Bethesda’s Honest Tea launched its blog in late 2005 as a way to get close to customers. With a name like Honest Tea, chief executive Seth Goldman said, “we’re trying to be as open and disclose as much information as we can.” When the company announced that Coca-Cola would acquire a 40 percent interest in the brand, many of Honest Tea’s customers who opposed the agreement took their complaints to the blog.

“We gave a very loud voice to the people who said they weren’t happy about this decision,” Goldman said.

Goldman then took one of the most thoughtful, detailed customer criticisms and responded to each point. Even if readers still didn’t agree, “The blog at least helps people see how we think about it,” Goldman said.

All that said, many companies are just now beginning to utilize the power of the internet through blogs in order to have a real dialogue - or conversation - with their customers.

One Fortune 100 organization that I’ve recently been consulting with is still very reluctant to make the move to corporate blogging - or even to allow public blogging by its employees as a future new “face” of the corporation. Their fear? Losing control of their messaging and having employees blogging in public as known employees of their company.

Of course, pointing out to them that an estimated 200-300 of their HQ employees were already blogging scared them - not to mention the thousands of Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn accounts held by members of this large public corporation.

Let go the fear… And for the Washington Post.. what took you so long?

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Thanks for joining us on our slightly belated birthday celebration as we roll out our exciting new Nuts About Southwest platform, or as we call it around here, our “blog 2.0 site.” Don’t worry, this is still the Southwest Airlines blog, and you haven’t landed in a time warp! Rest assured, everything you liked before is still here, but we have added a lot of new “stuff” that will give you more choices in information and even provide you the ability to personalize your Nuts experience.

The Nuts About Southwest blog is often referred to as a good example of how companies should embrace blogging. Via.

Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary to some others is one of the fastest growing marketing tools in the online arena these days.  This is a better way of informing your potential and targeted visitors for any updates that your website is having.  Below are some of the effective ways  you can successfully do your Rich Site Summary:

1. Make sure that you frequently update your website to make sure that your targeted clients will be enticed to pay your site a visit.  The more updates that you bring into your site, the more curiosity it brings into the end of the client, the higher the chance to be getting a visit.

2. Create an RSS feed that is very appealing to your targeted visitors.  You can do this by putting some mysterious and hanging statements that will make the RSS feed reader wonder about what you exactly mean.  This curiosity will then possibly lead to a site visit.

3. You can use your RSS feeds to make promulgations about any recent happenings or events on your website.  When these feeds become auto-updated on your targeted clients’ end, then you can potentially make an upsell.

4. You can inject audio feeds on your RSS.  The injection of audio files on your RSS feeds will make it more innovative and appealing. This is something that is revolutionary and one of a kind.

5. One of the fastest growing trends in RSS feeds is the embedding of videos on it.  Again, this is yet another milestone is the field of RSS.  The usage of RSS video feeds is something bolder and experimental.

6. Create a good title for your RSS feeds. Create something that is very eye-catching and attractive.  Remember, the main attraction of your RSS feeds is set initially at the title.  So take advantage of this.

7. Be an all original RSS feeder.  Plagiarism should never be a part of your system.  At all times, you need to make sure that your RSS feeds are not copied and they come from your own.

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G Allan Roberts marketing coach and mentor with over 15 years experience.

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As you already know, social media is an extended conversation with your community or market. Every type of Web 2.0 platform gives you a way to participate in an ongoing conversation. One of the best social media marketing tips I can give you is to get into blogging.

A blog is a way for you to not only participate in a conversation but to initiate one and become a thought leader - or guru, if you will. When you have a blog you are in charge of the content. In a blog post you can write as much as you want and there are no space limitations the way there are if you write for a magazine or a website run by someone else. Readers can leave comments, if you choose. But a blog can be a one-person show if you want and you can keep the comments turned off all the time. Even if you do this you are still part of a conversation because other websites will link to you and comment about your posts on their own blog. People will also bookmark your posts on Stumbleupon and other sites and leave comments there as well. So there is no such thing as blogging in a vacuum. This is a good thing because if you are business owner you certainly don’t want to blog in a vacuum.

A blog is another way to develop your persona and build a relationship with your audience, especially if you vary your content and let your personal side show from time to time. It can be difficult to provide a variety of content and most blogger find that after the honeymoon period ends, it’s hard to work to post new material on a consistent basis. Depending on your situation, you might want to outsource the task from time to time or invite other bloggers to post guest blog posts.

