Blogging as a Marketing Stategy
A research paper made by the Matri-6 Group
Under the guidance of Ms. Salma Angkaya
BA 180.1 THX2, A.Y. 2008-2009
University of the Philippines, Diliman
ABSTRACT
This research paper is about the blogging technology. Definitions of blog and blogging are supplied in the first few sections of the paper. A brief history of the industry, both in the global and in the Philippine context, is also provided. There are many kinds of blogs that exist in the blogging community. However, the researchers focus only on the applications of blogging in the business industry. This is discussed on the main section of this paper labeled as Blogging in Business. This section is divided further into three subsections which discuss three main issues about blogging in business. The first subsection talks about how blogs are promoted so as to encourage more readers, the second focuses on how products and services are advertise on blogs so as to persuade more buyers, and the third discusses how businesses make use of blogs as their main marketing channels through the so-called ‘Corporate Blogs’ so as to take even greater advantage of the widening internet users’ circle, many of which are prospective customers and buyers. An assessment of the industry is provided after the main section. The researchers then conclude.
CONTENTS
I. Introduction………………………………………………………………….……………….3
II. Definition and Description of Blogging……………………………………...……………3
III. History of Blogging…………………………………………………………….……………5
The Philippines’ Blogging History……………………………………….……………6
From Filter-Style to Journal-style Blogs…………………………………....…………6
IV. Blogging in Business………………………………………………………………...………7
A. Promoting Blogs…………………………………………………………….………7
B. Advertising in Blogs………………………………………………………....……10
B.1. Adsense………………………………………………………………...……10
B.2. Independent Advertisements ...………………………………………..…10
B.3. the Pros and the Cons of Advertising in Blogs...... 12
C. Corporate Blogging…………………………………………………………….…...13
C.1. Corporate Blogging in the Philippines……………………………….....14
C.2. the Pros and the Cons of Corporate Blogging……………………….….15
V. Assessment of the Industry…………………………………………………………….….17
VI. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………..20
References...... 21
I. INTRODUCTION
In the beginning, there were only fliers, posters, and TV ads. Companies and businesses scramble to get costumer attentions and keep business relations intact through visible marketing strategies. But that beginning, was years ago.
Originally, blogs or weblogs were referred to as online diaries. They were, for years, attached to personal properties and teenage fancies. However, as the Internet grew, the reason for excitement also did. It was a reason of exuberance for most people especially those who have technology running through their veins. The Internet, or specifically blogs, have been penetrated and have been utilize by many persona. And this does not exclude the business sector.
Background-wise, the blog was never thought to be a corporate thing –until now. These online journals are quickly developing its pace to catch up with the needs of the business community. It was unimaginable in the sense of the personality it projects but creativeness took over and nothing was doubted to be wrong.
Blogs are great tools for use in businesses. Whether used as corporate journals, bulletin boards, administrative tools, or sources of research, the blog’s versatility offers a number of functions which entrepreneurs should find appealing. Their informality and ease of use make them engaging to those who have discovered them. Their currency makes them another source of information as we seek answers. Their ability to spawn discussion from one blog to another make them excellent tools for hearing the different sides of the story and for encouraging participation in the discussion.
The phenomenon is now so widespread that there are several books on how to blog as well as a few that discuss how blogs are changing our culture. Clearly, the blog is a milestone in journalism and media history. Individuals and/or groups are empowered to publish their ideas at a very low cost.
II. DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION OF BLOGGING
The word “blog” was derived from the fusion of two words, “web” and “log”. A blog is an online journal where the owner (blogger) can post entries in real-time (blogging), virtually to keep its public viewers updated. Taking the form of a diary, the latest entries are posted above the older ones. The blogger can post his entries in text, graphics, audio or video format or combinations of these. The most essential part is having a tool where the viewers can leave a comment to the blogger and the blogger in turn could reply to it. Blogs can be owned by only one person or by a group of people, for which there could be a number of contributors.
Maintaining a blog is easy because the blog hosts that dominate the web today, whether free or paid, as Blogger and Blogsavy respectively, have automated the process of posting one’s entries unlike in the past, when long and tedious HTML editing was required. A format called the RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) revolutionized blogging. Using XML (Extensible Markup Language) code, the readers do not need to visit each site for them to stay updated of the blog contents.
There are different types of blogs existing today, as classified by the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies of the University of British Colombia. The most popular kind is Personal Blogs which serve to record the blogger’s personal life and random thoughts. Another is Political Blogs which include links to news articles and the blogger placing his opinions on current issues. These are sometimes used by politicians for their campaigns. Corporations also take advantage in blogs. Some of them have set up business blogs, sometimes called niche blogs, and hire writers to market their product.
Other than documenting personal experiences, blogs can function as ‘discussion communities’. A mother blog might be the kind of Topical Blogs that revolve around a specific subject and suggests an idea to its subscribers. Under this, we have Health blogs that let people impart their views on certain health issues. It enables patients to receive comments from actual medical doctors. We have Literary Blogs which contain information on literature such as updates on published works and book reviews. For travelling enthusiasts, there are Travel Blogs where they can show how their trips came about through text, photos, and maps, to help and guide future travellers. Research Blogs, also known as K-logs (knowledge logs) are where scientists, professionals, or students share findings and developments about their field. Lawyers and law students make use of ‘Legal Blawgs’ to talk about matters and cases concerning the law. In the academe, there are Educational Blogs which aid students and teachers, keeping track of their classroom activities.
There are no limits as to the number of categories of blogs. As developments in the blogging world continue to advance, there would surely be a lot of innovations in the utilization of blogs.
