Biz Blog Review has moved!

Biz Blog Review has now moved to site:

www.bizblogreview.com

The blog is located at:

www.bizblogreview.com/blog

Any feedback on these new sites is most welcome!

The 32 Corporate/Executive Blogs Analyzed:

I researched the following 32 company blogs (or executive blogs representative of the company) for statistical analysis to try to determine how effective the blog is as a business communication tool:

Hewlett Packard http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise/cache/104417-0-0-0-121.html
IBM http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/
Google http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Dow Jones: Wall Street Journal http://blogs.wsj.com/law/
GM http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/about.html
Ford http://blog.ford.com/BLOG.CFM
Kodak http://blog.lib.umn.edu/koda0009/blogthoughts/
Sun Microsystems http://blogs.sun.com/roller/main.do and http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan
Wiley & Sons http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_average_joe/
Mercer Capital http://merceronvalue.com/
Cisco Systems http://blogs.cisco.com/gov/
Earthlink http://blogs.earthlink.net/
Pricewaterhouse Coopers http://pwc.blogs.com/
Nike http://www.gawker.com/artofspeed/
Jupiter Research http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/toplevel/
Red Hat http://blogs.redhat.com/executive/
Boeing http://www.boeing.com/randy/
IUpload http://royce.iupload.com/
Forrester Research, Inc. http://forrester.typepad.com/charleneli/
Adobe http://blogs.adobe.com/
Siemens http://www.club-siemens.net/blog/blog/
FastCompany http://www.fastcompany.com/welcome.html
Schwimmer & Associates http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/id/A3JZTPVXXIUPTJ/102-0808310-6689716
AOL http://ted.aol.com/
Wired News http://blog.wired.com/sterling/
Mavericks http://www.blogmaverick.com/
Burson Marsteller http://hb.burson-marsteller.com/
Oracle http://blogs.oracle.com/
Telstra http://www.nowwearetalking.com.au/Home/Page.aspx?mid=48
Hitachi Data Systems http://blogs.hds.com/
Versant Solutions http://www.versantblogs.com/

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the following USC faculty and staff for your contributions:

Professor Sandra Chrystal -- Associate Professor of Clinical
Center for Management Communication -- Marshall School of Business

Jude Higdon -- Project Manager
Teaching & Learning Services -- Center for Scholoarly Technology

Professor Bert Steece -- Professor
Department of Information & Operations Management -- Marshall School of Business

Professor Ronald Bruck -- Professor
Director of Math Computing Labs -- Mathematics Department

Professor Rex Kovacevich -- Associate Professor of Clinical
Department of Marketing -- Marshall School of Business

Professor Steve Posner -- Part Time Lecturer
Center for Management Communication --Marshall School of Business

Thank you to the following corporate executives willing to answer my questions:

Mr. Mohammed Amin -- International Taxation Specialist, Pricewaterhouse Coopers

Mr. Bob Sutor -- Vice President of Standards and Open Source, IBM

Mr. David Gee -- Vice President of Hewlett Packard's Worldwide Marketing, Software, Technology Solutions Group

Ms. Susan Underhill -- Vice President of Hewlett Packard's Global Certification and Partner Education

Mr. John Earnhardt -- Media Spokesperson, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Mr. Brad Berens -- Executive Editor, iMediaConnection, Inc.

Mr. Chris Charron -- Vice President and Research Director, Forrester Research

Mr. Neville Hobson -- Communicator, Blogger and Podcaster
One of the leading European early adopters and influencers in social media communication for business.

Mr. John Cass -- Director of Blogging Strategies, Backbone Media

Independent Study on Corporate Blogs -- Academic Achievements

Personally, I learned so much from Professor Sandra Chrystal as my mentor and from this study of blog-use as a business writing tool. Here is some of what I gained:

• improved writing skills for print and online work
• broadened perspectives on technology and business trends
• stronger critical thinking skills for analysis
• enhanced quantitative abilities for statistical application
• developed professional conduct and contacts

During the study, I produced the following work:

1. Research paper -- "Why is corporate blogging relevant to business students?"

Achievement: 1st prize in Professionalism -- USC Undergraduate Writing Competition 2006

Internship: Imedia Connection Inc.

2. Knowledge Management System -- Biz Blog Review

Achievement: Grand Prize -- USC Webfest 2006

3. Independent Study on Corporate Blogs --

Statistical analysis of 32 corporate blogs; two research papers based on primary research interviews with corporate bloggers and academics; guest speaker to advanced business writing class at USC Marshall School of Business with video footage; and http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com knowledge management system.

