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Corporate Blogging in India

If you were under the impression that America is still leading the way in today's economy, you may be sorely mistaken. This will not be a post arguing one position or another; rather, I want to reference an article published in the Hindustan Times, the leading English newpaper in North India, discussing corporate blogs. Puneet Mehrotra lists these as the advantages of corporate blogging:

· Achieve customer intimacy: Initiate a communication with the customer. Speak directly to consumers and have them come right back with suggestions or complaints-or kudos.

· Influence the public conversation and control it: Make it easy for journalists to find the latest, most accurate information about new products or ventures. In the case of a crisis,  a corporate blog allows you to shape the conversation about it. The control part is a huge advantage.

· Enhance brand visibility and credibility: Appear higher in search engine rankings, establish expertise in industry or subject area, and personalize one's company by giving it a human voice.

· Leadership: According to CNN "A blog is the perfect platform for a thought leader."

Click here to read the full story.

Top 10 Reasons Why Blog Post Frequency No Longer Matters

For those who may be intimidated by the thought of having to post something on their blog every day, take a deep breath... this one's for you! Eric Kintz (VP of Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence for HP) presents this great post on why frequent blog posting no longer matters. Here's the Top 10 Reasons:

1. Traffic is generated by participating in the community; not daily posting.
2. Traffic is irrelevant to your blog’s success anyway.
3. Loyal readers coming back daily to check your posts is so Web 1.0!
4. Frequent posting is actually starting to have a negative impact on loyalty.
5. Frequent posting keeps key senior executives and thought leaders out of the blogosphere.
6. Frequent posting drives poor content quality.
7. Frequent posting threatens the credibility of the blogosphere.
8. Frequent posting will push corporate bloggers into the hands of PR agencies.
9. Frequent posting creates the equivalent of a blogging landfill.
10. I love my family too much!

Click here to read the full post, including his comments on each reason. (Note: Speaking of Top 10's, Eric was recently selected by Brandweek as one of 2007's top 10 next generation marketers - congratulations, Eric!)

Agree or disagree?

Jonathan Schwartz: What Brand Means

Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, shares a great story about the night of his honeymoon (don't worry, it's PG rated), how things didn't turn out the way he had planned, and how that one night has effected his choice in hotels to this day.

"What's a brand?

The saying goes, 'a brand is a promise.' On a personal level, I've always felt that statement was incomplete. A promise is the lowest common denominator of a brand - it's what people expect. Think of your favorite brand, whether search engine or sneaker or coffee shop or free software, and you'll know what I mean - a brand is an expectation. If you experience anything less, you're disappointed. A promise seems like table stakes.

But a brand must go beyond a promise. To me, a brand is a cause - a guiding light. For fulfilling expectations, certainly, as well as dealing with the ill-defined and unexpected. It's what tells your employees how to act when circumstances (and customers) go awry, or well beyond a training course... It's not a logo, an ad campaign or a money back guarantee. At minimum, it's a promise that helps to define those items. Beyond that, it's a cause that gives definition to the ill-defined, that tells you how to deal with the unexpected or the uncomfortable."

To read the full honeymoon story, click here.

Blogs and Search Engines

If you spend any time at all looking for reason WHY companies should be blogging today, this term will keep popping up: search engine visibility, or SEO - Search Engine Optimization. Alice Marshall over at Presto Vivace Blog gives a great explanation for why having a blog helps:

"A favorable blog post on a low ranking blog with some social tagging seems a very poor substitute for having your picture on the cover of BusinessWeek. But to the unblinking eye of Google, that blog post will be working for you for months and years to come. Moreover, blogs are increasingly driving editorial judgment, so blog buzz often works its way up the media food chain. You can receive a mention on a blog, six months later a reporter could be researching an industry trends story and find that blog post, leading to a mention in a feature article. The effect of good blog post will continue for months, even years, after it is written."

Read the complete post here.

(The image above is the cover of the 1st edition of a book by the same title written by Shari Thurow - click on the image to learn more about the book.)

Einstein Quote of the Day

Wired Magazine Promotes Corporate Blogging

In the April issue of Wired Magazine, Clive Thompson wrote a fascinating feature article entitled "The See-Through CEO". It's a lengthy article - you can read it in its entirety here if you want. For those of you who don't have time to read the full version, his basic premise is that if you don't start blogging SOON as a company, you will lose out bigtime to your competition. Let me pull out a few quotes to get your juices flowing:

"Not long ago, the only public statements a company ever made were professionally written press releases and the rare, stage-managed speech by the CEO. Now firms spill information in torrents, posting internal memos and strategy goals, letting everyone from the top dog to shop-floor workers blog publicly about what their firm is doing right - and wrong... Venture capitalists now demand that CEOs be fluent in blogspeak."

"Power comes not from your Rolodex but from how many bloggers link to you - and everyone trembles before search engine rankings."

"Google is not a search engine. Google is a  reputation-management system."

"There's a whole class of CEOs who can hardly write an email. But I feel like in this new digital world, there are haves and have-nots, and people who can't write convincingly - they're leaving themselves defenseless. The people who clearly enjoy writing and blogging are like CEOs 2.0 - they have competitive advantage over other CEOs." - quoting Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin, an online brokerage firm

Welcome to Blogsites.biz!

If you are reading this post, chances are you fall into one of two categories:

1. You are new to blogging and are looking for someone to help you and/or your company develop a presence in the blogosphere...
2. You are somehow related to me or a regular reader of my personal blog and are curious as to what I'm up to these days.

If you make any attempt to stay current on leadership and corporate trends, you have no doubt noticed a keen rise in conversations revolving around blogs or blogging as of late. Our goal at Blogsites.biz is to help you develop a corporate or personal blog that will accurately represent you and empower you to address and communicate with your audience at any time through your corner of the blogosphere.

Founded a year ago by my business partner Randy (of Ethos), Blogsites.biz began building and developing blogs on a strictly referral basis with virtually no web presence. In our first year of business we have worked with clients in a wide range of fields - real estate, auto sales, comedy, students, charitable organizations, etc. We are excited about the growth of the company and look forward to serving you. If you are interested in talking with us, please send us an email and we will do our best to respond within 24 hours.

Thanks - we look forward to serving you!

Jeremy
CEO, Blogsites.biz