blog marketing
TRANSCRIPT
The Big Deal over Social Media Marketing Marketing
Natalie Guse
Blog Marketing! How to write a blog, how to promote it and how to
succeed with it!
The Big Deal over Social Media Marketing Marketing
Natalie Guse
Blog Marketing! How to write a blog, how to promote it and how to
succeed with it!
Definition + History
Blogging Sites!
Write a blog!
Social Media Marketing
Promote your blog!
Summary!
History of Blogs!
?
History of the World Wide WebUntil the early 1990s, the Internet was used only for data interchange by academics, corporations and governments. The development of graphical
interfaced browsers like Netscape transformed the Internet into a rich communication media. Today access is not limited to computers, but can be
achieved through other means, such as WAP. (Reedy and Schullo, 2004)
Internet Marketing! Since 1996, the Internet has captured significant public attention. Exponential growth in Internet hosts and personal computer adoption has led to dramatic
increases in online activity. The Internet, and the World Wide Web in particular, has revolutionized the promotion and communication functions of businesses. They empower personal marketing campaigns and one-to-one marketing. Instead of addressing broad audiences through mass media, such as television and radio,
businesses are developing personal relationships with their customers. The Internet has multiplied the speed and reach of interactive communications, opening
opportunities that were only fantasies two decades ago.
• “Blog” is short for “weblog,” a term coined by Jorn Bargerin 1997 and popularized by Cameron Barrettin 1999.
• In 1999, a company called “Pyra” released “Blogger,” a service that let anyone publish a blog for free by typing in a box in their web browser.
• As of April 2007, Technorati, a major blog monitoring service, claimed to be tracking more than 75 million blogs.
Definition BlogA blog is a personal homepage with more enhanced connectivity than an HTML-
based Web site. In the blog system, individuals communication activities automatically form networks through which they can move from one blog to
another without manually adding hyperlinks to each page. Once a communication network is formed, information may flow easily through it. The
blog-ad is an attempt to expose the information of products and services to consumers interconnected by networks.
Definition BlogA new form of communication on the Internet are Blogs, short for Weblogs. This new form of communication allows consumers to express their own opinions in yet another way. Blogs are a new and original cultural phenomenon, reflecting more the changes and needs in society than simple realization of technological possibility. Blogs are simply online journals consisting of a mix of text, links and
maybe graphics. Bloggers are usually people who are strong believers in something and listening to what they are saying in.
What is Blog Marketing?
?
Definition Blog MarketingBlog marketing is any process that publicizes or advertises a website, business, brand or service via the medium of blogs. This includes, but is not limited to
marketing via ads placed on blogs, recommendations and reviews by the blogger.
Blog marketing is the term used to describe internet marketing via web blogs. These blogs differ from corporate websites because they feature daily or weekly posts, often
around a single topic. Typically, corporations use blogs to create a dialog with customers and explain features of their products and services.
Many organizations use blogs with their user community. This allows them to share and preview product features, functions, and benefits before the products are
released. Blogs are an excellent way to gather feedback and to make sure products meet the needs of users. Blogs have become the next generation marketing tool to corporate websites which merely post collateral and do not provide any interactive
feedback. Blogs are also supplementary to a User Group. User Groups happen annually for example while blogs provide users constant daily and weekly feedback.
Benefits of Blog Marketing! The benefits to marketing via blog are numerous and largely gained at a very
low cost. Through blog, you can : - Increase product and brand awareness
- Increase website traffic- Improve SEO
- Increase customers loyalty- Increase success of new products launches
YOU
Interact with
costumers!
Communicate!
Socialize!
Share!
C I S S
-Communicate w. costumers- Stay in contact- E-Conferences- E-Interviews
Communicate Interact Socialize Share- Build own networks - Invite your contacts- Interact with costumers- Example: NING, MEETUP
- Create public profiles- Stay in contact- Example: LINKEDIN, XING, FACEBOOK
- Promote Infomercial- Promote Business- Publish press releases- Example: YOUTUBE
Interact with costumers! Share!
Socialize!
Communicate!
YOU
Definition + History
Blogging Sites!
Write a blog!
Social Media Marketing
Promote your blog!
