Join the Conversation - Blogging for Retailers annotations, part 6

PLEASE NOTE: This blogpost is part 6 of 6 the Blogging for Retailers White Paper annotations. Be sure to download “Blogging for Retailers - Why Blogging Matters and How to get Started” (complimentary) to follow along.

Join the Conversation

During this exercise, you will need to register for various free accounts as needed - Elastic Path, the publishers of the Get Elastic blog, are not affiliated with any of these companies and, as such, make no warranty about any of them, and (of course) all trademarks are property of their respective owners, enjoy!

Bloggers blogging at a blogging conference
(L to R: Mark/CNN, Jay/Zhonka, Andre/nitobi)
photo: Dave O

11 Steps to get to know the Blogosphere
Exercise

1) Read Wikipedia’s (community-built encyclopedia) entry on social software and weblogs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_software/

2) Read Robert Scoble’s widely-distributed manifesto on corporate blogging - and/or PDF at ChangeThis, HTML at Scobleizer, HTML 1.0 Strict version at penmachine.com - http://scoble.weblogs.com/2003/02/26.html

Photo of Robert Scoble by Dave Olson, Gnomedex 2006

3) Visit Google Blog Search or IceRocket and look for your company (and your competitors) - explore other directories too - http://blogsearch.google.com - http://icerocket.com

4) Use Bloglines (a web-based news reader) &/or Google News Reader to subscribe to a few feeds http://bloglines.com - http://www.google.com/reader/view - Or use your RSS-ready browser to subscribe: Firefox, Flock, Internet Explorer 7

5) Set-up a free personal blog at Wordpress (or Blogger or other) - Hint: Listen to Get Elastic podcast episode #5 for an overview of new web tools and #7 for “how-to” tips on setting up Wordpress and related tools - After setting up, post something (maybe about your hobby, or …) http://wordpress.com - http://typepad.com - http://blogger.com

6) Submit your new hobby blog to Technorati (a searchable blog directory showing links, authority and tags); while there, set up a Watchlist to track conversations by keyword - http://technorati.com

7) Post a comment at the Blogging for Retailers White Paper article to tell about your new blog and any tips to share http://company.getelastic.com/blogging-retailer-white-paper

8) Submit an interesting article to Digg (a user-driven article rating site) or Now Public (a citizen-journalism site) - http://digg.com - http://nowpublic.com - See also: newsvine.com - reddit.com

9) Register a Feedburner account (feed management tool) and tune-up your blog (and podcast) feed - http://feedburner.com

10) Register a free Flickr account (Yahoo-owned photo sharing site with feeds and tagging) - upload and tag some photos - http://flickr.com

11) Sign-up at a social bookmark site like Delicious or Magnolia and add a few links to share del.icio.us - ma.gnolia.com

More … Surveys, Retail Blogs, Etc. Corporate Blogging Survey

• Backbone Corporate Blogging Survey 2005 - Survey and Case study Overview Posted by johncass, at “Corporate Blogging: Is it worth all the hype” September 30, 2005

Related:

• Retail Store Blogging - to host or comment? Posted by Greg, Sept. 9, 2005 at Retail Store Blog
• Why Retail Lags By Shel Israel, Sept. 27, 2005 at Global Neighborhoods (formerly Naked Conversations)

See also:

• The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make - Flyte Media article

A few more Retail Blogs

• Free People - multi-channel boutique retailer with a brand conscious blog (great design and point of view) for tips, ideas and musings for passionate customers of their stylish ecommerce site
• Direct 2 Dell - example of many writers on one blog from the computer builder (topics include blogging, new meida, internal affairs, awards … )
• Expressoparts.com - espresso equipment vendors blog about new products, barista competitions, video how-tos, professional techniques and coffee culture

And You? Seen any good retail blogs lately? Of course! Drop your ideas in the comments. Please also let me know of any missed resources (or bogus links).

PLEASE NOTE: This blogpost is part 6 of 6 the Blogging for Retailers White Paper annotations. Be sure to download “Blogging for Retailers - Why Blogging Matters and How to get Started” (complimentary) to follow along.