April 25th, 2008
If you’re not careful, someone else might be able to use a variation of business name, blog URL, or other identifiable phrase and have access to the benefits that your brand has built up.
A post from Eliza Feree at the Babylune blog about a (possibly accidental) mixup between two mommy blog names and URLs got me thinking about how potentially serious a problem this problem could be for business bloggers. If your business doesn’t take steps to adequately protect your online identity, then your business could be vulnerable to a legal tug-of-war should some other entity adopt a similar name, URL, or phrase.
In the case reported at Babylune, an issue arose when two bloggers (both in a similar niche) discovered that they had similar URLs and blog names (Momologue vs. Mamalogues).
The mom blog incident was notable because it came from the world of mom blogs, which usually doesn’t have such disputes. Any personal or business blogger could face the same situation if they don’t take adequate steps to protect themselves.
Consider this post from Jacqui Cheng at ars technica about the current blog/domain name conflict between Craigslist and unaffiliated Craigslist Blog.
Such cases generally fall under the scope of intellectual property infringement. However, in some cases the law has not caught up with the online world of the web. Ars technica reports that Lowes recently lost a similar legal battle.
At best, defending your good name online is bound to be time-consuming and expensive.
What can you do?
In general, preventive steps are far more effective and less expensive than defensive techniques. Many of the techniques that we’ve published for managing your reputation online can also be applied to protect your business blog’s identity.
In addition, consider registering variants of your company and blog’s name. Registering a domain name is not expensive, and when compared to a drawn-out legal battle it’s a bargain!
Consider registering the following variations:
- Your blog name with different extensions (.com, .net, .org, etc.)
- Your blog name misspelled
- Your blog name plus another word (loveblogname.com, hateblogname.com, etc.)
Has your business blog faced domain name infringement? If so, how have you dealt with it?
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By Laura Spencer -- 2 comments
April 24th, 2008
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In my last post I discussed ways to get bloggers talking about you - assuming you don’t have a blog.
But what if you do have a blog and it still appears that no one is paying attention?
Much like my advice for business owners who don’t blog - my advice for bloggers is to remember that you are part of a community.
To paraphrase John Donne - No Blog is an Island.
When you blog, you are blogging as part of a conversation. It is very much like networking at any social event: to get anything out of it - you have to interact with others - otherwise you are just standing in a corner talking to yourself!
So, how do you break into the conversation?
- Post meaningful content on a regular basis. Seriously, don’t just copy other people’s articles, or post erratically. This is akin to attending a networking event and then never saying anything at all. Or only repeating what you’ve heard other people say. Basically, it’s boring and makes it difficult for others to form any impression of you.
- Comment on other blogs and forums. You can’t sit around waiting for others to start conversations with you. Start them yourself. Add interesting observations. Move the conversation along - don’t just say “I agree” or “Great post”. Take the time to say something thoughtful and sincere.
- Submit your posts to carnivals. This is similar to giving a presentation at a networking event. It enables you to showcase your thoughts and talents. It draws other people to you so that they are more likely to notice you and initiate conversations with you.
- Link to posts written by other bloggers. In this way you introduce your readers to bloggers you enjoy. It enables them to develop more connections. They appreciate the exposure and will often return the favor on your blog. You both increase your circle of friends and influence.
So - if you have a blog - it all comes down to this - the best way to get other bloggers to talk about you - is to talk about them first!!
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By Liz Fuller -- 7 comments
April 23rd, 2008
One of the questions that I’m frequently asked is: “how can we make sure that customers and potential customers are reading my company blog?”
The answer to the question is simple: blog about topics that interest your readers.
The trouble with that answer is that it really is too simple. The sad fact is that many businesses do not really know their customers, and therefore they don’t know what interests or needs their customers have.
In fact, one of our first posts here at Business and Blogging dealt with the importance of relationships. Relationships were important to building your business then, and they are still important.
