Websites can be expensive. Adding a blog to an existing website can seem a little daunting. It’s all too easy to say “Hey, why don’t I just sign up for mybrand.blogspot.com and then use that for my blog?”

I understand the logic there, and sure, on the surface it seems like a free blog would be the best kind: turnkey blogging services like LiveJournal, Tumblr and Blogger are great for people just dipping their toes into writing on the web. However, for business purposes, there are several reasons why these just don’t work for your brand.

•    You’re at the whim of a third party. If your blogging platform decides to plaster banner ads at the top of your blog, there’s nothing you can do about it. If their favicon changes into a pinecone, you’re stuck with it. You have control over your blog’s seamless design integration with your website ONLY if it’s actually integrated with your website.
•    You become a subdomain or subfolder on someone else’s website. You lose the cache attached to blogging on your own domain, and if your content goes viral, all those links get pointed to someone else’s website, whose links may or may not be passing juice to your actual website. All that work for a little brand recognition, but no guaranteed site traffic.
•    With a self-hosted blog, you have access to all the back-end development you need to make necessary changes to your blog for seamless design integration and search optimization. Based on which content management system you use, you can also add widgets and plugins that customize both the user interface and the outward appearance of your blog for a truly unique new face of your company’s brand.

There are several ways to easily set up your blog on your domain and get writing again in the same day. Wordpress is an open source content management system and installs with Fantastico or manually. Also, it’s free! Don’t let time or cost be a factor keeping you from taking on a truly professional company blog.

Like some help integrating a blog on your existing site? Give us a call.

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One of the easiest ways for your company to enter the social media sphere is through establishing and maintaining a company blog. This is an excellent communication channel between you and your customers, your investors, or the general public. In a rapidly shrinking world, thought leadership is the most important product you have. With a company blog, you control the tone, topics, and style of your company’s voice online in a way you can’t with a third-party site like Facebook or Twitter, an important consideration for image-conscious industries like law and finance.

While they require regular attention, don’t be intimidated by starting a company blog. A good post should be about 250 words, and in that short span of text you have opportunities for optimized links for SEO, viral content possibilities for Social Media, and new material for increased traffic. Blogging adds humanity to an otherwise stuffy, static corporate website, and generates goodwill toward your brand because readers connect with your company.

Google loves blogs. In an effort to provide users with the best search results Google will often rank blog posts and news articles higher, equating their time-sensitive nature with having the most relevant and up-to-date information. If you write more, Google will notice and index your site more often, improving your rankings. There are so many benefits to starting a blog that the effort to maintain it should only be a minor consideration. However, social media is a marriage, so be prepared to stick with your blog once you start.

This series will look at how you can start your corporate blog, but will also incorporate tips to improve current corporate blogs and hopefully answer some questions you might have about your own company blog. If you have a question you’d like covered, please feel free to email me at Lauren@GlobeRunnerSEO.com.

If Twitter was the social media platform of 2009, Foursquare may very well be the social media platform of 2010. It hasn’t quite hit its tipping point yet, but I’m predicting that 2010 is going to be the year of geo-targeted social media.

What is geo-targeted social media?

When you use this new type of social media, it factors your current location into a social media platform. As with other platforms, you develop a network of friends, but in this situation, your location plays a large part in your interaction. The probable leader in this field, Foursquare, is primarily used on the iPhone or other smart phone device. Foursquare notes your current location, and then displays nearby businesses. You can then “check in” to those businesses, earning points and badges, especially if your friends have recently visited those locations as well.

You can use geo-targeted social media to develop a large network of friends who enjoy the same sort of location and activities. When you walk into a coffee shop, for instance, you can see which of your friends have been to this coffee shop recently. You can find out which visitors frequent the shop, even if they aren’t your friends — yet. You may learn that someone likes the same coffee shops, clubs, bars, etc., and request to become friends. If you are in a new city, you can look up nearby places recommended by your friends. You can even play games, such as treasure hunts, by going to different locations that your friends have marked or suggested. All and all, the concept is to utilize your location in your social interactions.

How does this relate to your business?

Using geo-targeted social media, businesses can set up different rewards or incentives for customers to come to their locations. Consider this scenario:  A Foursquare user checks their account on their phone, and sees that your business is nearby. Then they notice that you’ve given them a special incentive to visit, be it an in-store discount or a badge on Foursquare or other geo-targeted platform.  You’ve just plugged into their social life, and most likely gained a visitor. It’s exciting and fun for the user, and a great opportunity for businesses to interact directly with potential customers nearby!