Week 9 Part A: Blogs, Vlogs, Podcasts & Webinars

When I reviewed Annie Liebovitz's Instagram feed, the post that received the most comments and likes was about Betty Reid Soskin, a 100 year old active National Park Service ranger. This post received 56,384 likes and 588 comments all about Betty and her amazing service. It is a perfect example of the appeal human interest stories hold for us. Sharing personal and human interest stories and news through Blogs, Vlogs, Podcasts, and Webinars is a surefire way increase traffic to your business website.

The type and nature of the business will definitely dictate the tone for personable or human interest posts. For example, a health organization would do well to post timely and informative health related posts in addition to health success stories. A tech related business could definitely benefit from how-to video and written step-by-step posts with a dash of humor thrown in. When using humor, one really needs to think about the business and attitudes of the client or consumer base to avoid a serious and costly faux pas.

I can envision a blog working out with my floral photo business. I would most likely post about seasonal flowers and wildflowers. The posts would be from a personal interest slant more than sharing personal life details. My tone would be friendly, conversational, and informative. I could also have a local featured flower of the month post that would display beautiful local flowers. Each post would include date, location, and flower facts. I would encourage others to share flowers from their area too. I would probably add some surveys like "What's Your Favorite Fall Flower?" with choices.

Stater Brothers has a handy and easy to access blog link off its website that mostly features recipes. iHeart Radio has a blog that I find interesting and entertaining. It's organized into eight categories: Announcements, Behind the Scenes, Data, Deep Thoughts, Events, Music and More, Podcasts, and The iHeart Life. Today's Podcast Spotlight features iHeart's "Halloween Radio" playlist, the musical "Prom Hell," and five fictional podcasts: "13 Days of Halloween," "See You In Your Nightmares," "Lore," "The No Sleep Podcast," and Stephen King's "Strawberry Spring." All podcasts are high quality entertainment, and I highly recommend "13 Days of Halloween." Their most recent Artist of the Week post features Fiesta Latina 2021 with a link to Ticketmaster and one to the livestream of the festival. There is also a link to read about the featured artists and their accomplishments. Other Artist of the Week posts featured country group Old Dominion and the seasonal iHeart Radio Jingle Ball. The Old Dominion post contained information about the group's new album free Listening Party opportunity and informational tidbits about the group. The Jingle Bell Ball post contained a link to purchase tickets, along with concert information about the artist lineup. I really love the seasonal story podcasts and the artist information found on the blog.

Any business that deals with a sensitive subject should be very cautious about what they post. It only takes one inappropriate post to sink a business' reputation. Also businesses should steer clear of sensationalism and posting personal stories simply to go viral. The world at large freely examines, critiques, and comments about a post's validity and discretionary use of personal information and topics.