Introducing Blog Technology

Introducing Blog Technology
To
Enhancing Communication
R
E
P
O
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T
Author: Judy Beddoni
Date: 25TH March 2008
“JABIT“ Digital Designs and Ideas

Introducing Blog Technology to Enhance Communications ‘JABIT” Digital Designs and Ideas
Introducing Blog Technology
Executive Summary
How our company will introduce blog technology to enhance communications between our
staff and clients by creating a blog for our business.
A business blog will drive our business to a new beginning a change is needed for our
company to continue to grow with the changes in technology.
Blogging is about changing the way we communicate with our clients.
Staying abreast of interactive marketing changes and competitive campaigns can be daunting
for our company but having a business blog is a simple and highly effective way to enhance
communicates with our current and potential clients.
This is especially true today due to the media and advertising consumption changes that have
occurred with the advent of the internet and other new media technologies, like podcasts,
videos, instant messaging these changes are impossible to ignore every person that uses the
internet are doing more and more with interactive technologies.
A business blog also give our company and those who work for it, a place to collect and
share ideas and relevant information with our current and potential customers
I recommend that we implement the strategies outlined at section 5 “Strategy for introducing
the blog technology” and start to enhance communications between our staff and clients with
our business blog as soon as possible.
Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 2

Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t
Executive Summary.................................................................................................................2
1.0 Introduction.......................................................................................................................5
2.0 Proposal..............................................................................................................................6
2.1 Purpose .............................................................................................................................. ........6
3.0 What is a Blog?.................................................................................................................7
4.0 Evidence That Blogs Can Enhance Communications....................................................8
4.1 Elements of a Blog................................................................................................ ....................8
4.2 Examples of businesses using blogs to communicate ...................................... .......................9
4.2.1 Play Station Blog ................................................................................................................. ..9
4.2.2 Dell Computers................................................................................................. ..................10
5.0 Strategies for Introducing Blog Technology..................................................................12
5.1 Strategic Overview.......................................................................................... ........................12
5.2 Strategic Objectives....................................................................................................... ..........13
5.2.1 Implementing Blog Technology............................................................... ...........................13
5.2.2 What types of Content................................................................................................. .........13
6.0 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................16
7.0 Recommendations...........................................................................................................17
8.0 References.......................................................................................................................18
9.0 Appendixes .......................................................................................................................19
9.1 Play Station Blog Image.......................................................................................... ................19
9.2 Dell Blog: Image............................................................................................. .........................20
9.3 Blog link to video studio website: Image......................................................................... .......21
9.4 Blog link to Ideastorm website: Image............................................................................. ......21
9.5 Blog link to forum website: Image.............................................................. ...........................22

L i s t o f F i g u re s
Figure 1: Play station blog banner.......................................................................................10

Figure 2: Dell’s Blog banner.................................................................................................11
Figure 3: Banner Menu links to Dell website ......................................................................11
Figure 4: Blog Host...............................................................................................................13
Figure 5: Content example....................................................................................................14
Figure 6: Ipod........................................................................................................................14
Figure 7: Video......................................................................................................................15
Figure 8: Client......................................................................................................................15
Figure 9: Login......................................................................................................................16
Figure 10: Staff......................................................................................................................16
Figure 11: It makes sense ......................................................................................................17
Figure 12: Appendixes: Play station’s blog..........................................................................20
Figure 13: Appendixes: Dell’s blog.......................................................................................20
Figure 14: Appendixes: Dell’s blog link to video studio website..........................................21
Figure 15: Appendixes: Dell’s blog link to Ideastorm website.............................................22
Figure 16: Appendixes: Dell’s blog link to Forum website..................................................22

I n t ro d u c t i o n
1.0 Introduction
“ J A B I T D i g i t a l D e s i g n s & I d e a s ” a graphic design business has been

operating for over 10 years and in that time we have communicated with our clients through
emails and via telephones or face to face meetings. Our current communication system is
becoming inadequate and our clients and staffs are becoming frustrated.
Assumptions made when our company was established may no longer hold true with web 2
technology available on the internet.
We need to analyze changes in this new technology and explore the opportunities for our
company’s communications enhancement and revitalization between our staff and clients by
commencing a business blog.
A business blog can encompass everything from our client’s perception and experience to
quality, look and feel, customer care, retail and the tone and voice of communications, and
more.
The more interactivity the higher its success and visitation rates will be leaving our clients
satisfied with the enhanced communication methods implemented on our blog.

