How To Be A Web Copywriter That Everyone Will Want To Hire
November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Anybody can be a web copywriter, but not everyone can be a great web copywriter. More to the point, not all great copywriters are also individuals that clients – all kinds of them – will constantly wish to hire. Only a few people are blessed to be described such, and if you wish to be part of the Hall of Fame for web copywriters as well, here’s what you can do to improve your current standing:
GRAMMAR, GRAMMAR, GRAMMAR!
If “location, location, location” is the official mantra of real estate agents then “grammar, grammar, grammar” is the incantation that web copywriters recite to themselves every morning. Excellent grammar will open various doors of opportunity for you, even if you don’t come equipped with the necessary educational qualifications as well as other requirements for the job. Poor grammar, however, will pave the way to your downfall – no matter if you’re armed to the teeth with impressive college degrees and an assortment of professional certifications.
NOBODY WANTS TO GO THE JAIL.
But that’s what’s going to happen if you continue to plagiarize other people’s works through the old copy-paste formula. Getting caught using other people’s work without crediting your sources will not only get you charged with a criminal violation but your employers as well. And since no sane person would wish to go to jail, you can be sure that no one will hire you if he or she learns that you’re dangerously fond of plagiarizing.
Although the term copywriting implies the need or permission to indeed copy other people’s material, that’s not what copywriting is and you should know so by now if you’re serious about your desire to be the ultimate web copywriter.
THE MAGIC NUMBER IS THREE
No matter how short your article is, always make sure that you use at least three sources of information for your work. The more the merrier even! Choosing many and various sources of information will ensure that you’ll have an original work in your hand and not something that has only been rephrased and rearranged but remains essentially the same with its sources.
TIME IS ESSENTIAL
Expect to work with tight deadlines when you take the job of being a web copywriter. Besides this, expect to receive assignments or job orders as well in the oddest time. That’s part and parcel of the job so there’s no point for complaining. If you can’t handle the pressure then you’re not fit to become a web copywriter, much less a great copywriter!
It is however expected and even inevitable that there will be certain circumstances preventing you once in a blue moon from getting the job on time. If possible, warn your employer in advance so he or she can make the necessary adjustments. If not, submit the articles as soon as you can and issue an apology as well as an explanation even without being asked. Doing so is called courtesy, by the way, which will be discussed in the next paragraph.
DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU IS A PLEASURE
That should be one of your primary aims as a web copywriter besides making excellent copies. To ensure that clients and employers alike will find doing business with you a pleasant endeavor, you need to extend the utmost courtesy to them – the same treatment which you hope other people will treat you as well. Courteous basically means being professional about your job. Besides ensuring that you submit your works on time, you can also talk to people you do business with in a respectful but friendly manner. Let them know that it’s your aim to get the job done the way they want it to.
ADVERTISING MEANS BRAGGING
The truth may sound ugly, but that’s basically what advertising is: emphasizing what you have and omit mentioning what you don’t have. If you’re not comfortable about self-advertising then you must definitely hire someone to do it for you. Of course, this would mean spending money when you don’t need to, but that’s your call.
THE BEST BAIT
Lastly, offer the best bait to clients: doing something for free or at a lower rate. You can offer free tips about copywriting, doing business, and any other subject material, but making sure that you make an excellent segue to offering them your services as a web copywriter. There’s no point to doing something for free if it’s not going to help you!
Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on copywriting or becoming a copywriter checkout his recommended websites.
