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saabs united

Six years ago, somewhere in Melbourne, Australia, a man had an idea which would reverberate in the United States, Sweden and around the global automotive industry.

Steven Wade didn’t exactly save carmaker Saab from extinction, but he became a focus point for global support for the Swedish marque at a time when its future was very uncertain.


His efforts had sufficient effect, and Saab was sufficiently thankful, that the company contacted Wade and offered him a job.

All this was achieved by a blog.

Wade started his SaabsUnited blog six years ago and slowly attracted the interest of Saab aficionados around the world.

Then the world of Saab was thrown into turmoil when its owner, American automotive monolith General Motors, filed for bankruptcy.

Saab lovers are a passionate and committed lot, and in the SaabsUnited blog they found a rallying point to voice their opinions, fears and hopes.

Saab survived and so did the blog, so much so that just recently it featured a post which may be unique in the history of the bloggosphere.

The post was written by the chairman of Saab, Victor Mueller. It was a letter to Steven Wade, offering him a job with the Saab social media marketing team.

Come to Sweden, the offer said, and bring the blog with you – basically, keep doing what you have been doing, and we’ll give you a wage to do so.


Wade accepted. Last Friday he closed down the blog for a few two days while he, and SaabsUnited, moved to the other side of the world to continue proving the power of a good blog.
news.com.au





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corporate blogging

Blogging is amongst the fastest-growing areas of the interactive digital world, and the business world is embracing this powerful promotional tool quickly. New corporate blogs are appearing every day, and as a result Craig's List, freelancer.com and other web hangouts for writers are teeming with opportunities.

To win business blogging contracts, however, writers must be able to show that they understand the corporate blogging environment. You must show a potential client not only what you can write for them, but why and how that will benefit them.

In this post, we look at managing a client's corporate blog. As a corporate blogger, you do much more than write. You create reasons for the world to come to your client's blog, and then you manage their activity while they are there.


----- .oOo. -----



Blog management is about working hard to create more work. The more successful your corporate blog, the more it is going to demand of you.

The rewards will be considerable. It will be time and energy you will be glad to give.

Blogging success is not measured in terms of unique visitor numbers or content quantity or award-winning graphics. These are important components, but real success is about one word: interaction.

The crucial indicator of your success as a creator of a corporate blog is the number of comments which create an interactive process. You can spin success in terms of the number of words produced and a line graph showing a slow but steady increase in visitor numbers, but nothing spells success like big comment numbers due to lively interaction.

Every time someone asks a question, it both shows someone is listening and provides an opportunity for you or your management team to engage and form a relationship.

Every time someone disagrees with a point, it is an opportunity to start an interaction which will either leave the author of the comment grateful for a clarification, or teach the rest of us something.

Every time someone expands on an issue raised in a post, a valuable dialogue can ensue.

Every time an industry issue is debated, your client's blog is the centre of attention of a lot of people who are important to their business.

This interaction separates blogs from all other forms of communication that a company may enter into. Your blogging service will include the daily management of the interactions that the blog has with its readers. From moderation of comments to following through on requests for assistance or information, these blogkeeping tasks will be performed within a timeframe that you agree with your client in advance. This will be one of the strongest selling points for your corporate blogging service.

You can also set up a protocol that ensures that comments which require in-depth responses are forwarded to the appropriate individuals within your client's organisation, and that a response is given to the originator of the comment or query within an agreed timeframe.

Get back to them quickly and with good, engaging content, and you can make a friend. Fail to get back to them quickly, or respond with trite or irrelevant material, and you've lost them forever.

Comments are the lifeblood of a corporate blog, and managing those comments — optimising the benefits which flow from interaction — is a crucial function of the blogger's role.

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Freelance writing for business blogs 6

November 9th 2010 06:35
corporate blogging

Blogging is amongst the fastest-growing areas of the interactive digital world, and the business world is embracing this powerful promotional tool quickly. New corporate blogs are appearing every day, and as a result Craig's List, freelancer.com and other web hangouts for writers are teeming with opportunities.

To win business blogging contracts, however, writers must be able to show that they understand the corporate blogging environment. You must show a potential client not only what you can write for them, but why and how that will benefit them.

In this, our sixth post on the world of corporate blogging, we pose a question that any client will identify with, and give an answer which explains much about the power of corporate blogs.


----- .oOo. -----


If there is one question that we feel cuts through to the core of the corporate blog as a promotional tool, it is this: what can a blog offer that a business does not already get with PR and advertising?

Public relations and advertising are powerful marketing tools, especially with the development of sophisticated branding strategies. Promotional campaigns can be planned according to the three targets: market, message and budget. Timing and carrying media can be optimised.

