Hello and welcome

It’s great to be busy with imaginative work for businesses but it leaves me with little time to spend on my own projects.  So, to remedy this I have taken a few days out to get this Website Wings blog, amongst other ‘must find time to do’ work, launched.  I hope readers will respond positively to the more casual approach to content than you might expect on a standard business website. Do post a comment, if it’s a good one you’ll feature on here too!

Businesses often use their blog to promote the latest news in whatever business sector they are involved with.  How it’s done is the secret to success.  Just like selling a product you need to keep the interest of your customer/reader so that they will want to read your next post because they enjoyed the last one!  Posts needn’t be ‘facts, facts, facts’; maybe raising a smile will do the business effectively?

In the world of blogging It’s OK to share a story to raise a smile. For the reader it can be a welcome interlude in the day to share something that may strike a common chord.  It offers the alternative to the coffee break chat of what’s going on in the world outside.  The only difference is that your audience is, potentially, global so you need to have respect for the feelings and culture of your potential readers.  So, for example no swearing! (yes, I know you wouldn’t do that …..)

In business, people tend to buy from people they know.  If you have a Sales Team who can go out on the road promoting your products that’s great.  However, if you’re a company without a Sales Team and don’t have much time for meeting potential customers through networking events, or have the enthusiam to build up your group contacts on LinkedIn, then what other options have you at your disposal to make yourself known to potential customers.  You could:-

▪               Email potential customers regularly (not very personal)

▪               Phone  potential customers regularly (can have the opposite effect intended)

▪               Talk to customers using Skype or Google Talk (could be frightening in more ways than one!)

▪               Create a blog (all very well if you know how)

▪               Bury your head in the sand and think more about it next week/month/year

What you’ll find on this blog is both an introduction to and opportunity to share in an ongoing overview of blogging and other social media marketing methods. Contributions will be sought from other professional people in the form of Podcasts and Articles – watch this space!

If you like the idea (well it’s free, so what’s the harm?) then subscribe to the rss feed (what’s that?). Click on the icon at the right hand side of the address bar at the top of the page.

rss symbols come in various colours and shapes

rss = really simple syndication.  It means that everytime you, the owner of the blog, posts some information it will be sent to all your subscribers.  How valuable is that?  However many subscribers you have, you can get your latest news or special offers directly sent to them at the click of a button. It’s got to make good business sense?

So, first get an rss aggregator installed if you don’t have one (many computers have one already installed).  It’s free to download and there are different ones for Mac and Windows platforms – just do a search on Google for your platform and maybe read a few reviews about one or two.  You can always try several.

I’ll be posting more detailed instructions in the next little while, but for now I hope that’s enough to get you started if you don’t have much of a clue about rss.

Once you have your aggregator installed you can subscribe to any number of rss feeds.  All the latest news will then arrive automatically to your computer – the modern day delivery boy or girl!