I started the new year where I left off just before Thanksgiving. On January 9, 2007 I told the Talk of the Town Toastmasters club more about BLOGs. Take a gander at speech # 8.

When I first spoke to you about BLOGs I gave you an overview of what they are, how they work and how they are used. Have you been curious to know more about who actually uses them? Since that first speech I’ve done a lot more homework and I’ve discovered that they are becoming way more advanced and mainstream than I realized. So what’s the latest on BLOG’s?

Corporations from every industry have jumped on the bandwagon but they are still figuring out to make it a useful part of their business strategies.  In the mean time here are some examples of those who are making a foray into the blogosphere.

Dell Computers has a blog written by various managers directed at its customers. It’s used to talk about everything from product developments to customer service. Since they have a different writer each day as opposed to one consistent writer each article gets a mixed level of post response.

McDonalds has a corporate social responsibility blog written by Vice President Bob Langert who is responsible for those matters at the Golden Arches. It’s called Open for Discussion. He uses it as a forum to create dialogue about customer service with the public. He does most of the posting but he’ll have other people write an article from time to time. They don’t seem to have generated a huge number of responses but it’s an interesting attempt at a restaurant trying to interact with and respond to its public.

Bob Lutz, the Vice Chairman of General Motors has one that he uses to inform the public about business at the big car manufacturer. He covers everything from government emissions standards to the future of car design. He gets lots of responses to his posts. He allows a few of his general managers to write about the departments they are responsible for but they don’t get nearly the response that the chief does. On this blog everybody wants to hear from the big cheese. At this point at least, they’re not really interested in what his subordinates have to say.

Large organizations historically take forever to recognize the value of new innovations and even longer to adopt them. The major corporations were the last to the party in the 90’s to use the web for business purposes. This time around we’ll see how quickly they pick up on the winning strategy of blogging.

Bill Gates, the only corporate guy with any true sense of vision anymore, told his business cohorts to keep an eye out for the usefulness of blogging back in May of 2004. The title of an interview with the British Broadcasting Company says “Gates Backs Blogs for Business”. He said they were a good way to keep customers, staff and partners updated on what they were doing. At that time more than 700 Microsoft employees were keeping coworkers up to date on their projects via blogs. At latest count more than 7000 Microsoft employees now have blogs. The reason Gates favors them over e-mail and regular websites is that blog visitors can be regularly updated on new postings via Really Simple Syndication or RSS. It’s a system that automatically sends your latest article to your list of e-mail subscribers as soon as you upload it to your blog.

Sports fans have created a huge presence for themselves on the blogosphere. If you’re a college football or basketball fan your favorite team has a blog. If you like UCLA you can go to Bruins Nation and there’s a thread on their athletic scene that you can respond to. Swamp Ball is the unofficial Florida Gators BLOG. There will be tons of traffic about the national championship game for weeks to come. If you’re gearing up for spring training in February and March then you can probably find your favorite Major League Baseball team’s blog. Camden Chat, named for Baltimore’s stadium, Camden Yards, is keeping fans up to date on how the Orioles are preparing for the 2007 season. Lone Star Ball will keep you posted on how their American League counter part, the Texas Rangers, is planning on competing in the new year. There are a handful of NBA teams with blogs too. Surprisingly there weren’t any NFL teams on that particular list that I reviewed but I’m sure they exist. Professional football fans are every bit as fanatical as collegiate fans.

The most successful blogs by far have been those of freelance writers and bloggers with their entrepreneurial postings. They have driven the growth of blogging by developing a following of loyal readers. Over time they have developed a serious income from the advertising on their sites, e-newsletter subscriptions and publishing e-books. There are three in particular that I read on a regular basis.

Darren Rouse is the creator of Problogger. He writes about subjects that interest him and receives comments from all over the world. His varied interests have developed into niches. This has led him to create other multiple blogs that focus on those unique categories of interest. He uses advertising and affiliate sales to create a salary for himself so that he can be a full time blogger.

Another one I like is Copyblogger authored by Brian Clark. He refers to himself as a serial entrepreneur who bets his money on writing everyday. Clark gives copywriting tips and allows commenters to share ideas as well.

And Angela Booth is a long time freelance copywriter turned world famous

blogger. She’s the author of Blogging for Dollars. She writes e-books on how to create and maintain a successful blog. She also writes in general on to how to become a successful freelance blogger.

We as a club may want to consider having one for our group. At this point we would be serious pioneers when it comes to a quality, value creating blog presence.  I’ve only found one District web site that really impresses me though, District 71 covering the United Kingdom and Ireland. It covers each of their divisions and areas but it doesn’t have a blog. Two that are outright blogs is the Brighton and Hove Speakers Club in East Sussex, England and the Mohawk Toastmaster club from Canada. The English club is getting a few responses but they can work on their marketing to increase traffic to their site. The Canadians don’t seem to be marketing theirs very well because they get almost no responses from their postings but they do upload articles on a regular basis.

For our sake to get started we’d need to get e-mail addresses from other clubs and link our site to the District 77 web page. However, if it’s something the club wants to do we would have to assign someone to give it the necessary attention it will require to develop and maintain.

To close I have a couple of questions for you. Do you now see the value and versatility of blogs? Can you imagine the many ways you can use them? Time Magazine called You the Person of the Year. So, now is the time for you to get on board with the first great innovation of the 21^st century and be a part of history in the making.