Achievement: Honors -- USC Undergraduate Symposium 2006

http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/12344.html

The USC Chronicle article, "Taking Another Leap in Technology", discussing this study is accessible at this link:

http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/12429.html

Summary of findings from Independent Study on Corporate Blogs:

I started Biz Blog Review at http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com/ to research and evaluate corporate blogs for an independent study. For this study, I analyzed 32 corporate blogs for the Spring 2006 semester. These blogs are listed in my blogroll.

A summary of the study findings are as follows:

A link exists between the frequency of posts to a business blog and the number of comments which may be used to indicate how successful a blog is as a business communication tool. The analysis of data obtained from the study appears 'noisy' and even when transformed poses difficulties in interpretation. A number of outliers are present.

Corporate blogs have a specific business objective and the blog platform is designed to achieve that objective.

Stages of development are evident in the evolution of the corporate blog as it impacts the online community and the executive blogger. Vice President of Standards and Open Source at IBM -- Bob Sutor -- recently consolidated his blog creating an Open Blog on his site: www.sutor.com.

The personal voice of the executive blogger is an important connector to the audience in the writing process. Bob Lutz -- GM's Vice President -- is professional yet personally engages his audience while expressing a business message.

The psychology present in the corporate blog pertaining to the message and the executive, and how it impacts the blog function, is another captivating field to look at.

The blogroll (links to other business blogs) may be indicative of a corporate network if the executive blogger links to other corporate blogs.

Not all corporate blogs have obvious blog policies and liability statements, such as the Club Siemens blog. Comparing corporate policy on blogging is an area of study in itself.

Some corporate blogs cease after achieving a purpose or are not updated, such as the Nike Art of Speed blog and the Ford Mustang blog. The reasons why corporations stop blogging is also an intriguing domain to explore.

Certain blogs do not invite comment, but are effective even though posts average 5-10 a month, such as Randy's Journal belonging to Randy Baseler of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

Some companies have a number of high profile executive blogs, such as Hewlett Packard, while others sport one executive blog only.

Corporate blogs are growing in number even though warnings of liability continue to echo from the legal community. Measuring the value of corporate blogs in terms of ROI is a fairly new field and is what the business of blogging boils down to.

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.

Hewlett Packard's Susan Underhill -- Vice President of HP Global Certification & Partner Education -- On blogs for knowledge transfer

Susan Underhill

Source: Photo from Susan Underhill's blog

On April 3, I posted a question to Susan Underhill's blog. Here is my question and her response:
Link: http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/underhill/
archive/2006/03/10/808.html

Ms. Underhill

How do you see corporate blogs, such as these HP Executive Blogs, contributing to knowledge transfer internally within HP and externally with business, consumers, and the general public?

Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com
Posted by FionaTorrance on 4/3/2006 12:21 AM

Susan Underhill's Response:

Thank you for your question, Fiona.

Though I'm a rather new member to the "blogosphere," I'm very enchanted with this medium as a way to share and exchange ideas and information with lots of people.

The popularity of blogs has certainly soared in the past year or so, as evidenced by the sheer number of aggregator websites that have popped up to enable RSS feeds.

Not every blog posting, of course, is what I would call "knowledge transfer." Nor are they meant to be. Many blogs are simply a way for people to keep in touch about their daily activities or experiences, and that's great.

In the corporate world, we use blogs to share our insights about the knowledge we have that pertains to our positions. I'll admit – these executive blogs are great for "setting the tone" or "giving the view from 30,000 feet."

But if you really want to dig into the "knowledge transfer" type of blogs, try reading some of the postings from our researchers, engineers, and product developers. Of course, you can only see the ones outside the HP firewall, such as those posted on the main blogs page under "Other blogs from HP." [http://www.hp.com/go/blogs]

I can tell you that we have some deep discussions taking place on the blogs as well as wikis inside our firewall. We see them as a valuable means of communication.

Posted by Susan Underhill on 4/13/2006 1:11 PM

Dr. Sandra Chrystal -- We Are Proud Of You!

Dr. Sandra Chrystal . Dr. Mark Kann . Fiona Torrance

USC TEACHING HAS NO BOUNDARIES AWARD

(Dr. Mark Kann presents Award to Dr. Sandra Chrystal April 18, 2006)

HP's David Gee says, "Your blog is a thoughtful process"

Link: http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/gee/
archive/2006/02/07/747.html#Comments

Here is a question I posed Mr. Gee on his HP Executive Blog:

Mr. Gee Thank you so much for your feedback. I posted it on my blog -- http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com -- and already received feedback from an individual named Roche. He brought up the subject of outsourcing and blogging. How do you see blogs impacting outsource hubs and do you think it is viable for companies to oursource their own blogs? Look forward to your response.

