs and more room in the previous venue.)

And, since the cost was minimal, they tried to sell their stuff. This I suppose is fair enough. But, again, I digress.

One session in that seminar dealt on blogging, RSS and podcasting. This was the principal reason I attended the seminar. Some new things were covered and this got me even more excited to put more effort in my blogging.

I admit that one reason I do blog is to practice what I preach. I do blogs for some clients and use the lessons learned from actually blogging myself.

I've wanted to be able to have a blog in my own domain, to give me more control than this free forum courtesy of Google. To the folks at Google, thanks and I will still continue using your service. Great job and I push this service to others.

Going back to my earlier plans of my own blog with my own domain. This journal will deal purely on marketing communication. In fact, I've sub-titled the blog: Exploring marketing communication for fun and profit.

If you want to take a peek, it's called messagefromgarcia.net. Yes, I know, pretty obvious and a bit corny. But, when I brainstormed some names this kept coming back with a good feel.

Unfortunately, the ".com" of messagefromgarcia was taken.

Good lesson there. If you have a name you like or want to use, register the domain straight away. Best to stick to .com or .net.

Anyway, again I digressed. I will have more stuff on blogging here and in my other site.

Hope to see you there...soon.

More thoughts on blogging

Admittedly, I'm a late adaptor of the blog. I've only been running this blog for just on a year. And, I must admit that I have only been posting sporadically over that period.

I want to share some nuggets I picked up in my readings concerning Blogs and Blogging.

"Blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpose, or delegate...blogs are not a business elective. They're a prerequisite." (BusinessWeek)

Worth a thought, isn't it? Can anyone in business afford to disregard blogging?

Did you know that the word "blog" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003. It's been around for a while, but you know that something is mainstream when it makes the OED.

According to Nancy Flynn, founder of ePolicy Institute: "The blog is an electronic communications powerhouse that is likely to have greater impact on business communications and corporate reputations than e-mail, instant messageing and traditional marketing-oriented websites combined."

She nominated this as the first rule of blogs, in her book Blog Rules (AMACON, 2006).

These are just some random snippets that I gathered from the first part of the book, which deals with a case for strategic blogging. I'll have some more nuggets from this book and other sources in future posts.

Til my next post.

What is Web 2.0...where does blogging fit in?

Recently, I was asked just what exactly is Web 2.0? Well, this is the shape of today’s web. The next generation, really.

Web 2.0 was first coined by O’Reilly Media, an American company.

The term is used to distinguish the web model today from the start of the web as we know it. For instance, Britannica Online was the encyclopedic source of Web 1.0, while in Web 2.0 it’s Wikipedia. Personal websites were the go in Web 1.0, and now it’s blogging.

The accent was on publishing previously, in Web 2.0 it is more on participation.

Hence, Web 2.0 refers to today’s more collaborative, friendly and interactive transformation of the more staid and static Web 1.0.

It is to take advantage of the current paradigm, that I have approached my clients to consider the use of blogging to get the message out there. Not just to let their customers get more information, but to get feedback on what they are thinking.

While 15 years ago, one had to consider if their firm needed a website, today this is a given. No one can do business without one.

So, in today’s Web 2.0 world, the question is “Do we need a blog?”.

What do you think?

Blogging is more than just a diary of thoughts

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One of the reasons blogs haven't been picked up by corporates is the belief that this marketing communication is merely a diary of thoughts.

For many blogs run as personal logs, this is the case. For corporate communication, whether run by the CEO, or other company officer, this is not always the case. Even if the blog carries that person's thoughts.

A blog is a log. It can be one for random thoughts and even ramblings of the person concerned. But, it can and should be a more than that.

It is a great communication medium, which should be used properly. It's not just a mouthpiece for the company, but a communication medium with extremely wide reach. One which can do more than more conventional methods.

And, this means that it also allows feedback which is not achievable through any other means. Think about it, unless you are prepared to do a survey for every communication you send out, there's no other way to get instant feedback.

Plus, being nearly anonymous, inhibition doesn't get in the way. Once posted, these items of feedback are easy to reply to. Stopping a negative response means you not only get a customer who may have left you onside, but also prevent that person from virally pushing a negative barrow against you.

Still not convinced. More on this in my next post.

Will blogging overtake standard websites

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I recently came across a prediction that blogging will eventually overtake conventional websites. I wonder.

In the Web 2.0 world, a lot of changes have occurred on th internet. Blogging is one such phenomenon. Communication, with comments going back to other way--to the blog writer--has been made that much easier.

What a difference to static websites. Of course, there are sites that allow the viewer to order stuff on-line. E-commerce is now an established mode of marketing. Something that has expanded in the Web 2.0 world.

But, what about blogging? Will it take over standard sites?

Personally, I see a greater increase in blog sites. Both for sites that are standalone and those hosted by providers like Google. And, with this growth, I see an increase in popularity.

Users will not just read through stuff put up in blogs, but will get more involved.

From just another thing that techies did on the web, blogs are now mainstream. Again, Web 2.0, with the start of Blogger.com changed the blogosphere.

And, on a personal level, blogs has been the go for sometime now. We should note that the corporate level is also very active in the areas with CEOs of many of the larger companies (Fortune 500) having their own blogs.

In Australia, blogging in the corporate world is still in its relative infancy. I see this slowly changing and blogging becoming more popular for the corporates--whether this is for personal blogging by executives or corporate blogging.

And, like a snowball rolling down a mountain, gathering more snow with it, as it rolls, blogging will only get bigger.

And, yes, this could well take over from standard websites.

When, I would say in a matter of one to two years.

There will still be websites and they will still perform the tasks they set out to do. But, blogs will proliferate and possibly take over in popularity.

It's going to be very interesting to watch just how this unfolds.

Until my next posting.

Some thoughts on blogging

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It's been busy after the Christmas holidays. And, in typical Jack Garcia fashion, I forgot, or just couldn't get in the mood to focus on updating my blog.

Which brings me to some important characteristics of blogs. Timeliness comes to mind. Frequency is another. Quite importantly is commitment.

Part of the service I offer my clients is help in setting up blogs and their regular updating. The work involved is not merely setting up and publishing, but a strong emphasis on pinging.

After all, what's the point of putting out a blog that's helping promote your company, if you don't take advantage of the search engines' current attraction with blogs. (It's current flavour of the month.)

Search engines love content. That's what they live on. Content.

They look for content, relate these to keywords and help users search and browse the web looking for information.

Search engines' web robots crawl the internet looking for new content.

So, what bloggers should do after a new post is to make sure that search engines know that there's something new. Ping the search engines.

A ping is a quick note to the search engines to let them know that you have new content (a new post) in your blog.

Anyway, I digress.

For bloggers who use this communication means to help promote their business, commitment is important. Before I start blogs for clients, I ask them to commit to keeping the blog alive as a matter of course.

It's like starting a communication piece, eg, a newsletter and stopping after only a few issues.

Blogs are a lot simpler a proposition, also cheaper and arguably with greater reach and more timelines, so this medium should be easier to keep up.

Which brings me back to why I have not updated my blog. Mea culpa. Plain human frailty. Unable to focus. Laziness. Just couldnt' be bothered. You name it.

Enough, rambling. With this blog, I promise to be more timely, more frequent and hopefully very relevant.

Until my next posting.