Building a relationship with your customer is not too really different from building any other type of relationship. Here are some basics:
- Communicate. Talk with your customer.
- Listen. What is your customer trying to tell you?
- Respond. Show that your customer’s concerns are your concerns.
- Wait. Be patient with your customer.
- Commit. Show that you are invested in your customer’s concerns.
Other resources to help you build better business relationships:
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By Laura Spencer -- 5 comments
April 22nd, 2008
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Recently I mentioned that the only thing worse than having bloggers talking negatively about you, is to have them not talking about you at all!!
I’ve created my own 21st century version of the classic question of whether a tree falling in a forest still makes a sound if no one is there to hear it:
If a website exists on the internet, but no one reads it - does it really make an impact?
In other words:
- It’s great that you have a brick and mortar business.
- It’s fantastic if you’ve created a website to make it easier for your customers to find you.
- But, don’t stop there! Take it one step further and let the blogosphere know you exist!
So - how do you do that if you don’t have a blog???
Simple - leverage other people’s blogs!!
But don’t just flood bloggers with press releases about your business. Just as you don’t like telemarketers calling you at home with unsolicited messages about their business - bloggers don’t want to be inundated with unsolicited press releases about you and your business.
Bloggers care passionately about their own business - their blogs.
They are interested in topics and ideas pertaining to their blogs.
They are interested in forming relationships based on the shared interests expressed in their blogs.
Are you starting to see a pattern here?
So, here is my guideline for Getting Bloggers Talking About You in three easy steps:
1) Read relevant blogs. These may be blogs written on the same or similar topic as your business. These may be blogs written for the same target market as your business. The important things you are looking for are:
- commonality with the blogger
- an admiration for the blogger’s style
- an active community that the blogger influences
2) Develop a relationship with the blogger. Write comments on the blog. Add to the conversation. Generate ideas. Start an email dialog.
3) Tell the blogger about your business. Provide an interesting angle for a post on their blog. Offer to write a guest post. Share a book or CD you have created. Offer a free sample for review.
At this point, most bloggers who are interested, will offer to help you publicize your business. If they are not interested - don’t push it. It’s their blog and their decision. If they don’t feel comfortable writing about your business, you’re better off seeking out another site.
If all of this seems like a lot of work - it is. Building relationships with bloggers is much more like building networking relationships than it is like publishing mass press releases.
The blogosphere is a community and the only way in is to demonstrate that you understand their world and that you genuinely care.
So - what steps can you take today to build a relationship with a blogger?
photo credit: Dano
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By Liz Fuller -- 3 comments
April 21st, 2008
Should bloggers have limits on how they cover sports?
Apparently, many sport organizations think so. The New York Times has posted a piece today on the Tension Over Sports Blogging.
Sports franchises are beginning to recognize blogging as a form of legitimate media. The New York Times piece includes the rules pertaining to bloggers (and other forms of media) from the following sports organizations:
- National Basketball Association - Bloggers from credentialed news organizations must be admitted to locker rooms.
- Major League Baseball - Limits the number of photographs, audio, and video clips to a reasonable number.
- National Football League - Limits audio and video clips to 45 seconds.
According to The New York Times piece, The National Collegiate Athletic Association also has publication limits for various sports. (Personally, I couldn’t find the limitations - but I also didn’t spend a lot of time on the site.)
Here at Business and Blogging, we’ve posted about sports blogging before. In that post, we discussed the fact that many football teams have their own official blog.
The issues raised by The New York Times post are a little bit different. They don’t deal with whether or not a sports team should have a blog, but rather with the very nature of blogging itself.
Some of the questions the post raises include:
- What is a blog? Is it a news source? Is it editorial in nature?
- Should blogs in the U.S. be subject to first amendment protection?
- Should sports organizations be allowed to place limitation on the coverage of games and competition?
- Should bloggers have equal access to press conferences and events with traditional journalists?
I have my own answers to these questions, of course. What I’m interested in now, however, is your opinion.
How would you answer these questions?