Summary!
WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.Everything you see here, from the documentation to the code itself, was created by and for the community. WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it.
Wordpress.com
Category: Blogging Site
Primary Value: Strong profile ranking
User: 26.000.000 visitors
• Set up blog• Promote blog• Write articles• Inform about the product• Use it as a second webpage
Information Description Use/Benefit
WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.Everything you see here, from the documentation to the code itself, was created by and for the community. WordPress is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it.
What: Blogging SiteYear: Launched 2003Unique Visitors: 28,048,281Visitors: 65,278, 721Annual growth:+29
Blogger is a free blog publishing tool from Google for easily sharing your thoughts. A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.
Blogger.com
Category: Blogging Site
Primary Value: Strong profile ranking
User: 30.000.000 visitors
• Set up blog• Promote blog• Write articles• Inform about the product• Use it as a second webpage
Information Description Use/Benefit
Blogger is a free blog publishing tool from Google for easily sharing your thoughts. A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules. Blogger was started by a tiny company in San Francisco called Pyra Labs in August of 1999. This was in the midst of the dot-com boom.
What: Blogging SiteYear: Launched 1999Unique Visitors: 31,699,703Visitors: 6,344,571Annual growth:+31
Twitter is a privately funded startup with offices in the SoMA neighborhood of San Francisco, CA. Started as a side project in March of 2006, Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking world news to updates from friends
Twitter.com
Category: Social Media Site
Primary Value: Strong profile ranking
User: 150.000.000
•Set up Twitter Account• Follow as many people as possible- We need people, who help promoting the group (students)- Use Twitter as a searching tool to find potential students- Write direct messags to inform about about Meltology. - Create events
Information Description Use/Benefit
Tumblr is a blogging platform that allows users to post text, images, video, links, quotes, and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users are able to "follow" other users and see their posts together on their dashboard. Users can like or reblog other blogs on the site. The service emphasizes customizability and ease of use. Tumblr’s emphasis is on customizability and ease of use, with a relatively simple sign-up process. The “like” button, which lets one user tell another that they like his or her content, and the “reblog” button, which easily reposts content from one tumblelog onto another, provide positive feedback that has given Tumblr an 85% retention rate, compared with 40% for Twitter.
What: Blogging SiteYear: Launched 2007Unique Visitors: 3,583,364Visitors: 9,251,554Annual growth:+164
Xanga is a website that hosts weblogs, photoblogs, and social networking profiles. It is operated by Xanga.com, Inc., based in New York City. Xanga's origins can be traced back to 1999, when it began as a site for sharing book and music reviews. It now has an estimated 40 million users worldwide. As of May 24, 2008, Alexa Internet ranked Xanga as the 231st most visited site on the Internet. All Xanga members receive a "Xanga Site", a web site made up of a weblog, a photoblog, a videoblog, an audioblog, a "Pulse" (mini-blog), and a social networking profile. Members also have the option of joining or making blogrings (groups)
What: Blogging SiteYear: Launched 1999Unique Visitors: 4,029,165Visitors: 26,248Annual growth:-16
Rank #3Micro Blogging site140 charactersCreated in 2006 by Jack DorseyVisitors: 141,673,599Unique Visitors: 55,000,235Annual growth of 577.92%
As of March 2009 Twitter is the fastest growing site in the members community categories.Twitter has raised over 57 million since its creation from several venture capitalists.Privacy and securityTwitter collects personally identifiable information about its users and shares it with third parties. The service considers that information an asset, and reserves the right to sell it if the company changes hands. While Twitter displays no advertising, advertisers can target users based on their history of tweets and sometimes may quote tweets in adsWhat do people tweet about:
What do we Tweet About:
U.S Demographics of Twitter
Definition + History
Blogging Sites!
Write a blog!
Social Media Marketing
Promote your blog!
Summary!
How to blog!
?
Update frequently – Look, nothing is worse than having a great blog and then abandoning it. You lose momentum, any buzz you might have generated and most importantly, you lose readers. Its not easy (and to be honest I need to
follow this rule more often) but a lame post every now and then is much easier to recover from than going two months without posting.