Report
2.0 Proposal
Introducing blog technology to our company to commence a business blog to enhance

communications between our staff and clients.
2.1Purpose
A business blog will drive our business to a new beginning a change is needed for our
company to continue to grow with the changes in web 2 technology.
Creating a business blog for our company shows that we care about the way we communicate
and view our business and we will stand out with a blog that's smart, professional and
unforgettable.
This report provides information on:
• What a blog is and how effective it is as a communications tool for our businesses
to enhance communication between our staff and clients.
• Evidence that a business blog can enhance communications with two examples of
successful business blogs.
• My conclusions and recommendations as to why our business should implement a

business blog.

Blog
3.0 What is a Blog?
The term blog [1] is a shortened form of weblog or web log it could also be considered as a
special type of website where entries appear in chronological order, hence often giving the
appearance of a journal type format it combines text, images and links to other blogs, web
pages, and other media related to its topic.
• Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is

called “blogging”.
• Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”.
• A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”.

Blogs Can Enhance Communication
4.0 Evidence That Blogs Can Enhance Communications
4.1 Elements of a Blog
As an effective communications tool [2] for our businesses the main elements of a blog that
we should be aware of are:
Multiple Authors
• Not only can one person add content but we can allow access to any number of
staff members so that we have several authors contributing to a topic or a series
of topics.
No technical knowledge required

• We don’t need technical expertise to write a blog. It’s very easy to use anyone in
our company with access to the internet (and permission, of course!) can update
and add information as required. A blog also has the ability for our clients to
leave comments in an interactive format.
Automatically organised
• Categories’ and ‘archives’ are integral parts of a blog and each post will
automatically be placed correctly according to the selection we make. This allows
our clients to select their preferred topic of information.
Permalinks
• Every post and every category has its own individual address, forever! This means
that our staff can refer to them in articles, emails, newsletters etc safe in the
knowledge that they will always be found by our clients.

Instant distribution of information

• Using RSS and pinging, blogs allow us to widely distribute our latest news and
information, both instantly and automatically to Search Engines, directories and
our current and potential clients.
We b s i t e l i n k s
• Links to our existing website for clients ease of access.
4.2 Examples of businesses using blogs to communicate
There is no better evidence than how competitors are using the above blog elements to
enhance there communication with their clients, the following two blog sites are examples of
businesses using blogs.
4.2.1 Play Station Blog

Ozymandias a community blog (June 2007) which assists gamers with Playstation questions
has announced [3] that Sony has finally created a Playstation blog [4] to allow the gaming
communities to more directly communicate with the company. This is a positive development
for the entire community. The fact that Sony is willing to have a dialog with gamers directly
is a great step forward. The feedback they get helps improve the PS3.
Since its development the play station blog seems to have everything required to
communicate with their gaming clients from:
• Subscriptions via RSS feeds or email
• Capabilities to Search the blog
• Different section categories: Developer Corner, Find Us, Hardware, Industry
Outlook, PlayStation Network, Statements, Title Spotlight with regular updated
postings.
• What’s Hot
• Contests to enter
• Reader’s comments
• Downloads
• Playstation conversations
• Quick polls
• Archives

• Contact us
• Recent announcements
For some great ideas view the Playstation blog site image: appendixes 9.1
Figure 1: Play station blog banner
4.2.2 Dell Computers
Dell's direct2dell blog was a year old as of July 2007[5], and they've learned a lot about
their customers and the blog's keeper, Lionel Menchaca, has acknowledged the challenges of
maintaining a corporate blog here is an outline what they have learned last year:
• There is power in the voice of customers and their feedback
• It's not a good idea to ignore tough issues that come up from customers
• Blogging can be tough and requires patience, balance and responsiveness.

Essentially, it's important to listen and respond to your customers. Otherwise, as
Lionel said, "things get out of whack really quickly."
• It takes time to build your blog and it helps to have "a thick skin"
• Lionel notes that when they kicked off the blog, they saw 50% of the comments
they received were negative, and now a year later they've seen that number
decrease to fewer than 25% negative.
Over the past two years, [6} they have built some listening posts that open up lines of
communication between Dell and their customers. They get feedback from customers via
monitoring conversations in the blogosphere, on Direct2Dell, the Dell Community Forum or
IdeaStorm. Internal staff collaboration is vital to their long-term success. Without it, they
would not be able to keep up with the volume of feedback they receive through social media
every day.
For some great ideas View the Dell blog site image: appendixes 9.2

Figure 2: Dell’s Blog banner
Blog links to business website
Dell’s blog have menu links to sections of their website which communicates vital
information to its clients with out having to go searching.
For some great ideas View the Dell website links site images: appendixes 9.3, 9.4, 9.5
Figure 3: Banner Menu links to Dell website