Optimize Website for Bing
November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Every search engine has different algorithms to produce results against search queries. Some search engines give more weight to back links than content and other act differently. With the introduction of Bing, most of search results has been changed (previously MSN search) not those day are past when you need to submit your website to search engine or get back links from other websites to get indexed in search engines. Those websites which were getting good amount of traffic from MSN search engines they are very much cautious about how to get their website top in Bing. Here are some SEO tips for Bing, which will help marketers to get noticed on Bing.Make the title relevant to the subject of webpage and place the targeted keywords at beginning of title. Along with back links you should also thing about linking out to relevant sources of information, Bing favors websites that link out too.More keyword rich content will fancy your website chances to rank high, try to add more and more text. In Google, the amount of text on the page usually is not usually a huge factor. However, Bing really likes pages with at least three hundred words of text.It was a time when new websites start appearing in search engines by putting keyword rich content, now search engines especially Bing like aged domains. For marketers, this means that you may look to purchase older domains if you want to get on good position in Bing.Website coding is another big factor in Bing ranking, thus try to use neat and clean codes in your web pages. You should always ensure to close all the paired tags and should see that all links open the correct webpage. If your website contains broken link then BingBot might not be able to index your website effectively, thereby preventing people from reaching all of your web pages. Submit your website in Google webmaster tool for diagnosing any crawling issue. Also try to validate your website according to W3C validation rules.
Maximum Hit offers innovative solutions for all your SEO London needs.
Maximum Hit has a strong client base in UK and Europe, It is recognized as an expert SEO Company UK.
Start Your Own Blog and Add Some Spice to Your Retirement
November 20, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
It’s so easy to start up and doesn’t cost a penny. Thousands are doing it…many of them retirees…and having the time of their lives. How about you?
First, let’s lay to rest the principal myths that are holding you back:
 I don’t have the technical skills or knowledge
 It probably costs more than I can afford
 I’m not a real news junkie
 I don’t have the time to spend adding new items
Hogwash! Anyone with a modicum of intelligence, a bit of curiosity and two or three hours a week can turn out a fine blog and have an enriching experience doing it. And it’s free. With easy-to-follow guides like Google’s www.blogger.com, you can have your blog up and running within an hour. What a great way to keep your mind active by writing after retirement and to develop contacts with others who share your interests.Write on Your Favorite Subject
Blogs are circulated on almost any subject you can imagine. At the end of this article, you will find a listing of several blog directories that will show you the broad cross-section of topics discussed. It will also help you find and view other blogs that deal with the subject you’ve chosen. That way, you can get a better idea of how others are presenting information. Some blogs are simply personal ramblings and diaries. Others tackle serious issues from politics to hobbies. There are no restrictions. It’s up to you.
Today there are in the area of 30 million active blogs worldwide. In addition to personalized diaries, they represent a key source of news, knowledge and opinion. They are stealing readership from newspapers and print magazines. They have become major selling tools for businesses and excellent sources of information for surfers.
The blogosphere is magical. Despite the massive number of blogs in existence, you can attract large numbers of readers to your own. You have the opportunity of competing with your biggest and wealthiest competitors because with this great, no-cost innovation, the playing field has been leveled.
Obviously, it requires a good deal of time and effort to make yours one of the leaders of the blogosphere. The top bloggers constantly research current events and trends and post daily. Some do it hourly to compete with other news media. But unless yours is a news or political blog, there is no need to post that frequently.
You can reach out to literally millions of viewers on the World Wide Web with a schedule of one posting a week or better yet two or three. But you have to be willing to maintain that routine meticulously.
For example, I post once a week to my blog www.retirement-writing.com/blog and include four posts covering news of the publishing industry plus an instructional column in writing and publishing. If I preferred, I could have reduced the number of articles I add at a single posting, but increase the number of times I post to three or four a week. I tell you this only to demonstrate the flexibility you have as a blogger. But whatever schedule you select, you must follow it exactly.Setting It Up
As I pointed out earlier, launching a blog can be simple and cost free. Click onto www.blogger.com to find Google’s do-it-yourself guide. With just the few easy steps, you can create your own unique blog. If you’re unsure of your ability to do this or want your blog to have a more professional appearance, you can choose to hire a professional designer to set it up.
