Blogging for Business

Susan Payton of Egg Marketing recently invited me to participate in the week-long online forum for business blogging. All this week we will be talking about why blogs are an important tool for businesses today.

There are some businesses for which a blog is becoming a necessity, and it is an inexpensive way to promote your business on a daily basis. While it does not replace press releases and other forms of PR, it is an important Web 2.0 addition to these traditional ways of getting the word out about your products and services.

From a marketing standpoint, however, check out what Susan is doing with this online forum. It is an updated, online version of the old standby article type called a Roundup Article that we used to do for magazines and newspapers (and still do!).

Instead of physically getting the panel participants together, which would cost a fair bit if you had to gather people from all parts of the globe and put them up in a hotel, you pose the same questions to each person individually and then amalgamate the responses. The writing links each answer to the others in a way that sounds as if there is a true discussion going on.

This is the same technique you see (but don't notice) on the evening news, when the anchor is "interviewing" the foreign correspondent, who replied to a list of questions earlier. The video is sent back to the network and intercut with clips of the anchor asking the questions. "That's a good question, Lloyd, the people here are extremely concerned about their water quality."

This technique allows for "timeshifting" -- capturing information at one point in time and replaying it for effect at another point in time.

Gathering a panel of experts is always impressive, and adds an interesting dimension to your blog or article.