The blog has become an important unfiltered (emphasis on unfiltered) voice for the company, our customers and auto enthusiasts. The blog cannot produce great products. Only our design and product development community can. But the blog can motivate, inspire and focus us. It shows how much passion people have for cars and trucks.
Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman General Motors

What is a Blog?
According to Shel Israel, “blogs are nothing more than a personal website”. They allow you to post information in reverse-chronological order about subjects which are of relevance to you or your organisation. Because of their ‘diary-style’ nature visitors expect to see information change on a fairly-frequent basis.

Most blogs allow people to leave comments, thus building a community element, and articles are usually sorted into categories and archives. The very nature of blogging - many articles, comments and links - means that they are extremely search engine friendly and a good source of relevant links.

Are Blogs Relevant to My Business?
Over the past couple of years blogs have gone from a must-have item for geeks to a mainstream tool that individuals and, more importantly businesses, are using to not just get their thoughts out but also to engage with their customers, suppliers and staff. Companies are using them for a wide range of purposes:

  • to discuss new products and services
  • to let their customers see how they operate
  • some companies are using them to discuss legal and environmental concerns
  • to comment on articles and news by people within their industry
  • we have seen clients adding video clips on how to assemble products
  • team events, corporate hospitality and exhibitions all offer great opportunities to use blogs and to link them to other online tools

In short, pretty much any company can use blogs to good effect, be they solicitors, marketers, retailers, lawyers, software vendors, restaurants, bars, manufacturers or even sports organisations.

What Does the Course Cover?
TypePadThe consultants at EMCOE have over 4 years’ experience of using and building blogs for both clients and ourselves. The blogging software we will use on the course is called TypePad - one of the most well established and popular blogging platforms on the market. In fact one of the consultants recently had his blog featured on TypePad’s own Featured Blogs Website.

Over the course of the day we will explore and achieve the following:

  • Learn to structure your weblog
  • Decide on a suitable design for your weblog
  • Find out how to write for your weblog
  • Understand how to source new content for your business blog
  • Discover ways of building community for your blog
  • Add sidebar and Web 2.0 elements like “Digg” and”Del.icio.us” to your site
  • Find out how to add Google Analytics to your website

And a whole lot more.

More information
Our workshops are run in small groups (maximum of 6 people). This means that we can interact more with our clients and spend more time helping them to develop the right sort of business blog.

Dates
25th October, 2007 (Completed)
5th December, 2007 (Completed)
2nd April, 2008

Cost
Our 1-day workshop costs £149 +VAT. (Please note that this doesn’t include the cost of subscribing to TypePad for a year - £40 to £80)

What To Do Next

Other 1-Day Workshops
Google AdWords
Google Day
Search Engine Marketing

Other Courses
eMarketing Award