vietnam national university, HANOI hanoi school of business Nguyen Van An A STUDY ON BLOG MARKETING THE CASE OF BAAMBOO.COM Master of business administration thesis Hanoi - 2007 vietnam national university, HANOI hanoi school of business Nguyen Van An A STUDY ON BLOG MARKETING THE CASE OF BAAMBOO.COM Major: Business Administration Code: 60 34 05 Master of business administration thesis Supervisors: dr nguyen viet anh Hanoi – 2007 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com Table of content INTRODUCTION The problems Objectives and Aims Research questions Scope of work Data sources Methods Significance 8 Limitation Expected results 10 Outline CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 10 Blogging basic 10 1.1 Blog definitions 10 1.2 Types of blog 11 1.3 Common blog elements 14 Business blog 15 2.1 Power of blog to business 16 2.2 Types of business blog 17 2.3 Business blog format 19 Steps in business blogging 19 3.1 Step 1: Choosing to blog or not 19 3.2 Step 2: How many blogs needed and how often to maintain them 20 3.3 Step 3: Selecting a Software System or Service 20 3.4 Step 4: Design for readers 21 3.5 Step 5: Publishing Blog 21 3.6 Step 6: Launching Blog and Getting Noticed 21 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com 3.7 Step 7: Monitoring and Managing Blog 22 Marketing with blog 22 4.1 Talking with customers 23 4.2 Raising awareness and visibility 24 4.3 Closing sales 26 4.4 Dealing with disasters 28 4.5 Building reputation and recognition 29 Blog marketing performance 29 5.1 Key performance indicators 29 5.2 Common KPI of blog 30 5.3 Analysis method 35 CHAPTER TWO: THE CASE OF BAAMBOO BLOG 37 Introduction to Baamboo 37 Baamboo blog structures 37 2.1 Baamboo blog 38 2.2 Baamboo blog design 38 2.3 Main features 40 2.4 Additional features 43 The use of blog as a marketing tool 45 3.1 Interacting with users 45 3.2 Analyze comments and react 47 3.3 The Baamboo mp3 example 49 3.4 Findings 53 Baamboo blog performance analysis 54 4.1 Analysis objectives 54 4.2 The data source 55 4.3 Performance results 55 4.4 Findings 67 Conclusion 68 CHAPTER THREE: SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE BAAMBOO BLOG 69 Content solutions 69 1.1 Building comment policy 69 1.2 Improve entries content quality 73 1.3 Improve Blog design, layout 75 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com Marketing solutions 76 2.1 Continuous interactions 76 2.2 Attracting new visitors 78 REFERENCES 82 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com List of figures Figure 3-2 Baamblog interface 39 Figure 3-3 Place to comment on Baamblog entry 42 Figure 3-4 Baaamblog comments example 42 Figure 3-5 Comment form 43 Figure 3-6 Poll example 44 Figure 3.7 Five steps of analyzing comments 47 Figure 3.8 Baamboo Mp3 light version interface 52 Figure 3.9 Source stability measurement function 53 Figure 3.10 Traffic sources 57 Figure 3.11: Percent of Unique Visitors Growth this Period 58 Figure 3.12 Percent of Traffic Growth this Period 58 Figure 3.13 Percentage of New visitors 58 Figure 3.14 New vs Returning visitors 59 Figure 3.15 Page Bounce Rate 60 Figure 3.16 Percentage of Returning Visitors 61 Figure 3.17 Growth of returning visit 61 Figure 3.18 Percentage of loyal visitors 62 Figure 3.19 Number of commnents 63 Figure 3.20 Average pageview for all visitors 63 Figure 3.21 Average Time Spent on Site 64 Figure 3.22 Percent of Visits Greater than 180 Seconds 65 Figure 3.23 Percent of Committed Visits (> page views per visit) 66 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com List of table Table 3.1 Baamboo blog entries contents 41 Table 3.2 Numbers of comments by entries on Baamboo blog 42 Table 3.3 Baamboo Mp3 comments categories and subcategories 51 Table 3.4: Part of Baamboo Mp3 comments list after categoried 51 Table 3.5 Baamblog key performance indicators from June to September 56 Table 3.6 Percentage of bounce rate for new and returning visitors 60 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com INTRODUCTION The problems Nowadays, blog or weblog has become a phenomenon In recent years, millions of blogs have appeared and the growth of blog seems not to slowdown Many companies have used blogs for their marketing activities and many of them have obtained successes Microsoft, General Motors, Disney are typical examples Besides, thousands of small and medium companies also succeeded in using blog marketing In Vietnam, this trend has just been raised for one or two years However, the effectiveness of using blog as a marketing tool is still problematic Vietnam Communication Corporation is one of the leading companies who first use blog for their service – baamboo.com Although, some results have been gained, this company is getting stuck of finding ways use blog marketing professionally The thesis ―A study on blog marketing – the case of Baamboo.com‖ aimed to study blog marketing and propose solutions to improve the use of blog for the Baamboo.com service of Vietnam Communication Corporation Objectives and Aims The objectives of this thesis is to study  The basic concept of blogs and business blogs  The use of blogs in marketing  The use of blog as a marketing tool at Baamboo.com  Problems of Baamboo in using blog marketing and solutions to improve these A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com With these above objectives, this thesis aims at giving a basic theoretical foundation for other companies in general, and internet companies in particular to implement blog marketing for their business activities Research questions The complete list of research questions is as follows:  What are definition, type, common features of blog and business blog?  