Center EX can be used to create your own blog (web-log) that your customers can read and subscribe to.
With service pack one, Center EX now has features to allow you to host any number of blogs on your public website.
Never heard of a blog? Check this out for a somewhat technical explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog.
A blog is a way to let your customers know about timely information. You post articles to the blog about a particular topic. Your customers can choose to subscribe to the blog. After they subscribe, they get notified anytime you post new content to the blog, automatically. You don't have to send a bulk email or do anything at all to let your customers know about the new content, its all automatic.
To do a blog in center EX, you just need a dedicated folder for your blog. Any public documents you post in the folder will become the individual blog entries. Customers then can subscribe to the folder with any of the numerous RSS readers that are available, including most modern web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari), and Outlook 2007. Google and Yahoo also have free online RSS reader applications.
How do you tell people about your new blog? You can use the bulk email features in EX, and/or you can post a link to your blog on other parts of your site.
Blogging tips:
You want people to subscribe and come back to your blog, so here are a few tips from the masters:
- Update your blog frequently with new content
- Be concise and friendly
- Use a conversational, slightly informal tone
- Have useful information, not just marketing speak
A Center EX Librarian can grant you access to your own folder to do a blog, unless you are already a librarian, which means you have the authority to make a new folder anytime. Note, you should post in a public folder, and use public documents in order to effectively use the automatic notification features of RSS. You may use customer visibility for documents if you want your customers to sign in before viewing the content. Internal folders and documents cannot be used with RSS feeds, due to security limitations of RSS.
