Biz Blog Review in Backbone Blogging Survey

Recently I discovered that John Cass, Director of Blogging Strategies for Backbone Media, linked to my "Blog Evaluation Strategy" in April, in a post -- Assessing Whether You Should Blog.

Here is the link: http://blogsurvey.backbonemedia.com/archives/2006/04/assessing_wheth.html

Cass includes the following points on conducting a blogging assessment for your company:

1) Company Goals: Start off by writing down your company goals; list your PR, Communications and SEO goals. Understanding your goals will help you to determine if blogging is a strategy that will help you to achieve your overall marketing goals.

2) Outcomes: Develop a list of outcomes that will be produced by starting a blog. Base the outcomes on the your assessment of your industry's blogging community, the ability of your company to blog and what's happening with your competition. List traffic potential, which goals you expect to achieve through a blogging strategy and how you expect your industry's blogosphere to develop.

3) Keywords: Research the keywords that will help you to target your audience for search engines and RSS feed search engines.

4) Blog Audit: Develop a list of bloggers in your community. Assess each blogger's level of influence and impact.

5) Blogosphere Profile: Take the themes being discussed in your community's blogosphere and assess how your company can enter into the discussion. What unique characteristics about your product/service will elicit discussion and demonstrate leadership.

6) Blog Costs: Describe how much time will it take to blog. Assess the cultural norms of interaction within your community; for example do bloggers send trackbacks. Estimate the costs of not blogging against the dangers of blogging for your company.

7) Justification for the blog: What results will the blog produce, estimate the traffic, SEO results and PR outcomes. Use these results for your CEO presentation.

8) Commit or pull the plug: Review your research and based on the overview give a fair estimate of whether your company should blog or not blog.

John Cass provides Internet marketing, SEO and corporate blogging advice to clients. His biography is available on his personal business blog: http://pr.typepad.com/about.html

All in a May's work!

What an exciting month May is! May leads the way...

Some of us closed the Spring 2006 semester with final exams in the first two weeks and sealed our degrees with graduation by May 12. To top it, I moved home during this period and am still tackling the boxes!

As part of a prize for USC's Undergraduate Writing Competition [http://angelingo.usc.edu/vol03issue02/uwc.php], I received the valuable opportunity through Brad Berens -- Executive Editor -- to intern for iMedia Connection Inc. [http://www.imediaconnection.com/].

Every week, since mid-March, I have written news articles for Roger Park (News Editor) and then researched for Rebecca Weeks (Content Director). Brad Berens offered me two terrific learning experiences to review and write about recent Forrester Research Reports:

"Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch"
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/9630.asp

"Social Computing & Interactive Marketing"
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/8765.asp

From this internship, I have learned the difference between writing research papers and writing for an online audience, and about the latest trends in media, marketing, and advertising.

Working with Brad, Roger, and Rebecca is a wonderful experience -- they are a great team -- and I will miss "my iMedia" when this internship comes to a close on May 31.

During June and July, I will be working at USC's Marshall School of Business Center of Management Communication, and on research evaluating student learning with Dr. Sandra Chrystal.

My goal during this period is also to improve Biz Blog Review. Although my Independent Study ended this Spring 2006 semester, my intention is to share what I have learned and to tweak the focus and layout of this blog. [Neville Hobson -- I have not forgotten you!].

In August, I start the last of four classes to complete my degree (BS Business and Communication) and am also applying for the Masters in Communication Management program at USC's Annenberg School of Communication.

Researching the uses and impacts of corporate blogs, learning about online communities, and social computing are areas that I am interested in.

There are so many things of awesome interest out there in varied disciplines with such little time to pursue them. Connecting with people, sharing interests, and deciding on that passionate specialization is key.

What is important to me is that, that "passionate specialization" contributes to positive upliftment of humanity. From this, all else will fall into place.

Studying at USC represents a transformation/evolution to me that is both personal and professional, and I am enjoying every moment of life as it unfolds.

Bill Cara's Blog: Capital Markets

Today I took a look at Bill Cara's Blog [www.billcara.com] and find his daily analysis of capital markets most intriguing. The Trader Daily gives some background on Bill Cara -- here's the link: http://www.traderdaily.com/column13/index.html

USC Graduation -- Class of 2006!

I celebrated Graduation this past week with some of my best friends:

Graduate Torrance . Dr. Gary Woods

Dr. Sandra Chrystal . Graduate Torrance . Professor Yolanda Kirk

I "walked early" for graduation and complete my last classes in December 2006.

Post Break: Final Exams

We are currently in final exams at USC and I will continue more indepth posts after May 9.