Note by Easton: Special thanks to Ted Demopoulos for this guest post on business blogs. It's part of the continuing Know More Media Guest Blogger Week.
It's extremely important to plan a business blog instead of just "starting" it. Part of the planning must include what type of blog is being started. I break business blogs into four basic types depending on their primary purpose:
1) Internal blogs: Internal blogs are used for internal company or project communications, and are not available on the Internet.
Often they replace a lot of emails, and serve as a repository of information, avoiding the "who should I cc:?," "where is that email?," and " who followed up on the email?" type worries.
2) Problogs: I call blogs started primarily to make money, for example through advertising and affiliate programs, problogs. A problog can be on ANY topic that people are interested in, for example handbags or cameras.
Blogs in blog networks are often in this category, for example this one. I think of them as the blog equivalent of newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and TV shows.
3) Company Blogs: These are blogs started to help support an existing company or product. These blogs help companies by communicating with customers and getting feedback, increasing traffic to the companies website, generally getting the word out about the company, increasing potential customer's comfort level with the company, etc. There are many different types of company blogs, for example product blogs, industry blogs, etc. A great post on this subject is Mark Nash: Business Blog Taxonomy 101.
Examples include GM's FastLane Blog and my The Ted Rap Blog.
4) Independent professional blogs: These are similar to company blogs, but are written – and owned – by individuals. These people are usually passionate about their work and blog about it.
Examples include Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion and Bob Cargill's A New Marketing Commentator. Both gentlemen recently switched employers, but since their blogs are their own property, their blogging has continued on uninterrupted.
Do all business blogs fit neatly into these categories – no, of course not, but I find this a useful categorization at least for myself, and for my clients when planning a business blog.
By Ted Demopoulos
It's extremely important to plan a business blog instead of just "starting" it. Part of the planning must include what type of blog is being started. I break business blogs into four basic types depending on their primary purpose:
1) Internal blogs: Internal blogs are used for internal company or project communications, and are not available on the Internet.
Often they replace a lot of emails, and serve as a repository of information, avoiding the "who should I cc:?," "where is that email?," and " who followed up on the email?" type worries.
2) Problogs: I call blogs started primarily to make money, for example through advertising and affiliate programs, problogs. A problog can be on ANY topic that people are interested in, for example handbags or cameras.
Blogs in blog networks are often in this category, for example this one. I think of them as the blog equivalent of newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and TV shows.
3) Company Blogs: These are blogs started to help support an existing company or product. These blogs help companies by communicating with customers and getting feedback, increasing traffic to the companies website, generally getting the word out about the company, increasing potential customer's comfort level with the company, etc. There are many different types of company blogs, for example product blogs, industry blogs, etc. A great post on this subject is Mark Nash: Business Blog Taxonomy 101.
Examples include GM's FastLane Blog and my The Ted Rap Blog.
4) Independent professional blogs: These are similar to company blogs, but are written – and owned – by individuals. These people are usually passionate about their work and blog about it.
Examples include Steve Rubel's Micro Persuasion and Bob Cargill's A New Marketing Commentator. Both gentlemen recently switched employers, but since their blogs are their own property, their blogging has continued on uninterrupted.
Do all business blogs fit neatly into these categories – no, of course not, but I find this a useful categorization at least for myself, and for my clients when planning a business blog.
By Ted Demopoulos