Why is blog important to business?  What are steps in blogging?  How blog is used in marketing?  How to measure blog marketing performances?  What has the Baamboo blog done so far?  What are Baamboo blog‘s results?  What are Baamboo blog‘s problems?  What are solutions to improve Baamboo blog performances? Scope of work For the theoretical foundation, this thesis will study the blog theory in the world of internet companies since 2005 when blog became a worldwide phenomenon For the case study, this thesis will choose the first area of blog marketing – taking with customers – to study because this is the most popular area that exists in Vietnamese internet services industry now Baamboo blog case currently applies in that area thus is picked up All of its activities from establishment on 8th June, 2007 until now are put into study A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com Data sources For the theoretical part, data sources are textbooks, articles from internet since 2005 As for the case study, data is obtained from interview with Baamboo team and internal data, which are being tracked by Google Analytics Methods The thesis uses the empirical method, interview and case study in the study process Significance The thesis may contribute a small part to the development of internet industry, which has been emerging in Vietnam Since the forecast of internet booming in Vietnam in next two or three years, many companies can implement the knowledge studied in this thesis for their business activities Limitation The biggest limitation of this thesis is due to the freshness of internet services industry in Vietnam in general, and blog in particular, therefore few academicals reviews have been applied and proved In case of the Baamboo blog, it has just run for four months, so it may be early to measure and judge its marketing performance The other limit is from case study method This method cannot cover all the theoretical issues of blog marketing Thus, later this case, this thesis only studies one out of five areas in blog marketing and applies some related key performance indicators to analyze performance for the Baamboo blog A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com users who could be evangelists for new Baamboo services in the future But some of them have left Since the growth of visit has fallen sharply, Baamboo team needs to take more marketing tactics to attract more new customers to Baamblog Along with the process to attract new customers, they also have to maintain the loyalty of loyal users Conclusion Baamblog is among the early corporate blogs in Vietnam Baamboo team has done many good jobs but still has made some mistakes After studying this case, the thesis summarizes four big problems that need to be solved: Lack of continuous interactions Lack of comment policy Poor blog content and quality of entries, unchanged blog design, layout, etc Decreasing in attracting new visitors and keeping the loyal ones return In the next part, this thesis will give some solutions to these four big problems There will be two categories of solutions They are marketing solution and content solution While marketing solution helps Baamboo team solve problem 01 and 04, the content solution will help the rest 68 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com CHAPTER THREE: SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE BAAMBOO BLOG In this part, the thesis will give some solutions to improve the Baamblog in the aspect of marketing As stated in the chapter two, solutions are divided into two categories: content solutions and marketing solutions Content solutions These set of solutions will help improve the blog content‘s quality in term of comments, entries, design, layout, etc 1.1 Building comment policy A Comments Policy is a statement defining blog policy regarding comments It is also a ―responsibility statement‖ It informs the readers of what Baamboo team will allow on their blog, what they will not allow, and what readers are allowed to It establishes publicly the responsibilities of each party involved Having a blog comment policy allows readers to get an idea of what will be tolerated within a blog‘s conversation Blog comment policy should be tailored for audience