Spa i Blog
The SpaClique Blog is a free and open resource to the professional spa community. To contribute, simply login and follow the "My Blog Dashboard" menu item found here or on your profile page.When blogging in My Spa Blog, please follow these few simple guidelines to ensure we publish your work.
Blogger Rules, Spa iBlog Do's and Don'ts
Do:
- Make your post informative, educational or entertaining.
- Be sure your post is informative or entertaining by itself without the need to link elsewhere. Linking to other reference material is just fine as long as your message is complete without the need to follow the links.
- Try to speak in the first person. Think of your post as an opportunity to talk one on one with other members of the spa community.
- Feel free to re-post your own and only your own writing from your own blog.
- Blow your own horn but only if you provide useful stand alone at the same time.
Do Not: (any of the following will result in you blog being unplublished)
- Post Blog entries unless your SpaClique member account has a complete First Name, Last Name and a personal picture of yourself. Company logos are not acceptable.
- Post ads or press releases. We have a publishing service just for that. Please visit out Spa iNews information pages or contact Lisa Cunningham at (404) 418-6523 t
- Post graphics or other types of banner ads linking away SpaClique.com. We offer banner ads if you would like to reach members in that way.
- Create teaser or partial blog post leading to full blog post on other sites.
Tips For Effective Blogging
Here are two posts from other blogs that we at SpaClique find useful for new bloggers.
Deborah at the TENFORTY BLOG
Blogging etiquette, do's and don'ts in the blogging world - These are some very simple rules every blogger ought to know, otherwise you might piss someone off or get into real trouble.
Four Do's
Number one: Do fellowship with other bloggers. You can do this in blog discussions or by visiting other blogs every now and then. These may or may not be blogs in your own niche. I've learned a great deal from many, many blogs and so can you, and what you learn will make you a better blogger.
Number two: Do join a blog community, and check out other bloggers and follow discussion threads. After joining blogcatalog, I lurked for a while to check things out, and occasionally participated with my two-cents worth of opinion. I've found many bloggers here to be very friendly and helpful. When I discovered my plagiarized article, one of the first things I did was to yell for help at blogcatalog, and many experienced bloggers came to the rescue and responded quickly with good advice, links and some shared their own experiences. In the same way, do step forward if someone else needs help and you have the expertise. It doesn't take a lot to encourage someone, or slip them a useful link if you have one.
Number three: Do try to comment on blogs you have visited. A simple line or two will surely encourage the blog owner who has put in much effort in the content, and makes the day a lot pleasanter for everyone too. Blog owners should make it easy for visitors to leave their comments. Asking them to log in with password is a bit too much.
Number four: Bloggers love to have other bloggers link to their sites. It increases their blog's technorati authority rank and Google Pagerank. Linking is different from plagiarism. In my recent post on Vibe, I linked to their blog so that you can simply click on it to go there, but I did not copy their content for my own post. So, if you can, do link to related blogs in your posts, or list out links in blogrolls on your sidebar.
Four Don'ts
Number One: When commenting on other blogs or leaving messages on their tag boxes, please don't type in many urls after your comment, such as - "Hi, I like your article. Please check out my blogs xxxxxxx.com yyyyyy.com zzzzzzz.com aaaaaa.com" One url is ok. Two may be tolerable for a few bloggers, not for many others. Three or more is way too many. Please do not spam.
Number Two: When I read something I don't agree with, I generally tell it to my computer screen or shake my fist at it sometimes, but I keep my fingers off the keyboard. Don't shoot off thoughtless comments like - "Your Wordless Wednesday entry is simply crap. What a stupid photo!" While constructive criticism (if asked for) or corrections (if the blogger is genuinely in error) are welcomed, if you can't say it in a civilized manner and stay away from personal attacks, please don't even start. Nobody will benefit from your tirade, and everybody will know you're an idiot.
Number Three: Don't ignore comments visitors make on your blog posts. If they had taken the time to say something about a particular post, it is always polite to acknowledge them. If it is not possible to reply to every single comment individually, do make it known. Your visitors should not be made to feel that they had come a-calling at your house only to find no one at home. If they come several times and find the same thing, they may get discouraged eventually and stop visiting. I track new comments easily via a Recent Comments widget on the sidebar, and all comments are also delivered to my e-mail, and I'd like all visitors who made comments to know that I do read and appreciate your replies!
Number Four: Don't plagiarize other blogs' content. The word means - don't copy other blogs' articles, photos, video clips and other content and place it on your own blog. Even citing and/or linking to the source - "The above article is from XXX's blog" or translating the article into another language for your own blog is not acceptable. Many bloggers spend a lot of time on content and are passionate about their blogs. I know a talented 12-year-old blogger from India who writes original stories and poems and she spends a great deal of time writing. Not long ago, she found one of her poems on another person's blog (Ooh, someone actually stole from a child?? Yup!) However, with help from other bloggers, she resolved the issue quickly, and now she has made suggestions to help me resolve the same problem I have.