Posted by FionaTorrance on 4/9/2006 5:15 PM

Here is Mr. Gee's response:

You can’t outsource your own blog – one of the reasons I can’t keep up as much as I’d like since it’s a thoughtful process

Posted by D Gee on 4/13/2006 2:00 PM

Josh Kaufman -- Assistant Brand Manager at Proctor & Gamble -- blogs about the MBA's worth

(Click on picture to enlarge)

Here is an article published on Josh Kaufman's site with some details about the personal vs the traditional MBA: http://www.joshkaufman.net/personalmba/ (part of the script is posted below my thoughts on the debate) --

Josh raises significant points no doubt born in the minds of different students over time.

What I have realized from my experience as an undergraduate at USC is that what we learn in a classroom -- professor experiences, differences in teaching presentation and styles, group interactions, questions raised by others, and that making mistakes is part of the learning process -- is a valuable contribution to our development to cope and succeed in the workplace.

An MBA allows students/employees to raise their critical thinking processes to a level that involves greater responsibility. And the research involved broadens the foundation of specialist knowledge that is needed to be an expert in a particular field. Mentors in MBA programs guide the research process so that the intended questions are properly and thoroughly addressed.

Face-to-face interaction with others teaches skills highly pertinent to the negotiation process too. People skills and effective communication strategies are needed by MBA students to be successful in business, and this cannot be achieved solely through the online community. These are aspects that cannot be learned or achieved alone in a library or at home either because the benefit of interaction with a mentor and with other students from different backgrounds is lost.

For this reason, I think it is still highly valuable to pursue an MBA degree -- if it is within your means.

A combination of the traditional and online aproaches may work well. MIT's OpenCourseWare is a great resource for online learning, and interaction on corporate blogs is also a valuable tool for students to learn. The two approaches combined are complimentary.

THE SCRIPT FROM JOSH's BLOG:

Thoughts on Traditional MBA Programs

“Whatever be the qualifications of your tutors, your improvement must chiefly depend on yourselves. They cannot think or labor for you, they can only put you in the best way of thinking and laboring for yourselves. If therefore you get knowledge you must acquire it by your own industry. You must form all conclusions and all maxims for yourselves, from premises and data collected and considered by yourself. And it is the great object of [our educational institutions] to remove every bias the mind may be under, and to give the greatest scope for true freedom of thinking.” - Joseph Priestly, Dedication of New College, London, 1794.

The debate concerning the value of traditional MBA programs is long and involved, and this manifesto won’t close the issue [1]. For the sake of brevity, here’s a short Q&A on the pros and cons of business school:

Can a traditional MBA program help you? Yes. You’ll meet a lot of great people and get acquainted with a few professors and corporate HR recruiters who can help you land a new job. You will also sink very deep into debt. If you decide to enroll in a full-time program, the opportunity cost of lost wages and future investable savings is huge.

Will a traditional MBA teach you anything you can’t learn by yourself? Probably not. Classroom discussion can be beneficial, but there’s nothing presented that you can’t learn by studying a good book on the subject.

Is a traditional MBA worth the time and money? Sorry – there’s no universal answer. If you’re looking to go into advanced corporate accounting, finance, quantitative analysis, commercial real estate, consulting, venture capital, or investment banking, an MBA or MS in a business-related field may be expected or required. In those cases, caveat emptor: once you decide to attend, the only certainty is that your bank account will be significantly smaller.

If you decide not to go to business school, the Personal MBA is a low cost way to educate yourself about business. (Even business school graduates can benefit greatly from reading these books.) Before we get to the list, however, allow me to set a few reasonable expectations about the PMBA.

Do blogs replace or compliment company Intranets?

Rishe's Comment:

Hey there Fiona!

Thansk for your feedback.

The autheticity/ ownership of blog content is always going to be a big area of possibilities. Ghost written or otherwise, so long as the companies voice is heard, I think it's a job well done.

Now for my query, What I meant to know was, can blogging be used to create dynamic online communities to make the employees feel more connected and instilled with a sense of belonging.

Can they serve as a media for internal communication, say, as against an official Intranet. Which is always suspect in the absense of content updates on periodic basis.

And so far as I knwo blogging, it defines the skew of content from, created by specialists to created by the user. So user generated content can make a difference to communication within the Internal Publics or employees.

Would look forward to your feed.

Cheers
11:04 PM

Fiona Torrance said...

Hi Riche

Blogs definitely create dynamic online communities -- the interactions on this blog between students and those in business internationally is a real example.

What I love about the IBM blogs, such as Bob Sutor's blog, is how even managers and employees are interacting -- in this sense the blog is a wonderful bonding, mentoring, and motivating tool.

