Business Tech II Blog

This is my first posting for my Business Tech II blog. This summer, I became interested in what blogging was and how it can be used in business. Although I've seen blogs on web sites such as Facebook or MySpace, I began to wonder how a blog could benefit business. MySpace and Facebook web sites are meant for personal use, however, it is important for students to realize that many businesses do check personal web spaces prior to hiring. Is your online image what you want an employer to see?

My first goal this summer was to find a web site to create a blog on. Using Google, I found Blogger. Creating a blog was as easy as creating a user account and posting a message. My second task was to research how businesses use blogging. Check out these web sites for examples of why or how businesses use this technology:

Why Blog for Business?
Corporate Blog on Wikipedia
Corporate Blogging: Is it Worth the Hype
Manpower Blog

Your assignment:

1. Create your own blog at Blogger, using your Gaggle.net account. You must verify your account by signing-in to Gaggle.net and clicking on a link from a message from Blogger. You will not be able to use Word 2007 to post to your blog without doing this.
2. Review this tutorial at Microsoft to learn how to create a blog posting from within Word 2007.
3. Your first posting should be a response to how you see blogging being useful for business. Provide at least three links to businesses that use blogging for professional use. Key your response as a new blog post from within Word 2007. When finished, post your blog from Word 2007. Your writing should have three paragraphs: 1) What is a blog, 2) How will blogging be a useful tool in business, 3) Provide links to at least three businesses that are using blogs (your links should be clickable, but I only want to see the name of the web site as the link). To find businesses, use Google to search or find examples on the links above.
4. Check your blogger account to make sure the post was successful.
5. Write an email to Mrs. Ewert (jewert@gaggle.net) in Gaggle.net with a brief message and a link to your blog.