Enter “Blog Designers” on your favorite search engine to find professionals to assist you. I have used Premiss Design (Philadelphia, PA) and My Computer Guy (Tampa, FL) for some of my work. They are very cooperative, highly skilled and their fees are modest.Ten Ideas to Help You Gain the Most from Your BlogContent Rules No matter what else you do to make your blog appealing, the key is the quality of your content. Keep it relevant or you’ll lose readers. As an expert in your field, you should have no problem finding ideas for articles. As an author you should have no difficulty presenting them in an interesting and easy-to-read manner.Provide the Information Readers Want The blog is an amazing place to find information because posts are archived. But it is up to you, the writer, to be sure the information you include has real meaning.Keep it informal The key is to relate personally to your readers, try and keep your copy relaxed and informal as you write. It should reflect you and the way you think and talk. No hard sell even though one of the principal reasons for maintaining your blog may be to sell books (or e-books, coaching, etc). The blog is not the place for heavy promotion. It is more a center for information, exchange of ideas and a link to your web site.Brand Yourself The blog is a great tool to establish your credibility and demonstrate your expertise on the topic you have chosen to discuss.Personalize Your Business The purpose of what I suggest in the above paragraphs is to personalize your business, to create an intimacy, to break down the barrier between the reader (potential buyer) and you (salesperson). The result should be a greater degree of confidence on the part of the reader for your integrity and knowledge.Offer Interactivity Make sure your blog offers your readers the chance to comment on your post. I also encourage readers to send in questions on any aspect of writing, publishing or promoting either through a post or by writing to one of my e-mail addresses charles@retirement-writing.com. We try and answer within 24 hours.Send Potential Buyers to Your Web Site Mentioning your products in places where they relate to the subject you are writing about is fine. But keep it soft sell, and refer your readers to your web site for the heavy push. You can promote on your blog, but do it with a light touch, not a hammer. As an example, when I moved a large box promoting my new book The Writer Within You from the main section of my blog, decreased the size and boldness appreciably and relegated the promo to a column on the side of the page, sales increased. That may conflict with many of advertising’s basic premises, but the blog is a unique place where readers are looking for opinion and information.Post Often Regardless of how difficult it may be to add content continuously to your blog, it is essential if you are to keep readers coming back. Major blogs update throughout the day. But this isn’t necessary if you aren’t aiming your blog at news junkies. Three times a week is a very comfortable schedule. I post a new blog weekly.Don’t Wander People reading your blog are specifically interested in the subject you cover. Don’t wander off to other issues. Stay on topic. However, whenever you can, hook your topic to some current happening to make it even more interesting to your reader. The hook may be the result of an event of major importance, it may be the weather, a holiday, whatever. But it must be relevant.Become Active Now that you are a member of the blogging community, participate actively. Make a list of blogs that relate to your topic, and periodically view them and post comments. (Find them by perusing the list of blog directories at the end of this article.) As you participate, you’ll find your own blog will gain more attention. Having your name on a comment in a highly successful blog with a wide audience will motivate a portion of that blog’s readers to see what you are all about.
Follow these suggestions and when you become more skilled, you can install an RSS feed and even bookmark some of your posts with sites like Digg or Del.icio.us.
To help you locate blogs that cover your subject, try these blog search engines.
www.blogsearch.google.com,
www.globeofblogs.com,
www.blogcatalog.com
Visit the web site of Charles Jacobs, author and book coach, for free articles and e-books http://www.retirement-writing.com. His latest book “The Writer Within You” received six awards as one of the Best Books of the Year. Learn more and buy it at http://www.retireandwrite.com.
Most Blogs Come Available With Widgets or Plug-in
November 19, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
If your attempts to make money blogging continue to elude you, rest assured that you are not alone. As simple as the concept of blogging may be, many fail to realize their goals. It should be noted that although these goals vary from one blogger to the next, the obstacles often times responsible for their lack of success are the same! These obstacles develop within 4 areas:Blog Set-UpYour blogging platform should reflect a feel for who you are and on what subject you are blogging about. The layout or format will go a long way towards accomplishing this so spend some time and thought in this area and have fun with it. And while we’re on the subject of the layout, for more details visit to www.your-own-blog.com be sure yours is not too cluttered and can be navigated easily by any visitors. Encourage your readers to leave comments and make it easy for them to do so.The site should also be optimized properly for the search engines thereby enabling the people interested in your subject to easily find your blog.. Don’t overlook this part of the setup.Generate Targeted TrafficPut the effort into seeking out targeted traffic to your blog. Let people know you exist and what you’re all about. Visiting forums, for more details visit to www.blogers-guide-to-profit.com social network sites, and perhaps writing articles are great ways to increase your exposure and also pick up new ideas for both your blog design and also what to blog about within your particular niche.Continued Research and EducationContinually find new sources of information for your own education and for content. Failure to do so will eventually kill both your dream and your blog. You’ve hopefully chosen a subject in which you have an interest if not a full blown passion. It is this interest or passion that will keep you motivated to regularly seek out the fresh news and information that will sustain the life of your blog.Post RegularlyThis is an area that most have the most difficulty with. No matter what the goals are you have, you will not reach them if you do not keep fresh content on your blog. Search engines love blogs for this very reason. Actually they show a bit of favoritism towards blogs in the search rankings due to the continual cycle of fresh content to be found on them. For this very same reason readers will keep returning to see what ‘new’ on your site.It’s important to point out here that you should not make a habit of posting something just for the sake of having a new post. If you can’t make your post interesting, innovative, revealing, informative, or at least entertaining then it’s time to go back to doing some research.Your research will give your posts some quality while your posts will give your blog the same.No matter if you want to make money blogging or perhaps just gain exposure for one of your passions, attention and effort must be continually given in these 4 areas in order to reach your desired goals.
Searching of Good up-to-date Information in Blogs
November 15, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
There are all kinds of blogs like personal blogs, topical blogs, culture blogs, political blogs, science blogs, and educational blogs, news blogs and much more. One of the things these blogs have in common is that they are generally good sources of information. Not only are they good sources of information but also are good sources of up-to-date information at that. People looking for an alternative source of information will find that blogs can sometimes offer a more in depth view or a refreshing take on current events. One of the major benefits of information from blogs, specially from personal, cultural and political bogs, is that it gives readers insight on the locals’ viewpoint. For example, although news sites can offer accurate information and report facts and statistics about important events such as the 9/11 attack or the latest Tsunami tragedy that hit Asia, personal blogs of people who were actually there or knew someone involved in the tragedies offer a deeper and more compelling insight on the events. Reading political blogs would also give you a chance to know what ordinary citizens of a country really think. The downside with information from blogs is accuracy. Since most blogs are subjective, information garnered from the blogs can be lopsided and even exaggerated. Most blogs do write about facts but give commentaries as well. When reading opinions and commentaries be discriminating and do not believe everything written without thinking or checking out the facts by reading other blogs and sources.One problem with extracting useful information from blogs knows where to start. With more than 10 million blogs online it is impossible to search for specific information without the help of a good blog search engine. A good blog search engine, however, will weed out most of the noise and point you to the blogs that contain the information you need.To help you search for information found in blogs, here’s a short list of the best blog searching tools on the net right now.• Google blog search – google blog search is the fastest blog search engine at the moment and returns incredibly relevant search results. • Technorati.com – Technorati.com is the most established blog search engine. It gives back the most number of results and has the most features among blog engines. However, it can be slow and returns quite a number of irrelevant links. • Yahoo! Blog Search – Yahoo’s blog search is a new feature added to its news search. The search result page is divided into two columns with the left column containing news results and the right column containing blog results. Yahoo! blog search is best for people who need current information but are not very particular that it be from blogs. • Feedster is one of the oldest blog engines. One of its useful features is that it caches blog pages. Feedster would be useful for people looking for blog posts that have been deleted or edited.• BlogPulse is a search engine most useful due to its extra tools that allow users to do things other blog engines don’t like create graphs and plot log buzz for search terms. It also has a Conversation Tracker that’s gathers related blog posts converts them to threaded conversations. This cool feature allows readers to follow topics they are interested in more easily.• And to apply for a Blog Review and possibly win an award, go to Bloggy Award!
Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips and hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and insights pertaining to Internet Business, do please browse for more information at our websites.http://www.allhottips.com http://www.bookstoretoday.com
HI I AM CHANDAN THAKUR FROM MUMBAI
Benefits of using Twitter
October 29, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the followers. That’s why information on Twitter is short, to the point and effective. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. You can access Twitter via Web, Desktop Applications and even SMS. While the service costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees.
I started using tweeter some time ago. Surprisingly after few days of posting some tweets it started getting indexed in Google. While Google continues to dominate the world of “search”, it has a long way to go in offering real-time search capabilities.
Twitter is a powerful communication platform providing social networkers the opportunity to post updates in real-real time. The growth of twitter has been so phenomenal that Google also started paying attention and it is indexing Tweets. Many Twitter pages and individual tweets can be seen on the first page of Google.
Then I started learning more about it. Rather than using it just as a social networking platform, if used properly, it can benifit you in so many ways including by boosting your personal brand and enhancing website traffic.
I want to list down some of the methods by which Twitter can benefit us:
- A Powerful Tool for Obtaining Information / news. Twitter users often link to useful sites or articles and can be a source of scoops and alternative news. This is very useful for active social news participants as they can subscribe to Twitter feeds for specific websites/conferences, which allows them to receive and view content quickly.Twitter can be quite an effective search tool for researching any kind of information. The results can complement other methods or sources of information. Twitter has a wide range of users, who constantly update Twitter with new information on different niches.
- To reinforce Personal Brand and awareness. Twitter is a social media platform which has the primary advantage of developing a social brand that is well-connected and accessible. Due its vast usage, Twitter can be a used for promoting your products and services and establish your brand. If you have established business you can use Twitter to enhance your brand image. On the other hand if you have a smaller business with limited brand awareness then Twitter can be excellent for promoting and establishing your brand among enormous audience.
- Get Feedback. Twitter provides you with an opportunity to join a group of interest by following others who are influential within your niche. Twitter also allows businesses to communicate with customers and receive feedback in a casual and cost effective manner. It can prove useful in understanding and obtaining consumer opinion about new products or services or new ideas. You can also use Twitter to communicate new ideas with people and test public opinion. Bloggers sometimes use Twitter to discuss ideas for new posts.
- Use it as HR tool to Recruit People. Want to hire a good web analyst, web designer, or programmer? Send out a tweet asking for recommendations. This is a very quick and easy way to hire freelancers or even companies based on familiar recommendations.
- Marketing Opportunities. Twitter can be used in promoting your products and services. It is a cost effective method to increase awareness about your products or services. You can use it to inform customers about any new announcement or special offers. Twitter offers all the advantages of traditional text message marketing and more. It can prove to be a useful tool for conducting market research by better understanding of potential or existing customers.
- Boost your website traffic. Twitter can be used to direct traffic to your websites. If you tweet about your website, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up and re-tweet it. Bloggers often use Twitter to inform their audience of any new posts on their blog by posting links on Twitter. Thus Twitter can be seen as a traffic generation tool. The placement of links within profiles and conversations can direct visitors to a specific website and is especially powerful if you pitch to early adopters and influencers.
- Make new friends. Twitter has a built-in function for you to befriend and track the messages of other users. This is a simple way for you connect with like minded people outside of your usual circle. A Twitter association can be developed into a long term acquaintance.
- Spreading Social Network. Twitter is an excellent tool to help bloggers share links to content which is of mutual interest to like minded people. On a personal level Twitter allows one to communicate with friends and family or close network of connections. On an organizational level Twitter allows colleagues who are not co-located to communicate with each other or businesses to communicate with their customers. With Twitter it is also possible to target a specific niche or audience by following others from your industry. It can thus allow a business to build contacts within the industry. Communities have developed around many of Twitter groups or niches. Twitter can be used to establish reliable and long term relationships for future benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.
- Get Votes. Send a link to your stories you’ve submitted in other social news sites like Digg. Your followers might vote up the stories if they agree with it. This allows you to acquire more support for your efforts on other social media websites
- Event Updates. Twitter can be used as a means to inform event participants and latest event happenings/changes by entrepreneurs. This is a stress-free way to broadcast information. Businesses have also used Twitter effectively to measure the performance of campaigns.
- Promotion. Twitter can be used as a promotional tool to announce offline endeavors or upcoming online events (webinars, virtual tradeshows etc). If you are an e-commerce site, perhaps you have a deal of the day or seasonal offers where you can promote these deals. The fact is you do not want to be too promotional, but Twitter does present the opportunity to promote your products or service and brand to your friends.
- SEO Boost. If you have good content on your website and you want to drive additional traffic to this content on your website, you can use Twitter to do so. A quick tweet with the URL can help drive additional traffic to a preferred landing page on your site to help persuade the conversion on your site.
- Find future Prospects online. Twitter allows you to interact with potential prospects and your target audience. While you do not want to be in direct touch all of the time, Twitter does allow you to engage with your prospects by re-tweeting their posts or responding to something that they may have tweeted about. Discretion and tact is needed in this area.
- Twitter and Mobile. Since Twitter is very simple to use and is limited to 140 characters, mobile use with Twitter is also easy. You can both send and receive updates what you and your friends are doing on the go using a simple SMS. Twitter can be a great mobile communication tool. As we know in business, this can be a pretty powerful thing.
- Offer live exposure. Twitter’s message size limit prevents detailed coverage of events but it can allow you to provide real-time commentary which may help to spark further discussion or interest on the event as other Twitter users spread the message. Very useful for citizen journalism.
In short, Twitter allows you to monitor how influencers think or feel, you can also get into their attention zone via active networking. For businesses, Twitter is another channel which connects current and potential customers with your product or brand. It allows deeply infiltration into the lifestyles of interested participants, which helps to build brand persistence/loyalty. So twitter can be used a tool to achieve simple aim of tracking and directing attention from various groups of your interest and in turn drive business.
Shilpa Singh, Director Himshilp- Internet Marketing Consultants handling SEO, SEM, website designing and website promotional stratagises.
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FOR SALE
How Blogging Can Shift The Power Structure
November 18, 2009 by IBI · Leave a Comment
Companies, big and small, have joined the blogosphere. Microsoft is blogging, so are General Motors, Google, IBM and Sun Microsystems. Companies are using blogs to engage customers and employees as well. Written by employees and in some instances by CEOs, blogs adopt a conversational and engaging tone which make them easy reading. Blogging has even empowered employees in more ways than one. A glaring evidence is employee bloggers, in most cases, have shifted the power structure in their favor to establish a higher degree of credibility and influence more than their bosses.
Weblogs or blogs for short are personal journals that serve as sources of commentary, opinion and uncensored sources of information on a multitude of topics. Each new entry called a blog post includes numerous links to other blogs, news articles, photos, commentaries, video and audio files. Most blogs allow readers to leave comments
According to a survey, people are far more likely to trust “average people like me” than to trust people in authority like the CEOs. Employees are now in newfound and enviable positions to either promote or speak against their companies’ products, services, policies and positions on important issues. What is more, people are listening to what these bloggers are saying. Blogs are a trusted communication medium. The word of a blogger holds much value to a consumer far more than traditional marketing and advertising. By far, word of mouth is the most trusted form of advertising. This highlights the significant role that an employee blogger wields either to boost or hinder sales through his blog. This just goes to show that people would rather hear from real people talking with real experiences than listen to marketing talk.
Employee blogs have helped improve the image and reputation of their companies. One classic example is Microsoft. Its hottest and controversial blogger Robert Scoble (recently resigned) had openly criticized Microsoft concerning issues ranging from quality control to sensitive issues. His negative posts on his blogs called Scobleizer about the MSN Spaces product proved to be a blessing in disguise for Microsoft. Readers were all praises that the company’s resident blogger would express an opinion that runs counter to the company. As a result, Microsoft’s reputation as a bully and a great monolith was torn down. People now see a company that is run by actual people who has their best interests in mind. Robert Scoble in defense of his contentious actions emphasized that credibility is of utmost importance. If he will only sing praises about Microsoft it would sound like a press release and he would lose the ability to have an open conversation with his readers.
Robert Scoble’s penchant to criticize his employer was put to the test again when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the company’s decision not to back an anti-discrimination bill against gays and lesbians. Scoble disagreed and publicly chastised Ballmer in his blog. Ballmer later reversed the decision. A few months before his departure from Microsoft, Robert Scoble, again, wrote a harsh critique against his employer for shutting down the controversial blog of Chinese Journalist Zhao Jing. He accused the MSN Spaces team of Microsoft for “being used as a state-run thug”.
Microsoft is not alone. Yahoo blogger Jeremy Zawdony openly scolded his employer in his blog. He complained about the practice of changing users’ home pages during the installation process of Yahoo software. He wrote in his posting that the action was insulting and downright disrespectful.
Companies have also seen their reputations damaged by highly-publicized firings of employee bloggers. Mark Jen was sacked by Google apparently because he wrote about his life at Google including remarks on the company’s financial performance and future projects in his personal blog. Ellen Simonetti, A Delta Air Lines flight attendant was terminated allegedly for posting inappropriate pictures on her blog. The photos showed her in a skirt and blouse sitting atop the airplane seats.
All these incidents bring to the fore the delicate situations corporations that maintain blogs and employees that blog are in. Corporate blogs that criticizes management or its products or services present public relations dilemmas. On the other hand, if a blog contains nothing but good public relations posts, few people will be interested and will even be doubtful of the veracity of the blog articles.
It is a recognized fact that blogs are establishing in the online world much of the value that traditional public relations bring. As the importance of corporate bloggers becomes more evident, so do the corresponding disadvantages. Companies need a clear-cut policy on how blogging can be integrated into their communication and marketing mix. A company needs to set up corporate blogging policies to ensure that blogging thrives in a more controlled and productive manner. In essence, these guidelines will lay down the specific rules about what an employee blogger is allowed to blog about. Employee bloggers have to strictly abide by rules about leaking confidential company information or breaking federal securities disclosure rules. All these are preventive measures to avoid organizational and legal problems such as slander, libel and harassment.
Google has no definitive guidelines but allows employees to blog on the assumption that “they are reasonable people”. One of Sun Microsystems policy states that “it is perfectly ok to talk about your work and have a conversation with the community but it is not ok to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces.” Hill and Knowlton specified that as a publicly-owned company, bloggers cannot discuss company revenues, future plans.
Despite the controversies and the risks involved in blogging, companies are embracing blogging. Companies are well aware of the potential benefits of blogging. It is a way to connect with customers and partners, strengthens company unity and present a human face to the world-at-large. These companies feel that the benefits far outweigh the risks. Blogs are here to stay and will continue to be a reliable communication and marketing tool. It is and will be a reliable source of information for everybody.
Blogging will definitely change the power structure within any company. With a blog, an employee blogger, whatever his position in the company is can become an influential person for some audiences and customers.
http://www.theinternetone.net
Filed under Blogging News · Tagged with Blogger, Blogging, Blogosphere, Ceos, Commentaries, Communication Medium, Credibility, General Motors, Google, Higher Degree, Instances, Multitude, News Articles, Personal Journals, Power, Power Structure, Real People, Robert Scoble, Shift, Sources Of Information, Structure, Sun Microsystems, Traditional Marketing, Word Of Mouth