I n t ro d u c i n g B l o g Te c h n o l o g y S t r a t e g y
5.0 S t r a t e g i e s f o r I n t r o d u c i n g B l o g Te c h n o l o g y
“ J A B I T ” needs to enhance communications between our staff and clients the aim is to
introduce a blog that will enable staff to communicate more effectively with our clients.
5.1 Strategic Overview
First of all we need to encourage our clients to engage with us and our blog [6]:
• R e a d : We need to create subject matter which will encourage our clients to visit
our blog and then read what we have writing about.
• R e t u r n : once they have visited for the first time, we have the opportunity to
give our readers something they’ll wish to read more of, hence encouraging then
to return to our blog.
• R e p l y : We are looking to encourage dialogue and communication so we must
find subjects and a style which encourages them to express an opinion about it
and reply to the post.
• R e f e r : provide our readers with enough compelling, relevant and interesting
content and they’ll want to recommend it to everyone.
• R S S : encourage them to sign up and receive what we are writing as and when it
appears using RSS either directly or via email.
By using a blog our staff will be able to keep our clients aware, informed and up to date with
all aspects of our business:

Develop our position and our reputation as an expert

• Demonstrate our knowledge, expertise and experience on matters relating to
graphic designs and give our self the chance to show our expert position in our
specialism.
Creating a real dialogue with those who matter
• We have the opportunity and the ideal tool to start to open up new and very real
communications channels with our clients.
B r a n d Aw a r e n e s s
• An ideal channel through which to put our brand in front of the client and
communicate what it stands for either way we are strengthening our online
position and enhancing communications.
5.2 Strategic Objectives
5.2.1 I m p l e m e n t i n g B l o g Te c h n o l o g y
Getting Ready
• Choose a blog hosting service to use and set up

our business blog site
• Meet with staff discuss content options keep all
staff in the loop
• Introduce policies and procedures for the blog
• Assign blogging jobs - blog managers to
overseer content from different departments
• Organise blog content – which staff and how it is
to prepared for publishing
• Recommend staff training with an e-course in
blogging or in house training
• Email all current and past clients with our new
business blog address
Figure 4: Blog Host
5.2.2 What types of Content

Informative Information
• Text content on information and the services we have

available.
• With clients permission completed projects can be
viewed by potential clients.
• Different section categories: Project Development, e-
learning, Services Provided, Title Spotlight with
regular updated postings, recent announcements.
Figure 5: Content example
Podcasts
• Informative podcasts [7] can present our

company with a novel way to build relationships
with our client’s e.g. provide weekly podcasts of
interviews with current clients as to the out come
and completion of there projects.
• When done well, podcasts provide an amazing
opportunity that gets customers to opt-in to
receiving relevant information that keeps them
engaged with us.
• These also can be downloaded in mp3 format
and listened to at our client’s leisure on their
ipod.
Figure 6: Ipod

Vi d e o - O n - D e m a n d
• Video-On-Demand (VOD) [8] is a term used to

describe video that users can view at their leisure
or – on demand.
• Use of VOD advertising by placing informative
videos on our business blog for clients to view.
• We could have an assortment of videos for clients
to view about the different services we have to
offer.
Figure 7: Video
Communications
Comments and Forum Section

• Our clients can respond to our posts so that we can
open a conversation with them this also applies to
our potential clients, suppliers or partners.
Instant Email
• To requests our monthly newsletters or for project
requests
Instant Messaging
• Clients can converse through instant messaging to
our staff.
Figure 8: Client
Client Project Section
• A blog project development section could be used for

each individual client’s project.
• This blog section can keep all clients involved and
informed on the development of their project.

• Login access to this section only for that client project.
Figure 9: Login
• Improves staff communication with clients in the

development stages of a project.
• Improves client contact with staff in regards to
questions or queries with direct emailing from the
blog to staff.
• Emails recorded and staff then can act on these
emails as required.
• Staff to send memo reports to keep clients up to date
with latest developments regarding project status and
inform client to view the development blog section
for progressive changes.
Figure 10: Staff
Conclusion
6.0 Conclusion
• A Business Blog is a flexible and yet a powerful communications tool for any
businesses and offer a surprisingly large range of options and benefits it makes sense
for our business to commence a blog.
• In fact, once we have all the questions answered about blogs and understand what
they can offer, the focus of the questions tend to change from “Why have a blog?” to
“What sort of a blog will be best for us?”.

