So say the experts. I don’t need an expert to tell me that, but it’s good to have backup. I am a biased believer in the power of the blog.

Blogs are inexpensive, bursting-with-potential marketing tools capable of reaching hundreds of thousands at a fraction of traditional marketing costs. From Tech News World:

A huge number of those blogs are being produced and hosted by businesses seeking to market themselves more effectively in cyberspace. Some companies are even encouraging their employees — of any stripe, not just communications and marketing personnel — to launch their own blogs and tout the virtues of their company’s products and services.

This includes companies like Sun, IBM, Microsoft, HP, and Macromedia, but also smaller brands, like managedcarematters.com, joepaduda.com, moosetopia.com, and publiceye.silkblogs.com, written by Peter Quintas, chief technology officer of SilkRoad Technology.

A company’s PR spin is what turns off customers. Through blogging, a company can cut through the advertising hype and present a clearer, more honest picture of itself. But there are risks:

Some blogs contain sensitive information about an employer — and can raise potential security or even libel concerns. A Google employee was reportedly fired for revealing internal developments at the search engine on his blog….And a court ordered a blogging hosting provider to identify three anonymous Apple employees who had posted secret company information online.

Those aren’t examples of “business blogging,” per se. Employees with personal blogs are different creatures from employees blogging for their company. The latter is what The Language Artist is all about. Businesses can protect themselves from security breaches and other problems as much as possible through company-wide blogging policies.

The benefits of blogging far outweigh the risks.

Technorati tags: Marketing and technology.

From MarketingProfs.com, public relations expert Sally Saville Hodge writes:

These days, we write fewer and fewer press releases—most are the obligatory personnel announcements, with the periodic feature release sprinkled in between. We just don’t see them as being as important a tool for PR as they once were….

Think about it. As a society, we’ve gone from the era of mass production, mass merchandising and mass marketing to one where customization is king.

In this environment, press releases are to PR professionals what the 30-second television commercial is becoming to the advertising industry. As far as most reporters and editors are concerned, they are overproduced, they lack differentiation, they generally aren’t relevant and the vast majority just aren’t worthy of coverage.

Keith at To-Done has written a two-part series on how to be a more productive blogger. Since I’m in the business of blogging, I’m always on the look-out for blogging tips.

I run two web sites, one for pleasure and one for pleasure+income. I write and edit, and when I’m not doing those things, I’m marketing my work and seeking new clients. Since starting The Language Artist, my blogging time has been reduced. Keith to the rescue…

From Part I:

• Set aside time for writing (or podcasting, etc.) and stick to it. Sounds simple, but life (and work) has a way of intruding on these times. You need to hold on to your creative times at all costs!
• Create (and stick to) a publishing schedule. I used to do this quite a bit when I was first getting started. It really helped keep me on track and motivated. Now I’ve got a loose schedule I use, but there are times when I try and plan out something more solid to help make sure I don’t fall too far behind.

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Blogs have had an impact on traditional journalism, politics, business — just about everything fundamentally important to our democracy. It was only a matter of time before someone created a whole new industry dedicated to the business of blog watching.

Remember the “markets are conversations” post I wrote yesterday? Here’s an illustration of the concept in the Wall Street Journal:

Blog watching helped advertising giant WPP Group PLC craft a new promotion aimed at teenagers for its Chicago-based client U.S. Cellular Corp., says Bethany Harris, senior vice president of WPP’s G Whiz Entertainment unit…..

Marketers say bloggers’ unsolicited opinions and offhand comments are a source of invaluable insights that are hard to get elsewhere. “We look at the blogosphere as a focus group with 15 million people going on 24/7 that you can tap into without going behind a one-way mirror,” says Rick Murray, executive vice president of Edelman, a Chicago public-relations firm….

Blog-monitoring services typically charge big companies $30,000 to $100,000 a year. They say their technology goes beyond basic tools, such as keyword searches or counting links from one Web site to another, both features available at no charge from online services such as Technorati.com and Yahoo’s Buzz Index.

The power of blogs can’t be overstated. If you’re not blogging for your business or at least listening to what bloggers are saying, you’re missing out on a valuable market.

Published in 2001 before blogs become popular, The Cluetrain Manifesto decribes how the Internet has changed (or should change) how businesses do business.

People are no longer content to be fed a company’s message through commercials. With the advent of online communication, especially blogs, customers have the ability to discuss a business’s products and services with each other, which in turn has the potential to damage that business’s reputation. How will you respond and defend yourself? Get on the cluetrain, people!

The authors came up with their own 95 theses, which are just as revolutionary and paradigm-shifting as Martin Luther’s own. A sampling:

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Paul Chaney of Radiant Marketing Group as been an inspiration as I’ve narrowed the focus of my business. I met the blog expert at a bloggers conference called BlogNashville a couple of months ago, and at the time I had no idea what he did for a living. I just thought he was just…a blogger.

Paul is much more. He’s a blog believer and advocate. In addition to helping businesses use blogs as a marketing tool, he’s expanded his services to include blog coaching and blogger recruiting.

I’m excited about the possibilities of my business specifically and blogs as a new medium and marketing tool generally.

Welcome to my business web site. Although it’s incomplete (I’m editing as you read this), I wanted to end the suspense.

The purpose of the business is still evolving, but the bottom line is to help customers prepare their written material and make it the best it can be at affordable rates. I’ll do everything from typing and editing to writing and ghostwriting. Blog consulting will also be a big part of the business. I will consult for businesses, non-profit organizations, and individuals. I’ll have a big advertising campaign cooked up in the next couple of weeks.

Back in January I asked readers to help name the business. One reader suggested “La Shawn’s Language Arts.” I liked it but realized my name is strongly associated with my very political and personal blog. I want to keep the two as separate as possible, so I chose, “The Language Artist.” Blogger John designed the header.

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