Ideas for Business

Very light posting from me…

Here’s a quickie - check out Technorati’s developer wiki. Let’s just say it’s been moderately spammed (to death)….

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Blogging has become an important part of the online experience. There is no better way to get the very latest information on almost any subject or company. But what makes a company blog worthwhile? The answer: improved corporate image and building customer loyalty. A corporate blog should be written by multiple high level officers within the company. It should be written to include the personality of the writer. Blogs that are manicured by the corporate PR team often come across as nothing more than advertising. In the new Web 2.0 age consumers expect transparency. They like to hear about problems, decisions, and goals of a company, not just a plug for the newest product. Corporate transparency doesn’t mean giving away secrets or personal information. It means putting a human face on an otherwise faceless corporation. The companies who take advantage of this trend will have a deeper connection with their current customers and soon-to-be customers.

Tags: corporate transparency, web 2.0, blog, company blogging

One thing that I didn't learn at BlogHer '07 in Chicago (and I swear I'll clean up those posts ASAP) is if having a MySpace or Facebook page is an important part of your marketing mix.

My guess was YES because 1) social network listings will help you connect with your audience, and 2) networking with other bloggers is a very important part of marketing yourself and your writing.

Then I came across an article on the Written Road about Journalism and Facebook. Abha points you to Facebook: What's In It For Journalists? on the Poynter Online site. Like anything, there are positives - it's a great way to network. There are also negatives - Facebook, MySpace, et al are time sucking devices and most users don't regularly update their pages or visit the site.

Needless to say, I've updated my Facebook page. I'm considering creating a MySpace page, especially after I heard from several friends in Chicago (including Ken who just recently got his first computer - ever) that they had pages and it was a great way to keep in touch with them.

Do you, your business or your blog have a MySpace or Facebook page? Tell me about it!

Update: Kevin Palmer wrote a very indepth post about this subject as a guest writer at ProBlogger - How to Use MySpace to Build a Blogging Audience. Here's just one great piece of advice:

To a lot of users, MySpace is a one stop shop. They don’t even realize (or perhaps equally like, care) that there is a blogging community outside of MySpace. You need to take the time to write original content at least once a week and engage your MySpace readers. By doing this you will create a loyal reader base that will follow you to your blog away from MySpace, creating a quality and consistent source of traffic.

Building a MySpace page - just one more item on my to-do list.

One thing that I didn't learn at BlogHer '07 in Chicago (and I swear I'll clean up those posts ASAP) is if having a MySpace or Facebook page is an important part of your marketing mix.

My guess was YES because 1) social network listings will help you connect with your audience, and 2) networking with other bloggers is a very important part of marketing yourself and your writing.

Then I came across an article on the Written Road about Journalism and Facebook. Abha points you to Facebook: What's In It For Journalists? on the Poynter Online site. Like anything, there are positives - it's a great way to network. There are also negatives - Facebook, MySpace, et al are time sucking devices and most users don't regularly update their pages or visit the site.

Needless to say, I've updated my Facebook page. I'm considering creating a MySpace page, especially after I heard from several friends in Chicago (including Ken who just recently got his first computer - ever) that they had pages and it was a great way to keep in touch with them.

Do you, your business or your blog have a MySpace or Facebook page? Tell me about it!

Update: Kevin Palmer wrote a very indepth post about this subject as a guest writer at ProBlogger - How to Use MySpace to Build a Blogging Audience. Here's just one great piece of advice:

To a lot of users, MySpace is a one stop shop. They don’t even realize (or perhaps equally like, care) that there is a blogging community outside of MySpace. You need to take the time to write original content at least once a week and engage your MySpace readers. By doing this you will create a loyal reader base that will follow you to your blog away from MySpace, creating a quality and consistent source of traffic.

Building a MySpace page - just one more item on my to-do list.

Google, like many search engines, sees a website just like a browser would. To view the code that is getting indexed by Google, simply visit your webpage, right click and select ‘view source’. This will pull up a notepad filled with the page html code. If you are not familiar with html, there is another way to see what a search engine bot sees. Just follow these steps:
1) type in a word that you know your site ranks for in Google. The most obvious search is simply your company name.
2) find your site’s listing in the serps
3) click on the ‘cache’ link under your site’s listing
4) click on the ‘cache text’ link in the top paragraph
You should now be viewing a text only page with links throughout. This, in a nutshell, is what Google is seeing. Do you see your target terms? Do you see a lot of links? You should.