Skip to main content

Business Communication and Blogs (Writing for Weblogs)

Image

Business Communication and Weblogs

•   A blog (Abbreviated form of weblog) is an online journal or informational website. It is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views on an individual subject.

•   It is also known as a regularly updated website or webpage. It is run by individuals or small groups. It is written in an informal or conversational style. A person who regularly writes a blog is called a blogger.

•   The blog has both personal and business use, Blogging for business has a clear-cut purpose - money making. It helps the customers draw their attention to the products and services of your business.

•   Importance of Blog Writing

•   Running a blog makes one searchable and competitive.

•   Blog connects you with the target audience.

•   The more frequent and better your blog posts are, the higher the chances for your website to get discovered and visited by your target audience.

•   It is an effective lead creation tool, which allows you to showcase your authority and build a brand.

•   It is a creative, informative and engaging post, which helps build trust with your audience.

•   Blogging makes your business look more credible, especially it is important when your brand is still young and fairly unknown.

•   Nurture and convert customers.

•   Keep current customers engaged.

•   Differentiate you from other similar businesses.

•   Grow demand and interest in your products or services.

•   Structures of Blog/Weblog

Most blog includes some standard features and structures. The common features of a typical blog include:

•   Header with the menu or navigation bar.

•   Main content area with highlighted latest blog post

•   Sidebar with social profiles, favourite content, or call-to-action.

•   Footer with relevant links like a disclaimer, privacy policy, contact page, etc.

•   Writing a Blog:

•    Millions of blogs are written and published on the internet every day. It is equally likely that thousands of blog posts covering more or less the same topic compete with each other for readers' attention. Therefore, you will not only have to write well but also make sure that your blog posts are noticed on the internet. To attract readers to internet search engines such as Google, consider the following basic tips.

•    Craft your title: The title of your blog post should attract the reader's attention, but it also should follow the best SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) practices. For this, include a couple of relevant and strong keywords in the title. You have to anticipate the words or phrases that internet users are more likely to use while searching for the content. Use a short (Level 1) title of 40-60 characters for your blog. You can also use a longer meta-tag title that appears in the search results. Based on the description in the research results, readers decide whether they want to scroll down the webpage and read it. Many blogging platforms such as WordPress use the main title as meta-tags.

•    Introduction: Readers do not have enough time and patience to read long, complex writing on the net. A blog post must be short, precise and engaging, usually between 1000 and 1500 words. So, while writing the introduction of a blog post, avoid unnecessary background information and uncalled-for digressions. Instead, dive directly into the topic. To make the introduction interesting, think of beginning with a startling statement, a personal anecdote, or fascinating facts. Asking a question that you anticipate the readers to have on their minds could be another way of creating interest at the beginning of the blog.

•    Develop and organise the body section: The body section is the main part of the blog post. Once you have gathered information, facts, and details that you want to include in the post, organise the details and information in such a way that the readers can easily follow the ideas and information. For this, consider using headings, subheadings, bullet points, and other graphic features to emphasise key ideas. Moreover, you can use relevant images, graphics, video clips and audio files to make the blog attractive and engaging. You can also include keywords in the subheadings to ensure the best SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) practice. Good blogs provide internal and external links to other relevant pages and websites so that readers can get extra information on the topics they are interested in.

•    Conclusion: Your conclusion needs to be emphatic and memorable. Usually, a conclusion provides the main point summary but in a blog, the conclusion may call for action. In an organisational blog. this is where the writer can provide a link to a product, ask the reader to contact them for additional information, solicit questions, and invite readers to comment on or share the blog.

•    Reviewing the Blog: Reviewing (revising) and editing are the most important stages of the writing process. Blogs, especially external organisational blogs, are viewed and read by a wide range of audiences. A sloppy (lacking neatness and order) and error-prone blog published on the internet negatively reflects on you and your company. You should carefully review blog posts and revise them to ensure accuracy, preciseness, relevancy of the content, and appropriateness of the style. As you review the content, consider the following questions:

•   Does the title accurately reflect the content?

•   Are there any spelling errors, grammatical lapses, or misused punctuation marks?

•   Do the ideas flow smoothly? Is there a smooth transition between ideas and paragraphs?

•   Is there anything important missing? Is there anything irrelevant that should be deleted?

