6 Tips for Reinvigorating Your Corporate Blog

By Tami Casey
Compelling content is one of the best ways to reach customers and potential customers, and one of the best channels for posting content is the company blog. While the blog is a common on most corporate sites, the quality and freshness of these blogs varies greatly.
  
Nothing turns off a visitor to your site more than an inactive blog. But in today's "do more with less" world, who has the time to keep the blog fresh?  Banish stagnant blogs by resourcing them properly and refreshing content weekly. Here are six tips to help keep the blog fresh and active:

1. Editorial Calendar—Establish an editorial direct/owner and make sure to create a three month calendar of potential topics and owners. Populate the calendar with important dates such as product introductions and industry events.
2. Length—keep blogs to 250–300 words. For lengthy pieces, consider making it a two part story.
3. Repurpose content—Trouble coming up with unique content ideas? Summarize white papers or press releases and mixing in personal opinion to create fresh blog posts. Attending a tradeshow? Repurpose your show description with some unique facts about your tradeshow staff or facts about the tradeshow location.
4. Comment on industry happenings—Is a competitor being acquired? Does an industry leader make a blunder? Is there a particularly interesting industry story to tell? Consider recapping the news with your personal take on the item.  
5. Guest bloggers—Do you have a customer that has provided a glowing review of a new feature or a thank you for exceptional service? Consider asking them to pen a guest post on your site.
6. Promote your blog—Use social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to point people to your blog.

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Standing up Against Censorship

By Kelly Indrieri
With the recent news that the Chinese government will soon be requiring all personal PCs shipped into the country be bundled with "Green Dam" software (software intended to block access to what the government deems illicit content on the Web), one is left to wonder in the face of this kind of censorship, how much private PC vendors, like HP and Dell, can do to stand up against government censorship for the greater good and the protection of freedom of speech or in this case search.

With PC sales to China projected to exceed 40 million units in 2009, is it too risky a business choice for PC vendors to fight back and potentially lose millions, or even billions, in revenue as a result? It's easy to argue that it is not the job of individual companies to take a moral stance by refusing to go along with this requirement. Yes, it will hurt business, but if they all stand together, could they affect change? One could argue that it is unlikely to change the position of the Chinese government, but a united front, at least, might force their hand and enable a softening of this regulation. Apparently, discussions are in play and I look forward to keeping an eye on the developments and seeing, if come July 1, some policy changes have been made.
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Call to Arms for Securing the U.S. Digital Infrastructure—It’s About Time

By Cathy Wright
Did you hear the big news on Friday? The government officially acknowledged that the nation’s digital infrastructure is under ‘near constant’ attack. President Obama went on record to say the threat from hackers to critical data systems is among “the most serious economic and national security challenge facing the U.S. today.” A heavy statement, given all the other bad news making headlines every day.

How did we get to this vulnerable point? In my opinion it all comes down to investments…or lack there of. Just as the government needs cash to fix decrepit roadways and bridges and hospitals, it also must invest in the securing of the U.S. data infrastructure as well. Until now, less importance has been placed on the latter and I applaud Obama for now taking cyber crime seriously and for his administration’s decision to address this very real problem. It’s about time.

Given my profession I’m a close watcher of technology innovation and can say that today there are countless technologies out there for stopping hackers and cyber threats. However the fact that Obama is raising awareness around cyber security gives everyone—from universities and hospitals, to the enterprise, to the steps of the White House— pause to re-examine and question their current methods. It’s definitely ‘game on’ for all the security vendors out there and will be interesting to watch.
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'Jumping the Shark'—Are ‘Happy Days’ Over for Twitter?

By Julie Tangen
A colleague and I were discussing all the celebrities now on Twitter and she said 'Oh yeah, Twitter jumped the shark.' What does this mean? I'm interested! She reminded me about the episode on Happy Days where Fonzie jumps over a confined shark while water skiing, and how that event signified the end of the series.

The phrase has been used more recently outside the realm of popular culture, representing anything that has reached its peak and has declined in quality. With Twitter ‘Kingpins' like Oprah, Ellen, and Kim Kardashian signing up for an account, along with that silly Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN stunt that I blogged about last month, one could argue that Twitter has reached its peak, or "jumped the shark." Do these celebrities even matter?

As editor Harry McCracken puts it in a Technologizer article earlier this week, 'I have nothing against following the rich and famous via Twitter, but it’s not the thing I’d be proudest of if I’d invented Twitter." Well said.

Twitter has proved to be useful in my line of business, but for how long?

Let me know what you think. And, of course, follow me
on Twitter :-) @julietangen

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SEO Experts Be Damned!

By Tami Casey
I recently attended the Inbound Marketing Summit (#ISM09) in San Francisco where I met many new friends and learned about the latest news and trends from industry experts. The schedule was jam packed and most days left my head spinning. But some of the more “sticky” presentations for me were on content and search. In fact, my key take away from the conference is that marketing in 2009 is about being found online via search, media sites, blogs and social networks.

Do we need the latest hot shot SEO Expert? While SEO expertise is great—the search algorithms and details change at whim. A big part of the strategy for showing up on page one of a search must include provisions to drive organic traffic. Say what? Yep, don’t place all your bets on gaming Google and the SEO gods. Provide a good Web site that helps users find what they are looking for, know who your audience is, where they congregate online, establish a presence on that site, and then create content that your users want. And don’t forget to make that content free and easy to access. Then add a little secret sauce to the recipe. Let your businesses humanity shine through in all that you do online and don’t forget to surprise and delight the prospects that find you. If you manage to do these key things—you will be found online and customers will be sure to come back again and again.
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Windows 7 adoption in the enterprise: Never underestimate the power of public opinion

By Scott Lechner
A recent ‘Windows 7 adoption in the enterprise’ survey commissioned by KACE showed that 75 percent of the 1,200 IT professionals polled would not make the move to upgrade to Windows 7 over the next year. Why is this? Turns out that an overwhelming number of respondents cited Windows Vista’s bad reputation as the number one reason they will not make the upgrade. Many of the 15 percent that do plan on upgrading to Windows 7 will choose the more complicated jump from XP to the new OS—completely bypassing the Vista version. An incremental upgrade from XP, to Vista to Windows 7 seems much easier, so it is interesting to see that IT pros are choosing a more complex deployment strategy rather than deal with Vista.

A ‘black cloud,’ such as the one looming over Vista, has the potential of overshadowing future product rollouts and launches, no matter how great the product promises to be. Never underestimate the power of public opinion!

A developer friend of mine said he has been running the Windows 7 beta for a couple months now and loves it. What do you think? Any one else have Windows 7 experience they would like to share?
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Enough with the Swine Flu Already...I'm going to Cabo!

By Kelly Indrieri
In the midst of a swine flu media frenzy, I booked a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Why, might you ask? Because sometimes I just don't buy what the media is selling. Don’t get me wrong, I'm a PR person and can appreciate the value of the media because I work with reporters regularly. But do a Google news search for “swine flu” and there are over half a million articles and it’s only been a week since the story broke. It’s depressing and overdone. Even the happy stories get to me after a while—Susan Boyle anyone?

But I digress. I appreciate the warning, but I also like other news along with my episode of ‘Fear Factor.’ Yes there is an outbreak. Yes we need to know. But can someone give me a side dish of ‘citizen makes good’ or ‘business owner wins big’ along with my main course of Swine? National media, hear my plea—I can’t be the only one, can I? (And did I mention that we have a few clients you could cover?) Seriously though, I’m putting away the paper, turning off the news this week and I’m going to Cabo in two months—flu or no flu! Care to join me?
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