WHAT IS A BLOG?
Blogs (web logs) are displacing message boards as the preferred technique for asynchronous discussion. A blog is an online journaling tool that allows to you quickly and easily publish content to your web site as well as the ability to allow readers to comment on articles you post. Unlike message boards (forums, etc…) blogs look like a web pages, complete with links, graphics, sound and video capabilities. In addition to the community building function, a blog might take on characteristics of an online ezine or newsletter. You can use yours as an opportunity to educate your prospects on different aspects of your business or product while soliciting questions and comments.
Business marketers use blogs for:
- Attract and retain traffic on a site
- Obtain positive and (keep in mind) negative feedback from customers
- Generate links to other pages on the web site
- Announce new products and test price points
- Build brand awareness
- Recruit beta testers
- Seed product promotions
- Identify opinion setters
Like other forms of community building, blogs take lots of time. It helps if you like to write. You need to post at least 2X per week to keep a blog lively and encourage feedback. Depending on your goals, you might prefer hosting your blog on another site (i.e. www.wordpress.com), so the links to your site appear to be coming from another source. Google, in particular, ranks inbound links from blogs highly.
FREE Blog >> http://www.bBlog.com or http://www.wordpress.com
WHAT IS A WIKIS?
Wikis are related to blogs, however, wiki software allows multiple users to add, delete and edit each other’s Web content quickly without much technical knowledge, making them especially suited for collaborative writing. (i.e. www.wikipedia.org, a free online encyclopedia, is a great example of group content that reflects many views.)
Check out this QUICK 2 minute clip explaining Wikis.
List of WIKI Resources:
http://www.wetpaint.com/
http://www.centraldesktop.com
http://www.pbwiki.com
http://www.mediawiki.org (Free)
