What is a blog anyway? [BT broadband office]

What is a blog anyway?

Posted 30 August 2006 at 9:37AM by Derek Hemphill in Business blogging

Following the launch of the BT Business blog, a few people have asked us what a blog is and what blogging has to do with business. If you have been wondering what it's all about but never had the time to investigate, then the following may be of use to you.

These are a selection of articles from our BT Business Today archive.

How blogging can better your business
Blogging is the latest trend in the online business world. But what is it and why should you do it? We give you the low-down.

Blogging: the easy way to raise your profile
Web-logging is fast emerging as a useful way for small businesses to raise their company profile cheaply and quickly.

The blookers, the blooks and the blogs
Web logs, or blogs as they are now commonly known, are now even finding their way to the printed word as blooks (blog-books). We look at these and advantages of blogs for businesses.

To blog or not to blog? The legal issues
Blogging is commonplace now both for businesses and personal use. But many people are still unaware of the legal implications of running a blog as a recent high profile case has highlighted.

You can also find out more about blogs from the following places:

Better Business Blogging
Information and advice on business blogging with free e-courses.

Blogger
Search for blogs across the web or create your own. Includes more info on what blogs are.

Technorati
"The recognised authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs".

Tags: blog, business blogging

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Comments

1. At August 30, 2006 5:25 PM, Tim Watt wrote:

So BT have set themselves up as a source of expertise on business blogging.

Perhaps it would ring true if they had already been doing so themselves, say for about the last five years or so...

Blogs are such a horrid word, and they're far more than online diaries. What many overlook it the importance of the linking and subscribing using RSS - whcih is what make them powerful to the interested individual.

Providing information useful to a select groups (such as customers) is key - kept informed using RSS so they return again and again.

Blogs work by providing information such as other sites that is useful to readers (by sending them away so they keep coming back!). In contrast to sites that value pages views and pump out propoganda (or within walled gardens as tends to be the jargon).

Blogs are also dynamic and concern themselves more with content, than traditional staic sites.

Does that ring true with BT? Does it eat its own dog food? I see no business blogs by BT execs on BT.com (there are RSS feeds though on the news page).

Good to see a new blog though - but if someone really wants to know how to sell using blogs I suggest starting with:

http://www.scripting.com/
and
http://scobleizer.wordpress.com

To be read with the appropriate pinch of blogging salt of course!
Tim

2. At August 31, 2006 7:24 AM, Manoj Ranaweera wrote:

I started blogging in April 06 and would recommend it to anyone. Glad to see BT has finally got a blog going!

You need to get couple of your board members to blog as well to understand the strategic thinking of BT.

3. At August 31, 2006 2:31 PM, David Morgan wrote:

Thanks for the comments Tim and Manoj.

You are quite right that this is BT's first foray into blogging. I’m not sure I’d refer to it as the first chink in the armour, more the first step in a journey.

We have deliberately positioned this blog around ‘helping you make the most of your online business’. The aim is to highlight information available online, link to expert sites and – as the site is aimed primarily at our existing customers - show how you can make the most of your services from BT.

There is a lot of interest in blogging in the company and I expect to see more BT blogs being launched. Some of these may be issue-based like ours and some may be more Scoble-esque.

4. At September 4, 2006 10:58 AM, John Greetham wrote:

I have only just found out about blogging. Seems a good idea.
John Greetham

5. At September 7, 2006 1:47 AM, Tim Watt wrote:

Hey - someone actually has taken the trouble to listened to a customer! (or rather a former one unfortunately for BT).

Or more importantly expose themselves to comment, and responded.

A little late right now, but I have warm fuzzy feeling all-of-a-sudden...

David gets it... but its amazing how few companies (even those in the business of communications) demonstrate the slightest interest in considering the possibility that they might learn something by listening.

BT broadband office