Business Blogging. I mentioned before Christmas that I'm starting a new business and now's the time to
let you all know what it is. It's a new business blogging company, called Weblog Solutions Ltd. It's a 50/50 venture
with another New Zealand blogger, who's a bit shy about revealing his identity right now
(but a lot of you will be familiar with him and his work, because he's developed some
products which many bloggers all over the world use on a daily basis). We're targeting New Zealand
companies in particular with our new business venture, but we're also looking for
overseas work - to take advantage of the exchange rate! You can read more about us and our services on the blog -
which has recently soft-launched. Comments and advice greatly appreciated, especially if
you're a New Zealander who is interested in our company!
Anyway for this week's paid Marqui post, I thought it'd be timely to review Marqui's new blog - called Marqui's world. My new company is all about business
blogs, so what better topic to write about in my sponsored post. Let's take a look then
at Marqui's effort at setting up a blog and compare it to another recent company blog on
the scene - General Motor's GM Fastlane Blog
(which I wrote about on the
Weblog Solutions blog this weekend).
Content
They both started about the same time - the first post for Marqui's world was on 30
December and GM Fastlane Blog's first post was January 5. In terms of content, GM's blog
got off to a voluminous start. They've already posted 9 items and some of them are
lengthy. It looks like they had a bunch of posts pre-prepared (a couple of speeches
converted into posts, links to interviews, biographies, plus some actual conversational
posts). Pre-preparing content is a practice I'd recommend if you're launching (any) new
blog, so top marks to GM for that. And what's more, the content is compelling - evidenced
by the 68 comments (and still growing) that have been made to a post about GM's new Saturn
brand.
Marqui's world has only 3 posts so far - and none in the New Year. So they're off to a
slow start. The one piece of advice I'd give to them straight off the bat is to post
regularly - momentum is vital in keeping blogs afloat. I should note though that GM
probably has more resources to throw at their blog, being a huge multinational company
and all.
Target Audience
GM are obviously targeting car enthusiasts and, judging by all the comments they're
receiving, they seem to be striking a chord with that audience.
As for Marqui, they are targeting marketers. The 3 items so far have been an
introductory post, a post entitled Firing up the
imagination, and a post about an SEO paper. Nothing yet that will bring marketers
scurrying out of their business lunches and commenting on Marqui's blog. And remember
that one of the main goals of an external business blog is to get conversations going
with your customers.
However I do think the tone of Marqui's blog is encouraging. It's
conversational and informal - that's good. But the subject matter isn't compelling enough
yet. Nothing against SEO papers, but it's hardly the sort of thing that your customers
are going to get all excited about. Actually, the best piece of content I've seen from
Marqui isn't even on the blog - it was
a write-up by Janet Johnson about "a fascinating breakfast meeting in Portland about
innovation and risk taking in marketing [which] yielded surprising insights". OK,
that's the kind of thing you should be blogging! Talk about your marketing
theories, about innovation in your field, about "surprising insights". That is much more
likely to get marketers conversing with you, than a dry paper about search engine
optimization.
Links
If you look at the GM blog, you'll notice they've started to compile a list of links
to other car enthusiast websites and "blogs we like". In the blogging world, this is
known as a 'blogroll' (they may be going out of fashion on the homepage, but generally
most bloggers keep a blogroll somewhere). It's particularly important to maintain a
blogroll on your homepage if you're a new business blog looking to connect to a community
of readers. My suggestion to Marqui is to find out which are the marketing blogs that
interest you, then link to them on the side of your blog. What's more, regularly read
what they're blogging about and comment on that on your own blog (and leave comments on theirs). Two-way communication is
important not just with your target audience, but your community of like minds.
Design
I mentioned above that GM probably has many more resources to throw at their blog - and
it shows in their slick design. It's a bit unfair to ask Marqui to match that, but one
thing I suggest to Marqui is to differentiate your blog more from your main website.
Currently it looks too same-y. For the blog to capture the imagination of your customers,
and compel them to converse with you, it needs to have its own identity and (most
importantly) personality.
Summary
GM's new blog is off to a great start and the conversations with their customers (and
potential customers) seem to be flowing like wine already. Marqui is by comparison off to
a slow start, but I think the tone of writing they've adopted is promising. They just
need to come up with some more compelling content that their target audience (marketers)
will be excited by. I also suggest they find out who their blogging community is (other
marketing blogs, primarily), and regularly read and link to them. Also a distinct design
for their blog, to give it its own personality, would not go amiss.
That's just a start... OK here's where I add a plug for my new company, Weblog Solutions Ltd :-) Marqui, we're
available to help you improve your blog! That invitation extends to any other company or
organization wanting to get started in the blogosphere, or wanting to put some pep into
their current blog. Feel free to contact us to talk.
Disclosure: I mentioned and linked to Marqui as part of my sponsorship arrangement
with them. See here for
details. [Read/Write Web]
10:40:36 AM 
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