Google Docs: a very powerful collaberative tool!

Nowadays companies need to find ways to reduce their expenses and increase their profits, especially that our economy is going through one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. One way to reduce expenses is to use free collaborative tools, and one of such tools is Google Docs. It is free and can substantially increase communication and performance within a company. What Google Docs do is actually pretty simple. It allows different users within a company or group of people in general work on a same file but without having to upload the file every time. It is a collaboration in real time. Google Docs provides the same kind of files as Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Power Point presentation etc..). It reduces time of downloading the file, reduce the time of having to email the file every time, which makes Google Doc very useful for increasing performance. By making communication easier between different people within a group or a company it does enhance communication. These are some of the advantages of Google Docs. It is also worth noting, that all documents created with Google Docs can be opened with any other documents software.

Next week we are going to talk about another great tool for companies to increase performance and communication that is also free.

The rest of the list

6) http://seattle-motorcycles.com/

This blog has information about different motorcycles in the Seattle area. It presents information about motorcycle accessories. It also has links to the eBay post if anyone is interested in buying a bike.

7) http://lethalapp.com/news/

This blog has information about different natural disasters around the world. It is updated quite often. The last post is from October 29th, 2009. It is well presented and has links to different newspapers articles.

8) http://bassonline.com/wp/

This blog has a lot of information about freshwater bass fishing in Florida. It is complete and has guides and fishing trips guidelines. It is well presented and look professional.

9) http://shortreedgoosecalls.com/blog/

This blog is another hunting blog. It presents information about hunting short red gooses. It has a lot of useful information for any vivid or beginner hunter. It even links to other websites that talk about the same subject.

10) http://www.highballblog.com/

This blog is about a person's obsession of the outdoors that inspired him to design apparel for extreme sports. You canl read about rock climbing routes, mountain bike trails, mountaineering tours, urban extreme sports, and wildlife encounters.

This is a list of my favorite of well-created personal blogs.

Ten well-created personal blogs

So last week I posted a list of ten well-created corporate blogs. This week I am going to list ten well-created personal blogs:

1) http://asiahuntsman.blogspot.com/

This is a blog I had to create and keep updated throughout our Summer Study Abroad in Asia. A group of seven students contributed on this blog. The blog is representing the Huntsman School of Business and it is professional and well presented.

2) http://love-shopping-diamond.blogspot.com/

This blog is about pre-worn jewelry. It shows the picture of the jewelry and its price. It is classified by season and also by categories. Every jewelry has its history and where you can buy it from.

3) http://www.dailyjobhuntsingapore.blogspot.com/

This blog posts daily job posts in Singapore. It is neat and well done. It has all the information needed by a job seeker. The jobs are also categorized by genre.

4) http://www.2knowmyself.com/

This blog is here to help people understand themselves and others. It is a subjective matter but I think it is well done and it has different links to different pages.

5) http://thenaturalcapital.blogspot.com/

This is a blog about wildlife in the Washington, DC area. It presents the different plants animals and scenery in that area. It is neatly presented and has a lot of information. It is professionally presented.

Ten well-created corporate blogs

On this post, I am going to list 10 well-created corporate blogs:

1)Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

This blog is very useful to anyone using Google.com. It keeps its users up to date on different events and happenings (one of them was about the malwares going around). It also presents different product Google offers like Google Map etc.

2)Wal-Mart Blog: http://checkoutblog.com/

This is the official Wal-Mart blog. It presents the visitors with upcoming products that Wal-Mart will be selling in its stores soon. The latest post is about the new Microsoft operating system : Windows 7.

3)Delta Blog: http://blog.delta.com/

This blog gives advice and tips to customers for their future trips. It also talks about the company's history and culture. It is also well done since it has links to all the pages a customer might need.

4) Microsoft Windows 7 Blog: http://windowsteamblog.com/Default.aspx

Everyone is waiting with impatience for the new Microsoft operating system. It is supposed to be a lot better than Vista and this blog does a lot to advertise this new operating system. It also keeps developers posted about upcoming events etc.

5)Apple Blog: http://theappleblog.com/

In this blog, visitors can learn about new things affecting Apple. They also can find a list of the best Apple iPhone applications etc. It also presents financial news about the company and its growth. It is well done in presentation and simple to read.

6)Dell Blog: http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/insideit/default.aspx

This blog is keeping the customer up to date with the computer industry. It also has a section to let customer communicate with the company.

7) GM Blog: http://www.gmblogs.com/

This blog is set in a way where it is divided in "sub-blogs". It is divided in 7 different blogs ranked by interest. It is simple to use and navigate thought.

8) Cocal-Cola Blog: http://www.coca-colaconversations.com/

This blog is simple but yet very resourceful. It is well presented and neatly kept. The latest post is about vivid Coca-Cola collectors. It is recognizing the company's customers.

9) Amazon Blog: http://www.amazon.com/gp/daily

This blog is very useful to customers as it gives very important information about upcoming products. It is a little bit like the Wal-Mart blog. The advantage this blog has over Walmart's is that it gives an opportunity to customers to post comments.

10) Yahoo! Search Blog: http://www.ysearchblog.com/

This blog is a little more for experienced web users. It has training posts about different Yahoo! products. It also has a list of upcoming Yahoo! events. It is simple and cleanly done.

Important blog policies that organizations should consider when implementing a blog site

We established in our previous post that blogs are an important communication tool that companies should use. Now it would be wise to list some blog policies and rules that the company should consider while implementing a blog. Al

The following is a list of some of these rules and policies I deem very important:

1- The company should use professional language at all times.

2- The company should provide clear rules to its employees on what can and cannot be posted on its blogs.

3- The blog posts should be respectful. Blogs are open to the public, and should therefore show that the company is respectful towards its customers and employees.

4- The blog posts should represent the mission statement of the company. It should be clear to every reader what the blog is about and what is the company trying to convey to the reader.

5- The blog posts should be based on facts. They have to be verified before they can be posted on its blog.

6- The company needs to give itself the right to delete any post on its blog deemed contrary to company's policies.

7- The company needs to also make sure to differentiate between its posts and its readers posts.

8- The company should review the reader's comments before it can allow to post them on its blog.

These are just a few of the rules that a company should think about before implementing a blog site. This list is not complete and I am sure depending on the company, the rules are going to be different.

Source: http://searchcio.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid182_gci1215820,00.html#

What can professional blogs do for businesses and organizations?

A professional blog can be very important, if not necessary, for a company. A blog is defined by the Princeton Journal as: "read, write or edit a shared on-line journal" (wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn).

So why would a company need a blog?

First of all, a blog could be a very good way to reach out to customers, and hence be an indispensable marketing tool. A company could create a blog to listen to customers' concerns, learn about consumers' needs and inform potential customers and existing customers about coming up product or services.

Second of all, a professional blog could be used as an internal way of communication between different departments and branches of the company or organization. Employees could easily visit the blog for information the headquarters would want to share with the whole company.

A blog is a very good and effective way to share information among employees and to customers.