Profitable Blogging Tips

Organizational blogging and its impact business

Organizations require a strong communication line to support all units of business. Without a steady line for communication, costly errors are bound to appear. One great way of communicating not only with people inside and outside of an organization is through the use of blogs.

Blogs are not only used for connecting with people from outside the company but inside as well. Blogs can be used to promote the company, it can be used to showcase an organization’s innovations and new plans and agendas and it could also be used to reach new markets. A great example of these types of blogs can be found on Uprinting.com Blog. The site uses blogs as a medium for communicating with its clients as well as its employees. Organization’s not using blogs are missing out on a lot of things.

Because of the speed of the Internet in today’s setting, messages can now be related faster and more efficiently unlike a few decades earlier where a company memorandum had to be passed around from department to department. Blogs can also be used as a simple way of appreciating the value of an employee within the company. TheUPrinting Blog does the same thing. In it, employees that have lived up to the ideals of the company gets appreciated, even showcasing stories of their dedication and commitment to excellence that only UPrinting strives to achieve over other online printing firms.

Some corporate blogs are also open to the employees themselves. These types of blogs are used to add fresh ideas, comments and suggestions coming from the employees themselves. Other company’s on the other hand uses a separate blog for their employees and a different one for their clients or customers. The blogs for employees usually contain new directives and new policies as well as other news and events that relate to the company.

Blogs have become a very useful system of communication for companies and organizations. It won’t be long before corporations and even small businesses embrace the benefits that only blogs can offer.

About the Author

PRSA-NY: The Forbidden Dance? B2B & Social Media – Ron Casalotti, Bloomberg, LP

Blogging down the money trail: candidates look to Web activists outside their campaign structures.: An article from: Campaigns & Elections $5.95 This digital document is an article from Campaigns & Elections, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2005. The length of the article is 3387 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: Blogg…

Which is more productive? Blogging vs Tweeting

It’s amazing how fast people change their opinions of social media sites.  I can remember back to the summer of 2008 when my business friends of mine dismissed Twitter as a waste of time.  As time goes on the micro-blogging site is only continuing to grow on me, and now the challenge exists in allocated my time and efforts between tweeting and blogging.  The following is a response to questions I field from numerous marketers and attempts to compare the two based on four parameters.

Effort

Many marketers are realizing that tweeting requires more effort than expected, due to the large number of tweets for those with significant followers.  Blogging necessitates effort in a different way, since each post is much longer yet fewer of them exist.  However, allocating your efforts evenly between the two will likely yield more immediate activity and response from your readers on Twitter.

Money

Comparing the monetization is probably a bit pre-mature.  Twitter is still quite new and thus trying to formulate a workable model for monetization.  Blogs’ more established framework lends itself to Google Adsense given a strong and consistent follower base.  Alternatively, Twitter doesn’t give users that capability.  So having a hundreds of thousands of people reading your tweets will not directly pay you anything.  View Twitter as merely an avenue to your money-generating sites online.

Results

Twitter garners more appeal to me as an online marketer, and personally it appeals to my instant gratification propensity in the way it can yield immediate results.  It’s a matter of a mouse-click to get your informative, news-worthy, humorous or bizarre thoughts to the world.  By contrast, a well scripted blog post could take days to attract the same number of eyes.

Time

The irony with Twitter lies in the time consumption users experience.  Unlike blogs, which can require more time in per-post writing, Twitter originally began with the hopes of limiting the time required to communicate with online social circles.   Despite this, Twitter users can decide their degree of involvement regardless of their following site.  Personally I try to limit my own Twitter use to an hour a day, which includes new tweets, responding to messages, and managing my followers/unfollowers.

So which is more productive?  Instead of jumping to hard and fast conclusions, I’d recommend social media junkies to use both and to achieve an inter-connected balance between the two.  The undeniable truth prevails: offering good quality content yields the highest productively.

About the Author

Daniel has been involved in network marketing for many years. He is the founder of the Doctor DubLi Team and has created numerous marketing tools for networkers worldwide. Learn his tips for online network marketing!

