Over the last couple of months we’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding business blogging, RSS, and podcasting, and how they can really be leveraged to impact business growth. Between our speaking engagements, facilitating our business coaching playshops, and what seems like a lot of email — we’ve gotten dozens and dozens of people asking the same thing.

And that got Deb and I thinking. You know, it’s like anything else in life. As you become proficient at any skill, strategy, or activity, you begin to take what you know for granted. And we found that’s what happened to us over the last few months with business blogging and the business boosting benefits of podcasting and RSS. We just got so caught up in coaching our clients in these areas, applying what we know ourselves, and creating the new Marketing With Business Blogs multi-media coaching course that we forgot that many business owners are just becoming aware of blogging as a technology.

But blogging is so much more than a new technology. Sure if you look at some of the books, products, or programs on blogging out there, that’s what you’d think the hype was all about. And to be honest with you, if you let yourself get caught up in focusing on blogging alone — getting all set up with your first business blog and starting out with the inadequate general guidance that most people are offering on business blogging, it will end up giving you disappointing “hype-like” results. But more on that later.

The point is, you have to start your journey of learning with a clear picture of what you can expect. That’s why Deborah and I put this five part series together.

What’s the big deal with business blogs, RSS, and podcasting

Small-business owners are clamoring to get their hands on resources that show them how to learn and leverage the technology of blogs and RSS (Real Simple Syndication).

Why are blogs so popular with small-business owners? It has to do with how the Internet is changing the way business gets done. And it’s because of the “World LIVE Web.”

According to Technorati.com:

“The World LIVE Web is the syndicated subset of the World Wide Web. Sites in this subset update often, sending out ‘live’ notifications by RSS and similar means every time new content is posted or updated.

Technorati indexes more than three-million sources on the World Live Web. Each one of these sources can be updated at any time, generating ‘active content’ (such as new blog entries) within a 24-hour period.”

It’s the social networking that makes the difference

In essence, the World Live Web is that part of the Web that is LIVE and operates in real-time. Blogs allow for the real-time publishing of information and the ability to reference and link to that information instantly. Blogs magnificently and ingeniously send notification about new information to the World Live Web as it becomes available.

What results is a symphony of activity consisting of real-time, search-engine indexing and live-content updates. Other bloggers are reading and linking to each other. Ideas and information are shared and exchanged with lightning-quick speed and efficiency. This happens because blogs cross reference each other and the search engines who love blog content drive this frequently updated content to the top of the search-engine results for freshness and relevancy.

In the “society” of the World Live Web, each “citizen blog” lives within its own social system and network. What occurs is the natural influence of ideas and opinions upon one another as like-minded people reference and link to each other as authoritative sources.

What the World LIVE Web is built on

The building blocks of these social networks are the real-time conversations of bloggers as expressed through instant publishing of topically relevant micro-content and commenting.
Each citizen normally garners a readership that can range from one person to thousands. As that citizen engages the readership in two-way communications that involve publishing and commenting, a common “trust” begins to build. The citizen begins to establish an authoritative voice for his or her topic and begins to build influence.

The Internet has changed and the growth in blog publishing has significantly changed how people use the Internet for Web publishing.

Blogs are the latest communication tool taking the Web by storm. Blogs are the most influential communications tool on the Internet at the moment. While there are other technology communications tools like e-mail and instant messaging, none of these tools is exercising influence in a way that matters most for online content publishing.

In part two of this series you’ll learn why content is king, and how you can leverage that fact for real results on your bottom line.

John-Paul Micek is a contributing partner in the only multi-media course that truly coaches business owners how to integrate business blogging for more traffic, more clients, and more profits — Marketing With Business Blogs.

He’s a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honoulu Star Bulletin. He’s known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club.


The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.