Building a successful comment policies include the following steps: Identify who owns the content (optional) As a foundational legal matter, it is important to spell out whether the commenter or Baamboo team owns his or her content If the commenter owns it, he or she can ask for comments to be removed at any time, while if the 69 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com Baamboo owns it, they will likely have to review each individual comment to ensure they are not engaging in libel against other companies, for example Establish what types of comments are not allowed Most blogs not allow spam (comments that promote a product or service, unless of course it is related to the discussion at hand) Some blogs not allow any comments whatsoever Others not allow links So Baamboo team should figure out what types of comments are or are not allowed Determine whether or not comments are moderated Many companies, and an increasing number of bloggers, have begun moderating comments This means that a comment won‘t show up on a blog until a human being review to make sure that it is not spam, is not vile, or is not illegal A moderator can protect Baamblog from all of these things However, using a moderator may slow down the conversation While this is a choice Baamboo team needs to make, it is also something they can revisit later (for example, they may choose not to moderate comments until they begin to experience issues with spam or inappropriate comments) Decide whether anonymous comments are allowed or not Anonymous comments are an interesting issue in the blogosphere Until recently, most blogs allowed anyone to post as anyone, even anonymously Increasingly, though, as people have begun posting either anonymously or as someone they clearly are not (for example, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, or Michael Jackson), some blogs are beginning to remove comments that are obviously not from the actual person who left them, along with those that are anonymous So Baamboo team should consider this issue Decide how to deal with questionable situations If someone posts hateful comments, spam, irrelevant notes, or racist or other inappropriate information, how will Baamboo team deal with it? Will 70 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com they remove these posts? Will they leave them on the blog? Will they edit the comments? All must be stated clearly in the blog comment policy It is needed to learn from other comment policies examples when writing blog comment policy Some example-comment-ground rules given by Lorelle VanFossen28 (2007) are good case to consider COMMENT POLICIES RULES EXAMPLE  Comment Form Guidelines: The comment form must be filled in with a proper or legitimate sounding name and URL Comments using keywords, spam or splog-like URLs, or suspicious information in the comment form will be edited or deleted  Email Privacy: Email addresses are required for commenting, and they are not published on the blog, nor shared They may be used by the blog owner to privately contact the commenter  Commenter Privacy and Protection: All email, snail mail, phone numbers, and any private and personal information posted in any comment will be deleted as soon as possible to protect the privacy of the commenter To prevent such editing, never share this private information within the blog comment  Language and Manners: This blog is ―family friendly‖ and comments which include offensive or inappropriate language, or considered by the blog owner and administrator to be rude and offensive, will be edited or deleted Play nice  A Comment is Conversation: A comment which does not add to the conversation, runs of on an inappropriate tangent, or kills the conversation may be edited, moved, or deleted 28 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/09/04/does-your-blog-have-a-comments-policy/ 71 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com  Limit Links: This blog is setup to automatically hold any blog comment with more than two links in moderation, which may delay your comment from appearing on this blog Any blog comment with more than four links could be marked as comment spam  How The Blogger Will Respond: Comments on this blog will only be responded to in direct response to the blog comment The blogger will not (or will) respond privately via email or other communication method to a blog comment  What To Do If Your Comment Does Not Appear: If you leave a comment on this blog and it does not appear in a reasonable time period, and you know that it does not violate these Comment Policies, contact the blogger (method of contact)  No Personal Attach Comments Permitted: In the interest of fair play, no personal attacks are permitted in this blog‘s comments You may question or argue the content, but not attack the blogger, nor any other commenter Failure to respect fellow participants on this blog could result in removal and blocked access  Comment Spam: Any comment assumed