Blogging for Business: Everything You Need to Know and Why You Should Care (Paperback)

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Product Description

Why do 20 to 40 million Weblogs, or blogs, serve as an outlet for an estimated 32 million readers worldwide?  And why do these numbers continue to skyrocket?

 

In Blogging for Business, authors Shel Holtz and Ted Demopoulos tell you exactly how and why more companies are incorporating blogs into their business strategies.  This smart new guide helps you engage in the global conversation by creating and maintaining blogs to generate heightened awareness and greater customer mindshare.

 

In Blogging for Business, the authors reveal why businesses should embrace blogging:

 

•  How to tap into the power of blogs

•  How blogs are different from e-zines, Web sites, and message boards

•  Why businesses need to monitor blogs that discuss their products and services

•  How to use an internal corporate blog as an effective knowledge sharing tool

•  Future iterations of blogging, such as podcasts and vlogs 

•  Legal considerations

 

Worldwide corporations from EDS and IBM to General Motors and Sprint are leveraging the myriad applications of blogs for product marketing, customer affinity programs, public relations, and internal communications.  Packed with top-notch recommendations from two pros, Blogging for Business demonstrates that blogs offer a competitive advantage that businesses cannot afford to overlook.  

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 Business (February 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419536451
• ISBN-13: 978-1419536458
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #274,292 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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 "Content Maven behind meryl.net" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Greg Grove "Greg Grove" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

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.

7 of 7 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 (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.