In terms of official intranets and internal blogs, my view is that internal blogs create a more open platform for discussion and reduce email overload. In using an email inbox, we have to choose (by subject line and sent from line) whether or not to open the email. Sometimes people copy one another unnecessarily on emails too.

In contrast, an internal blog allows optional comment (or it can be part of workflow) and also provides time for the commenter to think about what they will say/write. Emails are often fired off in haste with detrimental backlash.

So, on a whole internal blogs provide a number of flexible and useful options.

Internal blogs can be password protected and accessible by company employees only -- not for open comment by the public. Comments can also be moderated. Certain blogs are used internally and externally as long as the blogger registers on the company blog.

My view is that we -- as bloggers -- should take ownership of our postings for credibility.

With marketers using stealth means to sell products and services, blogs are a platform that can, are, and will be used for this purpose. I have already deleted a number of comments that were advertisements because I temporarily lifted comments moderation to allow students to see their comments posted immediately. Stealth marketers can destroy credibility.

This is where Intranets (I am limited in my knowledge on them) may succeed because the content is better protected.

What do you think?

Cisco's John Earnhardt -- On starting blogs

Recently, I asked John Earnhardt, Media Spokesperson for Cisco, about the decision to start his blog. This is his reply --

My e-mail answer to Fiona:

We initiated blogging in our group to basically "extend" the reach of our staff experts.

As you may have been able to surmise, my colleagues have not taken to the form as quickly as I would have liked. We're still basically at the crawl stage...hope to be walking by the end of the year.

In terms of effectiveness, I would rate it a C+...we've gotten some interaction and traction and the blog was recently mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, so we've had some impact, but nothing super tangible.

Hope that helps.

Best,
John Earnhardt

John Earnhardt of Cisco on net neutrality and the influence of corporate blogs

Mr. Earnhardt,

You mention that "The net neutrality issue is a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist" -- would you explain what you mean by this statement?

Also, do you think that corporate/business blogs are spurring the debate on this issue?

Thank you,
Fiona Torrance
USC Undergrad Student
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com

Posted by Fiona Torrance on April 2, 2006 10:45 PM

Response posted on Cisco's (John Earnhard) Blog:

There has been no need to regulate in this area because there haven't been any bad actors who are taking advantage of their ability to block or slow another application's traffic, yet the OTT's ("Over-the-top" providers) are advocating for Congress or regulators to regulate or legislate.

To be accurate, there has been one instance of an SP blocking a VoIP provider's traffic and that SP was quickly punished by the FCC. Again, a case-by-case basis, not a pre-emptive regulatory or legislative solution.

As per blogs having an impact on this debate, I really couldn't say. My best guess is that as there are more and more information sources out there it will be harder and harder to track what is influential because so many different sources will be touching many different people.

Posted by John Earnhardt on April 3, 2006 03:32 PM

Outsourcing and Blogs

"Roche" posted a comment on the recent post featuring HP's David Gee's feedback as follows:

Hi there Fiona!

HP indeed has taken up blogging and ppl like DG would surely make a difference in the Corporate Blogosphere. Where I am coming from is another area where blogging perhaps can make a difference. HP, besides having presence through Hardware, Imaging and so on also has 2 big outsourcing hubs in say India. Can Blogs be a great way to communicate with internal publics and also with teh blogging community at large. Would love some feedback on this. Cheers!
3:11 AM

Here is my response to "Roche":

Hi Roche

Thank you for your comments. From my understanding, you are suggesting that blogging can make a difference in the area of outsourcing. What you are saying is true because blogs allow for on-going shared business communication on a "shared" platform -- the Internet. Corporations, even those that outsource, use blogs for knowledge management. However, a new area of outsourcing blogging is emerging. You may have seen this on the net already or experienced it in your work.

Here is an example from the BeConnected site:

Link: http://betuitive.blogs.com/beconnected/
blog_outsourcing/index.html

"I dare say that more and more companies are waking up to the fact that they need to be listening to what blogs are saying about their companies. At the same time corporations are at a loss for how to effectively use blogs for positive PR and crisis response. It's a delicate balancing act that requires experienced hands. A good reason to consider outsourcing your blog design, management and content creation."

What would you think if corporations outsourced their blogs and if corporate executives posed as the authentic voice but in actual fact were not the actual true bloggers on the site?

I look forward to hearing your views.

David Gee - Hewlett Packard's VP for Worldwide Marketing Software -- On Complaints & Mobile Operators

I asked Mr. Gee in a previous post and comment on his blog about how HP views consumers who use their executive blogs to vent about HP products/services, and also about their direction with mobile operators. Here is his response:

Fiona raises a good question – the role of this and other HP blogs to vent about our products.