•   Are important links missing?

•   Are there any common errors such as subject-verb agreement, tense shift, dangling modifiers, and sentence fragments?

•    Publicising the Blog

•    Once you are thoroughly satisfied with the writing and you have made the necessary corrections and revisions, you are ready to put your blog post out there on the internet. However, readers need to find your blog too. So, you not only want to publish the blog but also to publicise it to get the readers' attention and get them to read it. To help readers discover your blog, consider the following tips:

•   Provide internal and external links to other relevant blogs and web pages.

•   Share your blog on social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

•   Provide links to your blog in emails and other means of communication.

•   Consider using "tags" on your site (tags are keywords that identify the topic of each blog post).




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CONTENTS OF THE DEAD MAN’S POCKET

Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket is a short story by  Jack Finney , originally published by both   Good Housekeeping   and   Collier’s   in 1956 . The story is a suspenseful tale of a man who travels onto a hazardous window ledge (ridge) to retrieve the papers he believes will make his career. Finney was a prolific (creative) writer, recognized for his science fiction novels   The Body Snatchers   and   Time and Again , as well as thrillers, such as   5 Against the House . The story begins with protagonist  Tom Benecke at a desk in the living room of his eleventh-floor apartment in New York City. He is preparing to type up a handwritten memo to be distributed to his office. He finds small ways to distract himself from starting. First, he tries to open a window, but it isn’t easily opened. He has to use quite a bit of force on the frame. Once the window is open, he continues to ignore the typewriter, crossing the room to talk t...
Post a Comment
Read more

BBS First Year English Question Paper with Possible Answers (TU 2021)

Post a Comment
Read more

FORMULAS OF ALL THE 12 TENSES

S + V + O || Subject + Verb + Object Simple Past Tense S + Past Form of the Verb + O  E.g. He wrote a letter. Past Continuous Tense S + was/were + V + ING + O  E.g. I was writing a letter.   Past Perfect Tense S + had + Past Participle (PP.) of the Verb + O  E.g. She had written a letter.   Past Perfect Continuous Tense S + had been + V + ING + O + since/for  E.g. We had been writing a letter since morning. Simple Present Tense S + V + O  E.g. You write a letter. Present Continuous Tense S + is/am/are + V + ING + O  E.g. She is writing a letter. Present Perfect Tense S + has/have + Past Participle (PP.) of the Verb + O  E.g. They have written a letter. Present Perfect Continuous Tense S + has been/have been + V + ING + O + since/for  E.g. You have been writing a letter for three hours. Simple Future Tense S + will/shall + V + O  E.g. We shall write a letter. Future Continuous Tense S +...
21 comments
Read more

Summary and Analysis of Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros

ONLY DAUGHTER -Sandra Cisneros Born into a working-class family in 1954, Sandra Cisneros was the daughter of a Mexican-American mother and a Mexican father.  Only Daughter originally appeared in Glamour magazine in 1990. Cisneros through this essay describes the difficulties of growing up as the only daughter in a Mexican-American family of six sons.   Historically, sons have been valued over daughters in most cultures, as reflected in the following proverbs: “A house full of daughters is like a cellar full of sour beer” (Dutch); “Daughters pay nae [no] debts” (Scottish); “A stupid son is better than a crafty daughter” (Chinese); and “A virtuous son is the sun of his family” (Sanskrit).  Contemporary research suggests that while the preference for male children has diminished considerably in industrialised nations, a distinct preference for sons continues among many cultures in Asia and the Middle East, raising concerns among medical ethicists worldwide. And, even within ...
1 comment
Read more

Summary and Analysis of My Mother Never Worked

MY MOTHER NEVER WORKED Bonnie Smith - Yackel SYNOPSIS   In the essay “ My Mother Never Worked ,” Bonnie Smith-Yackel recollects the time when she called Social Security to claim her mother’s death benefits. Social Security places Smith-Yackel on hold so they can check their records on her mother, Martha Jerabek Smith . While waiting, she remembers the many things her mother did, and the compassion her mother felt towards her husband and children. When Social Security returns to the phone, they tell Smith-Yackel that she could not receive her mother’s death benefits because her mother never had a wage-earning job. A tremendous amount of irony is used in this essay. The title, in itself, is full of irony; it makes readers curious about the essay’s point and how the author feels about the situation. Smith-Yackel uses the essay to convey her opinion of work. Her thesis is not directly stated; however, she uses detail upon detail to prove her mother did work, just not in the eyes of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

