Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care [Paperback]

Shel Holtz (Author), Ted Demopoulos (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology, whose clients have included Pepsi, Barclays Global Investors, The World Bank, and Intel. A blogger and podcaster, Holtz speaks regularly at the International Association of Business Communicators Conference (IABC) and the Ragan Corporate Communications Conference.

 

Ted Demopoulos has more than 25 years of experience in high technology, including 15 years as an independent consultant serving blue chip clients such as Cisco Systems, The Department of Defense, IBM, Hong Kong Telecom, and the UK Post Office.  An early adopter of blogging, he has closely followed the development of the blogosphere for many years. 

 

Ted Demopoulos's first business ventures began in college and have been continuous ever since. His first professional computer work was in 1984 when he helped work his way through graduate school by programming. In 1986 Ted joined Apollo Computer where he worked as a consultant and educator. He stayed a couple of years beyond the takeover by Hewlett-Packard, and then, in 1990, he founded Demopoulos Associates. He has been very fortunate since then to be able to work on a number of exciting projects worldwide. Ted holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MS from the University of New Hampshire. He lives in Durham NH with his wife, two children, and dog. More information about Ted is available at www.demop.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Kaplan Publishing (February 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419536451
• ISBN-13: 978-1419536458
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,124,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource on Blogging from a Business Point of View April 12, 2006

By Meryl K. Evans

Format:Paperback

Companies like Boeing, IBM, and Stonyfield Farm make it part of their business communication strategy. With over 30 million blogs in cyberspace, businesses need to understand how blogs work and affect their own organizations. _Blogging for Business_ targets business bloggers as well as businesses who want understand the importance of tracking blogs and perhaps start one.

Bloggers talk about everything including good and bad experiences with businesses. The authors explain how blogs differ from other online tools, how businesses use blogs both internally and externally, and why and how businesses monitor blogs.

Businesses take advantage of the blogosphere (blog world) by sending pitches to the bloggers in hopes they write about their product or services. Just like pitching to the media, there are right ways and wrong ways to go about communicating with bloggers. About half of the book covers how businesses use blogs.

The other half discusses creating and managing a blog from planning through legal issues. The authors show how to make money with a blog, create one, promote it, use search engines, and measure the results. The authors look at blogging apps that don't require one drop of programming knowledge as well as those that do. They cover the options available for building a blog and guide the readers through the technical parts without scaring them away with HTML-speak.

The authors don't talk down to the reader even though the book is a quick and flowing read. The conversational writing uses stories to show how businesses handle blogs. [...]

Experienced bloggers will find the creating blog half familiar, but the other half could prove priceless as businesses tracking and communicating with other blogs is new.... Organizations big and small will value the tips on tracking and responding to blog conversations.

Since many employees have blogs, executives need to understand what they're about in case they need to create policies to ensure employees maintain the companies' integrity. Holtz and Demopoulos did a fine job of explaining blogs and why businesses should care about them. Readers will easily absorb the contents and concepts so they can take action. Read more ›

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Got results quickly - improved profit April 18, 2006

By Greg Grove

Format:Paperback

I followed the advice from this book, and sure enough got fairly quick results! It increased my Internet traffic, lead to more sales/profit, and my pre-existing customers love to leave comments on my new blog. Previously I had trouble getting ANY feedback from them.

Shel and Ted make it seem too simple, but it IS simple when you follow the advice in this book.

It also is a fun and easy read, even for a technophobe like me.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun book & a valuable resource March 29, 2006

By James D. Foster

Format:Paperback

I found Blogging for Business to be enjoyable and quite helpful. I don't have a technical background and I thought I might find the content confusing and/or tedious, but the authors have made it easy for Luddites like me to get on top of this blogging thing. Now I'm using blog data regularly for business purposes (although I have yet to set up one of my own) and it's been surprisingly useful.

I've no doubt we'll be seeing an overabundant supply of books published on this topic, but I recommend you pick this one up. The language is breezy and droll, which makes it a fun read, but the business application is quite powerful.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful for communicators in any sector March 15, 2006

By Paul A. Baker

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

"Blogging for Business" explains how and why blogs are popular and why a business might consider blogging as part of its communication strategy. The book (companion site: [...]) offers a number of bon mots, including "Blogging is every bit as much about listening as it is about posting" (p. 106).

A major point of emphasis: "The best business blogs were implemented in support of some business goal. Determining the kind of blogs you might consider begins with a review of your goals and issues in order to identify where your opportunities may lie. One kind of blog you should never launch is the "let's launch a blog" blog. Any company blog should be viewed as a part of the company's communication strategy." (p. 22)

"Blogging for Business" analyzes the blogging phenomenon and shows how a business can take advantage of the power of blogging. It's aimed at the person who will be responsible for a company's blogging strategy, the person who want to start a business blog, and the person who needs to understand the impact of blogs on an organization.

Coauthor Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communications + Technology and cohosts the popular business/PR podcast "For Immediate Release." Ted Demopoulos is a consultant who blogs about on information technology, security, and business at "The Ted Rap." Shel and Ted share their rich business experience and technical knowledge in a crisp, lively style.

Chapter topics include Business uses of blogs, Monitoring and tapping into the blogosphere, How to make money with blogs, Planning and promoting your blog, Using search engines to promote your blog, and Measuring the results of your blog, among others.

Although I'm in the education sector I find quite a bit of useful information here....

Paul Baker
[...] Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, practical guide January 10, 2007

By Steven Howard

Format:Paperback

The authors provide a good, practical introduction to the world of blogging, though some of the information is not as deep as this reader would have preferred. Also, I was put off by too many "self examples" from their own blogs, rather than third-party case studies which would have been seen as less self promoting. However, would definitely recommend this as a good guide, particularly for small, medium enterprises and sole proprietors.