In the earlier chapter, we looked at the weapons an digital marketer has in their arsenal. In this chapter, we will take a look at the most common form of social media- Blogging.
Social Media:
The Internet and the software which has been developed to run on it have made it extremely easy for anyone to publish content and have it accessible to millions of people. In effect, Consumers have been given a voice to air their views to a massive audience. Something which before the Internet, they could never have done.
In recent years one of the biggest examples of this has been the massive growth of web blogs, wiki's, podcasts, vlogs and moblogs - together they form what is loosely known as Social media; the ability for anyone to publish almost any content without the typical costs and hindrances associated with traditional media.
This new publishing freedom has resulted in an explosion of new content. However the term Social media, or citizen journalism as it is sometimes called, may be a misnomer as many companies can do it as well
What is Blogging?
Blogging is currently the most common form of social media, in fact as of October 2006, about 100 000 new weblogs are being created each day - that's more than the number of books published in the US each year !
The word blog is derived from the term " weblog" which was coined by jorn Barger in 1997. We started using blog over weblog when Peter Merholz broke the word weblog into the phrase " we blog" in the sidebar of his weblog in 1999.
A blog is essentially a website typically driven by a content management system which features articles ( blog post ) and comments on the blog posts. They come in all shapes and forms personal diaries shared with friends and family, to arms of political campaigns, media programs and updates on current affairs. They also range in scale from the writings of one blogger, to the collaboration of a large community of writers.
The world of blogs, bloggers and blog posts is commonly known as the blogosphere which has evolved rapidly since its inception. Blogs have given consumers and companies a voice and blogging has opend up a world of information sharing possibilities.
Blogs are not a fad that will lose popularity any time soon they are here to stay and companies who want to be taken seriously by their consumers need to consider the benefits of starting a corporate blog or at the very least listen to what is being said about them in the blogosphere.
Blogging and RSS :
Pioneered by Dave winer , RSS ( Really simple syndication) has taken blogging to a whole new level. An RSS feed is an XML (extensible Markup Language) file automatically generated by a blog or indeed almost any website or Internet service. Users are then able to " syndicate " or subscribe to this feed using a feed reader or aggregator. When a new post is available , the reader fetches its content and puts thr headings and usually some or all of the content of the post into your reader or directly onto another blog . When a blog is updated, its RSS feed is as well so information spread very quickly and automatically.
In layman's terms ,RSS eliminate the need for the user to constantly check a site or blog to see if it has been updated. Their feedreader automatically does this for them and present fresh information as it becomes available. This means that a user can constantly monitor potentially hundreds or even thousands of blogs and websites without having to spend the time visiting each one to check for fress content.
Better Blogging:
October 2006 , Technocratic, a blog tricking enging registered 57 Million blogs tracked. They also acknowledged a consistent pattern whereby the number of blog double evry 236 days . However despite the massive growth of blog , most do not make it past 3 months, according to Technocratic, only 55 percent of bloggers are still posting 3 months after staring the blog with very few in comparison updating their blogs weekly or more.
Whether one is starting a blog for personal or corporate marketing purposes, there is no guarantee that anyone will ever fund it. In order to ensure a blog success it needs to be marketed. Here is a list of suggestions on how to go about doing so:
Search engine optimisation:
By ensuring that your blog is Search engine friendly, search engines can be a major source of traffic. It is important that your chosenkeywords are used in your blog headings , content and meta tags and that thesearch engine are able to spider all aspects of your blog.
Comments and trackbacks:
By treating the blogosphere as a series of ongoingconversations and activity being a part of these conversations through commentsand trackbacks, other bloggers will get to know you, link to your blog and a gradualstream of visitors will result.
List your blog in blog directories:
Similar to Search engines, directories are humanedited and managed .Although the traffic volume is not as massive aa Search engine many users do visit directories and this could be a great place for them to find out about your blog.
Ping web services with your updated content:
Sites like ping-o-matic and Feedshark offer a service whereby they ping multiple web services, blog directories and search engines to let them know that your blog has fresh content
Content - know your audience:
Your blog posts must be interesting and useful to your readers. Develop your unique voice and don't afraid to post things others will not agree with.