to be possible comment spam will be deleted and marked as comment spam  Commenter Blocked: Anyone who violates this Comments Policy may be blocked from future access and/or commenting on this blog  All Rights Reserved: The blog owner, administrator, contributor, editor, and/or author reserve the right to edit, delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments They also have the right to block access to any one or group from commenting or from the entire blog  Hold Harmless: All comments within this blog are the responsibility of the commenter, not the blog owner, administrator, contributor, editor, or 72 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com author By submitting a comment on our blog, you agree that the comment content is your own, and to hold this site, [name], and all subsidiaries and representatives harmless from any and all repercussions, damages, or liability  Trackbacks Are Comments: All trackbacks will be treated inline with our Comments Policy After building comments policy, the next step is to let people know about it Blog about how to comment: Baamboo team should promote it by blogging about it, and feature a link to it from comments form They can use it as a pointer for those who complain or question They can remind reader every few months, if necessary In the introducing blog, it is necessary to give some examples to everyone on how to comment Put a link on the blog home page: This will let new readers know about comment policy and avoid unexpected comments in the future 1.2 Improve entries content quality Currently, Baamboo team has not followed any writing guideline So their entries‘ contents are not really attractive to readers and even make them bored and leave Baamblog 1.2.1 Writing guideline Here are the some writing tips that can help them improve the situation Create Meaningful Titles Titles are essential to blogging successfully Attractive and useful titles entice readers to read stuff, and this translates into more links Every blog post‘s title should give readers a reason to read the entire post 73 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com Brief and to the Point Less is more Long-winded posts are the hallmark of the amateur writers Good bloggers strive for simplicity Less copy not only makes it easier for readers to understand main points quickly and easily, but it also makes the job of writing easier Any new entry should not be longer than half an A4 pages A great way to ensure brevity is to take the time to review and trim copy before taking posts live Baamboo team should often stop and remove words systematically until a passage breaks They also need to delete any words that not add to the meaning If they have difficulties in writing brief entries, they should spend time reading famous blogs whose entries are short and brief They can find way to make it written down easier Entries should contain outbound links To make the blog more visible, all posts must contain at least one outbound link There are many reasons to explain these abnormal tips One reason is that evidence suggests that Google likes sites that link judiciously to pages on other sites, especially to sites that Google has deemed to be "authorities." Another reason is that outbound links can be a way for Baamblog to get noticed since linking site noticed click from Baamblog and trackback Lastly, the best reason may be that good links provide value to Baamblog readers Links can clarify or support a position Baamboo team has taken, which permits a reader to learn more A link to a valuable resource, along with a helpful description, can also be a reason for a new visitor to subscribe to feed, or ask to join your email list Implement interaction tactics Writing success is measured by interaction and responses from readers During the writing, Baamboo team should implement interactive tactics in 74 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com their posts These tactics are discussed in detail later, in the ―Continuous Interaction‖ section 1.2.2 Some writing mistakes Here are some mistakes which are usually made Baamboo team should learn to avoid similar one in the future  Forget to check spelling grammar and punctuation This is common mistakes and should be fixed continuously even after posting  Posting press releases, corporate communications, technical reports, or other lengthy official documents If they want to give these type of content, a better way is link to them In new entries, they can give some brief introduction and then put a link to these contents in other adress or let people download to their computers  Giving in to personal interest as when selecting topics Although blog tone and delivery should be personal, its topics should always be focused on the reader and the reader‘s interests It does not need to pander to them, but Baamboo team should always have them in mind as they write 1.3 Improve Blog design, layout There are some small improvements need