Friday, August 26, 2005

Guest Blogger Friday - Scott Ingram

Today is the first "Guest Blogger Friday" at "The Business Development/Networking Blog". The guest blogger is Scott Ingram, the proprietor of "Network In Austin", an on-line site that promotes networking in my hometown of Austin, Texas.

Networking and Blogging, Blogging and Networking
by Scott Ingram

Networking and blogging really were made for each other. Most good blogs tend to be very personal. Even a good business blog should be personal and incorporate good advice and information with personal content that help the reader feel a personal connection to the blogger. Networking, on the other hand, is about connecting people and building relationships. Therein lies the opportunity. In my own experience the most regular readers of my own blogs are other bloggers. If we make an effort to communicate with each other and support each other we can drive a lot of quality content and traffic back and forth.

Whether he realizes it or not Thom incorporates networking and blogging better than anyone else I’ve seen. This gives him a lot of leverage. He communicates regularly, not only with me, but with other bloggers who post regularly about related topics. Some of these folks I’m sure he’s never met, and will likely never meet. By communicating with the regularly about their blogs and relevant posts he’s been able to develop his own sphere of influence and has taken the concept of a blogosphere to the next level.

I think we can all learn from Thom and work to build our own blog networks. In my case it probably makes more sense to contact other local business bloggers since my business is much more focused on business networking in Austin. This is getting easier and easier to do with the growth of geo blog directories such as: GeoURL and A2B Location. You can find other bloggers who are literally your neighbors by searching from your address. Here in Austin there is the Austin Bloggers Meta Blog where local bloggers can add relevant posts to the site, and read the posts of other local bloggers. They even have a monthly get together where you can meet other bloggers in person. Essentially a networking event for bloggers!

You’ve probably seen the results of bloggers networking and not even realized it. Often the easiest post to throw together is a commentary on another bloggers post. This is a great way to build relationships with other bloggers and to drive traffic to them. Since you’re commenting on their post it only makes sense that your reader would want to read what you’re talking about. This obviously drives highly relevant traffic to the other bloggers post and makes the reader aware of a new blog that they may not have known about before.

Finally, I think what Thom is doing here is pure genius. Having a guest blogger is the ultimate result of two bloggers networking. Plus I’d be an absolute fool not to talk about this post, and my experience on my own blog after it’s been posted. I’ve enjoyed and appreciate the opportunity to be the very first guest blogger on Thom’s Business Development / Networking Blog. Keep up the great work Thom. You’re an inspiration!

Happy networking!

Scott Ingram
http://www.networkinaustin.com/

Scott Ingram is the founder of NetworkInAustin.com, a website that offers a calendar of thousands of business and networking events in and around Austin, Texas. They help Austinites who are using networking as a marketing strategy to leverage their efforts. Scott posts regularly to his own blogs: the Business Networking in Austin Blog and his Austin Business Events blog.

Thanks to Scott for being the guest blogger!!!!

Click here to go to the latest posts on The Business Development / Networking Blog

Have A Great Day.

Thom Singer

www.thomsinger.com






1 comment:

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