As corporate blogging maintains a stronger foothold on in many industries, companies are seeking ways to take their efforts to the next level. If you’re interested in growing  your blog’s audience and you want to engage your readers, you may want to consider trying a technique known as live blogging.

This is best illustrated by the activity that surrounds an upcoming launch and the subsequent blitz of a new Apple product. Weeks, if not months, before Apple releases something new, bloggers go to work talking about it, building up buzz and creating a frenzy. Then, as the day of the release gets closer, they kick it up a notch and get prepared. On launch day, many bloggers will be present in the audience and they will be blogging live about what is happening, in real time.

These blogs are always interesting to read, because they have that real time element and the excitement is palpable. You may not be Apple, but there are ways that you can use live corporate blogging to enhance your company, engage your readers and build up momentum to promote your new products.

The first step is to plan out an actual campaign for your live blogging efforts. Take the time to read through other live blogging events and their aftermath. You can learn a lot by taking the time to learn about any mistakes that were made, and how you can utilize the same exact tips in your business. You’ll also need to plan a big event, one that will interest your visitors and is large enough to generate buzz.

For example, a launch that covers a new type of dental floss may not be very exciting. However, a launch about a new type of dental floss that can dramatically reduce tooth decay without brushing would be. You’ve got to find that interesting angle, and then work to figure out how you’re going to push it.

A live blogging event will require some extra equipment. At the very least, you’ll need a laptop or a Blackberry. You’ll have to be connected to the internet and be able to post to your blog from your location. Once you have this in place, you can set up either a regular schedule to keep your readers updated, or you can do it as it happens.

Live blogging is exciting and these techniques can be used for virtually any corporate blog. The key is finding that angle, building up that buzz and following through. If you can do that, you’ll be able to hold a successful live blogging event. It’s a good idea to chronicle your efforts as you go through this process. This will help you plan out future launches and live corporate blogging events that will build on the success of your first one.

Try implementing these techniques the next time you have a new product or service coming out. Chances are, your readers will get swept away and you’ll notice a dramatic increase in site visitors and buyers.

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Originally posted 2008-12-03 05:57:54. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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In a semi-recent post on his blog Matt Cutts discussed some very powerful information about corporate blogging. We got a lot out of this post and decided to expand a little more on the subject. Whether you are already a corporate blogger, or thinking about getting started, this information could drastically effect the way you run your blog and how the public perceives it.

The first point that Matt covered was about leaving yourself enough wiggle room when it comes to product launches, updates or other big events. Whenever you set a date that is hard and fast, you are opening yourself up to a lot of potential problems. Let’s look at a common scenario and how this type of issue could have a negative effect on your business.

Let’s say that you use your blog to announce that on Date X you will be releasing Product Y. You start the buzz, everyone gets excited and your readers can’t wait. The countdown to Date X begins and as the big day gets closer, you realize that you’re not going to be able to make that deadline.

So, you post that Date X is now Date Z and explain that there is a good reason for the delay. Your audience is disappointed, and they may start to wonder about how professional your company is. While everyone understands that product launches are a delicate matter, setting a hard and fast date does raise expectations. If you can’t meet them, your audience may start to wonder what’s going wrong.

Date Z rolls by and you’re still not ready. You have another post about the new Date A, and once again, your audience is disappointed. By now, things look pretty bad, and you’ve already delayed the launch of Product Y twice. More problems occur, and before you know it your actual launch date is now Date D.

By this point, the majority of people that were really interested in Product Y will have moved on. You’ve failed to deliver, you’ve shown that you can’t keep a project on schedule and your launch will fizzle out. While some delays can be strategic and may increase demand, waiting too long and having too many delays will spell disaster for any product launch.

What can you learn from this scenario? First and foremost, while you do need to give your audience a date for a launch, it does not need to be hard and fast. Give yourself more than enough wiggle room so that if something does go wrong, your company is not going to be cast in a bad light.

This same principle can also apply to other promises you make on your blog. Bottom line, if you are not 150% sure you can keep a promise – don’t make it. It’s just that simple. If you don’t put yourself in a corner, you won’t have to worry about getting out of one. By leaving yourself that wiggle room, you’ll be able to present a strong front to the public and keep them interested in your launch or event.