to implement:  Baamblog themes, layout should occasionally be changed to give fresh things to readers  They also should use more than one type of font and font size to make the paragraphs look better 75 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com  They also have check whether the blog layout fit to all kind of web browsers29 At the time this thesis were writing Baamblog layout worked well with FireFox but did not with Internet Explorers  They should add the trackback function30 It will help Baamblog have more linkage to the blogosphere Marketing solutions 2.1 Continuous interactions 2.1.1 Spend more time and effort and human resource to interact with readers Baamboo team should assign a specific person or a group to be responsible about Baamblog They should frequently spend at least a specific amount of time a week or event a day to handle with things happen on blog 2.1.2 Frequently post new entries Along with the time spending effort, posting new material often and frequently is needed Posting religiously has its benefits as well Firstly, it makes readers return more often, because they know they are likely to find new information Secondly, Baamblog is more likely to show up more frequently in search engine results lists as well Quantity is definitely SEO31 friend in this medium 29 A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network Two most popular web browsers are Internet Explorers and Firefox 30 See chapter two – ―Theoretical foundation‖ 31 SEO: search engine optimization It is is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc) via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results 76 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com Baamblog can choose to post at least one new entry a week However, they should not let entries content quality slip in their quest to post regularly as this may drive readers away 2.1.3 Interaction methods Interaction methods are also important Baamboo team should know some tactics when they interact with readers during the interaction Invite Comments – Inviting a comment triggers a response to some extent In the first three entries, when Baamboo team specifically invite comments, people leave them in higher numbers than when the team did not in next four entries Moreover, new readers that are unfamiliar with blogging not always know about comments or how to use them - invitations to participate in well laid out and easy to use comments systems are good for helping them participate Ask Questions - Including specific questions in posts, definitely helps get higher numbers of comments and interactions from readers Especially, including questions in headings is a particularly effective way of getting a response from readers as they are set a question in their mind from the first moments they read each entry Be Open Ended – Baamboo team should learn the art to writing openended posts that leaves room for your readers to be experts If they say everything there is to say on a topic they are less likely to get others adding their opinions because they will have covered what they might have added Be humble - Readers respond very well to posts that show weaknesses, failings and the gaps in own knowledge rather than those posts show off knowing everything there is to know on a topic People are attracted to humility and are more likely to respond to it than a post written in a tone of someone who might harshly respond to their comments 77 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com Be controversial (optional, because this tactic does not always work well) - There is nothing like controversy to get people commenting on blog Of course, with controversy comes other consequence - one of which is the risk of putting off less vocal members of readership „Reward‟ comments - There are many ways of acknowledging and ‗rewarding‘ good comments that range from simply including a ‗good comment‘ remark through to highlighting them in other posts Drawing attention to Baamblog readers who use comments well affirms them but also draws attention of other readers to good use of comments section 2.2 Attracting new visitors These about solutions are mostly for keeping visitors returning to Baamblog However, Baamblog need to attract new customers to drive more traffic There are three ways to attract more new visitors to Baamblog:  Linking with other websites, specifically blogs  Make Baamblog more findable in Search engines such as Yahoo, Google, MSN, Ask, etc  Traditional marketing efforts 2.2.1 Linking with other websites, specifically blogs Currently, people know Baamblog through Baamboo site, thus Baamblog is like an island in the blogosphere Baamboo team should change this situation Baamblog should be put into the blog communities More people will know, and have chances to know Baamblog As a result, they will have more chance to contribute to the development of Baamboo Building relationships with other bloggers is the key to enter