Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Biz Bloggers Have the Write Stuff
I came across some tips about blogging for profit, including how to get the most out of AdSense and SEO. The article also got me thinking about the valid business purposes of blogging.
Even in the Internet and 24/7 cable era, blogs are accelerating the pace and volume of information. You can learn about nearly everything that affects your job, including not just what happened, but more importantly a variety of opinions on the ramifications of the event.
Business blogs are used by analysts to promote themselves and show how astute they are, while communications experts can pump up their industries, friends and clients. One of the most important purposes of blogs is to have a conversation with users of their products to discuss things technical and new uses.
This flow of communications can promote the blogger as a "brand" and build a reliable audience of folks that may someday become a client or partner. Bad ideas are marketing blogs that are solely devices to give personality to a brand (like clothing or cars). Also, blogs that are out of date are an embarrassment.
The danger as a blog reader is in over consumption. You can justify to the boss woman that you were reading about business stuff, but wouldn't those 3 hours have been better used working on your project that is due Friday? Perhaps companies should budget time into employees schedule for appropriate blog/news reading and not rely on people to use their off the clock hours to stay informed.
Finally, blogging increases the amount of thoughtful print communication. Telephony, IM, and email have promoted impromptu conversation that lacks the forethought of writing that will be out there for the world to see and reflect on. It's highly positive that everyone involved gets to have a say, and that we'll have a record of what our industry peers thought about current events and future possibilities. These writing exercises are good for the brain and help us to improve our "deep thought" communication skills. Now get back to work.
Even in the Internet and 24/7 cable era, blogs are accelerating the pace and volume of information. You can learn about nearly everything that affects your job, including not just what happened, but more importantly a variety of opinions on the ramifications of the event.
Business blogs are used by analysts to promote themselves and show how astute they are, while communications experts can pump up their industries, friends and clients. One of the most important purposes of blogs is to have a conversation with users of their products to discuss things technical and new uses.
This flow of communications can promote the blogger as a "brand" and build a reliable audience of folks that may someday become a client or partner. Bad ideas are marketing blogs that are solely devices to give personality to a brand (like clothing or cars). Also, blogs that are out of date are an embarrassment.
The danger as a blog reader is in over consumption. You can justify to the boss woman that you were reading about business stuff, but wouldn't those 3 hours have been better used working on your project that is due Friday? Perhaps companies should budget time into employees schedule for appropriate blog/news reading and not rely on people to use their off the clock hours to stay informed.
Finally, blogging increases the amount of thoughtful print communication. Telephony, IM, and email have promoted impromptu conversation that lacks the forethought of writing that will be out there for the world to see and reflect on. It's highly positive that everyone involved gets to have a say, and that we'll have a record of what our industry peers thought about current events and future possibilities. These writing exercises are good for the brain and help us to improve our "deep thought" communication skills. Now get back to work.
By John Gartner at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
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