They had a website that was built in 2005 that no longer had the look and feel of the brand. Blogging adds value for the reader by providing timely news and unique articles, building interactive opportunities, establishing credibility and a knowledge base, and creating fresh, ever-changing content.  The value created by the blog is increased brand awareness, improved SEO by adding new content daily and increased keywords and tags for indexing.

Building brand is building cache. The benefit for writers is exposure in a new venue, affiliation with a strong brand and an expanded audience. In exchange, we provide publication, links to their website, which increases their cache and opens the readers to expanded content on the author’s website. The blogger also gains more readers and builds and enhances their reputation. He leverages that reputation to increase his cache and build readership.

There are many options for blogging. We chose WordPress due to its ease of use for most computer users of any proficiency. With its simple text editor, authors do not need to have website design experience, understand code or have worked with any other site builder software to make a contribution. WordPress loads content by way of a text editor into a set template. It can be a free standing blog or link to an existing website.

Managing a blog site takes time. Depending upon the number of bloggers, length of content and introduction of images and links, it will require a designated staff person to manage the bloggers, create tags, and edit posts. Each post requires a ‘soft’ edit for predominately white space, spelling, grammar and punctuation. Rarely if ever would post be adjusted for content, style or tone.  The post should speak to its audience in the voice of the author.

 Adding photos enhances to reader experience. Where possible, we add photos or encourage the blogger to provide photos. Photos should be copyright free, of good quality and pertinent to the topic.

Readers are getting more sophisticated want to be actively involved in blogging. Engaging in social media and using plug-ins to provide opportunities for interaction.  Commenting,  post rating, forwarding, RSS feeds, Tweets, and FaceBook, Digg and Stumble Upon are some of the most common. Each option serves a different aspect of social media and can drive more visitors to your blog and extend your reach beyond your known readers. Providing social media for your bloggers helps them to find an even greater audience and to build your brand.

What happened with the small publisher’s blog? We found that visitors to the website love the blog. They look forward to reading the new posts and read all of the blogs. Surprisingly our favorite blogger is our editor in chief. Her posts had three times the hits as the next closest blogger. Blogging increased the page visits, duration and frequency of visits to the site.  The value of the blog far exceeds the time it takes to manage it. Keep your blog site and edits fun and light. Remember why we do this: to improve reader experience and reap the benefit of building the brand.

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So, here we are today, looking at how we can create a new, upbeat, graphically dynamic and information packed website that represents the original vision while incorporating the new ways inwhich we communicate today. Our goals are to:

• Make huge volumes of content easily searched and accessible
• Incorporate interactive features that allow readers to contribute through comments and ratings
• Engage readers in submitting their reports of the strange and unknown; to invite authors and reports to blog
• Excite visitors to participate in the experience
• Generate revenues from shopping cart and advertising

On the admmisistrative side, we want to make the site user-friendly for multiple contributors and easy for non-technical staff to participate in the design and flow of the website.

It’s a huge task. This blog will outline our ongoing process in creating the new agazine website.

Over 600 million people have found Facebook and use it religiously. Daily, Facebook is making updates, improving privacy and functionality. Still, you ultimately are responsible for your own user experience. Use good common sense in posting personal information, reaching out to suggested friends, and using photo albumns online.

A note on ‘marketing your products and services on Facebook’. Blogs and books are written on the pros and cons of marketing on Facebook. My personal and informal survey indicates that folks don’t generally like being sold on what they consider to be a personal social media site. The original long-time users of Facebook even go so far as to say that ‘corporations’ are ruining Facebook.  I have not found too much corporate or individual marketing interjecting itself into my world. But, respectfully, do not market your products and services on your friends sites. That is a great way to alienate friends.

On the other hand, for a company to have a Facebook site to allow for networking and interaction. That is rockin’.

Here are  some hints, suggestions, marginal advice to get the most out of your Facebook account. I’ve been on Facebook  sporadically for years and even woke up yesterday to find that I had actually created two Facebook accounts! I kept getting messages from my other self asking to be my friend. You see, we had so much in common, it was only natural. I deleted my doppleganger and feel much better about it.

In order take full advantage of your Facebook experience,  you have to be willing to put forth some effort and check up on it at least once a week. Comment freely. If you comment, people will comment back. If you have people posting your wall, by all means, comment back. This is after all an interactive venue. Keep remarks short and sweet. If you have a lot to say or if it is personal, really personal, use email. Most people do not want to see your angst.

Here are a few things you can do:

1. Manage your  ’peeps.’ You can invite all of your friends from your email acounts like Yahoo, Gmail, Charter.net, etc., and round them up in one blanket email invitation. You can also look for friend by name in the search. Much more work but it may help you find those folks that you have lost along the way.

2. Post comments: Leave comments on your friend’s profiles as often as you have time for. Like I said, this is a personal social media site, not your personal online marketing outlet for your homebased business. Your comments can update your friends on what is going on in your life. Leave the business at the office so to speak and just enjoy the opportunity to nurture and build relationships with your family and friends. 

3. Post blogs and bulletins: A plug for WordPress. You can develop a personal blog and provide that link for all of your friends to choose how and when they want to hear you rant.

4. Tweet – set up your automatic link from Twitter to Facebook and your tweet will link in real time. 

 4. Photos: If you have a lot of photos, they would best be managed on Flickr or another internet server storage systems.

4. Make use of your profile: No one likes to see an empty profile. Provide a paragraph or so telling a little about you.  Below this, you can also add a slide show of the products that you sell. You can create a slide show at www.slide.com

My friend, Phyllis Galde, owner of Galde Press and FATE magazine asked me to come into her home-based business and consult with her regarding business analysis, advertising and marketing, building revenue streams and some staffing issues.

We started out with advertising, moved to marketing, website redesign, Social Media, Business Analysis, Budgeting and finally content licensing for media production. Consulting is an evolutionary process.

I’ll include in this blog the process we used to redirect FATE magazine.

I hope you enjoy the journey!

Blog owner: Patibelle, Patricia Heller, owner of StarMarketingMN