blogosphere The following actions should be considered to make them help Baamboo build more traffic: 78 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com  Creating a 3600 version of Baamblog – since of Vietnamese bloggers use this Yahoo service, it is necessary to create a 3600 version as the first step to enter blogsophere  Network with bloggers – comment on their blogs, read and link to other blogs and request them to link back to Baamblog  Email bloggers – pitch Baamblog post to other bloggers and hope that they will link or mention Baamblog  Talk to the bloggers – asking them for a phone call to talk things over Some real-time methods such as Skype can be used for this purposes  Meet the blogger – The absolute best way to build a relationship with a blogger is to meet the blogger face to face Most every blogging conference sells out because bloggers love to talk with other bloggers Hosting a blogging conference for bloggers may be a great way to get to know bloggers who are interested in Baamboo business If Baamboo team does not want to host they can consider attending a other blogging conference  Entering blog contest – winning an award, however, definitely brings blog prominence and a traffic boost — and possibly some press attention 2.2.2 Make Baamblog more findable in Search engines such as Yahoo, Google, MSN, Ask, etc The more findability search optimizations the Baamblog is, the more possibility that people can find it through search engines  Submitting to Blog Search Engines and Directories: It does not cost a penny, and not even very much time Baamboo team can submit Baamblo to o Google at www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl 79 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com o Yahoo! at http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html o Dmoz (Open Directory Project) at www.dmoz.org/add.html o MSN at http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD2  Submit Baamblog to Blog tracking sites such as Technorati, Blog Pulse, etc  Get Baamblog entries listed for chosen keywords This is the art of using key words to optimize the search results in search engine o Use primary key phrase in Baamblog header tags and the title of new entries Since, Baamboo team use Wordpress service, they should require the mod_rewrite command to save the title of new entries as a permalink For example primary key phrase is "business blogging" make sure that the word business, or blogging, or both, appear in blog headers (the H1 or H2 tags) as well as the title of each entries The URL then will be http://dev.baamboo.com/2007/09/08/15/ changed from to http://dev.baamboo.com/business-blogging.html o Use secondary keywords in the body of entries o Use keywords in the anchor text of links in the body of Baamblog entries  Make search engines can spider Baamblog easily This requires to make some changes to layout and structures The side navigation bar is present on all pages Moreover, archives function and previous entries are accessible from all pages of Baamblog so they get spidered easily Hence, Baamblog should be added the ―Recent post‖ functions 80 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com 2.2.3 Traditional marketing efforts The normal way to increase traffic and visit to Baamblog is accompany Bamblog in Baamboo marketing campaign By this way, Baamblog is attached as one of Baamboo features Following marketing techniques to increase awareness of Baamblog can be considered:  Online advertising – anywhere that advertise Baamboo website address should also include Baamblog address  Include a link to Baamblog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as auto responder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers, etc  Putting Baamblog address in signatures of email, forum accounts of Baamboo staff, and then when they use these account, more of people will know about it  Giving away business card, bumper stickers, pens, brochures and flyers and other giveaways that tout Baamblog; hand them out to customers, business partners, etc  Write a press release about something newsworthy and tie it in with Baamblog topic 81 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo.com REFERENCES  Jeremy Wright (2006), ―Blog Marketing, the revolutionary new way to increase sales, build your brand, and get exceptional results‖, McGraw Hill  DL Byron, Steve Broback, New Riders (2006), Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business  Brad Hill (2006), Blogging for Dummies Blogging For Dummies , Wiley Publishing  Susannah Gardner (2005), Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies, Wiley Publishing  Pedro Sostre and Jennifer LeClaire (2007), Web Analytics for dummies  Mary E Tyler and Jerri Ledford (2006), Google® Analytics, Wiley Publishing, Inc  Jason Burby and Shane Atchison (2007), Web Analytics - Using Data To Make Smart Business Decisions, Wiley Publishing  Websites: o http://dev.baamboo.com o http://alexa.com o http://en.wikipedia.org o http://technorati.com o http://webopedia.com/TERM/K/KPI.html o http://analytics.mikesukmanowsky.com/ o http://www.blogherald.com/2007/09/04/does-your-blog-have-acomments-policy/ o http://www.blog-maniac.com 82 [...]