Business Blogging 101 Seminar Results

Thanks again to Ray Silverstein, founder of PRO for asking me to present a beginning business blogging seminar.

What I learned:

Blogging for business presentations need to be in at least three phases or levels: elementary for those who don’t know what a blog is, intermediate for those who have some familiarity and marketing-focused for those who want to take their blog to the next level.

How would you fit into these categories?

Building an online community was the number one topic of interest and the biggest obstacle to overcome. Business owners need to figure out who their community is/will be before they start blogging or marketing.

Attendees need a glossary of terms. I tend to throw around a lot of technical stuff that either gets lost, picked up or requires a great deal of explanation and time. I had to spell ASKIMET AKISMET at least four times; apologies to those who were there for that. A good old flip chart would help. Adding the URLS to the seminar booklet’s resources section would add to the value of the presentation.

Going online makes it easier to follow and explain technical terms like RSS. Technorati a good starting site for many reasons: blog search, favorites, rankings, trends, terms.

When I mentioned a beginning blogging bootcamp, several of the attendees jumped at the suggestion. I’m working on setting up a lab now.

Recording the presentation and then offering it as an mp3 download in exchange for their customer information would be a good way to give away knowledge and stay with them.

Time is always an issue. One attendee, a technical expert, started out by saying that he’s personally concerned about time and information overload. He then went on to say that blogs are in their infancy. He predicts a content explosion over the next few years. Now is the time to get in.

Thanks to my good friend, Jenny Hamby – the Seminar Marketing Pro, for taking the pictures and for being there!

What’s your take on business and blogging?