Business Blogging

[Doug Bedell]

I'm interested in starting and building blogs for organizations as an offshoot of my consulting in organizational communication and public relations. There's a lot of potential in blogs for building communities of proprietors and customers. Like most businesses, this approach is slow in starting-up. Blogs for local businesses are still fairly new, I gather. Any of you have experience in developing blogs for business clients? How have you gotten the word out that blogging is a viable means of business communication?

[Kotesh]

Doug, I don't have experience with it. But, I thought I will share my view here. Blogging in business world so far is being used for internal communication. That is mainly because businesses need to be very careful about what they publicly say. That's why all that external communications are managed by public relations department. Even PR department has to go through a review process before a message gets out. So, I think blogging in business world is pretty much limited to internal communications.

[Doug Bedell]

I understand the focus on internal communication. But there seems great potential in communicating with customers and potential customers with a business blog. Posting regular entries on products of business developments needn't be that daunting. And eliciting feedback is the lifeblood of a creative communication strategy. I'm doing one business blog now – [e-mail]. I see lots of potential for others and would like to contact someone who is offering blogging services to businesses.

[Jesper Yeoh]

Business Blogging is a web 2.0 marketing tools that very benefit for a company especially in a communication and interaction. But, the most important in blogging for me is to gather the information that you need for your company which help you to make any decision, changes and improvement in the future. So, my experience for setting up a business blogging for a local intellectual property firm is to help them to gather all the latest news worldwide related to their industry. But, we can't forget blog also a web 2.0 marketing tools for today business purpose. Which you will able to get your customer to involve in your discussion topics with comment and so on. Where it will help your company to know what your customer want from your services.Some of the answer you must clearly know before you start a blog. Not every company need a blog, but if you can find a major purpose why to blog and that will fixed with your company culture and operation. I think it will definitely helps. If you're planning to have a internal blog, some of the rule of content you have to set. So, Why you need to use blog? How the blog will help you? What is your major purpose.

Purpose :-
1. Gather information
2. Keep in touch with your customer
3. Networking
4. Sales driven tools
5. Just a diary or memorandum for your company grow.
6. To help your corporate website to drive traffics.

Only you know what you blog then only you will know how the blog will help you. Second, you will need to know can it fix into your company culture.

Do you have time in blogging? this will be the major number 1 issue you have to think about it. There are many more. I hope this will help

[Doug Bedell]

It's not so much my own consulting practice I want to blog for – I'd like to provide blogging services to other businesses. Do you know anyone who is doing that?

[Jesper Yeoh]

"Do you know anyone who is doing that?" - do you means you are looking for a customer? Or you looking for others to setup a business blog for you?

[Doug Bedell]

Looking for business customers. I'm trying to understand the market for creating/maintaining blogs for small businesses, if there is one. - Doug

[Gery DiMarco]

I'm a little vague on what you're looking for Doug. There are a number of systems out there that accomodate various categories for blog topics. Many independent business people use them. Also they and a few small businesses I see may operate a blog within their own individual website.

Are you looking to establish a network for businesses to maintain blogs in, or starting a network to offer blog services on behalf of businesses (writing, maintaining, etc.). The latter would be interesting in that it could actually be a dual revenue generator as you charge the client for the service and generate rev from adwords. The only problem I see with that would be you might be introducing competition for your clients.

Am I on the right track here?

[Doug Bedell]

Gery - I'm interested in offering blogging services to businesses whose owners might not have the time or the writing inclinations to set up and maintain blogs themselves. My sense is that this may be a developing market and I'm hoping to confirm that. I see a lot of potential in blogs as a way of keeping out front of customers – maintaining customer awareness and personalizing businesses for customers. - Doug

[Gery DiMarco]

It is a field that could be used in quite a diverse manner. I don't know of anyone doing specifically what you are speaking of though I'm sure someone in the field of the Virtual Assistants might be maintaining a blog for their customers.

I would think that just selling the blog idea might limit you in gaining customers. Interestingly I was going to suggest that perhaps you could tie it into doing press releases and maintaining them in a blog form for customers. Perhaps even allowing and maintaining responses for customer feedback. The only drawback to the latter is that if they don't see any feedback they may not believe in the viability of the project. I see that your background is in PR and related consulting so it may be a real good tie in as a combined service.

Actually it gives you three approaches. You can use it as an add on sale to existing clients, a limited time comp to new clients who can then upgrade their account, or a combined service at at slightly reduced rate for those who sign on for both at once.

Hope there is an idea in there to help you. BTW I see you wrote for the Bulletin and WSJ's Philly bureau. There was a Doug Beddell that was a technology writer in the Dallas Morning News. One in the same or any relation?

[Doug Bedell]

Yes, Gery, I don't know how this will sort out, but you suggest some pertinent possibilities. I was at a meeting the other evening of our area Mac users group. The speaker, a hardboiled professional Mac user, was saying that he gets hundreds of spam e-mails a week and the only one he saves is from his local farmers market, because he wants to know what ice cream flavors are being offered. That's a great rationale for a farmers market blog, for which I've made two proposals, so far unsuccessful. But this seems new terrain, so I'll keep at it, possibly in combinations of the kind you suggest here.

No, I'm aware of the Dallas Doug Bedell from seeing his name come up with mine on Google listings. But there's no relationship.

[Gery DiMarco]

I hope it develops for you.

Interesting that two unrelated gents by the same name would write in similar areas of interest.

Warm holiday wishes to you and yours!

[Cathy Goodwin]

Yes, I've run into consultants who offer to set up blogs for clients. Virtual assistants often offer services to make posts. The problem is pricing. To keep adding blog posts you need to do some research and if you blog 3x/week (or more) you have to charge accordingly. VA's typically charge $25-50 an hour (occasionally more).

If you go this route, then, I would recommend you charge a fee for set-up and initial posting, as well as consulting on content, length and style. But you will have to find a way to subcontract the postings, unless of course your clients want to do it themselves.

I would also recommend looking up the Blog Squad. Just google "Blog Squad." They've got a whole business based on blogging.