Cite your sources – Everybody and their dog has a site now. No seriously look. So, linking out to a few authoritative sources to help support your claims might not be a bad idea. It gives you more credibility with your
audience and shows that you actually put a little bit of work into the post.
Be controversial – There’s nothing like a little controversy to help promote your site. Take a stand on a controversial issue, and then
write intelligently about it. People who agree with you will link to you to in support of their arguments, and people who disagree with you
will link to you as they attack your position. Just remember not to take disagreements too personally.
Include images – We live in a society of over stimulation. We’ve got flashing billboards, instant information at our fingertips, and about 15 different forms of media on our phones. So, if you can break up your posts with a picture or
two, you might be able to retain those of us with shorter than average attention spa…
Stay on Topic – Along the same lines as the previous point, nothing is worse than trying to wade through a rambling post.
On a website, it’s not exactly like you’ve got a captive audience. Most people will click the back button as soon as you start to
bore them. (See that? I probably just lost 6 readers right there)
Link to other sites – This one is pretty simple, the more you link to other blogs or sites, the more likely
they will be to link back to you.
Be original – As we talked about in point 2, there are a ton of blogs out there. Don’t just rehash the same stuff that every other blog in your area is talking about. If there is a major news story, don’t just
post the news; post your take on it. Take a different angle. Do something to set yourself apart from the mass of other blogs. Be
original.
Grab them with the headline – Just like a newspaper, the headlines are critical. If it’s interesting, people will check out your post. If it’s not, they’ll ignore it. It’s as simple as that. And, just like in newspapers,
there are some words and phrases that are attention grabbers. “Top 10…”, “How To…”, “Warning:”, or any other alarming words work great
in headlines.
Remember that its public – Have you ever heard the saying “Say it words but not in writing?” That holds true on the internet. Always
remember that whatever you write is instantly public information. So, it might be unwise to slam your boss, badmouth your company, or hit on
someone else’s wife via your blog (or any other internet medium for that matter).
Tell people – So you’ve got a great blog post. Now what? The last rule for blogging is to tell people about it. Mention it to your friends and
family, ping sites such as pingomatic.com, and submit it to social sites such as digg.com, reddit.com, fark.com, or any other appropriate
site. Sure it’s a bit of self promotion but if you wait around for someone else to do it for you, you’ll probably end up blogging to
yourself.
Definition + History
Blogging Sites!
Write a blog!
Social Media Marketing
Promote your blog!
Summary!
You probably know a ton about your favorite bloggers - what they think about the subjects they write about, maybe some of their work and life history... you may even know what toothpaste they use. But how much do you know about all the other people who read their blogs? For all this talk of a global conversation throughout the blogosphere, there's a lot to be desired. Readers can become friends with other people who read your favorite blogs. See what else they're reading. Check out their MySpace and Friendster profiles and view their Flickr photostreams. Authors can learn more about their readers individually and as a group. What do they like and what are they ignoring?
Mybloglog.com
Category: Blogging Site
Primary Value: Strong profile ranking
User: 1.300.000 visitors
• Set up blog• Promote blog• Write articles• Inform about the product• Use it as a second webpage• Connect all your sites to mybloglog
Information Description Use/Benefit
Appearing on the Digg homepage can lead to massive traffic increases to your web site or blog. And depending on your users, it can sometimes lead to significant increases in sales. Digg can be particularly effective for bloggers who write regularly and make their content easy to Digg.
digg.com
Category: Bookmarking Site
Primary Value: Strong profile ranking
User: 43.300.000 visitors
• Submit blogs• Promote blog• Write articles• Inform about the product
Information Description Use/Benefit
What is Technorati?Technorati is a real-time search engine dedicated to the blogosphere. It only searches through blogs to find exactly what you're looking for. At the time of this writing, Technorati was tracking over 22 million sites and over a billion links, a mind-boggling amount.