Figure 11: It makes sense
Recommendations
7.0 Recommendations
• Blogging is about changing the way we communicate with our clients.
• Staying abreast of interactive marketing changes and competitive campaigns can be

daunting for our company but having a business blog is a simple and highly effective
way to enhance communicates with our current and potential clients.
• This is especially true today due to the media and advertising consumption changes
that have occurred with the advent of the internet and other new media technologies,

like podcasts, videos, instant messaging these changes are impossible to ignore every
person that uses the internet are doing more and more with interactive technologies.
• A business blog also give our company and those who work for it, a place to collect
and share ideas and relevant information with our current and potential customers
• I recommend that we implement the strategies outlined at section 5 “Strategy for

introducing the blog technology” and start to enhance communications between our
staff and clients with our business blog as soon as possible.
R e f e re n c e s
8.0 References
Website:
1. Wikipaedis What is a blog(2008): Accessed 19th March 2008 Web site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
Journal Article:
2. Better Business blogging (2006): Accessed 19th March 2008 Web site:
http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com
Journal Article:
3. Ozymandias blog archives - Official Playstation Blog Arrives (2007 June) : Accessed 24tht March 2008
Web site:http://ozymandias.com/archive/2007/06/13/Official-Playstation-Blog-Arrives_2100_.aspx
Website:

4. Play Station Blog site (2008) : Accessed 24tht March 2008 Web site:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/
Journal Article:
5. Lionel Menchaca (2007 July) : Accessed 21st March 2008 Web site:
http://blogs.msdn.com/mthree/archive/2007/07/14/direct2dell-blog-071407.aspx
Website:
6. Dell Blog site (2008) : Accessed 21st March 2008 Web site:
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/default.aspx
Journal Article:
7. Mark White-Blog Consultant Key Blogging Questions(2007 March): Accessed 15th March 2008
Web site: http://www.betterbusinessblogging.com/category/glossary-of-blogging/
Journal Article:
8. Interactive Media content Podcasts (2007): Accessed 15th March 2008 Web site:
http://www.houckassociates.com/wd-dat-p.asp
Journal Article:
9. Interactive Media content VOD (2007): Accessed 15th March 2008 Web site:
http://www.media.com/wd-dat-p.asp
Appendixes
9.0 Appendixes
9.1 Play Station Blog Image

Figure 12: Appendixes: Play station’s blog
9.2 Dell Blog: Image
Figure 13: Appendixes: Dell’s blog

9.3 Blog link to video studio website: Image
Figure 14: Appendixes: Dell’s blog link to video studio website
9.4 Blog link to Ideastorm website: Image

Figure 15: Appendixes: Dell’s blog link to Ideastorm website
9.5 Blog link to forum website: Image
Figure 16: Appendixes: Dell’s blog link to Forum website

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Introducing Blog Technology

“JABIT“ Digital Designs and Ideas

Introducing Blog Technology

Blogging is about changing the way we communicate with our clients.

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 2

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 3

Figure 1: Play station blog banner.......................................................................................10

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 4

“ J A B I T D i g i t a l D e s i g n s & I d e a s ” a graphic design business has been

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 5

Introducing blog technology to our company to commence a business blog to enhance

This report provides information on:

• My conclusions and recommendations as to why our business should implement a

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 6

3.0 What is a Blog?

• Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is

• Individual articles on a blog are called “blog posts,” “posts” or “entries”.

• A person who posts these entries is called a “blogger”.

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 7

Blogs Can Enhance Communication

4.0 Evidence That Blogs Can Enhance Communications

4.1 Elements of a Blog

No technical knowledge required

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 8

Instant distribution of information

• Links to our existing website for clients ease of access.

4.2 Examples of businesses using blogs to communicate

4.2.1 Play Station Blog

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 9

Figure 1: Play station blog banner

4.2.2 Dell Computers

• There is power in the voice of customers and their feedback

• Blogging can be tough and requires patience, balance and responsiveness.

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 10

Figure 2: Dell’s Blog banner

Blog links to business website

Figure 3: Banner Menu links to Dell website

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 11

5.1 Strategic Overview

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 12

Develop our position and our reputation as an expert

5.2 Strategic Objectives

• Choose a blog hosting service to use and set up

5.2.2 What types of Content

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 13

• Text content on information and the services we have

Figure 5: Content example

• Informative podcasts [7] can present our

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 14

• Video-On-Demand (VOD) [8] is a term used to

Comments and Forum Section

Client Project Section

• A blog project development section could be used for

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 15

• Login access to this section only for that client project.

• Improves staff communication with clients in the

Figure 10: Staff

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 16

Figure 11: It makes sense

• Blogging is about changing the way we communicate with our clients.

• Staying abreast of interactive marketing changes and competitive campaigns can be

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 17

• I recommend that we implement the strategies outlined at section 5 “Strategy for

Author: Judy Beddoni Date: 24th March 2008 18