Right Vs. Left Wing Bloggers

Ethics Training Best Practices: Cisco Systems

At the end of 2008, Cisco Systems revealed their unique approach to ethics training for their workforce. Many companies look for ways to make training enjoyable for employees- Cisco Systems has been able to prove that companies can effectively incorporate humor into an ethics training program and still get the message across. In ”Cisco Transmits Ethics To A ‘Wired’ Workforce,” by Andrew Singer, Cisco’s Ethics Program Manager Jeremy Wilson stated “all too often training officers are inhibited by the thought that “legal would not like that.” Compliance-related topics are inherently dry, and companies shouldn’t shy away from seeking new ways to connect with your code and your employees.”

Connecting with a “Connected” Bunch

One of the key factors allowing Cisco to carry out a more creative approach to their ethics training is that all of their employees work on computers and are connected to the Internet. The article “Cisco Transmits Ethics To A ‘Wired’ Workforce,” by Andrew Singer also featured comments from Christine Style, Cisco’s Ethics Marketing Manager, who mentioned “Cisco’s ethics office has at any time between two and five individuals working in it—yet it must get the message out to more than 50,000 employees. We are utilizing technology to do this, including communication instruments like blogs and discussion forums so we are not answering the same question 50 times.”

Even if an entire organization isn’t connected to computers and Internet, there may be certain groups within the organization that are. In order to effectively reach out to these groups and make training both accommodating and innovative, these types of tools could be implemented into their training program.

Cisco’s “Ethics Idol”

Another way to connect with employees is to engage them with something that they are familiar with. At Cisco, they created animated videos as part of a series called “Ethics Idol”, a parody of the tv show ”American Idol”, in order to spark employee interest in the training process. Jeremy Wilson explained the premise of “Ethics Idol” in this article:

“Featured on Cisco’s Intranet, it presented a series of animated ethics scenarios that are evaluated by judges. Cartoon characters sing about different ethics situations—sales practices, procurement issues, and other common dilemmas. Employees also vote, making their judgment calls on each ethical situation. The ‘contests’ have also been run by DVD in a live setting. Cisco managers use ‘Idol’ handbooks that explain how to run the contest. Ethics Idol helped raise awareness to Cisco’s employees that each ethical dilemma is not always cut and dried, and if they should have any questions to refer to the Cisco Code of Business Conduct for guidance.”

In another article by Jim Duffy on NetworkWorld regarding Cisco’s innovate ethics training program, Jeremy Wilson was quoted saying “We even had several employees volunteer to sing or perform in future Ethics Idol modules. For the first time in Cisco’s history, employees are excited for the next round of ethics training.”

We have discussed the importance of ethics and compliance training in our article “How to Maximize Your Compliance Training ROI“. The example at Cisco Systems ties in nicely with the article because it shows that training can be something employees look forward to. During training, you are asking employees for their attention and time away from their work tasks, make the most of the time and present the content in the form of something your employees can relate to. Cisco Systems has done a great job tapping into their employees in order to get a strong return on investment in their training programs.

About the Author

i-Sight is a case management software platform designed to simplify your process and provide outstanding reports. It’s primarily configured to manage customer complaints and corrective actions, or employee relations, HR & ethics investigations. It’s also used for a variety of other customized case management solutions. We blog at i-Sight.com, providing advice and tips to HR managers and investigators in regards to managing internal investigations.

Daimler Corporate Blog- Case Study

Corporate Blogging For Dummies $16.49 Establish a successful corporate blog to reach your customers Corporate blogs require careful planning and attention to legal and corporate policies in order for them to be productive and effective. This fun, friendly, and practical guide walks you through using blogging as a first line of communication to customers and explains how to protect your company and employees through privacy, dis…

How are each one of you using Web 2.0 to your advantage?

