New Concepts on Market Research

After I spent 40 hours of class and study time to create a professional Blog, I would like to share now with you my acquired knowledge on Blogging. In the first place I will enumerate the steps, then give you an explanation how you might do it and afterwards an example how I did it. At first I had to choose a Blog platform.

1. Blog-Platform
Many blog-platforms do exists. But WordPress is the most common used. Via WordPress you have a multitude of gadgets which permits a good navigation of your blog. WordPress is an easy-to-use and free blogging software which focuses on aesthetics and usability. It can be applied for many issues. In the following I will explain you how you can create your own professional blog on WordPress.

2. Topic
In a first place you need to choose of a topic you want to write about. It can be an interest, your working field or something you always wanted to research. Blogging is about researching, analyzing, and commeting on information – not just reporting on it. In addition, you will comment on what other people have written about a specific topic so you can have a detailled look at it. Blogging is about interaction with other people, their thoughts and interests.

As I chose as major Market Research I wanted to create a Blog on Market Research, in order to give other interested parties a guide, a reference to new trends in this field.

3. Title of the Blog
What will be the title of your blog? This is a very crucial question. The title should of course reflect the topic you choose to write about. But then there are many possibilities to entitle it.
In the first place I called my Blog “Sophie’s Market Research Site”. So the reader knows it is a Blog from me about market research. But after some time, I thought of a more neutral, objective way to describe my Blog. As I am giving explanations, guides to new trends in this field, I called it “New Concepts on Market Research”. I learned that a title should always be attractive and refer to the content of the Blog.

4. Overall design
If you know on which platform you will create your Blog and about which topic you want to write, it is important to think of the overall design.

Concise Image
It is important to insert in the image header an image which has a symbolic significance. It should be easy memorable and should fit well to the topic. In search engines you need then to type in relevant keywords to your topic and opt for a photo other people, future visitors of your Blog, could associate with your topic. Under Appearance in WordPress you can then easily upload your image.
As my topic is Market Research, I asked myself what Market Research stands for. For me it is data you analyze now so you can make forecasts for the future. My Image expresses this. It shows a sign with “future ahead” on it. It indicates a movement, a direction.

Theme/ Layout
In WordPress you may thereafter choose a Theme (in Appearance). A theme is the general layout of your Blog. What changes is the alignment of the side bar (categories, posts…), the extent of the widgets, the fundamental colors…
I choose my theme (Pool) according to the colors and the simplicity of my image header.

Categories
The categories you choose will appear on the side bar. You can categorize your posts via them. I learned that categories should closely refer to the blog title.
For me in Market Research there are three important categories:

• Competitive Intelligence: how monitor the competitors?
• Consumer Behavior: Needs and expectations of the target
• Market Study : Business environment (market data, companies, consumption, political, social factors)

5. Research of publications in the field
In order to write posts you need to find the right publications in your field. It can be articles (from the Journals specialized in your field), news, videos, and other Blog articles. You can save some of them in your blogroll if you like.
I am for example going directly to Market Research institutes and am looking there for press releases or the news section.

6. Posts depending on the context and content
The basic structure of a post is divided into three parts: introduction (announce the structure, personal appeal to reader), main part (explain main ideas) and the last part (conclusion, opinion). Depending on the publications you may choose other structures, but every post should be clear and simple, announce the structure, give a guide to a specific topic and you should make usage of the target language of your field. Remember to always indicate the link to the websites you use. After some time when you know something about your field, about your topic, you can go to other Blogs and leave comments there. The interaction can start, because now the people will look out for you page and comment it too.

As I am giving above explanations and examples on my blog, please go to my professional Blog about Market Research on WordPress.  I hope this guide will help you set up your own professional Blog on WordPress. If you like to know the reasons why I maintain a Blog, please go to this Blog entry.