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By Laura Spencer -- 2 comments
April 20th, 2008
This entry was chosen as one of the best for the Business Channel “Take Your Sons and Daughters To Work Day” contest.
Your comments will count as votes - the most commented post between now and April 30 wins! The commenter wins and the blogger wins. So comment away!
What do you want to be? What do your kids want to be? How do childhood experiences affect your career?
left college when I realized journalism was not going to be the right career for me. I floundered for a few years writing for magazines, writing copy for advertising, and working in marketing in various capacities. About the same time, my brother-in-law was considering a career change, and the angst he went through — nothing was prestigious enough yet satisfying enough yet lucrative enough — lasted months, and we spent many hours listening to his dilemma.
When someone then suggested I might do well at court reporting, thinking of my brother-in-law’s endless vacillating, I said, “I’ll try it.” I made it through school in record time, even having a baby halfway through, and have never regretted it. I’ve been a free-lance court reporter for 15 years and have done well enough financially to support my familiy of four. Court reporting allows me to observe human nature in many forms, I meet people from all over the world (even travel around the world sometimes), and hear many, many fascinating stories. I learn a little about a lot of things since one day we might be deposing a cancer researcher, another day a CEO at a Fortune 500 company. In essence, it encompasses many of the things I loved about journalism.
I could go on and on about why I love my job, but I think the moral of the story is be open to experience and if you’re lucky, you’ll fall into the right career.
Celebrate Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day on April 24!
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By guys -- 5 comments
April 20th, 2008
I’m afraid I only have time for a quick coffee break with you this week - the movers have come and gone, the car has been picked up to be shipped and Goodwill has carted away any remaining possessions that didn’t make the cut for this move.
I am typing away in an empty apartment - sitting on the floor with nothing but my internet connection and my coffee pot.
As soon as my husband pries my fingers away from the keyboard, we’ll be boarding a plane to our new home in New York City.
Soon, I’ll be blogging from the Big Apple.
It will take a week or so for us to get internet access - but I am already searching out wi-fi spots.
So, enjoy the following thought-provoking articles, and be glad that you aren’t living out of a box!!
Lately, Laura has been writing about the potential of Twitter. Chris at The Transfer is taking an even longer view of the potential of Twitter as a customer feedback tool. I think that blogging still has a lot of untapped potential as a customer feedback tool, and I enjoyed reading Chris’ vision of Twitter in the Marketer’s toolbox in his post Twitter: A Tool to Grasp that Elusive Customer Feedback?
This guest post by James Chartrand writing on Copyblogger encourages bloggers to enhance their relationships with their readers (customers) by creating an emotional connection in his post: Give More Than Words for Extreme Reader Response.
Anita Campbell at SmallBizTrends points out the advantage of using more than words to get your customers’ attention. Google is now returning YouTube videos in its search engine requests, increasing the impact of having videos about your business on the web. Read her article Videos Gone Wild in the Search Engines .
Liz Strauss at Successful Blog has a reminder that there are only two weeks left before the Successful and Outstanding Blog Conference 2008 in Chicago. I won’t be able to go due to my moving schedule, but a lot of great bloggers will be there. Check out her post for the exciting details! The SOBCON08 Tour Leaves the Dock in 14 Days!
If you attend the conference, be sure to send me an email and let me know what the highlights were for you!!
Have a great week!
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By Liz Fuller -- 3 comments
April 19th, 2008
What makes a good business blog?
This is the question that Liz and I have been addressing on Business and Blogging for the past few months.
If I had to guess, then I would say that it is also the topic on many of your minds. That’s why you come here day after day and week after week. This is also the question that we’re going to do our best to help you answer.
Fortunately, we don’t have to answer this question (or any question) alone. As I posted earlier in the week, the blogosphere is an excellent source of innovation and shared information.
That’s why today I’ve decided to share a post that describes how another blogger has answered the question of what makes a good business blog?