I have become obsessed with learning to make use of the Web 2.0 tools to get more organized and to feed my long planned blogging efforts (on financial and political subjects). I want to know how others are using Web 2.0 tools, and in what combinations. Do you use De.licio.us? Do you use Digg? Do you use Yahoo’s My Web and Bookmarks or the new Netscape? Well, in sum, I want to know how other serious readers and surfers organize their information and newsfeeds. Thanks.

I’m making good use of the Web 2.0 services available.

Del.icio.us for my bookmarks
Youtube for my videos
Flickr for my photos
Box.net for my files
Odeo.com for my audio/podcasts
Google Calendar for my calendar needs
Last.fm for my music needs
Digg for daily tech news etc.
Writely.com for my word processing

and the list goes on. I don’t think I could honestly live without these tools, they’ve become pretty much a need

Blog Tips: Advantages Hot Tips Deal of the Week

Blogging to my advantage: a superintendent discovers a new tool with unlimited possibilities for two-way connection with his community.(Cover story): An article from: School Administrator $9.95 This digital document is an article from School Administrator, published by Thomson Gale on May 1, 2006. The length of the article is 2476 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: Blogging t…

Am I in a Dead-end Job?

A blog reader asks:
My brother keeps pushing me to change jobs because he says I am in a dead-end job. He has given me a lot of good reasons to think so. I’m just not sure. Can you help?”

(name witheld)

You certainly could be working a dead-end job if you have held the same position, for years and years. If you had goals when you applied for the job and have yet to see those goals accomplished, it may be a sign of a dead-end job. Your work go unrewarded, beyond the normal pay raises, especially if you have been employed by the same company for years.

Another sign that you may be working a dead-end job is your pay level. Has it been relatively level for a number of years. Today, most employers automatically give all employees pay raises yearly or even quarterly just to keep pace with the cost-of-living. If you have been employed by the same company for an extended period of time with any above cost-of-living raises, you may be working a dead-end job.

Have you asked for a pay raise above the normal raises and have been turned down for no solid reason? If, Yes, you may be in a dead-end job. Look, most employers expect employees to ask for a raise, especially after an extended period of time without a raise; therefore, you may have nothing to lose by asking.

Also consider this – If you do exemplary work in your current position you may be too valuable to the company in your present position to be promoted. So ask for that raise if you believe this is the case.

If any of these apply, speak to your supervisor or supervisors about your concerns. This may involve asking for an increase in pay or asking for a promotion, should any positions be available. Remember, though, be careful what you ask for. Do not ask for an outrageous raise in pay. Before you ask for a promotion, be sure you really want more responsibility.

Whatever you do, do not let this idea of a dead-end job negatively impact your work product. Be sure to continue to present a positive attitude in front of your supervisors, volunteer to work late or cover someone else’s shift in an emergency and so forth. You need to be a model employee, someone the company needs to keep happy, someone who is a great asset to the company. Keep in mind that your company is in business to make a profit. That profit provides you, and others, with jobs. The more you help increase profits, the more valuable you are to the company.

It may surprise you to know that many times supervisors mistakenly believe that workers are currently satisfied with their jobs because they have not been told otherwise. You need to be upfront and ask them for more and assure them that you are capable of handling more.

The last option you have, when looking to rid yourself of a dead-end job, is seeking employment elsewhere. If you have a family to support or bills that must be paid, you may only want to use seeking employment elsewhere as a last resort, but it is still a step that you may want to examine.

Your brother may be seeing something you are not but remain objective, not emotional, as you examine your situation.

Free advice is cheap for the one giving it and can be disastrous for the one acting on it!

Jim DeSantis

Library for Dummy’s.com

About the Author

Jim DeSantis is a retired investigative journalist who edits a family of websites dedicated to information to help us cope in today’s society. Get more information on this topic here or here.

The Death of Irish Blogging – a parody news report for the Irish Blog Awards 2010

How Blogging Can Help Your Business – Ways to Use Your Blog

As a business owner who likes to stay up-to-date on the latest marketing methods and technology, you probably already know how blogging can help your business. There are many benefits of having a company blog, and a great many business owners have already discovered the advantages that are to be had. But if you aren’t sure how to use your blog for your business, here are some ways that your blog can be used.

