The best way to etch out a following in today’s crowded blogosphere is to be ahead of the curve. Twitter has its superstars (that include real celebrities), as does Facebook. If you want to get your brand noticed, live blogging may be for you, advises Marcie Hill, owner of the Write Design Company. Write Design provides blogging, live blogging, social media services and training for companies of all sizes.
Much like Twitter, live blogging allows users to provide instant updates with text, photos and videos, but without the word-count restriction. Some consider live blogging to be more exciting than traditional blogging because of the instant-coverage factor, Hill says.
“The difference between live blogging and traditional blogging is that the traditional blogging model is blog now and publish later,” she states. “Live blogging is telling things as they occur. The benefits are you’re able to share information quickly and that comes in handy when you’re covering an event.” 
According to Hill, there are four popular live-blogging applications available: Cover it Live, GSnap, Scribble Live and a WordPress Plug-in. However, she prefers the Cover it Live application because of its ease.
“It’s very easy and straightforward,” Hill says. “Cover it Live is free, and the features that they offer for free [are] really nice. All live blogging platforms have premium accounts, and they are restricted with what you can do with their free accounts. Another cool feature of Cover it Live is that you can see any events that are going on.”
Aside from the instant-sharing factor, there are other benefits of live blogging, Hill says.
Build relationships with clients and audiences.
“Live blogging is great for building relationships with clients and audiences because when you live blog, nine times out of 10, you may be the only person live blogging or Tweeting, and you will automatically stand out. People will ask you questions, and that gives you the opportunity to share your knowledge, and, if they need some services, they’ll contact you.”
Increase traffic to your site.
“Live blogging will increase followers to your site. If you take pictures and tell people, ‘I’ll send you the link, or here’s my card,’ there are people who will follow you to your site. Even if it’s for that one event; but, hopefully, your site will engage them and keep them there. During the Casey Anthony trial, one newspaper had 10,000 people following, and it does allow the conversation.”
Improve your search-engine rankings.
“There are a lot of ways to do this, and, of course, live blogging will help if you continue to use the same hashtag and key words as you use on future posts or once you’re on Twitter. Even if the live-blog session is for that one event with hashtags, that’s another way that you can keep your event and your company name going, even after the event is over.”
Hill adds that some major heavyweights are live blogging now, and you’ll be in good company. “The main people who live blog are newspaper journalists, bloggers, sports reporters and major corporations and events, such as the Emmys.”
–zondra hughes