Technorati.com
Category: Blogging Directory
Primary Value: Strong profile ranking
User: 22.000.000 sites
•Promote your blog
Information Description Use/Benefit
Technorati.comRank #152,861,683 Unique Visitors4,379,508 VisitorsAnnual Growth of -16.16%Founded by Dave Sifry Launched in November 2002Blog Search Engine
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati indexes 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.The name Technorati is a portmanteau of the words technology and literati, which invokes the notion of technological intelligence or intellectualism.Technorati was founded by Dave Sifry and its headquarters are in San Francisco, California, USA. Tantek Çelik was the site's Chief Technologist.Technorati uses and contributes to open source software. Technorati has an active software developer community, many of them from open-source culture. Sifry is a major open-source advocate, and was a founder of LinuxCare and later of Wi-Fi access point software developer Sputnik. Technorati includes a public developer's wiki, where developers and contributors collaborate, also various open APIs.The site won the SXSW 2006 awards for Best Technical Achievement and also Best of Show. It was also nominated for a 2006 Webby Award for Best Practices, but lost to Flickr and Google Maps
Technorati is now tracking more than 75 Million blogs. Spam-, splog- and sping-fighting efforts at Technorati are paying dividends in terms of the reduction of garbage in our indexes, even if it does seem to impact overall growth rates. Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size approximately every 230 days. About 100,000 new weblogs were created each day, again down slightly quarter-over-quarter but probably due in part to spam fighting efforts. About 4% of new splogs get past Technorati's filters, even if it is only for a few hours or days. There is a strong correlation between the aging and post frequency of blogs and their authority and Technorati ranking. The globalization of the blogosphere continues. Our data appears to show both English and Spanish languages are a more universal blog language than the other two most dominant language, Japanese and Chinese, which seem to be more regionally localized. Coincident with a rise in blog posts about escalating Middle East tensions throughout the summer and fall, Farsi has moved into the top 10 languages of the blogosphere, indicating that blogging continues to play a critical role in debates about the important issues of our times.
Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install -- simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device. And it's FREE! Bloglines is a window to a whole new world of dynamic content that is being created and distributed over the new "live" web. You can make your own personalized news page tailored to your unique interests from our index of tens of millions of live internet content feeds, including articles, blogs, images and audio.
Bloglines.com
Category: Blogging Directory
Primary Value: Strong profile ranking
Visits: 2.417.000 visits
•Promote your blog
Information Description Use/Benefit
Blog Catalog is the premiere social blog directory on the internet. Search, Browse, Rate and Review thousands of blog sites.
Blogcatalog.com
Category: Blogging Directory
Primary Value: Strong profile ranking
Visits: 3,558,000
•Promote your blog
Information Description Use/Benefit
Example of blog marketing in a tourism marketing strategy!
Life is a Journey
The role of blogs in a tourist marketing strategy
Natalie GuseBusiness in Motion, Social Media
Marketinghttp://www.businessinmotion.weebly.com
IABE Las Vegas Conference,
20th of October 2009
Life is a Journey
Introduction
Tourism as an economical factor
Internet as a marketing tool
1
2
3
4
How travel organizations can use blogs
Blog Marketing
Summary
5
6
Content
Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind - Seneca
Discover the World!
The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page!
The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page!
Tourism
Discover the world
Econcomical factor
Downward Spiral
Tourism is a very important econcomical factor!
• Tourism increases the purchasing power• Tourism keeps a region alive• A lot of businesses are dependent on tourism
• Tourism is a very important economic branch in California
• California is currently the # 1 Travel destination in the country
• Tourism supports jobs for 924.100 Californian people.
Introduction
Tourism as an economical factor
The Internet as a marketing tool
1
2
3
4
How travel organizations can use blogs
Blog Marketing
Summary
5
6
Content
BlogsA new form of communication on the Internet are Blogs, short for Weblogs. This new form of communication allows consumers to express their own opinions in yet another way. Blogs are a new and original cultural phenomenon, reflecting more the changes and needs in society than simple realization of technological possibility.
Blogs are simply online journals consisting of a mix of text, links and maybe graphics. Bloggers are usually people who are strong believers in something and listening to what they are saying in.
As of April 2007, Technorati, a major blog monitoring service, claimed to be tracking more than 75 million blogs.