Customer relations are one use for a company blog. Opening up the lines of communication with your customers is the first step to excellent customer service – and you can learn a great deal from your customers. Print the URL for your blog on receipts, business cards, and brochures to build interest. You can also use your company blog to get customer feedback about your products or services. Again, you can learn a lot from your customers, and use the feedback to improve your products or services and give customers more of what they want in the future.

Company blogs are great research and development tools. You can ask your customers questions about what they want or need. Tell them what you have in development, and what it will do, and ask them how you can make it better. You can even run contests for your customers through your blog, offering the product in development as a prize to the person who comes up with the best idea.

Once you have developed new products or services, you can use a company blog to introduce your new product lines. Keep your customers up-to-date on what is developing or changing at your company. Past customers should be your first customers for your new products and services – and this will happen if they have had a positive experience with you in the past. A blog adds to that positive experience.

You can also use your company blog to teach customers how to use products or services. You can use the blog to answer technical support issues as well. Many companies turn their blogs into a series of how-to articles that are to be used primarily by their current customers. This method has also been found to increase interest – and sales – for products as well. People always want to know how to improve something in their lives, and you should use this need to your advantage!

You can drastically improve employee relations with a company blog. Your employees have private lives, and often, they have happy news that they want to tell the world. Allow them to tell their fellow co-workers their happy news on the blog. Some companies hire a person to maintain and up-date the company blog. People within the company contact the blogger with their news, and the blogger blogs it. This is a great way to boost moral at your place of employment. You can also use the company blog to keep employees up to date on projects, new products, training sessions, or company policy.

If you will be allowing your employees to add entries to the company blog, it is a good idea to implement a blogging policy. There is a great deal of controversy today about company censorship of blogs, so even if you don’t have a company blog, you might want to implement a policy concerning any mention of your company in personal blogs as well.

Get your company blog set up and operating today.

About the Author

Jason frequently gives tips like this to the subscribers to his newsletter. Visit his blog at
Adventures In Internet Marketing
and subscribe to his newsletter today!

Andy Sernovitz Interview: Coke’s New Social Media Policy

Blogging down the money trail: candidates look to Web activists outside their campaign structures.: An article from: Campaigns & Elections $5.95 This digital document is an article from Campaigns & Elections, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2005. The length of the article is 3387 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: Blogg…

What HP Has Learned From Blogging

Blogging has gone mainstream. It has reached a critical mass. Companies are starting to wake up to the mighty power of blogs and the heightened voice of the customer fueled by blogs. What HP has learned from blogging clearly validates this fact.

HP Commits A Blunder

Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) is a technology company that operates in more than 170 countries worldwide. It has also launched a blog program to further enable it to connect with customers and build beneficial long-term relationships. However, its blog program met a snag when one of its blogger, David Gee, head of worldwide marketing for HP’s management software business deleted a negative comment on his blog. It elicited a damaging backlash from the blogging community.

It all started when an HP customer posted a legitimate comment on David Gee’s blog about the not-so-good experience he had when he upgraded his media center personal computer. The comment was immediately erased and his HP passport (requirement to be able to leave comments) was revoked. Angered, he retorted by blogging about the incident. The tech blogging community, pretty tight and fast got wind of the news and a storm ensued. David Gee was taken to task and the comment was reinstated. He apologized and admitted that it was a humbling learning experience. He further reiterated that HP is making an all-out effort to maintain an honest and open dialogue with customers. They want to hear from the customers.

The incident has taught HP a valuable lesson in dealing with customer comments. Understanding that there are inherent risks involved in blogging, HP has developed a blogging policy and a set of guidelines for blogging responsibilities to mitigate these risks. Acknowledging that negative comments are inevitable, HP’s strategy is to politely respond further expounding the facts as the blogger sees them. Keeping the dialogue constructive and flowing forward instead of engaging in a useless and unfavorable debate will be standard policy.