PROFESSIONS FOR WOMEN - Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Summary : Virginia Adeline Woolf (1882-1941) was an English novelist and essayist, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. She was one of the leaders in the literary movement of modernism.  The speech of  Professions for Women  was given in 1931 to the Women’s Service League by Virginia Woolf. It was also included in  Death of a Moth  and  Other Essays  in 1942. Throughout the speech, Virginia Woolf brings forward a problem that is still relevant today:  gender inequality .   Woolf’s main point in this essay was to bring awareness to the phantoms (illusions) and obstacles women face in their jobs. Woolf argues that women must overcome special obstacles to become successful in their careers. She describes two hazards she thinks all women who aspire to professional life must overcome: their tendency to sacrifice their own interests to those of others and their reluctance (hesitancy) to challenge c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Summary and Analysis of THE HIDDEN LIFE OF GARBAGE by Heather Rogers

  THE HIDDEN LIFE OF GARBAGE Heather Rogers Journalist Heather Rogers has written articles on the environmental effects of mass production and consumption for the  New York Times Magazine,  the  Utne Reader, Architecture,  and a variety of other publications.    Her 2002 documentary film  Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage  has been screened at festivals around the world and served as the basis for a book of the same title. Named an Editor’s Choice by the  New York Times  and the  Guardian,  the book, published in 2005, traces the history and politics of household garbage in the United States, drawing connections between modern industrial production, consumer culture, and our contemporary throwaway lifestyle. Americans produce the most waste of any people on Earth, says Rogers, but few of us ever think about where all that trash goes. Rogers endeavours to show the inner workings of the waste stream, from the garbage...
1 comment
Read more

THIRD THOUGHTS - E.V. Lucas, England (1868-1938)

E.V. Lucas, England (1868-1938) The story ‘ Third Thoughts ’ by E.V. Lucas (1868-1938) is a great satire of the common human mentality. This story was told to Lucas by his friend who had a business especially buying at dearer (higher) prices and selling at cheap. However, he always used to bear the loss. He used to think that one day luck would favour him. As he thought, once he earned abnormal profit by selling Turner’s panting at 50 pounds which he had bought at only 10 shillings from a curio (Something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting) shop at Cathedral city . He was really happy and excited for the first time in his business so he wanted to share half of his profit with the dealer. But since he had no stamps to send the parcel, he went to the bed.   When he woke up at 3.30 am, again he began to think that sharing half of the profit is not a good idea because no one had done this to him yet. Then he thought of giving ten pounds. Due to unexpectedly earning an abnormal ...
27 comments
Read more

THE LADY WITH THE DOG (1899)

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) Ø Tells the story of an affair o    Wealthy Banker ( Dmitry Gurov ) o    Young Wife ( Anna ) Ø Builds off of what is expected o    Affair was thought to be a quick experience o    These characters were surprised to find that not the case o    Specially the Banker  Ø After short affair they meet again o    Rekindle their relationship o    Develop a new chapter in their lives o    Discover themselves Ø The writer presents the Theme and Ideas o    Progression of Character: §    Moving from stereotype to developed §    Dmitri: Rich playboy with no depth becomes entwined with Anna. §    Anna: Moves from  The Lady with the Dog to someone with a name. ·        Relates to getting to know people as well as individual development. o    Open Ending and the Ability t...
Post a Comment
Read more

A PAINFUL CASE

James Joyce Dubliners  is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. The stories depict a naturalistic Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20 th  century.   CHARACTERS: James Duffy Mrs Emily Sinico Captain Sinico (Ship Captain) Mary In  A Painful Case  by  James Joyce we have the theme of loneliness, isolation, guilt, order and paralysis. Taken from his Dubliners collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and very early on in the story the reader realises that Joyce, through the use of colour, is highlighting to the reader how lonely the main character,  James Duffy ’s life is a middle-aged bachelor without family or friends, is a cashier in a private bank and lives a Spartan (simple) existence in a Dublin suburb. He dislikes physical and mental disorder, ignores beggars’ pleas for alms (charities), and does not attend church. Hi...
Post a Comment
Read more