... Baamboo blog Chapter 3: Solutions to improve Baamboo blog 9 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo. com CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 1 Blogging basic During the past few years, blogs have become a worldwide cultural phenomenon The number of blogs has been increasing exponentially Technorati, a blog search site, say that they are now tracking 96.9 million blogs all over the world1 In addition,... Usually, blog will encourage lots of comments and reader participation Companies then have to authorize comments, eliminate inappropriate contribution and make sure the site‘s authors are participating in the 23 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo. com discussion are crucial to keeping the dialog going Moreover, companies must have the staffing and time to do it right It often takes an hour... scandals or bad effects from that 18 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo. com 2.3 Business blog format Since the use of blog is different, business blog also differ in its format Normally, a good blog format contains a combination of these elements 6:  Name: short, catchy, and humorous phase expresses the blog name  The latest post: The date, and occasionally the time, display so that... own blog site Using a blog service has many advantages: Blogging quickly, easily, and free from a lot of technical hassles However, it also brings many inconveniences, for examples – customization, statistics, and sub domain that are benefits of installing a system for blogging Besides, 20 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo. com requirement of installation, configuration, administration,... product managers can ask—if not the entire world, then at least their entire blog 16 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo. com readership, which are probably connected to and/or reading other blogs from all over the planet Once companies have insight into what a large community of readers wants, they can begin delivering it 2.1.3 Visibility Marketing is all about visibility—making the right... Watch for', arguing that blogs are changing working practices in the areas of advertising, marketing and PR (Kirkpatrick & Roth, 2005) Similarly, The Harvard Business Review named blogs as one of its ―Breakthrough Ideas for 2005‖, commenting that ―blogs are the most conversational of all the forms of media, and marketers can't afford to be left out of the talk‖ (Sawhney, 2005) 1.1 Blog definitions Blog. .. usually developed in Japan where people have a huge number and variety of portable devices with cameras Mobile blogs are often known as gLogs (pronounced as glogs), when they are especially used as photoblogs 12 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo. com 1.2.4 Audio Blogs Audio blog are blog, whose contents are downloadable in audio format4 In this kind of blog people usually use mp3 format.. .A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo. com 9 Expected results The thesis expects to give the systematical theory in blog marketing, find out Baamboo blog performance shortcomings and proposes solutions to improve it 10 Outline Excluding introduction, conclusion and reference part, this thesis includes three parts as follows: Chapter 1: Theoretical Foundation Chapter 2: The case of Baamboo. .. blogware  Blogosphere The community of blogs, bloggers, and blog posts  Blogware Software used to create blog posts and manage blogs  The conversation What happens when bloggers, especially millions of them, blog  Permalinks Permanent links attached to a particular blog post that remains unchanged  Trackbacks URLs that other bloggers use to cite posts or parts of posts; for example, when you, Blogger... It means that blog has compelling content that users just cannot get enough of If they do not come back again and again, companies maybe start thinking of ways to encourage them to do so They may need to offer more regularly updated content or some downloads that they can keep on their desktop  Average Searches Per Visit: This is the average amount of times that a user uses the search function on Web ... discuss about how to apply blog marketing theory in a specific case BAAMBOO. COM blog 36 A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo. com CHAPTER TWO: THE CASE OF BAAMBOO BLOG Introduction to Baamboo. .. three parts as follows: Chapter 1: Theoretical Foundation Chapter 2: The case of Baamboo blog Chapter 3: Solutions to improve Baamboo blog A study on blog marketing – The case of Baamboo. com CHAPTER... Information of Baamboo in Alexa rank is of Aug 31 st 20 From this point forward, the thesis will use both Baamblog and Baamboo blog to indicate Baamboo blog 37 A study on blog marketing – The case