Blogging moved from the margins to the mainstream of digital publishing around 2003, changing the way firms could relate to their customers, and offering the potential to transform the role of corporate communications. By developing their own blogs, or carefully raising discussion and comment on those run by others, brands can extend their footprint and reach wider audiences. It can be an exceptionally powerful, cost-effective and intimate way of developing a message, but comes with real risks and limitations. The digital networked society has given a voice to anyone, and this democratisation of access to discussion creates a new landscape for messaging. It’s a powerful reminder of the new era of communications we all work in, and getting it right demands strategic thinking and a sustainable plan, as well as authenticity and tenacity. This Academy explores how and why this is the case, and gets you thinking about how you might be able to harness blogging for your brands.

This online learning resource is where you can discuss the issues from your Academy and download the outputs of our workshops.

Your Academy Director and lead tutor is Danny Meadows-Klue: Danny@DigitalStrategyConsulting.com

Welcome to your Digital Training Academy: a great way to boost your knowledge and skills, helping you and your team get the most from digital marketing, publishing and communications.

All of us here at Digital hope you'll enjoy your Digital Training Academy, but we also hope you'll instantly be able to achieve more in your firm.

Find out how Digital Training Academy works

• How does our digital marketing coaching and training work? Here is a quick overview… Welcome to your academy
• Which countries do we train in? We are based in the UK but train in twenty countries, in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Middle East and across Europe, including these… Directory of international Digital Classrooms
• Where in the world are we next month? Here is a list of a few events… Events @ Digital
• What research will you get after training? Here are some examples of the monthly digest of research and reports you will receive for one year.
• Would you like to see an example online classroom? Here is one from the Digital Search Academy.
• Would you like to see an example of how tutors answer marketing questions after your training? Here’s an example from the Digital Publishing Strategy Academy.
• Would you like to see an example of an international classroom? Here is one from Croatia, the smallest market we train in.
• Would you like to see an example of a lesson? Here is one from the Digital Analytics Academy that was videoed.
• What did Academy graduates say about their training? Here are just a few of the comments… Testimonials.
• Do we deliver executive coaching for Chief Executives and boards of directors? Yes, we can talk more by email.
• Do we train advertising agencies, and digital agencies? Yes, we can talk more by email.
• If there are only a couple of people who need training, would you like to join a public course? Public Access Courses

Blogging has moved from the fringes of the web to the mainstream. Over the last few years, collectively audiences have swelled, and this download of data from Digital's friends at NetRatings, you can see the latest traffic numbers for some of the key blogs and platforms.

Research - Blogging and traffic

Here is the place you can discuss issues with your tutor and other Academy participants

When you have been completing your exercises, is there anything that you’d like to share or reflect upon? Is there something that wasn’t clear or you’d like someone else’s views on? Is there a new point you would like to make about this aspect of digital communication? Are there any new issues that you have discovered now you are applying your knowledge? Use this space to make your comments and to ask your questions. If there’s a particular Academy Lesson, then try to include the title in your comment. Otherwise, simply putting the concept at the start will help other participants find the topics they are interested in more easily.

The classroom is open after the Academy, and for the first two weeks, tutors regularly visit to answer your questions.

Ben Saunders is a record-breaking polar explorer and by his own admission an "extreme blogger". From the North Pole he wrote to millions using his blog, a PDA, a matchstick and a satellite phone. While achieving the record for the fastest solo walk to the North Pole, Ben was able to keep up to date with the progress. In this edition of Digital Thought Leaders he tells how he did it.

Blogs are the most diverse of digital publishing platforms. They can be harnessed by anyone, anywhere for almost any publishing reason. Ben's blogs demonstrate their power both to amplify an offline event and to make intimate connections with millions.

Read the report

Digital Blogging Academy (Advanced)
Writing your blog marketing plan

12th June 2008 | London

Blogging is one of the most intimate and persuasive communication tools, yet why do most blogs fail to get readers and most readers fail to engage with blogs? In a channel that’s free to use and can transform the perception of a brand, why is much of the content copied and pasted from press releases and given scant attention by marketing teams? Get it right and blogs can transform customer communication into deep and immersive dialogue that changes brand image, conveys complex information and builds a buzz that gets customers talking and taking your messages further. From business to business and high tech, to corporate social responsibility and crisis management, blogs can be at the heart of integrated marketing communications. In today’s rich digital landscape they can form the anchor of a social media strategy, and harness email, RSS and feeds to build regular customer contact. Digital marketing veteran Danny Meadows-Klue leads this intensive Digital Training Academy (advanced level) which includes a marketing planning workshop that will help you turn these ideas into a structured plan for your business.

Materials: Materials are restricted to participants.
Bookings: To apply for a place email our events team.

Continue reading "Getting blogging to work effectively for your brand" »

This is a mobile blogging site that set out to create the UK’s first ‘comprehensive map of public art’. The Big Art Mob is a web-based resource and community ahead of Channel 4’s Big Art Project television series. 'Mobile blogging' was brought in to enable the sending of photos, text and other media direct from a mobile phone to appear within seconds on their website.

