Poncho the Dog blogs for the Inquisitive Canine in Ventura, CA

**Guest Post from Poncho the Dog, Blogger and Inquisitive Canine!**

You’re probably wondering how this 10-pound mutt became a guest blogger on Web Marketing Therapy? Well, first off, my mom asked me to do her homework for her. Second, we wanted to share with everyone that all businesses can benefit from Web Marketing Therapy – even dog training and behavior counseling can benefit from WMT!

And since I’m a blogger, thanks to my gal pal Miss. Lorrie, Mom thought it would be interesting for this inquisitive canine to share what we’ve learned from our 3-week course on Social Media Marketing at UCSB Extension and what it all means to me, Poncho the Dog, and my mom, Certified Pet Dog Trainer Joan Mayer.

We learned about various social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and blogging on Blogger or Wordpress, We also learned how you can take what you know, what you’re passionate about, what you want to share with the world, and make this valuable knowledge available for others.

We learned how you can connect to the world in various ways, and that each platform is special in its own way – that’s why you may want to be involved with different ones. We heard about some great examples of others sharing their passion on social networks to help grow their businesses. Glen and Gabe of Specialty Color Services were the prime example. They turned their “Photograph Your Love” contest into one of the largest and most heartwarming competitions ever – all through Facebook!

Guest blooger Poncho the Dog with his mom, Certified Pet Dog Trainer Joan Mayer

Blogging is a great way to share what you know with your intended audience.

I started blogging a couple years ago and quickly discovered that it’s basically sharing your passion and knowledge with others who are interested in what you have to say. Or, saying it in such a way that gets the right people interested.

Sure, mom already has her blog about dog training and behavior counseling, and I have mine Poncho’s Prose, which is all about my life as a dog living in a human world, but this class taught us the importance of details, like how to enhance what we have with specific wording that helps search engines find us, how to strategically link to others, having “guest bloggers” contribute to our site, and how to get more people involved.

As an example of how blogging can work for you, mom gave me a couple of examples to share. She was out on a run with some friends and thought about how they could take their opinions and passions, and turn them into blogs – and who knows, maybe even a new “career” too.

•    The first one is mom’s friend “Marion”*. Marion is a great chef and caterer here in town. She also enjoys eating out, and, in our opinion, is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to our local restaurants here in Ventura. Both mom and I would love for her to start her own “restaurant review” blog! We think her opinions on the restaurant itself, the food, service, prices, ambiance, and all of the other details would be greatly appreciated by this community. She’s honest, down-to-earth, realistic, and we appreciate her opinion – I’m sure others would agree.

•    The second example would be a “Best Bargains” blog by “Lilly* & Lola*” They are twins who love to shop, but also love to find a bargain! Mom was thinking they could not only write about finding bargains, but that maybe companies would be interested in having them write about the bargains they’re offering to the public! Sort of like a “Merchandise Match-maker” for the community. Having a resource like the ladies who love a bargain (oooh, that’s a good name for their blog), would be a great asset for both the bargain hunter and the supplier!

*Names have been changed for privacy protection.

So you can see, how taking something you love to talk about, whether it be for a business you own, a business you want to start, or just something you’re passionate about can be done very easily on a blogging platform.

Now that class is over, what’s next for me and my rockin’ dog-training, social-media-savvy mom?

We’ll continue sharing and getting dog owners more involved on our blog and our cool new doggie advice column (we interlink all our web properties!) And, thanks to Miss. Nicki (another she-geek wild web woman) and all of her “how-to help,” I believe mom is setting up a new Facebook “fan page” for yours truly – mom is my number one fan ya know. We will both continue to Twitter (@ponchothedog and @joanthedogcoach), Facebook, and Flickr (love uploading all the fun pictures mom takes of me).  And of course, I will continue blogging, as will mom.

Now the only issue that mom and I have with all of these great platforms is that sometimes we argue over who gets to use the computer, but we aways work it out.

Categories: Blog, Small Business, Social Media Marketing

Tags: Blog, blog design, dog blogger, dog trainer, facebook, flickr, guest blogger, inquisitive canine, joan mayer, Lorrie Thomas, Nicki Gauthier, Small Business, social media marketing, speciality color services, twitter, UCSB extension, web 2.0 tools

Follow Us
on Twitter:

Find Us
on Facebook:

See the Wild Web
Women on Flickr:

Network with Us
on LinkedIn: