[epub] Re: Questions re blogs

[Ross Hall <ross.hall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday, August 5, 2003, at 08:57 AM, Jill E. Vaile wrote:

> Curious:
>
>    * If you blog, what program/blog site is your preferred one?    * 
> Why?
>              * WHEN you blog, are you hooked into other blogs with 
> similar
>      interests/focus?
>
>    * Does your blog have any effect (positive or negative) on your
>      web site (if you have one)?
>    * Will blogs replace the site in the future?

I'm going to be a little radical here and suggest that blogs are all 
smoke and mirrors.

Let's go back to basics and ask "what is a blog?"

Basically it is a journal on a website. You type out a few friendly 
words or whatever and the journal entry gets added to your website. 
Maybe you've got a mailing list sat on the backside to let people know 
when a new entry is added. Maybe only x number of entries appear on the 
home page. Maybe there's an index and a search engine and so on and so 
forth.

This is not rocket science.

In technology terms all that is sat in the background is a content 
management system. I wondered how easy it was to put one together, so a 
couple of hours of Perl later and my result is at 
http://www.rosshall.co.uk. You'll see this post there. In reality all I 
did was prat about with a bit of content management code that I was 
using to run another site and which I've commercialised - ready for 
sale in a week or so!

I've waxed lyrical on the problems with blogs for business for a while. 
The first and biggest problem is informality. Blogs are informal by 
nature, which leads to all sorts of problems when people don't write 
what they meant to say (or what they meant to say is libelous!) Second 
is content management, in other words how do you manage the editorial 
process that sees the blog entry get stuck on the site? Most businesses 
have problems managing what they do from day to day without 
complicating matters! Third is appropriateness. Is a blog structure, 
which is highly dynamic, manageable in your chosen business environment?

However, the technology is entirely appropriate. New content can be 
added, which encourages business to open a dialogue with their 
customers and prospects via their website. I still see way too many 
companies whose site is no more than a brochure on line. They don't 
update their sites because they don't know how to technically, they're 
overly dependent on a web developer or they lack the confidence to 
express themselves. If the content management technology behind blogs 
helps them unlock this fear and dependency then that has to be a good 
thing.

I'm not saying that every company should rush out and have a blog. What 
I am saying is that the content management technology behind a blog has 
value for business, and the concept of a blog should encourage 
companies to rethink the way they engage their customers over the 
Internet.

Regards,



Ross ;-))

--
Ross Hall, editor of
G A R O L . B U S I N E S S . R E V I E W
Managing opportunities, the essence of leadership and tips to get
published all in the August issue.
Out Now! http://www.garol.com/businessreview/index.html


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