Business Wakes Up to Blogging

Weblogs may be commonplace to Net geeks, but they are still fairly new to the business community. Since they're less formal than other marketing tactics like e-newsletters, and aren't subject to editorial calendars and group reviews, individuals within companies can send out sales data as soon as it's available.

iMakeNews, a provider of e-marketing solutions for businesses, is launching its weblog management or 'blogging' service, DirectBlogT. The new service enables businesses to harness the power of weblogs, which provide untapped channels for e-marketing, knowledge management, sales and collaborative communications. Through DirectBlog, organizations will be able to publish and email customized and personalized weblogs to highly segmented groups. DirectBlog will be available to companies an iMakeNews' reseller network in April 2003.

"Business-based Weblogs will be extremely powerful because they create an environment in which the value is derived from the content itself -- content that is informative, educational and at times entertaining, says Kathleen Goodwin, CEO, iMakeNews. "Individuals within the enterprise expressing their point-of-view will define successful weblogs at the most basic level -- gaining an audience on the strength of their content voices and how well those voices resonate and organically attract a participating audience. From this environment, ideas will quickly galvanize and influence decisions and build customer loyalty."

Weblogs are self-publishing web sites that enable individuals to share commentary with likeminded people on issues of their choice, and to establish interactive dialogues. DirectBlog provides iMakeNews customers and channel partners with all of the technical abilities of a 'blog, along with the features and flexibility of iMakeNews' e-marketing services. Individuals already using the firm's web-based content management, design, subscription management, data analysis, and other tools can extend their application to 'blogging. Through a single user interface, they can create, maintain and email 'blogs on a "massively one-to-one" basis.

"Business weblogs will have an enormous impact on the way companies relate to their customers and other interested parties," said David Shnaider, a founder of the online services ZDNet and Prodigy who advises iMakeNews. "They let individuals easily create continual communications in their areas of expertise, providing a valuable service. And by tracking the usage, companies can gain new insights into the topics and products that are of greatest interest to their customers."