Creatinf Effective Blogs

¶ … Blog

Creating effective blogs

In the development of an effective blog, two important features or characteristics must be considered. First, the overall look or "branding" of the blog itself, and second, other marketing platforms that could be used to extend awareness and increase the number of viewers or following of the blog to other social networks and online group platforms. The first characteristic will look at the substance of the blog, on how informative, creative, and relevant it is for the target online audience. The second characteristic looks at how the blog effectively promotes or markets itself to increase its online presence, within the blog host or domain and beyond, including social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr.

In developing the "brand" for the blog, careful thought must be given about what the constant theme will be for the blog. This is an essential requirement because the blog will be used in both at home and at work, and a consistent theme will help the blog creator to effectively manage the content of the blog. If, for example, the blog would simply be ramblings about everyday life without a common theme that will give the readers an idea how to distinguish the blog from other blogs, then the blog's popularity would fizzle and the blog will just be among the other blogs that are present but not making an impact in cyberspace. Thus a common theme would be a distinguishing feature of the blog -- the blog could be about everyday life in the eyes of the individual's profession, or simply, a blog that entertains or is interesting enough because of the creator's writing style (Navarre and Freeman, 2009: par. 2).

For the blog that I will develop, I choose to create a blog that talks about everyday things and experiences as viewed in the eyes of a researcher. As a market researcher, I look at the mundane as something interesting, a product of today's consumer world. I might look at a woman's hairstyle and could interpret it differently: I would start calculating the cost of such haircut, how frequent the haircut would be for the woman given her stature/image, and on the overall, what is the nature and dynamics of the hairstyle industry in a particular area? The blog would be a "micro" look at things and everyday life (phenomena), scrutinized at the minutest yet interesting detail that will both entertain and educate/inform the target online viewers/readers. The blog posts will include pictures and hand-drawn illustrations to provide a visual image of what the blog/creator is talking about. If necessary, videos will be provided, especially when a blog post is not satisfactory enough to explain and describe a specific phenomenon or event of interest.