Susan Getgood

Here are some good resources on blogging, whether you are a long-time blogger or brand new to the form. I compiled this list as a handout for a presentation on (surprise) blogging for business, and decided it was a good entry for the Roadmap.

Overviews:

BusinessWeek’s May 2 cover story on blogging

Wayne Hurlbert’s chapter from the upcoming book 100 Bloggers offers a nice, simple introduction to "citizen publishing." 

Gapingvoid –   The Porous Membrane: Why Corporate Blogging Works

Excellent summary post from Contentious: What’s a Blog. Bag the Stereotypes.

Marketing Watchdog Journal, Is a Blog Right for Your Business?

Jim Logan’s great series on Inside Baseball: Business Blogs. The easiest way to find the whole series is go to Jim’s site and select the “Inside Baseball” category.

Practical/How-to:

How to get into blogs

"How to write killerblog posts and more compelling comments" by BL Ochman

Some tips from Marketing Roadmaps on using comments and trackbacks

From Business Week’s Blogspotting, a link to a good definition of trackbacks from the Movable Type site

From Blog Business World, Blogs:Theme relevant content and links

Recent examples of marketing blogs:

From John Wagner — all about qtags

From NevOn, an update on the GM blogs

From Marketing Roadmaps, two recent posts about various types of marketing blogs here and here

With all the recent hype about blogging, we are definitely going to see a spate of corporate blogs over the next few months. As well as negative commentary when blogging isn’t as “easy” as it seemed.

Not surprisingly, some will be in it for the quick hit, and be surprised: blogging takes effort and commitment to do well. Like anything worth doing, blogging takes time. 

Those in it for the quick hit will fade fast. Those who “get it” and are willing to invest in the medium will achieve the long term results.

And, it is worth repeating: a blog has to make sense in the context of the marketing plan, with clear objectives and desired results. From the corporate perspective, that is what makes the investment worthwhile.

Opinions well worth reading on this topic:

Gapingvoid: Blog as if your life depended on it (for the next three months anyway)

Micro Persuasion: Let the blog bashing begin (and be sure to read the comments)