As readers become more involved with the blogs they frequent, a new form of communication is becoming prevalent – interactive blogging. There are a few ways to look at this and determine whether or not this form of interaction is right for your corporate blog and your readers. When used properly, interactive blogging can be a huge weapon in your arsenal towards building better relationships with your customers, but it can be a double edged sword.

First, let’s look at the most common form of interactive blogging, using your posts to answer reader questions. This commonly occurs when you have someone leave you a question in the comments section of your blog, frequently asking for more information on a certain topic. Now, if one person asks this question there is always a chance that there are more people that want to know the same thing.

You can use these comments to determine what your readers really want to know. If it’s a good question, consider writing a blog post that will answer it. If not, you can keep focusing your energies on your regular posts. However, it is a good idea to let your reader’s dictate what you will be writing about – at least to some extent – since this can help you develop a stronger reader following.

The second form of interactive blogging takes your comments section to a whole new level. This is where you encourage your readers to contribute on a regular basis and the comments section may even start to look a bit like a message board. This is another powerful tool that can benefit corporate blog owners.

First, you’ll be getting the benefit of having your readers return throughout the day to keep tabs on the ongoing conversation. You can also set up an RSS feed for your comments to make this easier. Second, you’ll be increasing the amount of page views you have as well as the opportunity to attract new readers through word of mouth advertising, and through search engine indexing.

Interactive blogging does have a catch though, as we mentioned above. If you can keep tabs on your readers and avoid having flame wars, or nasty comments, it can work quite well. However, if you let it get out of hand, you’re only asking for trouble. On one side, you’ll have readers that will wonder where you stand on the issue if you don’t take care of a problem, and on the other hand, if you take quick action and delete problem comments, you may be cast as against freedom of speech.

The easiest way to take advantage of interactive blogging is simply to set some ground rules, make them clear, and then stick to them. If your readers know right off the bat what they can and cannot do with your interactive blogging elements, there will be a lot less confusion and a lot more interacting going on. Try it for a week and see how your corporate blog changes.

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Originally posted 2008-11-07 05:35:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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This is a review of the Yahoo Search Blog.

Yahoo! is a major website providing search services. One would think that the Yahoo! search blog would be full of jargon and technical terms that only a select few would have been able to understand. Surprisingly, the blog was full of easy to read updates that describe to users how their experience is changing. The instructions provided were easy to follow and the blog features plenty of visuals and posts that cover events, updates and other information. The blog is over all a good site that can use a little polish here and there.

Availability, 8 out of 10 –

The blog is easy to find. A search for Yahoo Blog or other similar terms will turn up the blog in the first page of hits. A little bit of SEO will definitely put the blog to the top of the list.

Posting Frequency, 5 out of 10 – The posts may be consistent on a every other day sort of pace, but they have been know to have posts spaced out by a month at least. Consistency of posting leaves a bit to be desired, but there is plenty for the reader to read. Yahoo would do well to add posts on their history or other Yahoo! topics to help with the larger gaps in posting.

Relevance, 9 out of 10 –

This is an easy set of points, because all of the posts are relevant to the users of Yahoo. Writing style is very easy to read and is conversational. Graphics and writing organization are well done. Overall the blog is very well done technically and is an ease for people to use. A little polish is all that is needed.

Accuracy, 9 out of 10 –

The posts are about the Yahoo! site and services that are provided. There’s not much for the technical person, but the blog does seem honest and not a propaganda or sales blog. A few posts geared towards the reader who is technically geared will help get that last point.

User Interaction, 7 out of 10 –

There is plenty to enable the user to contact blog writers and Yahoo! individuals. There are links where users can promote the blog to digg and del.icio.us directories. That said, they do not seem to reply to comments, hence the point deduction. All it would take is someone who watches the posted comments to give meaningful replies. The blog does frequently provide information on Yahoo! meetings, where users can go and provide input up close, so all is not that bad.

Over all, the Yahoo! Search Blog earned itself a 76%.

That is a pretty good score all things considering. The blog is quite easy to read and provides a good deal of information about Yahoo!, its search engine and its services. There are points in which the blog can be improved. It wouldn’t be much work to hire one or two people to keep track of the blog and reply to users. Even if there is nothing new added to Yahoo!, they can still provide posts talking about the company.

Originally posted 2009-02-03 05:35:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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If you have ever felt like you were blogging to a wall, you know how difficult it can be to engage your audience. During the first few weeks or even months after starting your own corporate blog, there are going to be dry periods where you are writing for a handful of people. This is the most frustrating period and many bloggers pull up stakes. However, if you can begin writing more effective posts, you will start to see an increase in readers.

So, how do you that? There are many ways that you can gauge the overall effectiveness of your blog. We’re going to look at the two most important ways and provide tips on gauging and improving your effectiveness. Let’s get started!

Reader Effectiveness

This can be a tough one to gauge, at least at first, but you can learn a lot if you take the time to do your research. You will need to make sure that you have analytics software installed on your blog (Google Analytics is one of the best and it is free). This is going to be one of your main tools when it comes to figuring out how you are impacting your readers.

There are three main ways to gauge whether or not you are reaching your readers:

1. The amount of comments left on your blog
2. Whether or not your traffic starts to climb
3. How many links you are getting from other sites

All three are vital to your corporate blog – but it’s not always easy to improve this area. First, start by including your audience in the discussion. Ask them direct questions, encourage them to leave comments, and keep up the conversation with them. Little by little, you’ll notice more interaction and your blog will begin to pick up steam.