The post comes from Tadeusz Szewczyk of SEO 2.0. To address what makes a good business blog, he brings us the: 10 Commandments of Business Blogging.
In this post Tadeusz defines business blogging, and then deals with how to increase your (and by extension, your business blog’s) credibility.
While I don’t agree with all of his points, I do think that most of them make a lot of sense. Every business blogger should take a look at this list. I particularly liked numbers 4 and 5, “Do not sell, inform” and “Do not ‘blog’ press releases, tell stories.” If business blogs would adopt these two principles, then I think that the caliber of most business blogs would immediately skyrocket.
If you were putting together a list of the essential qualities of a good business blog, what characteristics would you include?
Image Source: Laura Spencer of WritingThoughts
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By Laura Spencer -- 0 comments
April 18th, 2008
Just a reminder - the b5media contest in honor of Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day closes at 11:59pm EST on April 20. Comments left after that time (while welcome) cannot be part of the contest.
If you haven’t already done so, be sure to leave your comments on this post.
Good luck to all of the Business and Blogging readers!
Note from Liz:
Laura’s been managing this particular contest, but I have gotten the benefit of reading the comments left by readers. If you haven’t done so, stop by the original post and read some of the comments. It’s always fascinating to find out what circumstances led people to the jobs that they have and it’s inspiring to learn about people who are following their passion.
Although I’m not entering the contest, I thought I’d leave my own story in this post.
From as early as I can remember, I’ve always loved to write. I would write stories and articles and plays just for fun. In second and third grade I had a great teacher who encouraged my writing - publishing my first story in a little printed book and distributing it to the whole class! And once even having the class put on a play that I had written. When I was eight, we moved away from that school. My teacher’s final words to me were “keep writing”.
I still continued to write but never again received that kind of encouragement and support. As I grew into adulthood, my writing remained a private indulgence.
In my early twenties I discovered that I had an aptitude for computer programming about the same time that the corporate world was realizing their desperate need for programmers. Later, when many programming jobs were moving overseas, I discovered a talent for corporate management.
But my true passion remained writing. With the advances in the internet, the barriers to entry between writing and publishing disappeared. Writers could publish their work directly to their audience. Learning was on the job. Feedback was immediate. And writing was no longer solitary - a whole community of writers emerged, eager to share comments and critiques.
For me, the internet and blogging has enabled me to recapture the joy and enthusiasm of writing that I felt when I was a child. I lose myself in creating my posts. I get a thrill of seeing my words published. I feel the joy of connecting with others. And I make a little money, besides.
I do believe my eight year old self would approve.
What about you? Are you living the life you dreamed of when you were 8? Did you grow up to be a fireman, policeman or ballerina? If not, did you find a career that enables you to express who you really are? Please take a moment to share - we’d love to hear from you!
photo credit: Charlotte Geary Photography
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By Laura Spencer -- 1 comment
April 17th, 2008
At the beginning of the month, I posted here about the importance of sharing information on your business blog. The post dealt mainly with the fear that some businesses have about sharing information, and how shared information builds up goodwill.
As I was browsing through some websites yesterday, I ran across a post by Dawud Miracle that also dealt with the topic of sharing. Dawud’s post, You Are What You Share, caught my attention because it deals with another benefit of shared information: innovation.
Dawud’s post points out that Web 2.0, social media, and blogging have made collaboration possible on a scale that never existed before. Physical distance is no longer a constraint upon creativity. A blogger in Canada can collaborate with a blogger in Australia, and both of them can be helped by a blogger in Africa.
What’s the result of this new wave of collaboration and cooperation? Innovations are being developed more quickly and more creatively than at any other time in mankind’s history.
What does this mean to your business? It’s simple. Participate, or be left out.
If you haven’t seen Dawud’s post, then I highly recommend that you take a look. He links to a great little YouTube video that makes this whole concept crystal clear.
What about your business? Do you share, or are you being left out?
Image Source: www.sxc.hu
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By Laura Spencer -- 1 comment
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