Blogs in 2009

Blog 2.0Blogs in the context of a social media landscape.

Peter FlaschnerFounder & Creative Director, The Blog Studio

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Super quick history


‘90s blogs first appear


2004 Blogs go mainstream




Around 2005 businesses began using

blogs.


Businesses started blogging to

communicate and


to connect.


New style of communicating:


Personal


Transparent


A more conversational tone


Why did blogs take off?


Easy to update


Built in sharing


Very expandable


Cheap to get started


Low technical overhead


Underlying all this relative ease is

software.


Blogging took off when the software to

maintain and update websites got easy.


BloggerWordPress

MovableTypeTypePadDrupalJoomla

ExpressionEngineTuesday, June 16, 2009

At this point in history, “blog” can refer to two

things:


1. A weblog.


2. A platform.


(By which I mean a site powered by a content management system.)


Blog software has evolved into robust, stable, fast, content

management software.


So, this brings us to the social media ecosystem.


Where do blogs fit?


Traditionally (if we can use that word) blogs

were a spoke in a marketing plan.


Corporate site

Micro-site Blog

Print

TVRadio

POP

Outdoor

Facebook


Increasingly, blogs are becoming the hubs in marketing campaigns.


Blog

Micro-site

Linked In

Print

TVRadio

POP

Twitter

Facebook


Why?


Consumers want to get a sense of a brand’s

character.


A blog is possibly the best place for that to

happen.


1.Increasingly, users have

a bunch of small interactions with a

brand, spread over a number of locations.


Blogs offer a great platform to tie those experiences together.


2.Online behaviour has

changed.


Users expect to have a voice in their online

experience.


3.Blogs don’t have to look like “blogs”.


4.Blogs have sharing and communicating built

into their DNA.


RSS feeds, commenting, email-to-a-friend,

search, are all built in.


5.Usually optimized for

search engines.


Tend to perform pretty well on search results.


6.Most importantly, most blog software is open

source.


Rapid development


Very up to date


This high tech blog software makes it relatively easy to aggregate an org’s

online activity.


In other words, a website built on blog

software can AUTOMATICALLYcollate activity on a bunch of different

platforms.Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Why is this aggregation important?


As orgs engage users in new and different

spheres, it’s important to collect (and share) a

full record.


In other words, you want your Facebook

fans and Twitter followers to have

access to the same content.


Beyond aggregation though, blogs have an important place in the

social media ecosystem.


They’re easy to update, so they get used.


Blogs in general have become the norm.


The White House has a blog.


Flexible look and feel.


Relatively low cost to create (relative to enterprise CMS).


Very measurable.


I really believe the future of business blogging is in

aggregating outside content (Twitter, Facebook, etc) and

weaving together a cohesive story.


It makes sense to be present in multiple spots in the social media ecosystem.


Use a blog as your home base and link

back from the spokes.


Resources

• WordPress (www.wordpress.org)

• ExpressionEngine (www.expressionengine.com)

• The Blog Studio (www.theblogstudio.com)

• The Guide to Business Blogging (www.theblogstudio.com/guide-to-business-blogging-v2.pdf)


http://www.wordpress.org

http://www.wordpress.org

http://www.expressionengine.com

http://www.expressionengine.com

http://www.theblogstudio.com

http://www.theblogstudio.com

http://www.theblogstudio.com/guide-to-business-blogging-v2.pdf




Peter [email protected]

twitter.com/flashlight


mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Technology

Blogs in 2009