BlogsA blog is a personal homepage with more enhanced connectivity than an HTML-based Web site. In the blog system, individuals communication activities automatically form networks through which they can move from one blog to another without manually adding hyperlinks to each page. Once a communication network is formed, information may flow easily through it. The blog-ad is an attempt to expose the information of products and services to consumers interconnected by networks.
As of April 2007, Technorati, a major blog monitoring service, claimed to be tracking more than 75 million blogs.
How can Travel Organizations can use Blogs?
Blog Marketing
• Blogs can provide insight into what is good or bad about the products.
• Destination organizations shall use blogs to see what people have to say about the location they are trying to market.
• Secondly, location organizations may advertise their locations and services to the virtual communities with blog-ads, which refers to placing advertisement on personal blogs.
Blog Marketing
There are millions of tourism blogs on the World Wide Web. Google finds 45,300,000 entries for the key word “Tourism Blog”. The Internet is a place of opportunities – it offers people the way to express their anger, their joy and their satisfaction concerning a product, a travel experience of a service. That creates a lot of opportunities, but also Threats.
Blog Marketing - Threats
• If people aren’t satisfied with their travel experience, they more likely tend to write down their anger or tell their friends about the bad experience, they made• Especially when new travelers do their research on the Web and discover a lot of negative feedback and blogs on the web. Everybody wants to spend a great time during their vacation and they tend to do research. • Furthermore there are millions of travel blogs on the Web – that is a Threat too. Travel organizations have to make sure, that they appear in the Blog Sphere at all. It is important to do Blog Marketing and make sure, that travelers are able to find Blogs about that particular destination on the web.
Blog Marketing - Opportunity
•Travel organization can create own blogs and motivate their travelers to write down their opinions on this particular blog. • Travel organizations can also place ads on personal blogs, to attract more tourists as well. Blogs can be a great opportunity to market a destination. • In order to develop a long-term strategy for a destination, a travel organization has to do research. It is important to know, what the travelers like and dislike. Doing research by scanning the travel blogs, written about a destination, is an excellent way to create a Strenght and Weakness Analysis.
Blog Marketing
Launching an own travel blogThis blog can contain information about the travel destination, restaurants, tips and a lot more. This blog can also be used as an information source for travelers coming to the destination.
The advantage of an own blog is, that the travel organization has the chance to control, what is in the Blog. They can scan the written blogs, can track them and also use it as a research tool. The organization can also create a lively network and try to create a good position in search engines, by using affiliate marketing and other tools in order to market this particular Blog site. The Blog site can also be given to travelers coming to the visitors bureau. The travel organization can motivate them to write down their blogs by giving them a present or a discount on a tour or anything.
Blog Marketing
Creating an ambassador programThis is a new trend in the tourism industry. Hamburg in Germany for example has created an “Ambassador program”. These destinations are looking for Ambassadors to market their place all over the world.
These ambassadors have the duty, to write blogs, to write comments on any given internet platform, to mingle with people all over the world telling them about the beauty of the destination, they live in etc. Ambassadors are citizens of that particular region or town. They volunteer and they have an interest in promoting their place. A good way to increase the positive blogs is, to launch an own ambassador program.
Blog Marketing
SurveysAnnual surveys can also be used in order to increase the number of positive blogs. If a destination knows about the weaknesses, they can develop strategies in order to make the destination more service-oriented and more beautiful. That – in an ideal world – creates a higher satisfaction rate.
Blog Marketing
Quality of ServiceThis point is related to the “Surveys”. Annual Service Training for hotel employees, tourist information stuff and all people, occupied in the tourism sector, can increase the Quality of Service in a particular destination, which leads to a higher satisfaction rate. There are also many actions that can increase traveler’s satisfaction with a place, such as local events, infrastructure, orientation systems, friendliness, safety and cleanliness in a destination.
Summary
Communities are engaged in fierce competition for tourist dollars. As a result of this fierce competition communities are often on the cutting edge of new marketing techniques. This is why many communities were early adopters of the Internet as a communication tool. Blog marketing is the latest Internet marketing tool to be used to create competitive advantage in the market place.
Visit our website for more information on social media marketing!www.businessinmotion.weebly.com
Attend one of our online seminars! Fore more information, please visit http://businessinmotion.weebly.com/online-seminars.html
The End!