Blogging, the new hot topic in social media can take a lot more time and effort behind the scenes than the average person might think. This is especially if you have aspirations of building your own blog for businesses purposes.

Business bloggers confront different obstacles as opposed to other leisurely bloggers. For instance if you are creating a professional blog, it is obviously going to be used for professional purposes and will be geared toward engaging specific objectives and outcomes.

Business blogs are more often utilized to be marketing building tools and once they become publicly recognized it becomes an open exhibit for all to see your thriving company. Tia Peterson’s article, “8 Things to Do Before Starting a Business Blog,” provides 8 great tips on how to get started building your own business blog.

So let’s dive into these quick tips from Peterson:

1. Figure out WHY you are blogging
• You must ask yourself what goals you are trying to achieve, and set standards in place to let you know when these goals have been met.

2. Figure out your target reader
• Do you have anyone specific in mind that you want to read your blogs? If so you must take time to learn their online habits, the information that they care about and also what will get them talking.

3. Determine your blog marketing strategy
• It is important to figure out how you plan on reaching out to your target audience. You must remember that digital conversations are already in progress, so your options are to join in or simply to start your own, all of which should be included in your marketing plan.

4. Assign ownership to your blog
• There is nothing worse than confusion. To prevent this from occurring it is pertinent that you establish who will be writing the content, managing the community and who will be promoting your blog. Appointing these tasks to individuals should eliminate any confusion.

5. Create an editorial calendar
• It is a great idea to determine what you will be publishing and also when you are going to publish it. According to Peterson, “an editorial calendar is comprised of frequency as well as the actual post topics and outlines.”

6. Set up promotional tools
• A blog needs to have the means of traveling and for people to easily get in and out, in other words by sharing. With social media quickly expanding it is key now more than ever that you set up your social media channels and social bookmarking. You can do this by linking your blog to existing social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

7. Create a takeaway
• Create a carrot giving visitors a reason to subscribe to your business blog. RSS traffic can be very reliable and provide a steady flow of traffic to your blog. This, however, is only as long as you treat your subscribers with care, by maintaining a constant connection with them through your blog. (Reaching out to your subscribers is a sure way to show you care.)

8. Meet with design and development teams
• Business blogs should be professionally designed and developed by a company. Once you have the rest of the 7 tips finished then you should be on your way to meeting with experienced teams or professionals. They can assist in putting you on the right track towards gaining correct user experience for your new business blog.

So let’s re-cap, business blogs should be: timely, exceptionally well written, extensions of a brand and cost-effective. You should set goals for your professional blog’s desired return on investments and be able to keep track of this. Although your business blog may initially cost you some time and money, it should all be worth it in the end so good luck!

Source: http://weblogbetter.com/2010/09/29/8-things-to-do-before-starting-a-business-blog/

Black Rhino Marketing Solutions founded itself on the very principle that  highly affordable websites and web marketing tools could (and should) be provided to small and large businesses alike.  The reason being, that the software  and the computers used to design and create websites today aren’t what’s running up the client’s bills.  On the contrary, its the cost of labor.

The most valuable aspect of the graphic and web design industry is the knowledge and the know-how of how to create the product that your client wants.  By knowledge, I mean two things – the ability to code the way the website functions and the creativeness to design the website that your client describes to you or envisions.  (So maybe there are really two uber valuable aspects of this trade).  Regardless though, the pricing structure is elastic enough to work in favor of the client, particularly in times of a recession (like, say for instance, today).

Don’t get me wrong, being creative and being able to come up with visually powerhouse graphics ALL the TIME for people you don’t know that well is hard, its sometimes really hard.  Then tailoring your own creative license to your client’s taste, well that can be the biggest challenge of all (and the most time consuming).

Same goes for coding.  Writing computer language codes for the web is tedious, it requires an INSANE amount of attention-to-detail, and a sick amount of passion for the job.  If you don’t love to code websites, there is no way you’d A) understand what you were doing or B) have the patience to sit in front of a computer for hours upon hours typing letters, numbers, words, and algorithms out to tell the website how to work.   That said, its no wonder companies and freelance website designers charge thousands upon thousands of dollars for simple websites or even for the dreaded website template.

The thing is, the Generation Y’s (who’ve all been tapping away and computing since they came out of the womb) are starting to enter the workforce.  Because technology comes easier to these guys the IT industry doesn’t have as much of a monopoly on the general public as it once had, especially when it comes to web design.  For that reason, Black Rhino Marketing Solutions established its pricing structure based on the following principles:

1. Provide custom websites to clients at affordable prices.
2. Work with the client to provide a product they are 100% happy with.
3. Build strong, lasting relationships between businesses for mutual and future benefit.

We believe in the age old, simple saying, “quality over quantity,” in our work and our pricing structure.   Having a web presence is the future of today – in order to help propel businesses it truly is important to hop on the digital highway.  Its our philosophy at Black Rhino Solutions to allow people to take a recess from the recession with our affordable website marketing tools.

        If your not Tweeting or updating your Facebook status to communicate with people these days, then you pretty much don’t exist (at least it feels that way).  Thanks to Myspace and Facebook, our generation has witnessed one of the fastest growing digital trends in communication via social networking sites.  I mean, we can’t make it through the day without hearing about a celebrity “Tweet,” chatting about a new Facebook post, or hearing about some other virtual announcement.  With that, I think its safe to say that we are living in a new age of communication – one which seems vital for keeping up with the rest of the world (whether its for business or for pleasure).  

         I don’t even think I knew what Facebook was until something like my second or third year in college (way back in 2004).  Seeing how quickly social networking websites have evolved, from your basic college student’s way of posting some pictures from their latest kegger or keeping in touch with old high school buddies, to this vast network of possibilities for information exchange, certainly necessitates some attention.

          I’m sure that many of us have recently experienced that, “Oh my god, my mom’s on Facebook moment!”  I know I have.   Aside from this being quite a hilarious or perhaps a nerve-wracking experience (depending on whether or not your the one upside down doing things like keg stands in your Facebook portfolio), the fact that older generations have joined their kids on the world wide web, is a prime example of how social networking has become universal.      

         So, where do Twitter and Facebook fit in with the world of web marketing?  The answer to that question is, EVERYWHERE.  Whether your a small business or a Fortune 500 Company, its time to make a name for yourself  with the help of these social networking websites.  While it might seem obvious to some, the following are just a few of the reasons why its super important to be Tweeting or Facebooking your way to success.  

1. Social media lets people know who you are, what you do and what your doing up-to-the minute. 
2. You can network your business by becoming Facebook friends with people in your industry, potential customers, or current clients, etc. 
3. You can create buzz and visibility with a Facebook announcement, event invitation, or newsfeed.  
4. You’ll be able to show and tell the world about what you can do for them by Tweeting everything you’ve been up to (do I hear virtual resume much?). 
5. You can also provide easy access to your website from your Facebook or Twitter page and vice-versa. 
6. And lets not forget that social media will help increase your SEO and rankings in Google by creating more traffic for your website with links to and from Twitter and Facebook.  

While I could go on for another five blog posts about the benefits of social media as a means of advertising yourself and your business, I won’t because its much more beneficial for you to start to get out there and experience the phenomena for yourself.  Before we go, there is one other tiny aspect of using social media to advertise that I have not mentioned …. dun dun daa … ITS FREE.  So, do your business a favor by logging in to the world of social media by making a Facebook or Twitter account today!

And after you’ve done that, come check out Black Rhino Marketing Solutions on Twitter or Facebook while your there!