Do's and Don'ts of Corporate Blogging
NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - Every day, 70,000 new blogs appear on the Internet, according to search engine Technorati. Yet few of them emerge from the cubicles and plush corner offices of large public companies. Indeed, a recently established list
(http://www.socialtext.net/bizblogs/index.cgi) of FORTUNE 500 company blogs shows that only about 5 percent of the country's corporate giants have dipped their toes in this medium.
It's not hard to fathom why. "It's scary," says Technorati founder and CEO David Sifry. "The lesson everyone learns in Marketing 101 is, 'Control the message.' Blogging puts that on its head, and that's very frightening."
Despite that fear, companies like Microsoft, IBM (Research), Google (Research), Sun Microsystems, and SAP (Research) have embraced blogging. And it's not just technology firms -- GMResearch) vice chairman Bob Lutz maintains one of the most widely read corporate blogs on the web, and organic dairy Stonyfield Farm has earned kudos for its sites as well. (
If your company is thinking of joining the so-called "blogosphere," know this -- some of your employees are already there, dishing on your products and workplace environment alongside posts about their trip to Aruba or their cocker spaniel. Whatever you do, don't shut these sites down; instead, engage these pioneers in a conversation about what your corporate blogs hope to accomplish, and why.
Here are some other tips for the aspiring corporate blogger:
First, know thyself
The most important question to ask is whether your company should even blog at all. "There are some corporate cultures where blogging is not going to go over very well," says Sifry. Cultures where blogging thrives, he says, are ones that "have faith in their employees, rather than fear."
If your culture supports blogging, then determine who's best to compose your blog. Choose someone who writes well, with a conversational, authentic, yet authoritative tone. Most likely, this person is not your CEO.
According to a survey of 2,000 "opinion leaders" by PR firm Edelman, the most credible source of information about a company is not the CEO, but "a person like me." (Trust in "a person like me" has increased from 20 percent in 2003 to 68 percent this year.)
Take Microsoft employee Robert Scoble (http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/), or Jonathan Schwartz, COO at Sun (Research) (http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan), for example. "They feel like friends," says Steve Rubel, a senior VP at Edelman and the author of popular marketing industry blog Micropersuasion (http://www.micropersuasion.com/). "I started writing my blog [for] one or two people and writing how I talked," says Scoble. "I still do that today."
Then, know your audience
If you cannot find something to blog passionately about, your blog will be no more than a corporate PR organ. For technology companies, that's easy -- software makers like Microsoft and Intuit (makers of Turbo Tax) both have legions of knowledgeable users eager to talk about their products. But what if you make, say, cooking oil, or dust mops?
In that case, learn what your customers care about (it could be nutrition, or home improvement) and figure out a way to participate in that conversation credibly. Stonyfield Farm, for example, talks about personal health and parenting -- hot topics for the customers of its natural yogurts.
Engage your audience
The best part about blogging is that it's a conversation. Absorb what people have to say, and reply to their comments. "It's the ultimate zero cost focus group," says Debbie Weil, author of "The Corporate Blogging Book." "My policy is never to delete comments, even ones I disagree with," says Microsoft's Scoble. "I want our customers to feel free to tell us what they think."
That said, you might want to have a feedback filter so you can eliminate spam and so-called "drive-by shootings" -- blog-speak for anonymous negative posts. If someone wants to blast your company, Sifry suggests asking them to write the critique on their own blog and then link to yours. That way, the critic is accountable for what he says, and the discourse will remain civil.
Stay current
Update your blog often, and make liberal use of hyperlinks. The more sites you link to, the more sites will return the favor.
Cover your rear
Creating rules of the road for your company's bloggers is recommended. Microsoft (Research) and others have corporate blogging guidelines that detail what's allowed and what's not. Weil suggests letting the policy bubble up from below, which is what happened at Microsoft -- Scoble and other employees were involved in its creation about two years ago.
As for what not to do: Don't wait until a crisis hits to set up a corporate blog -- it needs time to build up trust. Speaking of trust, whatever you do, don't let your corporate flacks write your blog. "They will take any life out of your writing," says Scoble.
Whoever does end up writing the blog, don't keep them anonymous or hidden behind some cutesy character. For example, if you blogged for Coca-Cola, don't be "The Coke Guy."
Other tips: Don't shut down existing employee blogs. If they are positive about the company, Rubel suggests turning these evangelists into a voluntary sales force. If they are negative, you might have a larger morale issue that needs to be addressed. And don't use search engine trickery to boost the profile of your blog. People will find out.
Finally, a blog is a tool, not a panacea -- don't expect it to turn your company around. "I don't think GM's blog is going to save GM," says Weil.
Plugged in is a daily column from writers at FORTUNE magazine. You can reach today's columnist, Matthew Boyle, at mboyle@fortunemail.com .
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