Continue reading "Case study: Channel’s Big Art Mob | Sector: Media | Format: Mobile blogging" »

Weaving blogs effectively into digital marketing

Digital Insight Report - January 2007

Blogging moved from the margins to the mainstream of digital publishing around 2003, changing the way firms could relate to their customers, and offering the potential to transform the role of corporate communications. By developing their own blogs, or carefully raising discussion and comment on those run by others, brands can extend their footprint and reach wider audiences. It can be an exceptionally powerful, cost-effective and intimate way of developing a message, but comes with real risks and limitations. The digital networked society has given a voice to anyone, and this democratisation of access to discussion creates a new landscape for messaging. It’s a powerful reminder of the new era of communications we all work in, and getting it right demands strategic thinking and a sustainable plan, as well as authenticity and tenacity. This Digital Insight Report explores how and why this is the case, and gets you thinking about how you might be able to harness blogging for your brands.

Download report

To help you get the most out of this Academy, here’s a simple exercise you can do before we start. It should only take you 5-10 minutes.

From Digital’s Blogging Academy, here’s a simple lesson to familiarise yourself with the process of blogging in the context of one of the leading online newspapers. The Guardian (UK) was one of the first to really appreciate the role of blogging and the power it has to change the nature of communication. As a newspaper, they overcame the challenge of defining the barrier between editorial staff and readers, but creating a simple system of comment and participation. To get the most from your Digital Training Academy follow these steps to look at one of their first blog spaces.

Continue reading "Exercise: Get up to speed with the steps in blogging | Pre-Academy | Optional" »

Blogging can fit into the marketing mix in many different ways, and as part of the Digital Blogging Academy we’ll be looking at different solutions. Blogs on your own site are a great way of firming up the voice of the brand and ensuring that your message gets out just the way you’d like it to. Independent blogs in your industry can be a powerful way of letting people know about what you - or the projects your company is linked to – are doing, but it comes with an ethical dilemma about transparency that marketers need to be particularly savvy about. If you’ve never commented on a blog before, then try this before your join us for the face-to-face part of your Academy.

Continue reading "Exercise: Getting familiar with blogs and blogging | Pre-Academy | Compulsory" »

Getting online can still be tough for small firms and when we were teaching in Nottingham this really came home to me. A few of us were talking about the potential of a web presence to really give a lift to micro-businesses and firms started to ask about the role of blogs vs brochureware on their sites...

http://meadows-klue.blogs.com/meadowsklue_on_media/2007/03/should_sole_tra.html

In the book industry, one of the blogs that caught my eye was from Snowbooks, a small publisher that’s pulled off some big web coups. They also reach out to key book bloggers such as DoveGreyReader, Random Jottings and Ready Steady Book, and enjoy the fact that if their products are strong, then they market themselves…

Read our interview with Snowbooks chief Emma Barnes

As hundreds of thousands of small British firms start to harness the power of the web to get customers, maintain relationships and sell direct, this simple guide provides a checklist of practical steps many have found useful. Every firm can benefit from online marketing, and as the techniques have matured, they've become simple to use.
http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/insight/2007/03/ten_simple_steps_for.html

In this video we see how you can add a blog feed to a Facebook profile, enabling you to disperse your content further.

Continue reading "Academy lesson: Adding a blog feed to Facebook" »

Early into Digital’s Corporate Blogging Academy we heard far too many senior brand managers say such crass things as ‘it’s just for kids’. During the last few years I’ve heard that said quite a bit about blogs, and while I’m sure, there’s a lot of teenage angst being vented in the blogosphere, blogs are a tool for everyone…

Blogging’s just for kids

Internet communications have become a routine part of the daily lives of most people in the technically advanced countries of Asia, Western Europe and North America. As part of this, online marketing has already become a mainstream part of the media mix. These facts and landmarks we collated for participants on the Digital Training Academies are a summary of the internet and marketing development Academy lectures and are intended to present a few highlights of the immense changes created through this industry.

Download The Digital Rollercoaster

18 October 2007

Congrats today to all of the participants in this three month orientation level Digital Social Media Academy: Lizzy Ewer, Erica Pease, Judy Piatkus, Caroline Lenton, Pauline Rowson, Mithu Mukherjee, Nicola Beauman, Katie Johnson, Helen Griffiths, Alec Gregory, Simon Clegg, Emma Dowling, Thomas Caldwell, Sam Enthoven, Leda Sammarco. This Digital Social Media Academy includes an intensive romp through the beautiful, baffling world of blogging, creating online communities, harnessing social networks and a big dose of viral marketing. Graduates left armed with three sets of digital marketing plans for their own businesses, and all confirmed that they now feel much more confident and skilled in tackling digital marketing. The Digital Social Media Academy was first devised in 2003 and includes the practical use of blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace in consumer and business marketing for both large and small firms.

Could you and your team achieve more with the help of expert training from the leading digital marketing and media training specialists? Digital's new public access academy programme is a cost effective way for your company to tap into some world-class digital training. We can quickly train small teams from scratch, bolster the skills in larger organizations, or get new joiners up to speed.

Learn more - Download_Digital_Training_Academy_prospectus

Knowledge and training are critical for online marketers. Get it right and the internet becomes the most powerful marketing tool there's ever been, but getting it right is not straight forward. That's why I helped set up the Internet Advertising Bureau in 1997, and why I moved on from being its Chief Executive in 2005 to set up the Digital Training Academy. Thousands of marketers need to learn these new skills, so what the Digital Training Academy does is bring together senior industry figures to help them get there. Our team has been training marketers since 2001, and now through the forty academy courses, we have great ways to get your team on the fast track.

If you'd like some more background about some of the things I've done in the internet marketing and publishing industries then there's a biography in our press centre.