by Myrna Padilla
Last week we talked about Facebook and Social Media. Another component of Social Media that has received a lot of attention over the last few years is blogging. I thought I would talk a little about blogging and how businesses might consider using it.
First, exactly what is a “Blog”. Well like almost everything else we have talked about it is actually a little website. They are simple to set up, and in many cases, completely free. More on that later.
The word “blog” is a contraction of the term “web log” which was the early term used to describe the type of website where a person would keep a running commentary of what was going on in their lives or their business. A web log was very similar to a diary people would maintain online.
“Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. The act of writing a blog is called “blogging”. A person that writes a blog is called a “blogger”. And the things they write are called blog entries or blog posts.
Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as photos, graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.
Often the owners of a blog will allow readers to add their own comments to the entries they have posted. This ability for the reader to interact with the original entry by commenting on it is one of the reasons the blogging has become part of the overall social media mix.
The simplicity of setting up a blog, along with the availability of free solutions, has been in part responsible for the popularity of blogging. Technorati, blog search firm in the US has indexed over 133 million blogs since 2002.
But blogging has not exploded in popularity simply because it is easy and free. There must be more to it than just that. Some would say it has given people a voice who did not have one before. And that the ability for people to interact with the writers of blogs via commenting has launched a new concept on the internet often referred to as “joining in the conversation”. Whatever the reason blogging has become harder to ignore and businesses should seriously consider it as part of their overall communications strategy.
One thing is certain. Blogging is here to stay. If your business does decide to join in the blogging, I have two pieces of advice for you and one warning. Be transparent with your readers. Sincerely attempt to engage them. The warning: any attempt to fool them will backfire in time.
Mindanao has a very robust blogging community and many of the bloggers are available to assist your business with both setting up a blog or actually writing for you. Head over to mindanaobloggers.com to learn more about blogging and if your business is interested consider joining their group.
If you would like to try blogging yourself go to www.blogger .com and setup a free blog. Experiment a little and see where it takes you.
I am off to Manila this week to attend a conference with some fellow members of ICT Davao on “Empowering The Filipino Through Information Communication Technology (ICT)”. I will let you know how that goes.
As always, email your questions to info@myndconsulting.com or call us at 300-6963.
