1. What are the elements that good business blogs pay close attention to ?

Elucidate the
points. (8marks)

Ans Documented strategy and goals

According to research from Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, marketers

who document their strategy are more effective in almost every area of content marketing
than those who do not. Determine your specific blogging goals and long-term strategy, and
write it all down. Document your findings on a whiteboard or in a shared public document
to help you build your own strategy. Velocity Partners has a great content marketing
strategy checklist you can use to get started, too.

Empathetic content

The most successful blogs create content that speaks directly to their readers. Empathetic
content can evoke strong emotion and even inspire readers to take action. To craft
empathetic blog content, focus on better understanding your readers’ interests, pain points
and motivating factors. In other words, get inside the minds of your audience.

Visual content

Begin to think about ways that visual content can add to the story that you are telling on
your blog. If you manage a business blog with more technical content, consider explaining
the complexities of your industry in an infographic or Q&A video.

Natural, relevant links

This means you'll send traffic to third-party sites.  While it may seem counterintuitive to
send your hard-earned traffic off-site, readers care more about finding the content that
matches their intentions and less about who created it. Additionally, linking can be a great
opportunity to share credit to other content creators or influencers and open the door for
ongoing comarketing opportunities to drive the success of your blog.

Engaged audience

For businesses that manage a blog, this could mean hiring a community manager, working
with your social media manager or melding the two positions. Send personal thank you
cards, branded stickers, social shout-outs, or other swag to your top engaged readers to
help your blog community thrive.

2. What are the business applications of blogging? ( 6marks)

 Ans. Many online tools and applications allow you to create a blog, but not all these tools
are equal. Some offer far more customization and functionality than others. Following are
some of the most popular and feature-rich blogging applications:

WordPress.com: An easy-to-use, free blogging application with limited

functionality and additional features available for a fee

WordPress.org: The most feature-rich and customizable blogging application. It’s free

but does require an investment in a separate web host and more technical knowledge than
other blogging applications require.

Blogger: An easy-to-use and fairly feature-rich blogging application that is completely

free.

TypePad: A fairly feature-rich blogging application, but users must pay a monthly fee to
use it

Tumblr: A simple blogging tool for publishing text, video, images, audio, and quotes
without all of the features of more comprehensive blogging applications

Movable Type: This blogging application is popular among blogging networks and offers
a variety of features for a fee

3. What are the three steps of creating a successful podcasting ?

Ans .. Self-created podcasts can be useful for sharing quick class announcements, review or
introduce topics, interview guest speakers or create mini-lectures on topical content for
your course. You can create your own podcast in a few simple steps:

1.       Write a script.
2.       Record your podcast
3.       Share your podcast. 

Step 1: Write a script

While in the face to face classroom you may be used to talking “off the cuff” and in a
spontaneous manner, a successful podcast should have an outline of talking points or a fully
planned script.

Choose your Topic

You will first want to decide whether you are creating a podcast for a class announcement,
reviewing a topic or sharing something new. If you choose to record an informational
content driven podcast it's best to keep it separate from a podcast that is making an
announcement reminding students of due dates. This way you it's possible to reuse the
content driven podcast each semester.

Tone

You may choose to deliver content in a more conversational tone or more formal and
academic. A conversational tone may be more engaging to the listener.

Write

First, think about the length in advance with no more than 2-3 minutes for class
announcements and no more than 5-10 minutes for content driven podcasts. You can
estimate how your word count equates to spoken length by using an online Speech – Words
to Minutes calculator.
When writing your script you should follow the basics of writing organization
Introduction

Briefly explain the purpose of the podcast and perhaps include module or course objectives
that the podcast are tied to. Frame each section with an introductory statement just as you
would when writing a well-organized essay.
Conclusion

As with any well written essay or speech you should always draw to a close by briefly
reviewing what was discussed.
Step 2: Record your podcast

Choose your tools

There are many tools that could be used for recording audio. The
tools we recommend are Mediasite or Audacity.
Mediasite
The Mediasite Desktop Recorder is a tool you can use to make audio and video recordings.
This will link the account and your media and allow you to access all of your created and
uploaded media in any course.

Audacity
Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X,
GNU/Linux and other operating systems and was developed by a group of volunteers as
open source.
Recording tips
Once you have your microphone and recording tool you will want to be sure that you follow
a few tips and tricks to enhance your recording experience.
· Find a quiet space
· Check your audio levels
· Create a test recording
· Practice
· Speak slowly
· Review and edit

Step 3: Share your podcast

Upload your podcast to a streaming service such as Mediasite. Loading your audio file to a
streaming services will allow you to share a URL link with students in your course without
the need to download the file. This saves the hassle of downloading a file and using up
valuable space on WMU E- learning servers.
Students can now listen to your podcast as many times as they want on the go!