The best blogging platform if you are using your own web host is Wordpress. It is user friendly and is a one-click install at many web hosts. If you don’t have hosting and want to test the waters with a free blog and if you want to make money from the blog with ads or affiliate links, then Blogger is the best platform. Blogger does not have restrictions about ads or links. Also, Google owns Blogger so you don’t have to worry about Google slaps. As long as Google owns Blogger, Blogger posts will rank well in the search engines, especially if you use targeted keywords.

Every blog has a blog roll in the sidebar. You use this space to link to your favorite blogs. In return, other blogs will link to you, too, if you build

relationships with them. When you have a blog you should also take time to read other blogs in your community or market and leave comments and send e-mails. Not only does this spread goodwill but your reputation as a thought leader will increase too, along with your profits.

Whether you’re interested in blogging just for fun or for business, you should take the plunge now if you haven’t already. You’ll quickly see how fun having your own little space on the internet can be.

R. Scott Hall runs http://www.marketersexpress.com where you can explore what Web 2.0 and social media optimization can do for your business.

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With tools such as Blogger and WordPress, creating a blog has never been easier. It’s getting traffic to your blog that can be challenging. A blog with no traffic is of much use, is it? The more traffic you have, the more effective your blog will be in achieving its goal. You can follow the three tactics below to help more visitors find your blog.

1. Post New Content Regularly

A common mistake many new bloggers make is not posting on a regular basis, especially at the beginning. You have to give people a reason to visit your new blog. It’s best to post daily for the first month and then a few times per week after that.

Search engines generally love blogs but only blogs that are updated with new content on a regular basis. A blog that isn’t updated with new posts regularly is as stale as any other site and won’t get much attention from either the search engines or visitors. The more interesting or informative your posts are the more likely visitors are to return in the future to see what you have to say.

2. Find Related Blogs and Make Useful Comments

Another effective method for driving traffic to a blog is to find related blogs and make useful comments. Considering the number of blogs on the Internet these days, you shouldn’t have much trouble finding blogs on topics related to yours. The higher the PR of the blog the better since you’ll be getting a link in exchange for leaving a comment.

Take some time to read several posts on the blog to get a feel for it. Then make a constructive comment to one of the posts. Don’t just comment with some rubbish, contribute to the conversation. If your comment adds value, people will be more likely to want to visit your blog. Leave your name and a link to your blog to allow readers and easy way to click over to your blog.

3. RSS

The third way to drive traffic to your blog is by building a list of loyal readers. It’s very similar to building a list from a squeeze page. Many autoresponder services have the capability to send a notification by email to your subscribers whenever you make a new post to your blog. This is an effective way to provide people who’ve asked with a friendly reminder to visit your blog and read a new post.

To build a list, all you have to do is put a simple opt-in form on your blog and ask visitors to subscribe by giving you their name and email address. That’s all there is to it and now when you make a new post to your blog, the list will receive an email reminder. It all happens automatically. You don’t have to do anything other than put the opt-in form on your site.

These are not the only three effective methods to increase blog traffic; future articles will look at other effective methods for driving traffic to blogs.

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If you have a website and you are currently selling a product on the Internet, you need to know that rss and blogging can increase traffic to your website dramatically.

Since there are million of websites on the Internet today, and you  have a lot of competitors, you need to use every technology available to get higher search engine rankings.

Surfers behavior has evolved other the years, and today, email marketing is not the sole holy gray of your Internet business.

He has no fear of being subject to spam, and therefore, the visitor is happy to add your site to his reader. He thinks that he is in control and he can choose to click and visit your website when he wants.

People are usually in a hurry and don’t want to waste their time, and prefer scanning and scrolling instead of reading.

Furthermore, surfers want up to date information, and with the thousands of websites in any given subject, it is really hard for a busy man (or women) to find what he is searching for.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (or Rich Site Summary). RSS will help you to increase traffic to your website because…

You will get better search engine position.

I use an blog with RSS feed enabled to get my sites in the top ten rankings in Google, MSN and Yahoo.

Tip: use wordpress for even better rankings (specially in Google). I don’t really know why, but Google love wordpress more than other blogging platforms like type pad and bloggers itself!

You need to use a blog for this technique to be even more effective. It is common to get first position in the search engines for low competition keywords just because you switched to a blog, or you added RSS to your website.