Companies should realize that simply deleting critical comments can bring damaging repercussions if found out. For one, company credibility and reputation will suffer. Companies should think carefully how to handle negative or critical comments. Unlike an individual blogger, corporate bloggers are answerable to management, shareholders, fellow employees and most of all the customers.

Handling Negative Comments

Discussion and the ensuing commentaries are what makes blogging a different and exciting medium. Blogging, at its best, is a two way conversation. But getting negative or critical comments do happen in the blogosphere. When blogging publicly, offering opinions and views to the world, negative responses will occur. Some are just constructive criticisms but others can really be downright nasty. So, how does one deal with negative comments? Simply delete them?

Dealing with comments means identifying and handling inappropriate or off-topic comments. For a start, it helps to have a standard policy on comments and privacy. By allowing comments, readers should understand that the company will protect their privacy by not displaying or using their e-mail address, even if it might be required for making comments. General rules and guidelines on what will or will not be allowed on the corporate blog should be set. It is well-advised to have a Legal Policies page that summarizes all legal issues and stands displayed on the main site. This includes the Privacy Policies and Comment Policies. There are some corporate blogs that incite debates or attract controversy. It is wise to be clear on what the company will tolerate, say, name calling might not be allowed. The scope of topics, language, allegations, negative discourse, and arguments should all be clearly stated in the Comments Policy.

With a clear policy, it will be easier to handle a negative comment. If you (blogger) receive a negative comment, make sure you fully understand what is being said. It is easy to read something critical and hastily write a response that might not be as enlightening as it should be thereby causing more trouble. If the negative comment is on topic and calls for more discussion, provide the necessary information, do not delete it. Comments, good or bad, are good for business. Most businesses adhere to this adage. A negative comment gives you the opportunity to explain, persuade your readers and strengthen your stand about a certain issue. You will be surprised at the things you may discover about how readers perceive your products or services.

If you filter out negative comments, there is no true dialogue and thus no way to change the commenter’s mind about your product or service or his perception of your business as a whole. Use negative but legitimate comments as a medium to demonstrate how your company handles customer complaints or issues. Before responding, think long and hard. Consider you response carefully. Do take time to evaluate the best response that will benefit the customer and your company as well. Bear in mind that the purpose of your blog is to build and foster lasting relationships with your customers and to connect with potential customers as well. On the other hand, if a disparaging comment does not provide any help to the topic of the post, you can delete it.

You can get rid of comments you deem offensive. Offensive may mean different things to different people. To some, offensive may mean treating someone with irreverence or contempt while to others it may mean any comment that goes against their personal beliefs or blog content and purpose. Again, you decide.

If you feel the need to respond to a negative comment, respond kindly and show your willingness to understand. A negative comment can turn into something positive by making an effort to take in the point of view of the commenter.

Sometimes, you will get negative comments simply because you are wrong. Admit it and learn from it. You will earn the respect of your readers if you own up to your mistakes. You and your company’s credibility standing will even shoot up.

If you do not want negative comments to appear on your blog, you can always turn off the comments feature on your blog. The ball is in your hand.

About the Author

http://www.theinternetone.net

MISSISSAUGA EMPLOYEE DUCT-TAPE BONDAGE “horseplay” = NOTHING. YOUTH/MINORS MISBEHAVE = **BAN**!

Do employee policies need updating in a blogging world?(EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE): An article from: New Hampshire Business Review $9.95 This digital document is an article from New Hampshire Business Review, published by Thomson Gale on August 18, 2006. The length of the article is 887 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle…

He’s Barack Obama

Blackberry Storm Vs. iPhone 3G

Wordpress Privacy Issue

Do physician bloggers compromise patient privacy? Blogging about patients is never safe or acceptable.(Point/Counterpoint): An article from: Skin & Allergy News $9.95 This digital document is an article from Skin & Allergy News, published by Thomson Gale on May 1, 2007. The length of the article is 423 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: Do physician…