Search Engine Effectiveness

While the results from this can be a bit slow to realize, you should start to see something happening if you are blogging effectively for search engines. You can gauge this by:

1. How high your Google Page Rank is.
2. How many new links you have coming in to your blog
3. How well your blog does in results pages
4. How many people are entering your site from search engines (see analytics)

If you are using keywords and not seeing your blog anywhere in the search results for that keyword, there is something wrong. Either you are picking keywords that simply have too much popularity, or you are not using them the right way.

Density is vital when it comes to keywords. You’ll need to include the phrase in the title of your post, in the first and last sentence and throughout the post. A good rule of thumb is to shoot for 2 to 3% density on your keywords or phrases. This will make a big difference.

If you are using keywords where there are already millions of results, fine tune your approach. For example, instead of real estate, you can use the keywords Montana Real Estate. Focus on long tail keywords as well to start building up solid results.

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Originally posted 2008-09-17 05:46:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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In today’s fast paced world, where companies are built daily and there is a big scandal every week bringing a corporation crashing down. That is why it can be very beneficial to start a corporate blog. We will go into this and four other reasons for starting a corporate blog today.

1 – Transparency of operation.

The one thing that brings a company to a halt is when it makes decisions outside of the eyes of its share holders. Further, today there is no real way to operate to maximal effect without a global presence on the internet. By starting a blog, you hit both of these issues on the nose, by providing a more real time window into the operation of your company. Comments on the blogs, user forums, news services and other directions in user interaction provide your customers and investors a way to make their voices heard. This will increase confidence in your company and keep you connected to your customers.

2 – Blogs can be beat press releases.

Everyone reads blogs today. Blogs are subscribed to more than newspapers and magazines today, and users who are interested in your business will be watching your blogs significantly more than your press releases. By making announcements over a blog posting, you are guaranteed to get the interest of those customers and share holders who will spread your message faster than wild fire. These users are business professionals, those who are the best choice to advertise to.

3 – Earn your investors trust.

Blogs and the relationship between bloggers and their user’s comments, in the corporate world, helps the company to build a relationship with its customer and investor base. With this comes a great deal of trust, which in turn will allow the blog to become a more valuable advertising outlet. With the trust of your customers, you will in turn gain a valuable asset to company growth.

4 – Get ahead of the herd.

Those companies with which you compete will get a blog, that is a certainty. The most important thing is to ensure that your corporation gets theirs first. Possessing even a week’s lead will place your blog above others when searched in todays lightning fast search engines. Showing up late to the party will give your business the appearance of trying to keep up with the times, which can severely hurt the number of customers you have.

5 – Be a part of the hype.

No matter what, people will talk about your product. The only question is how involved will you be. Your blog allows you to host the conversation, forums allow you to respond as well. You need to be able to address customer needs as they arise, so that your customers will see your dedication to them. Not hosting a blog is paramount to going on without concern for what your customers are saying, meaning slower reaction to customer problems and the loss of a great research opportunity.

Given all of this, there is no reason for you not to host a blog. It is a easy way to boost your business to new heights in customer satisfaction.

Photo Credit: 1

Originally posted 2008-12-17 05:17:34. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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If you’ve been hearing a lot about the corporate blogging trend and wondering how you can make it work for your company, there are specific reasons that having a blog is very important. It really is worth the extra effort that goes into the creation and management of the blog, and you will have a whole new means of reaching out to consumers. Let’s take a look at just a few reasons why most companies need to have a corporate blog.

1. Provide the public with a human face for your company.

Most consumers view corporate entities as faceless behemoths that don’t care about the little guy. One of the easiest ways to dispel this myth is to reach out to the public via a blog. Personable posts and interaction with the public go a long way towards building your brand and attaching an image that your company really does care. Just make sure that you always use this feature to your credit and not against your company. It is as vital to learn how NOT to blog as it is to learn how to blog.

2. Open up the horizon for new customers.

In today’s internet world, it is all about discoverability. Whether you are looking for local or global business, blogging is a powerful platform that can make this happen. Most of the time, the discovery process is organic, through searching and through social networking avenues. This means that you don’t have to do any extra work to achieve discoverability, beyond posting and the proper promotion of those posts.

3. Build a stronger brand.

The key to brand recognition is getting your brand out there in the public eye as often as possible. The old fashioned method of doing this was quite expensive and it was difficult for smaller companies to play on the same field as their larger competitors. The blogging trend has changed this completely and allows for companies of any size the ability to get their name out there every single day.

You can look at each post you make as getting one step closer to becoming a household name. Readers rely on bloggers like never before and this is an incredible opportunity that your company should be taking advantage of.

4. Increase overall visits to your site.

As your blog readership expands, you’ll find that your site traffic will increase as well. If you’re hosting your blog on your site, this is natural, but you’ll also notice that your regular pages are getting more attention. As your blog gets indexed by search engines, it will be much easier for new customers to find you and you will notice an increase in overall visits. These are targeted visits as well, which means that they are worth a lot more than the average ad campaign can bring in.

These are just four simple reasons that blogging can work for any company. To get help with your blog to make sure it is a success, consider working with a professional management company that already knows the ins and outs of successful corporate blogging.

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Originally posted 2008-08-11 05:22:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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