This is a review of the Nike Blog at inside.nikebasketball.com

Every few days, Nike updates their inside.nikebasketball.com blog. The posts they provide are relevant for the fans of Nike, and they write in a very well written and interest keeping manner. Despite this, the blog is very difficult to find if you do not know where to go. Searching for the blog does not turn up the pages without a nearly exact title. The blog does not provide a way to comment on or about blog posts. The user will easily get the feeling that the blog is part of a non-responsive environment. The links provided are not clear in their use, and the overall graphics scheme of the site leave a lot to be desired.

Availability, 2 out of 10 –

One would think that by typing Nike Blog, that the blog would be on the first page of links. No dice. The blog was very difficult to find without knowing the URL to begin with. Basic SEO principles will improve the find-ability of the blog, and enable it to show in many searches.

Posting Frequency, 8 out of 10 –

The blog might not be updated every day, or every other day. However the blog is updated every few days, and is consistent in updating at that pace. The size of the Nike brand name would make you think that they could hire a blogger or two to post with greater frequency. It is not like there is a lack of content in the world of basketball.

Relevance, 10 out of 10 –

The blog stays on topic amazingly well. The writing is well, even if you have no interest in the sport of basketball. Someone who knew nothing about the game could find themselves hooked after reading the blog, which is a great testament to the blog.

Accuracy, 10 out of 10 –

Nike is very good about keeping bias and propaganda out of their blog. The content they do produce seems to be on point and is without inaccuracies. If only they would take this professionalism and apply it to other aspects of their blog, they could have a phenomenal blog which is a great source of income.

User Interaction, 2 out of 10 –

There is no place for comments to be placed or for users to reply to posts. This distancing from its users seemingly makes the blog a bit elitist, not caring of what their users are thinking. Answering comments is a simple process which would greatly increase the user appeal for the site.

The Nike blog earns a 64%.

The blog can stand to have one or two staff bloggers who post frequently, and respond to user comments. There is a lot to be said for user interaction, it builds trust in a company, to think that are listening and willing to respond to their readers and customers. The styling of the blog could use a lot of work. The other big loss for the blog is the inability to find the blog without a direct link or URL. Basic SEO principles would enable the blog to turn up easily in many popular search engines.

Originally posted 2009-02-09 05:48:10. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Running a corporate blog can be quite time consuming, especially if you are new to blogging. Here’s a brief idea of what you can expect in terms of actual work and the time it will take to build a successful blog. The initial stages will be much more time consuming than the maintenance stages, but this should give you a good idea of what you can expect.

Setting up a Blog Site.

This can take a few days or longer, depending on the type of software you will be using and your design customization needs. Most people prefer to hire a designer to handle this, especially if they don’t have their own IT department. There will need to be a few days set aside for bug testing as well, to make sure that everything goes smoothly. Certain features for RSS and social bookmarking will need to be added, but these should not take too long to implement.

Writing Posts.

Depending on how fast you type and how well you’ve thought out your posts, writing each one may take a few minutes or a few hours. It’s a good idea to get a topic list together ahead of time to make it a lot easier when you have to write. This is very useful if you find that you have occasional writer’s block. You’ll just be able to refer to your topic list for some inspiration.

You will also need to decide how many posts you want to make per day as well as per week. Posting at least once daily can greatly increase your chances of a top search engine ranking and the more you post, the better off you will be. However, you will need to take into account the time for each post when scheduling this.

Managing Comments.

If you are allowing comments, but you need to moderate them, you will need to set aside some additional time for their approval. Again, this can take a few minutes or a few hours, depending on how popular your blog is. If you’re dealing with a lot of spam comments that need to be deleted, this can further stretch out how much time you’re spending.

Promotion.

Lastly, you will need to take some time to promote your blog, either on your site or by submitting stories to social bookmarking sites. This shouldn’t take very long, but it will add a few minutes on each day.

As you can see, a blog can be labor intensive and it can be a full time job. If you don’t have the kind of resources to devote this much time to a blog, it is a good idea to hire a blog management service. They can assist you in allowing you to spend time working on your own business while they manage your blog for you. This is almost essential as your blog becomes more popular and requires more of your time.