The problem is that, once it is all over, one sits back, counts the cost, and wonders whether it was worth it. Success can be measured in sales figure blips and perhaps telephone enquiries and web page views, but how to measure empirically?

A department store display counter is an appropriate analogy. People walking past look at the wares on display. Some aren't interested and some stop for a closer look. The sales person can now engage them in conversation, answering any queries and, hopefully, confirming and extending the interest.

Potential customers viewing an advertisement or reading a press release have no sales person on hand. They can, of course, make a phone call or visit a store, but how many people are disinclined, or too busy, to take this extra step?

A corporate blog is as much a shop counter as the real thing because any interested visitor can engage in dialogue with a mouse click and a few typed words. This is no imposition for someone already sitting before a keyboard. Questions can be framed carefully, the dialogue can take as long as needed, and it can be undertaken as and when convenient.

It's ideal for catching the people who are busy or disinclined to take an extra step — the people that public relations and advertising have trouble grabbing.

Interaction. That is the answer to the question.


THE EARLIER ARTICLES IN THIS SERIES

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Freelance writing for business blogs 5

November 1st 2010 10:54
corporate blogging

Blogging is amongst the fastest-growing areas of the interactive digital world, and the business world is embracing this powerful promotional tool quickly. New corporate blogs are appearing every day, and as a result Craig's List and other web hangouts for freelance writers are teeming with opportunities.

[ Click here to read more ]
79
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Freelance writing for business blogs 4

October 28th 2010 12:17
bloggercises corporate blogs


Blogging is amongst the fastest-growing areas of the interactive digital world, and the business world is embracing this powerful promotional tool quickly. New corporate blogs are appearing every day, and as a result Craig's List and other web hangouts for freelance writers are teeming with opportunities.
[ Click here to read more ]
105
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Freelance writing for business blogs 3

October 14th 2010 16:02
corporate blogging

Blogging is amongst the fastest-growing areas of the interactive digital world, and the business world is embracing this powerful promotional tool quickly. New corporate blogs are appearing every day, and as a result Craig's List and other web hangouts for freelance writers are teeming with opportunities.

[ Click here to read more ]
84
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bloggercises corporate blogs

Blogging is amongst the fastest-growing areas of the interactive digital world, and the business world is embracing this powerful promotional tool quickly. New corporate blogs are appearing every day, and as a result Craig's List and other web hangouts for freelance writers are teeming with opportunities.

[ Click here to read more ]
108
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The exhausted blogger

June 5th 2009 05:58
busy worker

My huge following of fans, and I'd like to thank both of you, constantly asks me to write more in the way of advice for people in small business.

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the history of writing

A few weeks ago I wrote a post here entitled "Will blogging rule the world?" It evoked a lot of discussion, and I have found myself thinking about the question ever since. This opinion piece is the result, looking at changes that the digital age and, in particular, blogging, may bring to many things that we now take for granted. It is the first of a two-part series, with the second instalment to cover media, publishing and opinion leadership.

[ Click here to read more ]
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Will blogging rule the world?

April 15th 2009 04:34
the future of journalism - big call! although maybe thats what people are crying out for, more conversational, interactive news . . . something that a telecaster in a box cant provide maybe thats what people are crying out for, more conversational, interactive news. something that a telecaster in a box cant provide

Morgan Bell wrote the above comment in response to a quote on an earlier Bloggercises post by Mary Jo Foley, the widely known and read author of the All About Microsoft blog. Foley said, "For me, the future of journalism is blogging


[ Click here to read more ]
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Dear Mr Google, please explain

March 23rd 2009 23:02
one cent

Just when I thought I was coming to terms with the slippery slope of AdSense methodology, I uncover evidence that everything I thought I knew may have to be discarded.

[ Click here to read more ]
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AdSense and other questions

March 21st 2009 07:48
blog ranking

AdSense can be confusing, and after a reasonable amount of research there is still much I don't know. However, I can offer the following. It's not the full story, but I'll aim to answer some common questions.

[ Click here to read more ]
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This article will propose that blogging can generate a moderate or better income for any qualified person - no secrets, no luck, no scams, no magic potions required.

The key word, however, is "qualified". Success takes patience, talent and hard work. The hard work is especially important for the first two years or so when the blog will generate little income


[ Click here to read more ]
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Can blogs make serious money?

January 31st 2009 01:56
heather armstrong dooce blog
Heather Armstrong, author of the Dooce blog

Blogs can make serious money, and many already do. There are now serious blog tracking and ranking services which show that many people are writing blogs which attract tens of thousands of individual readers a day.

[ Click here to read more ]
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