Another reason to use RSS to increase website traffic is that surfers are fed up with “useless” e-zines.

Today, every person who spend more than one year surfing the Internet knows that most of the email newsletters are in fact… a big sales pitch.

For this reason, they don’t give you their email easily.

Seth Godin said it best: now it’s the area of “permission marketing”, you need to gain the respect and admiration of your visitor.

When he appreciate your work, and see that you are a real expert on the subject, he will be the first in line to buy your products or affiliate product recommendation.

When you are involved in any online business, your content becomes really important. I’m sure you already heard the famous “content is king”.

Without good content (and good products), you readers will only be one time readers, and it is the exact opposite as what you want for the success of your online business.

Now, it’s up to you to add wonderful content, and choose great headlines that will appeal to your niche market.

RSS is a technology that you need to add to your arsenal. Whether you add RSS to your site, or you decide to blog, you will increase your traffic almost overnight.

Franck Silvestre is an [http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/]affiliate marketing expert and [http://www.seoseductionsecrets.com/]search engine optimization guide His own methods have increased traffic to his website by more than 467%%! Visit: [http://www.seoseductionsecrets.com/]http://www.seoseductionsecrets.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Franck_Silvestre http://EzineArticles.com/?Seo-And-Blogging—Can-I-Increase-Traffic-To-My-Website-With-RSS?&id=849784

It is always important for on-line business, small or large, or anyone desiring a solid Net presence to make certain that they have good, overall strategies,  and a solid Internet marketing structure.  Unfortunately, and historically, many business enterprises have had a very haphazard approach to Internet-based marketing and advertising. Net business is still new, with new technologies being developed all the time.  Even the experts have been fooled, and successes have presented themselves where least expected.

Here to stay, and never to change, the Internet is also proving vital to promote  products and services offered by any number of  particular business enterprises.  Most businesses proper have their own Company Blogs.  This just adds to and enhances further the need for a coordinated, and comprehensive marketing internet structure and approach.  If you have any doubt, contact a professional for guidance.  Here is one tip that will apply to about everything you attempt to do with your business: build on the basics. Any new technology promises better and faster results.  If you don’t really know, that’s OK!  Read the claims, see if you can understand how your new technology will improve your business in fundamental ways, and if spending money, look for money-back guarantees. With that said, we’ll talk about the benefits of one piece of technology, RSS,  Really Simple Syndication.

RSS can benefit your website and blogging activities and endeavors in a total of six ways. Here are the first two and just from simple application: RSS can generate traffic to your site or blog and RETAIN traffic.  Many times, internet traffic generation techniques do produce results, but only for a short time.  Using RSS feeds can attract and retain traffic through the efforts of providing fresh, optimized content. The obvious benefit to the site  and/or blog owner is that the feed can be automated. Fresh, written-by-the-owner articles and materials can still be added to sites and platforms without man-made frequency being so critical in blog optimization.

Remember the ping?  You will not only have constantly updated content, resulting in consistent pinging and thus higher rankings, but create the prized phenomena effortlessly, and naturally. What is so cool about some feeds is that they will allow for a fresh content update after a visitor has clicked on an article. And it just gets better.  Whenever a search engine individual visits your (more commonly) blog, the RSS feed update will be recorded as fresh and possibly unique and targeted content.

You can legitimately take RSS feeds for your own site.  Right?!  Well, you can also give!  You can syndicate your updates, resulting in another prized phenomena. You can add a netting of several backlinks to blogs and websites, increase your offpage SEO score, and gain some unique visitors through direct links from those other sites and blogs.

Recycle is a term also used in RSS, and can lead to the last profound phenomena and benefit.  Many who start a blog and business really don’t consider this point, which  is within reach of even the newest of newbies.  If your site aggregates a number of important authority sites via RSS feed, you too can become an authority site aggregator at the very least!  This is useful to people looking to find authority sites on YOUR given topic!

In summary, RSS feeds can generate traffic, improve SEO rankings, increase the number of direct click-throughs you receive, retain traffic, help you attain an authority site aggregator position, and provide better, original, fresh, great content for your visitors. Implementing RSS brings benefits that are natural and effortless.  It’s smart, honest, and premium-customer service orientated.   It promotes your company and product in long-term and quality ways.  It would be my conclusion this could be one way, and a great way, in which to make your Net presence known.

