Business Logs

Helping companies communicate better

Business Blog or Die – The GPS of Blogging for Business Revealed

Business Blog“Why does my business need a blog?  It can’t help me.”

I hear that question all the time and I always respond in the same way.  There are three primary reasons why every business can benefit from publishing a business blog, which I refer to as the GPS Effect:

1. The Google Effect

Business blogs create entry points.  How do people find businesses, brands, products and services these days?  Not the Yellow Pages.  Nope, they visit Google.com and type in keywords to find the information they need.  Your business needs to be listed in those results.  Certainly, search engine optimization (SEO) is important, and entry points are an important part of SEO.

For example, imagine that your business Web site has 10 pages.  That’s 10 ways Google can find your site.  Now, imagine that you write a blog connected to your business Web site and publish a new post everyday for a year.  Now, you have 365 more entry points for Google to find your site.  And what if the content you write on your blog is amazing and shareworthy?  People will link to it, talk about it, tweet it, blog about it, and so on across the social Web opening up even more entry points for Google to find your site and include it in search results for keywords related to your business.  A business would be crazy not to jump at the opportunity that the Compounding Effect of Blogging offers. [Read more…] about Business Blog or Die – The GPS of Blogging for Business Revealed

Susan Gunelius Talks Business Blogging

Susan GuneliusBusiness Logs, Splashpress Media’s blog for businesses trying to learn how to leverage blogging and social media to grow their brands, businesses and bottom-lines, has a new author!  Today, Susan Gunelius joins the Splashpress Media team as the voice of Business Logs.

From Susan Gunelius:

I’m very excited to be a part of Splashpress Media, and I’m even more excited to help businesses learn how to create successful blogs and social media presences.  I am a firm believer that the social Web presents the single largest opportunity for businesses to market and grow throughout the coming decade, and my objective in writing for Business Logs is to share my knowledge and build an active online community where business people can learn not just the value of blogging and social media marketing but also the fundamental marketing and business theories that drive strategic decision-making related to those online activities and more. [Read more…] about Susan Gunelius Talks Business Blogging

How to Address Complaints Posted on Blogs and Social Media

Lemons!When you run a business, image has a big role in whether you succeed or not. You spend money for building goodwill among your existing clients. You spend money for marketing in the aim of getting new customers. But sometimes, one wrong move might prove to be disastrous, especially if word about certain failures spread virally online. These may be in the form of bad product reviews, bad customer service experience or even rants pointed toward your direction.

The litigious route

We live in a litigious society after all, and oftentimes businesses resort to the law when they feel they have been bad-mouthed. I’ve experienced this one time or another in the course of my involvement with several blogs and new media networks. There was one time when I received a demand to take down some content on a blog that was allegedly libelous to the complainant’s company. Thing is, the blog in question wasn’t even mine. It had been submitted to a blog directory that the company I work for owned. In some cases, the content in question is not even a blog post, but sometimes a comment posted by a third party.

Sometimes these legal cases do prosper. But most of the time, they not. This would only go to show that the business entity involved may not necessarily be well-versed in social media. Being quick to do damage control through the courts would give the impression that you are a bully, and that you are using lawsuits as a tactic to scare off anyone who dares talk or write about you in a bad light. [Read more…] about How to Address Complaints Posted on Blogs and Social Media

Four Tools for Image Posting on Your Blog

A picture, they say, speaks a thousand words- and although I do want to stress the importance of written content on your blog (especially for search engine optimization purposes), adding images to your blog posts is always a good idea. Here are some tools to help you do that, and do it well:

Freebie Images by Crestock

From one of the best stock photography sites out there comes this WordPress plug-in aptly named “Freebie Images”. Basically, what it does is allow you to use any of the free stock photos in their library. Once you’ve installed the plug-in, simply search their library from within WordPress, and if you see something you like, simply drag and drop it into your blog post. You can also search according to image orientation (portrait or landscape)and filetype. Because Crestock has such professional, high-quality images, this one’s my favorite.

Photodropper Plug-In

Photo Dropper works almost the same way, but it searches Creative Commons-licensed photos in Flickr. You also have the option to only search for photos that can be used commercially, which is important when you’re running a commercial or business blog. [Read more…] about Four Tools for Image Posting on Your Blog

Blog Tool in Focus: bit.ly

Because long URLs can be unsightly and can “break” in emails, producing errors and “not found” messages, there will always be a need for URL shorteners. For a long time, the only URL shortener I ever used was TinyURL, which was simple to use and did the job. Then, of course, I discovered bit.ly– and haven’t looked back.

A big reason bit.ly has risen in popularity is, of course, because it’s Twitter‘s default shortener- but it’s also an awesome service. For example, bit.ly will not only shorten a link for me, it will keep a history of all the links I’ve shortened (provided I’m logged in to my bit.ly account), and give me statistics on those links as well- how many people clicked through, when they clicked, and from where. And to see all that, I need only add a plus sign (+) to my bit.ly shortened URL, for example, this link points to a previous post on BusinessLogs: [Read more…] about Blog Tool in Focus: bit.ly

5 Steps to a More Professional Business Blog

I think any business that has a regularly updated blog these days is to be commended (with plus points if they use Twitter, as well), but all businesses who run a blog should try to make their blog as professional as possible. Here are some quick steps to reach that goal:

Simplify search.

Your blog should be easy to search, with an accessible search box and button on every page. Make sure you tweak your Search Results pages, as well- with links to your Site Map and other important pages, just in case your visitors can’t find what they’re looking for.

Install a Unique Favicon.

A Favicon is a graphical icon that is attached to your website when viewing on a browser. It’s a good idea to use a unique image for this, such as your logo. Here’s a quick video tutorial on creating and adding a Favicon to your blog. [Read more…] about 5 Steps to a More Professional Business Blog