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Originally posted 2008-11-12 05:15:07. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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In today’s current business world, the media is more savvy than ever and so are consumers. This has led many companies to adopt a full disclosure policy on their corporate blogs. Is this policy right for you? Let’s look at a few of the upsides and downsides of full disclosure.

Upsides

1. Public perceives your company as honest.

Everyone loves it when a company owns up to mistakes, takes the high road and is brutally honest about their business deals. It is always refreshing to see a company that is willing to take that risk to be more open with the public and share what is really going on inside.

2. All press is good press.

Blogs that deal with full disclosure typically get lots of traffic and they are able to quickly generate a lot of buzz. This is really only useful if there is a way to turn what they are talking about into a positive light, but overall, when it comes to getting attention, full disclosure usually gets the job done.

Downsides

1. Is brutal honesty always the best policy?

If your company just took a major financial hit, does the public really need to know about it? One of the main problems with adopting a full disclosure stance is that it can really hurt you when things get tough. It’s one thing to say that the company is going through a rough patch, it’s quite another to get into details. This hurts your bottom line, and if you have investors, they may not appreciate your honesty with the public, especially if it affects your stock prices.

2. Bad reputations take only a few seconds to make.

It can take years to build up an image of corporate responsibility, but trashing your company’s image can only take a few seconds. Full disclosure often means talking about things that put your company into a decidedly unflattering light. If you feel your company can rise above that, terrific, but some companies never recover after a blogging disaster.

Weighing All the Options

Now that we’ve gone over the good and bad side of full disclosure, it’s time to get really serious and think about how it could affect your company. Do you have investors? If you do, this is probably not the best policy for your corporate blog. The risks far outweigh any benefits.

Is your company fairly new and so far scandal proof? In this case, then a full disclosure policy can help build a solid reputation around your company and present it in a good light. You may change your mind however the instant the first bad piece of news hits the press.

Lastly, what do you want people to think of when your company name comes up? If you don’t want the latest blogging fiasco to be at the tip of everyone’s tongue, a little mystique is probably a good thing. Blogging is a balance, and it’s up to you to decide how much information you want to reveal.

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Originally posted 2008-08-18 05:09:40. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Are you a small business owner, and looking to generate more business through an online internet presence? If you have been considering putting together a blog for your business, the blogging advice detailed below is intended especially for you.

Q: What should I be writing blog entries about?

A: This is one of the first questions that gets asked by small business owners who are curious about the blogosphere. The best advice that you can take when it comes to learning what to write about is to specifically write about any topic that meets two criteria:

a) It should interest you.

b) It should be related to your business in some way.

This may seem rather obvious to some people, but you might be surprised at how many bloggers choose the wrong topics and ideas for their blogs. If you do not choose a topic that is going to interest you, then you will be much more likely to fall behind on the blogging schedule that you need to maintain in order to attract traffic to your blog. If you choose a topic that is not related in some way to your business, then you will be defeating the whole purpose of blogging for your business in the first place.

Q: How often should I be writing and publishing blog entries?

A: Truth be told, the right answer to this one is: As often as you can. As long as you are not neglecting other aspects of your company, you should blog as often as is feasible. The benefits of blogging for your business tend to be rather cumulative in nature. All the things that your blog will do for you, including search engine visibility, buzz, popularity and traffic levels all come over time rather than at once. The best advice here then, obviously, is to blog as often as is possible, be it once a day, once a week, three times a week, or several times a day depending on what you have to say and how often it needs to be said. Choose a schedule that works for you and run with it for the best results.

Q: How should I organize the topics for my blog?

A: It is generally a best practice to limit how many categories you have, which will keep readers from becoming overwhelmed. Choose a handful of categories that you will write about and make sure that all of your blog posts fall under one of these categories, allowing readers to better search for and find the blog entries that you have written in the past. You can write blogs to fit into any category that you can think of; You should try to be broad when choosing organizational categories, so that you do not end up with blog entries that you do not know how to file.

With this small business blogging advice, you should be ready to start your own small business corporate blog to build a successful web presence online.

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Originally posted 2009-01-26 05:56:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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