III. HISTORY OF BLOGGING
Blogging, in its early forms can be traced back to 1993, when it was invented by Dr. Glen Barry when he constructed his first political blog entitled ‘Gaia Forest Conservation Archives’. Blogging was then defined as web-based commentary. In January 1994, Justin Hall, a student of Swarthmore College pioneered personal blogging by making daily dated entries in his own Justin’s Home Page. This earned him the recognition as the first blogger. A blog was called ’online journal’ in 1996. In the following year, Userland Company released Radio Userland, one of the first blogging software tools.
On December 17, 1997, the term ‘weblog’ was coined. Weblog came from a Web writer Jorn Barger who catalogued the Web' by posting links on his site RobotWisdom.com about articles that he took interest in. In October 1998, Open Diary was launched as the first blog community that enables readers to comment on writers’ entries. Due to the increasing number of webloggers, Cameron Barrett, in November 1998, published the first list of blog sites on Camworld. In the year 1999, Eatonweb Portal is launched, the first portal that listed known blogs. Brigitte Eaton, the creator of the said portal recognized a weblog as a site that consists of dated entries. In the same year, computer programmer Peter Merholz declared that he would pronounce weblog as ‘wee-blog‘ then split the word in his blog’s sidebar into ‘we blog’. Then on, the term ‘blog’ was accepted as a noun, being the online journal that we know of, and as a verb, describing the act of keeping a blog.
A blog hosting service named LiveJournal was launched in March of 1999. In July, Pitas.com was created to maintain a ‘news page’ on a web site. It is the first free build-your-own weblog tool. Blogger was born in the next month, with Pyra Labs ensuring a more user-friendly set of blogging tools. In September, Diaryland which is a personal diary community, started. By September of the new millennium 2000, bloggers began Topic-Oriented weblogs and other types of blogs. In February 2003, Blogger was purchased by Google. Right now, there are still many innovations in the blogging community, and the bloggers are watching as this world wide diary keeps on developing.
The Philippines’ Blogging History
In the local perspective, Filipinos also had milestones in discovering the potentials of blogging. It was quite amazing that the first and oldest blog was created in December 1996 by Lauren Dado when she was just 10 years old. On October 20, 2000, another child named Bikoy, who now is the renowned creator of Bikoy.net had his first online journal entry hosted at diary-x.com.
PinoyBlog, a blog community portal was launched on October 2002. Afterwards, Ploghost.com became the 1st local full service Filipino blog hosting in January 2003. Topical Blogs emerged in the country as well, and the first of which (started in February 2003) is houseonahill.net of Connie Veneracion. Her blog concentrated on the subject, food. In 2004, the print media also saw the advantage of using blogs and so inq7.net set up their blog, Talking Points, in October. The company’s rival, Manila Bulletin, followed in March 2005 with their Blog-O-Rama. In November 2004, i.PH which is a customized blog product and hosting service began with its blogging system Calliope.
To advocate and deepen the citizens’ understanding of blogging, the First Philippine Blogging Summit was held at UP Diliman, College of Law on May 7, 2005. To recognize and encourage Filipino bloggers, awards were also granted in the Philippines. Towards the end of 1999, Indayworks.com won People’s Choice Award under Family and Personals category of the 2nd Philippine Web Awards. And in 2003, the Philppine Blog Awards and Philippine WeBlog Awards were launched but the latter did not last long.
From Filter-Style to Journal-style Blogs
Indeed, blogs were seen to cater to different interests as people began to discover the promise of blogging. Actually, it started off as a record of one’s personal accounts. Blogs then, revolved around certain topics then afterwards, as a medium to air political insights. Also, blogs are now used as marketing strategy and for some, a source of living. Rebecca Blood, in her blog entitled ‘Weblogs: A History and Perspective’ describes the transformation of how people perceived blogs. She remarks that back then, almost all weblogs were Filter-style, meaning, weblogs only picked the most relevant and controversial ones which readers could critique on. But in the advent of the Blogger, blogs were more of a Journal-style weblog. It is in this age that bloggers see blogging as a process of unveiling their personal interests and taking a stand on societal issues. It is through blogging that one could ‘share his world’ to others and also build his confidence in writing.
IV. BLOGGING IN BUSINESS
Blogging is a good engine for efficient information dissemination. It can be a very good channel of awareness in the virtual world. It can help people become updated and involved in the society they are in. In a sense, blogging provides an imaginary connection between people who may have not even meet each other in the real world. Businesses take advantage of these facts by incorporating blogs as their marketing strategy. How this is made possible is discussed in the following subsections.
A. PROMOTING BLOGS
There are over 50 million blogs out there (Nicholas and MacArthur, 2009). This fact poses one problem to an average blogger: How will he promote his blog. The first thing the blogger must do is to know what people do the most when they surf the internet, and that is to use search engines. A search engine is a site in the internet where, by just typing a key word in the search box, links of web pages containing relevant information are displayed. By clicking these links, a person can visit the site where the needed information is contained.
The main search engines are Yahoo, Google, and Live. They collect information from websites using electronic programs called ‘robots’ or ‘spiders’. They find new sites and content generally by following links and then reading and indexing the code which creates the individual pages. This is stored in their servers so that when a search is submitted, the search engine filters through all the relevant pages in its index and ranks them in terms of relevancy using a mathematical algorithm. The result is what we see on the search engine results page (White). For an average blogger, ranking high in search engines is a pro. The higher a blogger ranks, the more likely his/her page is visited.