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Blogging as a marketing and SEO toolby Andrew Redfern @ 15th July 2009 4:10 pm wordpress
Blogging is nothing new and neither is companies using blogs as promotional tools. Here at Hit Search we set up and manage blog for many of the our clients in a wide range of sectors. These can be official on-site affairs or off-site ones hoast by excellent systems like Wordpress and Blogger. It is a an invaluable marketing tool and invariably works as a superb foil to traditional marketing efforts. One of the primary adventages it brings is that by it’s nature it is a broadcast medium that the customer has total control over. It can be used as much or as little as required and it is totally at the use’s disposal. Should the blog be on-site it acts as a great souce of extra content for the site. If the posts are relevant to the organisation’s main niche then this copy will be naturally fresh and keyword rich. This cannot help but have a benefit to the site and the company in general. Off-site blogs offer advantages of their own. By their nature they exist outside the sphere on the main corporate site and so can be free to cover a wider array of topics and be a ideal way to engage with the public in a semi-official way. This opens up avenues of discussion that would not ordinarilly be available on an official corporate website whilst still retaining control of which content that goes online. Key to the success of this corporate blogging is keeping a regular flow of content. This may require getting a team of staff members with access to all add their posts or even a dedicated copywriter to keep the content flowing. The nature of the blogging systems employed means that with minimal effort, technical knowledge and man-hours the blog will build up with page after page of content that will be presented in a format that’s accessible to both interested users and the search engines. The latter or these is, in a way, just as important as the former because it means that the site will gradually build up and become an authoritative resource for the sector in question. Whether on-site or off-site this will be an extremely useful corporate resource. Tomorrow is Blog Action Day. This year : Povertyby Andrew Redfern @ 14th October 2008 12:37 pm wordpress
Tomorrow bloggers all over the world will be dedicating their blogs to discussing global poverty as part of Blog Action Day 08.
As with last year’s Environmental discussion people are being encouraged to sign up and have a global dialogue through this ad hoc network of blogs. As the Blog Action website puts it “In 2008, the Blog Action Day theme is Poverty. Bloggers are free to interpret this as they see fit. We invite bloggers to examine poverty from their own blog topics and perspectives, to look at it from the macro and micro, as a global condition and a local issue, and to bring their own ideas, views and opinions on the subject. Because Poverty as a subject for blogging can feel a little daunting, we’ve prepared a series of resources to help bloggers get started with tackling this issue” “We invite bloggers to examine poverty from their own blog topics and perspectives, to look at it from the macro and micro, as a global condition and a local issue, and to bring their own ideas, views and opinions on the subject.” They also suggest that if you are participating and you blog is monetarised (via Google adSense for example) you might donate the proceeds to a relevant charity project. The event is accompanied by a 12 hour live debate hosted on BlogTalkRadio. A post on the their site says “On Wednesday, October 15, the network will host a 12-hour Talkathon for Poverty Relief. Airing from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. EDT, the program will be anchored live from Denver, Colorado, by BlogActionDay.org’s Easton Ellsworth, with BlogTalkRadio hosts sharing co-hosting duties from throughout the U.S. Leading bloggers around the world are scheduled to appear as guests, along with notables from the political, entertainment and literary arenas. More than 7,800 websites have already signed on to participate in this year’s Blog Action Day by blogging about poverty and aiding poverty-relief efforts. Among the blogs currently involved are TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, LifeHacker, Mashable and ProBlogger. The organizers estimate that some 9.6 million people worldwide will read about the event on October 15.”
It’s an interesting project and will certainly energise the blogging community. With this many people participating generating that much content it’s certain to highlight the issues that are on people’s minds. So far they have 8,635 sites signed up so the results will be well worth a read. It is a prime example of how the nature of the internet lends itself to truly global, un-censored debate on global issues. Catherine Bray, commissioning editor of Channel 4 site 4Talent Central, writes a blog which normally gives her personal take on her professional projects, whether that’s interviewing actors or going on the set of TV shows. She said, “I wanted to be involved with Blog Action Day, but initially wasn’t sure how to do that as I didn’t want to crowbar in something for the sake of it. Then I realised that although I had blogged fairly superficially about a triathlon I did last month to raise money for Shelter, the UK housing and homelessness charity, I hadn’t talked about where that sponsorship money was actually going and, most importantly, why. So I’m going to be approaching it from that angle, hopefully getting to the relevant information behind what was originally just a fun personal project”. Stuart Fowkes, online press officer for UK charity Oxfam, says “Obviously for Oxfam, blogging about poverty is something we do every day, but to have the entire global blogging community focused on poverty issues for a day is a great way for people to ask themselves - and each other - how poverty actually affects them and what changes need to take place. Blogging in and of itself won’t achieve anything concrete, but it can shift opinion and motivate people to begin to make a difference. And for us, Blog Action Day couldn’t come at a better time because almost a billion people are now being affected by the rises in food prices around the world, which is one of the most serious threats to the lives of the poorest people.” Involvment like this and that of the 1000s of other readers and participates is what the organisors are hoping for so if you have a take on these matters sign up and get invloved at blogactionday.org. Other Related Stories That May Be Of Interest:
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