Kathleen Krueger invites you to Marginsxs Ebooks, [http://www.marginsxs.com]http://www.marginsxs.com, and browse best-selling internet marketing ebook guides for on-line business.  Selection includes self-improvement ebooks and just plain good reading. Most materials with resale rights. One can subscribe to a monthly newsletter.  Please visit the MarginsXs Blog, [http://www.marginsxs.com/Blog]http://www.marginsxs.com/Blog, for free internet marketing, Seo, and Web Design tips!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathleen_Krueger http://EzineArticles.com/?RSS-for-Sites-and-Blogging-Activities-Can-Create-Beneficial-Results&id=856703

Search engines seem to have an affinity for blogs. Bloggers have discovered that their blog entries get faster inclusion and higher rankings in search engines. As proof of this, Google actually purchased Blogger - one of the most widely-used blogging programs available. The leading search engine on the planet saw this technology as important enough to own - why not use it to your advantage? You can get fast and free marketing for your internet business campaign that has the possibility of reaching thousands and even millions.

Blogs provide an excellent way to make your internet business seem less impersonal to your customers. It’s no secret that businesses have to woo customers. Blogging your site makes you look like “just one of the guys”, if you will. You can portray your internet business however you wish with blogs: innovative, superior, playful, charitable, environmentally conscious - the sky is the limit. You can give people a solid reason for wanting to buy your internet business.

Blogs convert visitors into sales and profits - those companies who blog as part of their internet business have discovered that blogs bring in more visitors and that a high percentage of those who visit a blog, if properly influenced through that blog’s content, will actually buy from their company. Blogs also work in business-to-business relationships.  People respond positively to blogging, whether they are buying for themselves or for their business.

Blogs are also a great way to get your company’s content onto others’ sites, even your competitor’s. Many blogs have a syndication feature that makes it easy for others to include your content on their websites. A portion of the blog (usually the headline and the first few words of the copy) can be picked up and shown on other sites. When that site’s visitor clicks the link for more information, they are transferred to your site. Most business bloggers have discovered that this feature is bringing in a substantial amount of additional traffic to their sites.

Bloggers reach potential consumers of all ages, races, and in all locations of the world. By using blogging to recommend or talk about your product, you can personalize any imaginable product or service.

For more information on Blogging and creating a successful internet business, visit [http://theinternetbusinessauthority.com/]http://TheInternetBusinessAuthority.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Maury_W http://EzineArticles.com/?Blogging-For-Business&id=951733

I have been working on a project for setting up a corporate blog. Nice challenge for me! Many do’s and don’ts on the horizon, but really interesting and funny research work. I thought it would be nice of me to share the steps involved in getting a corporate blog together. But, first what is a corporate blog? It’s a web page where a company through authorized editors or through its employees can have a more informal voice. Style is an important ingredient for a corporate blog. It should be informal, with a personal touch, unlike the cold style of the press releases.

Is it advisable for a company to have its own blog? Some of the pros would be:

1. To reach prospective customers

2. If a company has a unique product/service, this should be spoken out by all possible Internet channels, not only by website

3. Companies should observe the nowadays trend. Marketers have realized that blogging is becoming a power tool.

4. Look around: competitors do it already.

5. To strengthen relationships with important target groups

6. To position the company and its key employees as industry experts

7. Communicating through a blog shows that the company is conscious of its impact on society and is willing to improve its relationships to clients, press, employees, local communities or the general public.

8. A corporate blog is one step towards meeting customers’ needs for personal and two-ways communication. It helps  customers feel like they are buying from a real person. The information they find on the blog is usually fresh and not filled with advertising. It gives them the power to control what they read and what they comment. Some may choose to spread the word, as well.

9. To strengthen the relationship with the partners by giving them a “public voice”

10. To improve relationships with the employees

11. Being a PR tool, it can solve or prevent crisis

12. Search engines love blogs more than websites, so blogs are usually better ranked.

The list remains open, the corporate blog phenomenon keeps on searching better shape and purpose.

In the following episode, I will tell you the challenges met by companies who decided to blog. It’s not so simple as it seems.

Marina Enachi, Iasi, Romania

For the past 2 years Marina has been working as communication specialist and translator for an American company, specialized in integrated circuits design.

She is also a freelancer, being involved in various projects from translations to copy writing and PR projects. Her main focus is on online PR, which is her master’s degree subject, as well. Recently, she has started her own blog http://simplyxpress.wordpress.com - the simple way of saying things

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