We’ve had some experience with this already:

http://h20325.www2.hp.com/blogs/gee/archive/2005/05/06/138.html.

Our blogs are open for comments and as such are fair game as long as they are not offensive, use inappropriate language and are not defamatory. This is a two way medium after all. We do however have a place to go to air these complaints:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/email/hurd/index.html.

I blog on software, so if you have comments and feedback on OpenView in particular, this is a great place to post.

The question about mobile operators is an interesting one. Having spent the past four months in Asia in a region with the fastest growing mobile community in the world, the mobile operators are leaving the wired world behind them and bringing with them a whole generation of users for whom the idea of having a phone number where you call a place and not a person is totally alien. China added the population of Hong Kong last month in new mobile users – the numbers are staggering.

On the Hong Kong underground system, I get 5 bars of GSM/GPRS/EGDE and 3G coverage while on the trains and two or three stories under the surface – better coverage in fact than I get from my mobile provider in the Bay Area.

HP as a company helps mobile operators deliver new services, reduce churn and maximize the revenue potential of their network investment – we offer software in the form of the OpenCall platform for example that enables pre paid services, push to talk and MMS capabilities.

Our technology is embedded in many of the large network equipment providers as well as hardware and services for many of the world’s largest operators, you can read mere about it here:

http://www.hp.com/go/nsp

and here:

http://www.hp.com/go/opencall

Posted by D Gee on 4/5/2006 12:32 PM

Neville Hobson to the Rescue!

2 Responses to “The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #125: April 3, 2006”
Feed for this Entry Trackback Address
1 Fiona Torrance Apr 4th, 2006 at 12:13 am

Hallo Neville

Today I’ve been reviewing your blog and I absolutely love the layout and how you present information.

I added a post from your blog that is relevant to my Independent Study at USC on Corporate Blogging: “Student Questions About Corporate Blogging” by Dr. Carl.

Recently, I’ve been trying to add RSS feeds, the ability to share Podcasts, and a StatCounter to my blog housed at Blogger.com. But I am new to this and find that when I follow instructions (such as at FeedBurner) and past the relevant HTML into my template, I lose information on my blog.

For someone starting to learn the use of this “new” technology, what is your advice in adding such features to a blog?

I look forward to hearing from you and — if you have time to look at my blog — any advice that you may have.

Thank you,

Fiona Torrance
http://bizblogreview.blogspot.com


2 neville Apr 4th, 2006 at 7:37 pm

Fiona, thanks for visiting and for your compliments.

Good questions re customizing your Blogger blog. I’m not that familiar with Blogger these days, I’m afraid, not having used it for a couple of years now. The best place for advice to start with would be the comprehensive help system, especially the section on templates.

As for the general advice you ask about, I think it really depends on what you want to achieve with your blog by adding features such as you mention (RSS, etc). In any event, FeedBurner has a terrific help forum where I’m sure you’ll find good advice from knowledgable people there re the specifics of how to add an FB feed to a Blogger blog. The same with StatCounter.

I’ve looked at your blog. It seems to me that you know more than your give yourself credit for!


1 Fiona Torrance Apr 5th, 2006 at 4:00 am

Thank you for this valuable feedback, Neville!

The reason I think it is valuable is because blogging is relatively new to me and there are so many techi things available to bloggers. Knowing what to add, why, and how takes a bit of deciphering.

My blog was initially set-up as a knowledge management system for an Independent Study on corporate blogs (BUAD 490 class at USC). I started off analyzing 32 blogs that are listed in my blogroll. Since then, I’ve included communications with corporate executives and student interactions from classes where I serve as a Teacher’s Assistant.

The blog became part of a research paper I submitted for USC’s undergraduate writing competition and it won first place in Professionalism. Thereafter, I took a chance and submitted it to USC’s Webfest 2006 and it won grand prize for that — which was amazing because I’m not technically a techi person and some of the websites presented are so creative!

My goal is to continue the blog when this semester ends. I would like to include links to articles (like the one I posted that is on your site) and I thought RSS feeds may help with this. Also, I want to be able to give audio discussions (bizblogcasts) about articles featured in the Wall Street Journal/Business Week about corporate blogging to create dialogue.

Knowing how to project quality content that readers can access easily(or in their preferred manner)and creating a stream of thought — whether people answer it or not — is important to me. I just want to express and put it out there to be part of the social computing evolution.

Blogger.com is a great site in many ways, but I have lost my content a number of times and had trouble publishing posts. Talk about a sleep problem! Would you suggest moving the blog, and if so, which blog do you think I would find more compatible?