Elena DeRosa

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To blog or not to blog, that was the question that some of the 50 people attending a recent blog workshop held at WDBJ (Channel 7)'s community room hoped would be answered. The March 15 gathering was the latest in a series of events that Ira Kaufman, president of Roanoke Biz2Biz, has put together to help businesses understand how to use current technology to promote themselves.

"Blogs are really becoming the new powerful medium for marketing in the next century," Kaufman said. He listed a myriad of benefits of this rapidly growing phenomenon, which can be found on his Web site, along with his newly created "Biz Talk" blog.

"Blogging also puts small businesses on a level playing field with the larger businesses," Kaufman noted.

To shed light on the mystery of blogs, Kaufman, along with moderator Stuart Mease, special projects coordinator for Roanoke, lined up an impressive array of local bloggers, shifting them from their keyboards to a podium.

"I think today was not only about educating people about what a blog is and how to use it, but also to bring together people that know each other online that maybe have never met," Mease said.

Mease's blog, "Connecting People," sets forth to provide "a bridge between young adults seeking professional and social opportunities in the Roanoke and New River Valleys."

Patrick Matthews, chief executive officer of Webmail.us, uses his blog to communicate with his existing customers, as well as potential customers, who he says "are more likely to want to join up with a company that has an open communication chain."

Andrew Cohill, CEO of Design Nine in Blacksburg, updates his blog "Technology Futures" quite frequently. "It's cheap, easy and can really help your business," he said. Cohill remarked how blogging has become an important part of Roanoke. "We have a vibrant set of bloggers that write about the community in all aspects."

A stroll down roanoke.com's Community Blog Roll can certainly vouch for Cohill's statement.

One such blogger, Keith Clinton of Roanoke, who started his "Just Another Day in Roanoke" blog as a companion to his Roanoke Found Web site two years ago, has become a popular local read.

"A community blog should be informative," Clinton said. "It's a new model of communicating to get your voice out there."

Clinton recently began another blog, "Southeast Roanoke Rising," to get the word out on what he calls "the rebirth of Southeast Roanoke." In his maiden post, he invites citizen journalists to band "together to inform and enlighten anyone curious about the transition of Southeast Roanoke from 'also-ran' to 'front-runner.' "

Roanoke resident Robert Beverley, a recent summa cum laude graduate from Virginia Western Community College, attended the workshop, not to promote any business but to do a little networking, seeking the opportunity to put his computer skills to work locally.

"I already knew that a blog can be a powerful networking tool, but this meeting served to underscore that fact and convinced me that I needed to start putting it to work for me," Beverley wrote in an e-mail.

Norma Hardy of Pre-paid Legal Services attended the session and said afterward, "I thought today was wonderful. We don't blog right now but we're definitely going to look into this and probably become bloggers."

That seemed to be the sentiment of most people I spoke with including independent businessman Ed Murphy. "I have a beverage distribution company, Xango, and I'm interested in creating a blog, so I'm here to learn."

And how did Murphy feel after the two-and-a-half-hour workshop concluded? He said, "No doubt about it, I'm going to begin blogging."

For more information, visit www.roanokebiz2biz.com