Frequency:
The regularity of posts is important, as there is a direct correlation to blog repeat visitors and the number of times it's updated. Post 3-5 times per week at a minimum. Web site and blog that are updated often get spidered by Google more frequently.
Blogs and SEO :
You've heard it a million times... content is king because search engines love fresh , relevant content , blogs are a great way to give them exctly this. Essentially by writing one post a day , a blog allows you to add a fresh pages of content to your website each day. The nature of blogs also make them. An excellent source of links to your website. Provided your content is engaging, other bloggers will link to it and search engines view these links as popularity votes thereby assisting in improving your rankings.
It is important however that the blog is set up to be as Search engine friendly as possible. Start by ensuring that all blog posts are assigned a unique page which is easily indexable by the search engines. This can be achieved by ensuring that each page has a link to it which the search engines can find and follw. Pages must be tagged with keywords relevant to your SEO strategy. This means putting important keywords in your post headings, page URL and meta tags, particularly the title tag.
Blogs and Viral Marketing:
In a similar vein to blogs being used as a natural link attraction tool, they can be extremely useful as a viral component to your online marketing strategy. With valuable and engaging content, people will begin talking about and linking to your site . The blogosphere is an interconnected environment and as a result item which are interesting or remarkable are talked about and shared amongst bloggers.
Over time this interest brings eyeballs to your site and ultimately awareness to your brand.
With bolgs wielding this level of power, it is critical that brands understand how to manage their reputation online and if necessary take proactive steps to limit tue damage which can be caused by negative word of mouth. Online Reputation Management is something all companies need to considering.
Podcast:
Distributing audio files over the Internet has taken hold . It actually has done more than taken hold - it's talen off podcasting allows for the distribution of information in the form if audio to an audience when they want it, where they want it and how they want it.
Podcasting can be described as " push" audio content. The " push" is to a targeted audience or an " on- demand" audience;
Those who want it. Another way to describe poadcasting is that it is essentially downloaded audio files intended for listening on the move . Podcasts show up (pushed) when new content is produced. If you 're a subscriber, you get the podcast right then. All you need is an ipod ( or MP3 player of any kind) for listening, thus the word podcasting.
It was considered revolutionary when listeners were able to take their music to the beach or the park or in their car , but that typically meant listening to whatever the redio station were playing. Now with podcasting listeners can choose the programs they want to download from the internet and listen whenever they want.
People are adding podcasts to blogs and websites daily. Busines are using them for general communication and training. They can be listened to in a car , in an airport, in the park or whenever it's convenient for the listener.
Just like writinen communication of any type ,or even electronic communication, content is king in podcasts. In the business world, no one really wants to hear their boss preach to them for 20 minutes a week in a podcast. Straight presentation can be long,
Monotonous and an inconvenience to a listener, regardless of corporate directives.
Vodcast:
Vodcasting has actually other meanings, like videocasting video podcasting and videoblogging. But all these meaning refer to the use of the same technology called RSS (Rich Site Summary)
Vodcast is a term used for delivering "Video on demand " VOD files online via RSS
feed. In order to publish a vodcast, vidro files have to remain on the server and special enclosure tags must be used in an RSS feed. Vodcasting is different form simple video files online. First of all, beacuse vodcast is a video file in different format then regular video files. That special format is needed for special devices to understand and play the video. Second of all, whenever a new vodcast appears on your RSS feed, RSS redars or ipods automatically locate the new file and allow you to see and listen to it.
Important of Video Podcasting
(Vodcasting)
Now that video has arrived to the Internet, it brings totally new approach to internet marketing for all size businesses. Audio files used on the internet can make bigger impact to your web reader. But vidro is even more powerful. Just imagine what kind of response you could get form your visitors if they could see you speaking right to them. It's probably 100 times more effective then reading text on the Internet. And much more persuasive than listening to audio.
You could also use videos to presell your products or services. Just imagine a visitor who lands on your site and instead of seeing another heading he see your video. He plays the video and you can explain to him who you are, what you do and of course all the benifits of your product or service.
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