Web 2.0 and Business : Are Blogs still Effective?

Writing about web page http://cope-technology.blogspot.com/

As my friends over at Cope Technology John & Aidan have moved their news page out to ABlog I came to reflect on the effectiveness of CEO Blogs three years on.

I have two MSc students researching how Web 2.0 interactive sites can help two local companies: Penstamps for kids and Vintage Paints serving the restoration community. My son’s reaction to my musings was that “Blogs are for middle aged men!”

There are at least three factors governing the choice of interactive platform that people use:

1. Functionality: Video on Youtube, mobile content on Twitter.
2. Community: This University’s LARP society uses Facebook so my other son joined and used it for his New Zealand notes.
3. Time: The most popular, hot technology when you got involved. A lot of users are still using text forums because they are familiar with them and trust them.

Still there are a lot of middle aged men in business so how are business Blogs doing? Looking at the Analytics for two of the Blogs I contribute to, both on blogs.warwick.ac.uk , show a dramatic difference.
This Blog has seen 900 unique visitors this month so far viewing an average of 2.5 pages. For the CCM Blog, with half of the content by the same author, the figures are 92 visitors and 1.3 pages. The difference is that I have been more opinionated on this Blog, ranting about Virgin Media etc. Dr. Bal’s Blog will also attract visitors to his forthright views than our more measured content on the CCM Blog.

The same is true for all good CEO Blogs. These work best where the individual expresses their views in a way that they would not add to the corporate site.

Aidan & John have started well with interesting content and mild opinions. They have also launched an exciting range of telemetry modules and M2M Wireless Solutions with some great applications such as keeping the chillers working on the fizzy drinks machines across europe for a well known burger chain.

Robert McGonigle : 29 Jan 2009 11:49 |  Tags: Blogging Blogs Ceo Blogs Web 20 Web 2 0 Web Two Dot Zero |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem