Test

Testing my Google nexus one to write a new post for my blog!!!

Website or a Blog

This had always been a debate through out my experience in Online Marketing & Social Media Marketing. Lot of people are still amused in differentiating a Blog and a Website.

I come across  many people who always keep asking me what is a Blog, certainly they know about a website. I keep telling them, it’s just another website which is available on a shareable domain name such as yourname.wordpress.com, myname.blogspot.com.

Well to justify it. There is absolutely no difference in a website and a Blog. Both are web pages built for certain needs. The only difference is that a website can be customized in any form and then can be uploaded. But whereas, a Blog is a predefined template and can use only the defined features in it.

For new entrepreneurs, Authors, celebrities a Blog is the most ideal tool for online communication. Many clients who are authors, Celebrities do ask me for a website. But I always suggest them for a Blog. It gives all features such as uploading content, Images, Video and many more. Blogs can also be hosted on a defined domain, for further customization to make it look like exactly a website. In fact it is an easy way of launching your online Identity within minutes. Online Search Engine Optimization, formatting of the content, renaming of the images, assigning right kind of keywords, linking, interlinking etc, almost everything is possible. You can even add multiple pages to your Blog to make it look like a website. So what else one does want?

In such a competitive online world, everyone feels that an online identity is must, hence small entrepreneurs can really use this concept to spread their business across the digital space in minutes. Because the new upcoming companies will surely not have the kind of content and topics as seen in the website. Many people are still not convinced with the html page driven website or a Blog, they still feel that a flash based website is more interactive and attractive. But this is not the case any more, nowadays people look for unique and informational content. They no more feel the impact. If one observes, most of the popular sites available online are all HTML, CSS driven sites. Certainly it can attract many search engines effectively, hence also gaining a popular ranking in it. Well creating a Blog is certainly very cost effective and can be done in minutes, without worrying about time, creativity, content. This is has been the most popular concept available online.

I always think that we see it the way we perceive it. But sometimes we should see the logical aspect of it. In India, many people do think that a Blog and a website are two different things. But, it is absolutely not. I hope that all our young and upcoming entrepreneurs do realize this aspect and would identify their ready made online presence available for free. Imagine if this happens, we would achieve a breakthrough in internet communication in India, which is still lacking at times. It is certainly a very cost effective and a convenient tool to use.

But when do we start realizing?

The Real-Time News

In earlier days the delivery of information to the people was centralized. Where the PR and advertising professionals use to absorb all the important information and deliver it through their defined channel. The PR professionals and advertising professionals were in great demand and were considered to be the most important factor to any success of the business. The companies use to communicate all necessary information to the PR companies and the PR professionals would work towards getting a positively published articles in the renowned publications. After a consistent follow-up with the media and other related people of media such as journalists, editors, senior editors etc the relevant news use to appear after many weeks and months in the publications. But the instant news is instant news. If it appears after many weeks and months later then there would have been many developments in the news itself. But there was no other choice than following this way. This was a clear method of PR driven news. But the delivery of information has never been effective than reaching its consumers directly.

But now, ever since web has opened its arms towards multiple platforms in delivering information, the updates of information to the people has been decentralized. Web has enabled people to look for their own information in their own way and convenience. Hence WEB is becoming an important aspect in delivering information in real time to the consumers directly rather than taking rounds of Journalist’s offices and then the publishers. Sensible marketing and PR professionals should not wait for their old ways of delivering their client’s important and relevant news to the world. The space in the News publications and TV News slots are getting smaller day by day, hence getting difficult to publish client’s relevant news on time. But the clients are still fine, only because they get featured on prime publications and Prime News channels. But things are changing drastically. One should know that WEB allows anyone to publish news at real time.

Now some people who are new to technology and WEB marketing may have problems in understanding what is Real time News or Real time information. The Real time information is something I publish or I post on my website and it reflects immediately to the world. Let us take a clear and simple example. We watch cricket and when we don’t have access to Radio and TV we rely on websites like Rediff.com, because I regularly use Rediff for the cricket updates. You get ball to ball updates. How? Because somebody or technology at the other end is publishing updates regularly. Imagine 20,000 and more people accessing the same page and getting updates ball to ball. Don’t you think this technology is best than any other. Just imagine spending so much of time behind handful of journalists and waiting so many days for coverage to appear in the News publications, Trade Magazines etc. Do you think that in this cyber world its worth waiting to distribute valuable news to the consumers. Certainly not! I have seen many people at superior positions still access their day to day mails. That’s it!

I don’t say that we should not depend on News Publications and Electronic media. But why can’t we use an alternative medium also when it is available at convenience. It just needs a little more focus by marketing professionals and decision makers of the organizations. OH let me come back to the Real time News. Let’s take a real example of a Blog, a social Networking tool. What does it do they all distribute information in real time. The moment you update your personal info and click on publish button. Here we go. The whole new world is seeing what you have published. If your profile or any other information is interesting, you are surely going to get responses on it immediately.

For Example:

I access my Facebook account. I don’t do much on it. But I just update my status message regularly. The last message I updated was “Educating Indian Market on Digital PR” That’s it. Few unknown people whom I don’t know and they are not even my friends at all or not even added in my friends list started chasing me trying to contact me & asking, what kind of profession I am into and what kind of service do I offer. I think this is the best example of Online and Real time news. You have technology readily available to disburse information within seconds. It’s just we have to decide that when do we start doing it?

I am not trying to provoke anybody nor trying to brain wash. But I am giving a clear picture and insights of what WEB can do for us. The best way one could ask us is “what can we do for you”. Now it can be asked this way “what web can do for us”

In my next post i would introduce the new & most powerful Journalists of WEB who actually multiplies the disbursement of information in the world of WEB