Business Blogs TEC 204 Data Management in Organizations

Blog A blog (a contraction of the term "web log") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual or organization with regular entries of ◦Commentary ◦descriptions of events, or ◦other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.... Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

Why Business Blogs? Primarily it is a tool for improving public relations (creating a good public image) Many companies have added blogs to their marketing mix. ◦In the social networking atmosphere of today’s internet (Web 2.0) it is important for businesses to keep up with the trend and become multi faceted in how they interact with the public

Low Entry Barrier Blogs Have Relatively Low Barriers to Entry ◦Designing and launching a blog can be very easy, with little programming expertise required. ◦However, as with any other marketing campaign it is essential you invest in a plan to add value to the organization via the blog

Communications Control A blog helps to provide control over your communications ◦A blog provides the opportunity to inform customers of upcoming products, services, conferences, trade shows or even to give an insight into the day to day running of the business. ◦Blogging is highly competitive and a major problem is the failure to be unique enough to differentiate your company blog from the other millions of blogs on the internet today.

Growing your Customer Base One strategic way to drive traffic to your blog is to post comments on other blogs with links to and details of your own blog. Such a strategy helps businesses brand themselves as an authority to people outside their own circle of influence

Disadvantages of a blog They are easy to start but difficult to maintain ◦A poorly maintained blog may actually harm public relations (makes you look out of touch) Difficult to gather and statistically analyze impact of information from your blog ◦e.g. how does blog activity contribute to increasing revenue?

Unknowns What are the customer dynamics? ◦Percent of active involvement? The impact of Social Networking on “attention span” ◦Will visitors take the time to “investigate” your blog? How would you go about collecting data from a blog?

Quiz Monday The Blog quiz will cover ◦This PowerPoint ◦The blog articles on the Instructor Web page The quiz will also request your thoughtful interpretation of the future of business blogs