Came across this post and thought I introduce my blog http://www.btbtraining.com/blog. I have only been blogging since Jan(08) so still learning as I go. Must say though, its bloody additive so far. As regards the state of business blogging in Ireland I know from first hand experience, it is something that more businesses are seriously considering but I think a fear of the unknown still exists.

That will change, in the same way that business now cannot live without their email or website, despite neither existing (in a ‘mainstream’ sense) 10 years back.

Damien - I think Kieran and yourself raise very valuable points about the perception of blogging in the business world.

1. Time involved - many people argue that the time commitment involved is too great. Jonathan Schwartz, the President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, blogs regularly. Sun Microsystems is a Fortune 500 company. If he can find time to blog, anyone can.

2. The control issue is easily debunked. If people are going to say negative things about you, where would you rather they said it, on their blog, or on yours? If it is on yours, they are far more likely to be polite and on your own blog, you get notified of the comment so you can respond far faster.

I only noticed the top 100 blogs today. But as I hadn’t been registered with planet.journal I didn’t feature. Based on my Technorati rating I reckon I’d be 189th. I guess my area (fundraising and not-for-profits) is slightly more of a niche interest than ice cream!

I think there is still a problem with the vast majority of businesses in that they don’t see blogging as a worthwhile or even respectable pursuit. And then there’s a whole lot more people who think that a website need be nothing more than a glossy sales brochure online.

One of the things I run up against in my own attempts to evangelise blogging is the control issue - concern over what other people might comment on the blog. I think there’s a mindshift that still needs to take palce about the role of the web in an organisations communications mix.

I thought the comment was in jest but when I didn’t see the emoticon I thought I better play it straight, just in case!

Thanks for the very prompt reply. I was only teasing… please don’t think I have anything but praise and gratitude for the concise and patient way you got so much directly useful information across in five sessions. When I saw the list, I subscribed to planetjournals straight away - thank you for doing the same, and of course the inward linkage is work in progress.

there’s two parts to your question -
1. First you have to get on Justin’s list of blogs - to that end I submitted your site uri to planet.journals.ie, you might also leave a comment on Justin’s post, to be sure!
2. You also need to increase your inward linkage. Your current Technorati ranking would put you at 121 on the list. We discussed strategies for increasing your inward linkage on the training course.

Feel free to come back to me here or by email if you have any questions.

dahamsta, tbh, I don’t have any definitive answer to that for you - good point though, we should do a follow-up.

Part of the challenge is definitely the lack of training - there are precious few people in this space and for many SME’s the local CEB (or IT Cork in your instance) are the first port of call for skill-set acquisition.

keith