News
Archive for July, 2009
Corporate blogs are common enough to be found on websites of Fortune 100 companies, and simple enough to be executed by small, family-owned businesses. The concept of a company directly communicating with its customers online and having a personal voice has taken off, and with good reason. But it’s not as intuitive as you may think, and there are tips that should be kept in mind when publishing your company’s blog.
Smile and have fun – Blogging is known for being more personable than other company communications, so show the fun and interesting side of your company. Take a cue from Kodak (1000words.kodak.com). Their chief blogger tries out new products and writes about her experiences, instead of just trying to market them. Which brings us to the next point…
Converse, don’t market- Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is the place for advertising slogans and generating testimonials. Let your customers tell their stories with your products, like Carhartt does – blogs.carhartt.com/blog/carhartt – by letting its fans post pictures of their kids in Carhartt, or tell stories about their tough jobs. Blogging is not always about what you have to tell your customers; that’s what traditional advertising is for.
Accept criticism - We know it’s a scary thing when you open up your blog for comments. There is the possibility that people might have a complaint. But don’t shy away, instead listen to what your customers have to say and let them know you’re listening.
Creating an application whose objective is to keep talented, recent graduates in the state of Michigan was not a task done overnight or by one individual. It was a joint effort between 49 academic institutions, business and foundations and a team of strategists, designers, content creators and programmers.
Media Genesis, a Troy web development firm, along with the Detroit Regional Chamber, Issue Media Group, Digerati, West Michigan Strategic Alliance and Presidents Council / State Universities of Michigan won the 2009 Midwest Collaboration Award for their involvement with this application – Intern In Michigan. (www.InternInMichigan.com).
The award was created in 2005 by the Midwest Technology Leaders to identify, create, support and honor effective partnerships among Midwest companies and local individuals or groups advancing the technological community. The collaboration was honored for each party’s role in a national initiative to improve workforce conditions in the state of Michigan.
Not only are social networks, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter becoming part of our everyday culture, but now blog posts, pictures and tweets are beginning to seep into our courtrooms. They are even becoming a norm when it comes to evidence in a lawsuit. In general, social networks in general have brought about a whole new way of keeping in touch and expressing ourselves. With the ability to post comments, pictures and status updates, you can virtually get a minute-by-minute play of what your friends are doing at any given moment. But with the ability to share so much information there comes a catch – the information you just posted is now out there in cyberspace for anyone to see.
In the second half of last year, while Microsoft’s Internet Explorer series continued to fight it out with Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari (among others), web giant Google quietly but confidently waded into the fray with their new browser: Chrome. And while Microsoft and the other competitors fought for supremacy to view the web, Google’s intent was significantly larger – to change how you use your computer.
Cloud technology – that is Google’s aim: The idea that your applications and programs do not need to be hosted, supported and run by your operating system from your personal computer any more but rather, that they can exist on the web. The concept that you no longer have to buy, install and run a word processing – or any other – program when you can go to a website and write/save/print/publish everything on the spot.
