Late February saw the Irish Blog Awards take place. I don’t know much about the Irish blogging community, or these awards but I thought we might all be able to learn something from the winners. Blogging is part of the small business’s online marketing arsenal and these guys know enough to win an award. Maybe they are doing something right.
The awards were in many categories and you might see something in your industry, your niche. Maybe they are doing something really well that you could learn from. Maybe you could do it much better.
Either way, I think these blogs are a useful resource and can provide an insight into the business of blogging for business. These are Irish blogs that have achieved at least some measure of success. Perhaps how other people use their blogs might give you some ideas as to how the Internet can do more for your business. Perhaps not, but we’ll give it a go just in case.
The winners are posted on the Irish Blog Awards site and are as follows:
Best Popculture Blog
RaptureponiesBest Blog from a Journalist - Sponsored by Mamut
Markham Nolan - expad.ieBest Food/Drink Blog - Sponsored by Bord Bia
The Daily SpudBest Fashion Blog - Sponsored by Spinnakerpro
Beaut.ieBest Arts and Culture Blog - Sponsored by Poetry Ireland
Pursued by a BearBest Political Blog - Sponsored by Digital Revolutionaries
Cedar LoungeBest Group Blog - Sponsored by DineToMeet.ie
Dublinblog.ieBest Use of the Irish Language in a Blog - Sponsored by Edgecast Media
iGaeilgeBest Technology Blog/Blogger - Sponsored by Bitbuzz
Justin Mason - taint.orgBest Sport and Recreation Blog - Sponsored by Boards.ie
The Kop BlogBest News/Current Affairs Blog - Sponsored by IGO People
Suzy Byrne - Maman PouletBest Specialist Blog - Sponsored by iQ Content
IrishEconomy.ieBest Newcomer - Sponsored by Teamworkpm.net
Trust TommyBest Blog of a Business - Sponsored by RedCardinal.ie
The Blacknight BlogBest Music Blog - Sponsored by DownloadMusic.ie
Nialler9Best Personal Blog - Sponsored by Microsoft Ireland’s Developer and Platform Group
Annie RhiannonBest Humour Blog - Sponsored by Beecher Networks
The Swearing Lady at Arse End of IrelandBest Photo Blog - Sponsored by Pix.ie
Ryan Whalley - glasseyalley.comBest Blog Post - Sponsored by KRO IT Solutions
K8 the GR8: “The Secret Fire”Grand Prix Prize - Best Blog sponsored by McConnells
Suzy Byrne - Mamanpoulet.com
I’ve posted all the winners because they might be in your niche. The five or so finalists in each category are listed on the blog so if you have a special interest you can go have a look.
Most of the niches aren’t of any special interest to the subject of this blog but here are a few posts I found that might be interesting.
Expad.ie - beating David McWilliams for best blog by a journalist is no small achievement. Here is a recent post on getting your image slightly wrong when using the powerful communication tools provided by the social web.
Blacknight won the best blog by a business, so that has to deserve a special mention. I am going to mention this post on the IRMA’s appalling attempt to censor the Internet simply because attempts to censor the Internet are something that I am very strongly opposed to.
Here’s a fairly strident post from another of the business blog finalists with advice on use of Signature files in your business emails.
Here are the rest of the “Best Blog of a Business” nominations:
blog.blacknight.com/
www.curiouswines.ie/blog/
brightspark-consulting.com/blog/
www.sabrinadent.com/
nicedaydesigns-ruth.blogspot.com/
Not that many of these blogs are directly related to helping you run your small business website or to the content we generally add here. Hopefully, your niche is covered somewhere in the blogs listed or the tone and content of one or more of the blogs might give you some ideas and help you see ways that your own message could reach out and benefit your business.
I imagine this post will be fairly hit and miss. If you’ve got nothing from it, we’ll try and do better next time.
