I remember chatting with a friend who wanted to know what I was busy doing, and I responded saying “I was pretty busy on a blog post”. But surprisingly he said to me, “Who reads blogs anymore?” Is it true that nobody read blogs anymore? Or has it lacked importance? Far from it. Blogs have become a primary part of some company’s communication routine. Many find it useful to communicate about new product release, support, or our very common tag “tips & tricks”. Blogs now serve as corporate editiorial pages.

Corporate blogs attract company audience to participate in discussions raised on post related to either the company or just any interesting subject raised by corporate bloggers. In some cases this audience comprises your employees (for internal blogs), customers or site visitors. For many it is a good selling point. You speak and sit back while viewers are open to give comments on your post. Many have found this open criticism medium helpful in readjusting business cases and goals.

Who participates in Corporate Blogs?

Every blog needs an individual I would refer to as the Managing Editor. This individual plays the role of ensuring the blogs keeps running no matter what, he/she plays god behind the scene. Employees should be encouraged to participate as either authors or contributors. Corporate blog that have seen the participation of top management executives have proved very successful. CEO’s and CTO’s who regularly participates in blogging draw the attention of other employees to the corporate blog and encourage them to participate. It’s what I refer to as “leading by example”.

Points to Note

Whatever blog type implemented by your company, either an internal or external blog, it is very important to catch the attention of the readers. As much as possible you should ensure that every post has a purpose to achieve. Striking titles is an attraction. It’s very important to include tags within every post. So never forget tagging, its Web 2.0 best souvenir. Placing post under specific categories helps in filtering each post according to relevant topics. Ensure to preview your post before publishing. It gives you a good picture of what it would look like to others. One last important point, be relaxed and friendly in writing. Don’t forget blogs are social tools, so ensure your blog has a social tone.

-Paulette.

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) this week launched an enhanced version of its Mail service. The service is set to filter messages according to relationships, manage friends and family connections and activities. Yahoo has also opened the service to third party developers to come up with new social engaging applications and hopes to integrate with social sites like Facebook and MySpace in future. The changes to Yahoo Mail offer users a “smarter in-box” experience that the company said it will roll out gradually to its users during the coming months.

As the change expands across all regions, Yahoo Mail users will find a new “Welcome Page” that will include messages, information and activity updates from people users have identified as important as well as an updated in-box and folder view that filters messages from personal connections…Read more

Sony has launched its long-awaited virtual world – Playstation Home. Gamers can create their own ‘avatar’ – a virtual representation of themselves – and interact with other players in 3D.

Critics have slammed the service as outdated but Sony has hit back, saying Playstation Home intended to improve gaming for existing PS3 owners, rather than rival other virtual worlds. Players download Home software and connect their PS3 to broadband before creating their online selves…Read more

With so much hype on knowledge management, the time has come for KM professionals to gear up and get real or head for the KM grave. The struggle has been on capturing knowledge or managing knowledge workers, but none of these has been 100% efficiently managed. KM will quietly die and social media will win the soul of Enterprise 2.0. It’s time to face the reality that Enterprise 2.0 is quietly sweeping through the industry to clean off all unwanted and boring technologies and standards.

Enterprise 2.0 delivers the platform and tools necessary to reach and attain the goals that KM has sort for years. Although most KM professionals agree to the underlining benefits of Social media, there still seem to be some resistance. That shouldn’t be a surprise. Many KM professionals are embracing social media tools and are seeking best ways to fully integrate them in practice.

My conclusion, those who continue to suppress the new trend will only pass away. Old trends and ideas cannot prevail in this dying need for innovative ideas and the quest for the younger and trendier generation of industry movers to ensure business evolution.  It’s your bet, take the call.

-Paulette

Peoplemovers.com launch to build local communities

We’ve witnessed the explosive growth of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Why? So people can connect for social engagement and entertainment. The next evolution of this phenomenon is social networking with a purpose: Peoplemovers.com.

Peoplemovers.com is an online community that helps neighbors, businesses and charitable organizations connect to each other to build better communities offline and to give help and to get help, which is especially vital during these uncertain economic times.

Using Peoplemovers.com, businesses and organizations of all kinds, from schools to places of worship can easily mobilize their members to positively engage in their local communities… Read more

“Mobile Lounge,” the first mobile-only community exclusive to a single wireless carrier, provides a social network for Virgin Mobile USA customers to share ideas and opinions. Its robust user interface allows users to see which friends are online and features micro-blogging capabilities, discussion boards, chat rooms and profile creation and contests.

Virgin Mobile USA also continues to offer rewards to its customers. Members of Mobile Lounge can earn points for writing blogs, posting photos and winning contests, and then redeem those points for credits for wireless usage. This builds on the success of Sugar Mama and Studio V, an online community where Virgin Mobile USA customers create, share and sell their own ringtones and wallpapers for rewards.

Mobile Lounge is accessible on Virgin Mobile USA mobile phones such as the Shuttle, Flare, Slash and others from the VirginXL storefront, which provides members with access to all of the latest services, games, ringtones and news … Read more

With the rapid growth of social networks, mobile phone giant Nokia is betting that mobile social networking could potentially be bigger than existing web-based social networking as the plan to ship hundreds of millions of mobile phones with Geolocation features in the next 24 months.

The world’s largest phone manufacturer sold nearly 440 million handsets in 2007, accounting for 40 percent of mobile phones sales worldwide and expects that number to grow in 2008 as the global market is set to grow by around 10 percent this year.

The firm plans to ship around 300 million GPS-equiped phones by 2010 according to Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Services and Software at Nokia World.

Should the firm sign the vast majority of the new mobile phone owners (and potentially open the scheme up to other mobile phone manufacturers), Nokia could be creating a social networking entity bigger than Myspace and Facebook combined. … Read more