The growth of business blogging in the US
Still unsure about the future of blogging for your business? A recent survey by eMarketer.com shows a huge shift towards the social media practice in the US, with 43% of businesses expected to be blogging by 2012 — almost half the market.
While personal blogging has seen a decline thanks to micro-blogging sites like Twitter, business blogging has seen a surge in popularity. Businesses are embracing blogging as it can suit the needs of their customers who refuse to tweet and shun Facebook, whilst improving their customer service and Google page ranking.
It certainly helps that marketers and PRs identify blogging as the most effective way of spreading news of their products and services, in particular in creating and launching virals.
Considering how quickly the UK tends to follow the lead of our friends over the pond, we’re likely to see similar statistics over here.
So the question isn’t really whether you should blog, rather can you afford not to? If your competition is optimising their target market with a blog filled with high quality SEO content, can you really justify not doing the same? This is particularly relevant to SMEs, who are the leading the pack when it comes to blogging.
Don’t forget you can find out more about business blogging and see some great case studies on the Miramus “Why Your Business Needs a Blog” presentation [4:28, needs audio]
Related: Blogging and social media marketing. Original content is key to success
Find the rest of the report on eMarketer.com
Blogging tools made simple on Dork Adore
Far be it from us to harp on about the dork-haven of loveliness that is Dork Adore (we admit we’re biased, but it’s true) but since we’re building quite a healthy list of web tools for bloggers, we thought it only polite to draw your attention to it.
If you’re blogging for your business (or just blogging for the hell of it — we applaud that too), here are some Firefox add-ons, online resources and incredibly handy tools to keep you tapping at top speed.
Blogging add-ons
Top five Firefox add-ons for bloggers.
Five more Firefox add-ons for bloggers.
Blogging and social media marketing. Original content is key to success
If you need any further evidence that blogging should be a central part of your social media strategy, a handy new research report has shown just that.
A survey of 450 CEOs revealed that 85 percent of respondents feel original content is critical to the success of their social media campaign.
If you’re trying to drive traffic to your site, a blog is not only excellent at natural SEO, it’s also a great way to bring in a new audience via both search and social bookmarking — not to mention traffic from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
If you’re just writing about the latest new products your company offers, you’re unlikely to see a huge increase in traffic or sales, but by producing something that is worth reading, you’re adding valuable content to your site that can be shared amongst online communities.
For more great ideas on how you can add valuable rich media to your site to increase traffic and sales, check out the case studies in the Miramus “Why Your Business Needs a Blog” presentation [4:28, needs audio]
Related: Blogging for SEO. Improve your Google ranking with good content.
Read full report on HubSpot [via Gold Coast Social Media]
Blogging for SEO. Improve your Google ranking with good content
Everyone’s talking about SEO these days. And while it’s started to sound like a dirty word for some web purists, there’s no shame in wanting people to be able to find your website when they run a search.
The key is to create content that’s actually worth reading. You can stack up the keywords, optimise the life out of your headers, merrily chuck in celebrity names and wave around as many search-friendly statements as you like, but if what you’re saying is ultimately pointless, you’re not really doing much to make that traffic stick.
The web is a weird and wonderful place. Make something marvellous, and people will love you for it — which is good news for your Google rankings, and even better news for your brand.
So, yes, you should be writing a post a day, engaging in social media, getting excited about social bookmarking and making free and easy with the outbound links, but most importantly of all, you should be feeding the internet with something tasty, filling and more-ish. Not something full of empty calories with a strong odour of spam.
What the SEO world has to say about blogging
Blogging for SEO
The Top 10 E-commerce Blogging Tips to Skyrocket Sales
Crystal Palace Children’s Book Festival 2010
Anyone who lives in Crystal Palace knows it’s great, which is why it’s just become one of Lonely Planet’s Top 10 secret communities IN THE WORLD.
Here at Miramus, we like to think we’ve played a small part in that thanks to the Crystal Palace Children’s Book Festival. The festival, run by Miramus founder and children’s author/illustrator, Alex Milway, will be returning at a slightly later date this year (thanks to the arrival of a Miramus baby).
New Poster unveiled!
Here’s a sneak preview of the poster, designed by the amazing Sarah McIntyre (illustrator of Morris The Mankiest Monster), who will be taking part in the festival – along with many other marvellous, award-winning writers and illustrators.
We’ll be announcing more from this year’s line up in the coming months. We’re very excited about this year’s festival. Last year’s was great – with an art exhibition, countless amazing workshops (like How to Draw Zombies!), and author readings in the Bookseller Crow on the Hill.
But this year will be EVEN BETTER! We’ve got some new venues to unveil, a very special one-off publication, and a brand new bit just for teenagers.
More announcements coming soon!
Crystal Palace Children’s Book Festival 2010 (23 October)
