Social Media Sea-Change-Part 1:
Blogs and How to Join the Conversation
The article describes how the main source of information is the Internet and today, people are not just searching for information but they are posting their own ideas and reviews. Blogs are being used for personal use as well as a marketing tool for organizations; which can have a positive and negative impact. With the internet anyone is able to “broadcast an opinion about you and your company” and anyone is able to have access to the information posted. Organizations are also able to hold their own “peer-to-peer communication” sites which is a huge marketing opportunity. Having blogs can boost revenue and increase customer loyalty and numbers.
The article continued to explain how to search for conversations and then listen to a blog, using a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed, once a blog of interest is found; and lastly shows how to develop a blog strategy and participate in the conversations.
This article caught my eye because we are learning and developing our own blogs through this class The development of them and positing of information is completely new to me. Blogs are a continuing and growing trend in today’s world. This personal and professional use of the internet is a great source of information; its real reviews, thoughts and feelings. People are brought together with similar interest through the peer-to-peer communication and they are able to show their own thoughts “knowledge, passion and experiences”. Blogs are a great source of social networking and marketing. Organizations should take hold of this opportunity to post information about their services and gain the customer feedback the blogs would provide. Companies would find the positives and negatives of their services and would be able to improve and strive based on their consumers needs. I feel blogs are a better source of information to obtain feedback than just a simple form filled out by the customer. Through blogs, organizations will find feedback from people who are passionate and care about the topic at hand.
3 comments:
I agree with Katie and the article she read. I think blogs are becoming a great information sources for just about anything. Video blogs, such as YouTube clips that show you how to do something or strickly provide information are also great sources of information. Sometimes people like to hear from other people who are in the same situation as they are. I personally would want to read information from somebody who has personal experience with whatever I am searching for. You never know who is posting information on the websites or whether or not it is valuable and not put there for the companies profit. To go along with what I said above, Katie talked about people being passionate in their blogs and I think this is the reason why blogs are so beneficial to read.
I definitely agree that blogs are a great new source of networking and marketing. They are becoming so popular and are a great way for us to read about other people’s experiences and opinions so we can learn from them. They definitely allow communication between peers over a much easier outlet than has ever been available before. Blogs are surely going to become more popular in the future and are going to be an important mode of communication and learning. The internet will only become more influential in all industries in the world and blogs are just one example of the way the internet is becoming an essential part of the hospitality industry.
I agree with Katie that blogs are great source of social networking and marketing and that organization should take hold of this opportunity to post information about their services and gain the customer feedback. But from a business standpoint I believe that businesses that have blogs should beware when implementing this trend. I think it is important to have a protocol of what do when someone has a negative experience. Deleting it and replacing it with a rosy review is dishonest and will not get to the root of the real problem or concerns of past or frequent guests. Or course there are the guests who will just over analyze and never be satisfied with any offering or improvement, but any opportunity or insight into making a business run more profitable or smoothly should be seriously taken into account.
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