Photo Credit: 1

Originally posted 2008-08-06 05:05:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Reading and reviewing corporate blogs from other companies is a great way to learn a little bit more about your own blog. Microsoft has a large community of blogs, and a wide variety of bloggers writing in numerous blogs within this community. There are a number of employee blogs in the Microsoft blog community, which is insightful and interesting, but many of the community blogs are rich in technical jargon which is useful to those who are more tech savvy but not necessarily useful to those who are not used to the lingo.

There are a lot of blogs that are from Microsoft or about Microsoft, and many focus on technical advances relating to the Microsoft software. However, there is also a higher education blog that is part of the Microsoft community which relates to programs that are being integrated into universities for students. For example, I read about a software program called Business Intelligence and how Microsoft Performance Point is going to bring benefits to universities and the students who attend them, which was a pleasant subject to read about.

Because so many of the Microsoft blogs are technical in nature, they do not get many comments from readers despite being updated rather frequently. Most of the blogs in this network do not encourage dialog and do not appear to be very engaging. Let’s break down some of the details of these blogs in a purely number way.

Ease of Finding – 9 out of 10.

Once I typed “Microsoft” into Google’s search engine, a bunch of different Microsoft blogs came up. Blogs can also be found through the Microsoft website as well.

Frequency – 6 out of 10 –

These blogs are updated pretty frequently, but not on any real schedule that I can discern. I was finding some blogs with entries that were a few days old, and nothing new or fresh despite plenty to say.

Engaging Writing – 5 out of 10 –

The writing in many of these blogs is really only going to relate to tech savvy readers, or people who are really serious about finding out more information about Microsoft. This writing may be somewhat engaging, but it caters to heavily to a specific audience and leaves out a lot of potential readers in the process.

Relevance – 6 out of 10 –

Blogs in this network are highly catered to people who are seriously into technology, and as a result, they really are not relevant to the general public as a whole.

Focus – 8 out of 10 –

Perhaps too focused, but the focus here is good.

Honesty – 7 out of 10 –

The technology and software blogs appear honest, but I am less sure about the employee run blogs, giving these guys a solid 7.

Interactivity – 3 out of 10 –

These blogs are not very interactive, as they spend no time facilitating conversation or answering questions for readers.

Responsiveness – 3 out of 10 –

These blogs are not very responsive, as it does not seem like anyone is creating conversation in the comments, or even responding to those which are posted.

Grand total score for the Microsoft blog network is 48 out of 80.

Originally posted 2009-02-11 05:03:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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If you are trying to get more consumers interested in your products and your company in general, you may want to consider adding a corporate blog to your website. These are quickly becoming very popular and thousands of companies have found that they are an incredibly effective means of adding new customers and improving the relationship with existing customers. Here are a just a few reasons that a corporate blog can help your site and your company.

1. Increased overall traffic.

Whenever you add new content to your site on a regular basis, you’ll be able to give your visitors that much more to look at. As you continue, they’ll want to keep coming back to see what you’ve added and you’ll notice a surge in your traffic. Blogs are usually published daily or every few days, so you will have many opportunities to keep your customers coming back. As a bonus, the more time they spend on your site, the more likely they are to buy something

2. Increased Search Engine Rankings.

One of the top reasons to add a corporate blog to your site is that you will increase your chances of getting a higher search engine ranking. The more content you add, the more keywords you’ll have at your disposal and you’ll increase your chances of getting higher up in the rankings. Every day you post you’ll be able to have those new pages indexed so it becomes easier for new customers to find you. After a few weeks of publishing your new blog you should notice that your traffic picks up as a result of your new search engine rankings and listings.

3. Increased customer confidence.

A corporate blog allows you to build a relationship with your customers. They’ll see that there really are people behind the façade. If you properly manage your blog, it is a powerful tool that can really engender a whole new level of trust with your customers. They will see you as a trusted resource and be much more likely to spend more time at your site and to buy more of your products.

4. Increased brand awareness.

The result of all of this time spent on your site and the availability of your content means that you will have a much better shot at building a strong brand and maybe even becoming a household name. With time, you will be able to build a very strong brand that is instantly recognizable.

To make sure that it is recognizable for the right reasons, it is a good idea to think about using a blog management service that can help you avoid missteps. These companies can assist you with SEO and attracting new readers to your blog as well as the process of daily management and important advice to keep your blog on track. This is a must if you have never blogged before and you want to make sure that everything goes smoothly and without a hitch.

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Originally posted 2008-07-21 05:32:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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