web maintenance: blogs

The latest phenomenon on the intranet is blogging: online web diaries.

Blogs can give daily updates, can offer regular articles on a market niche, current affairs, or scientific developments. They can be run by a group or be one person's personal soapbox.

Because blogging (the word cromes from 'web log', which became 'weblog', which became 'blog') is so popular, dozens of free or inexpensive software packages or services have sprung into being. They all offer pain-free set up.

Blogging is as easy as using a word processor. No special skills are needed. You log on with a username and password, choose your design, and start typing. The blogging software handles the rest, archiving previous postings and even sorting out uploaded images for you.

Blogs can be good for you. They allow an easy way for you to:

• publish an online newsletter
• have a 'latest news' feature
• have a question-and-answer section with the public
• share photographs

Blogs can be set up within hours. Depending on which package you choose, you can have multiple authors, set up restricted and private areas, accept comments from the public, have your blog searchable by keywords, and have your blog listed on central 'blog feeds', called RSS, where blogs on similar topics are monitored and the latest postings sent out to all subscribers of that RSS.

Blogs can win you new customers, put a human face on a big organisation, help you respond more quickly to your clients, and give you a public outlet that you yourself are in charge of.

If you think a blog could help you or your organisation, please contact me for a discussion. I can recommend blogging software or services, carry out the initial set-up, either by selecting one of their templates or by designing a look for you, can upload your first batch of content, and can give you training.

You could be sharing your thoughts with the world within a day.