As I mentioned a week or so ago, I am one of six contributors to a new business blog, the Revenue Roundtable. This week is my week as "lead blogger" so I am liable to be light on the Roadmap as a result.
Check out the Roundtable — my topic for the week is "Why can’t sales and marketing get along?"
Today, John Moore over at Brand Autopsy gives us our Peter Drucker fix.
Think about it — even if you’ve never read anything by Drucker, it is absolutely certain that you have been influenced by him.
Now, that’s a brand….
So, Panera was not behind the fake Panera blog of yesterday. Apparently it was an ad agency trying to win their business. Unlikely, I’d say 
This is why I try to avoid jumping to conclusions (see yesterday’s comment). After all, as the cliche goes, we know what often happens when we assume……
Thanks to Topaz Partners for the link
From MicroPersuasion, a link to tips for being a more productive blogger
From AdRants, news of a possible fake blog from Panera. For my part I truly don’t have much more energy to devote to this topic, at least for now. So, I stand by what I’ve said before: to be a fake corporate blog, it has to be sponsored by Panera, without the sponsorship being clearly indicated on the blog and without clear indication that the writer is a character, not a real person. If it isn’t sponsored by Panera, but written by someone else for some other purpose (as suggested on the blog’s comments) it still may be stupid and lame, but it isn’t fair to diss Panera for it. The market will decide about character or fictional blogs — if they creatively meet the needs of their audience, like Manolo the Shoe Blogger or the Audi one for example, they thrive. And if they don’t, they’ll die.
Well, I have been off the grid for the past few days at Camp WorldWIT in Lake Geneva Wisconsin. It was a terrific weekend of meeting smart successful women from all over the country, and in fact from overseas as well. Of course, I had withdrawal symptoms from not having Internet access until I hit the Admiral’s Club on Sunday morning before my flight home.
Some of my highlights:
All three keynote speakers were excellent: Sheila Cavanaugh, SVP at Fidelity, Dr. Sheila Dugan from Rush University Medical Center and Rosalyn Wesley, Director of Corporate HR at Fortune Brands.
Kathleen Ameche’s tale of the process to publish her new book, The Woman Road Warrior.
The wonderful women who attended the panel on which I was a speaker. They had terrific questions about blogging, and I really enjoyed meeting and speaking with them. Below I have posted the additional links I promised during the session.
Sunrise yoga.
Some really great sessions on sales and marketing issues. It is great to meet people of like mind who believe in a sales and marketing partnership, versus a war.
And last but not least, all the terrific women I met during the weekend.
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Links
Typepad and Blogger, two well known hosted services for blogs. Blogger is free, but I think less functional for business blogging. I use Typepad.
Two search engines for blogs: Technorati and PubSub
I also want include the WorldWIT blogs: Business Mom, Networking for Success, PRGirl, The Customer Clique and The Male Perspective
As I start hearing back from the women I met at Camp WorldWIT about their new blogs, I will create a new category on my blogroll, and include the WorldWIT ones as well.
WARNING: LONG POST J
As I started to prepare my materials for the Making Your Name Hit and Stick session at Camp WorldWIT, I realized that the natural form for my presentation on using a weblog in your business was to blog it J
Attendees at the session will have a permanent record of the material, including links to helpful resources. And hopefully, my blog shows, not just tells, how you can use a blog to enhance your reputation in your field.
What is a blog?
There are a lot of opinions about what a blog is, and is not. For some people, it must be a web-based reverse chronological journal written by a real, living person. To others, the blog form is a lightweight content management system that can be used to publish a variety of websites – from first person accounts to character blogs to community sites. For some people, it is not a “real” blog if there is no way for the audience to comment on the posts. Ads. No ads. Paid bloggers. Just for the love if it. The things we can find to debate about are endless J
In my opinion, some of this defining is just a bit pointless, and smacks of inside baseball (for my definition of inside baseball go here). It’s a fun to have the debates if you’re into it, but if you are just trying to figure out how to use this new online form in your business, you probably don’t care so much.
So in my presentation at Camp WorldWIT (and in this post) I am going to focus on the practical, and give you some guidance on how you might use a blog to build a sense of community among your customers, and your peers, and enhance your "expert" reputation in your field. I’ll try to keep the pontificating to a minimum.
So when should you do a blog, and when shouldn’t you?
First things first, you can do a blog whenever you want for whatever purpose you want. And say whatever you want, as long as you don’t forget that what you say today persists long after the post button is pressed. The more germane question is, when does a blog make sense for your business?
The answer is simple: A blog is a good tactic for your business if the blog can deliver results for your business/marketing plan. It has to fit with the plan, and deliver a business objective. Do not do a business blog just because everyone else is doing one. Do it because it helps you achieve your goals.
So what is a blog really good at?
You may even find that your fans are blogging before you are; take advantage of it and participate on their blogs. They’ll be thrilled.
Marketing plan vectors: customer loyalty and retention; brand awareness.
As an example, let me share with you my experience since I started my blog, and my business late last year.
I started blogging in mid November. I have done some promotion of the blog, but relatively little. For example, I haven’t done any search engine optimization, although I have submitted Marketing Roadmaps to the major blog search engines.
What I do is try to write an interesting marketing blog, with a mix of original articles highlighting my expertise and/or opinions, and a regular round-up of articles from around the blogosphere.
I read numerous marketing blogs every day, and actively participate in those conversations, either by leaving a comment on the blog or writing about the topic on my own blog, and sending
a trackback ping to the original blog.Slowly, people started reading my blog, leaving comments and referencing my posts on their blogs. By December, my traffic had picked up and I had a nice, small group of regular readers from all over the world. And readers isn’t really the right term – we are participants together in an ongoing conversation that is held on my blog and their blogs, among the bloggers and our visitors.
As far as tangible results? I can’t point to any business from the blog… yet… but I believe I have established a positive reputation in my field. I have been selected to speak on panels at a couple of conferences (including this one), and recently was invited to participate in a group blog called
The Revenue Roundtable about which I am very excited.Marketing plan vectors: building topic expertise and authority; brand awareness; some lead generation.
Can you do the same? Yes.
The blog form really lends itself well to a professional service businesses like marketing, PR and law. But almost every company has an owner, or an employee(s), or an executive who can be established as an expert, extending authority and credibility to the firm as a provider of the product. This has been a well accepted PR tactic for forever. Now, with the blog, you have one more tool to reach out to your audience.
How do you do it? In my opinion, there is no one right way to blog. The only thing you MUST do is develop your blog in the context of your marketing plan. If it doesn’t fit the plan, it is a lot of work for naught.
Here’s my other advice:
Engage in the online conversation. A blog is not just your bully pulpit. You need to become part of the relevant online community, actively participating with your audience, both on your own blog, and on other sites. Before you write one word on your own blog, read other blogs. Lots of other blogs.
Authentic. Honest. Transparent. You will hear these words a lot. That your blog must be authentic, you must be honest and your business as transparent as is reasonable. What does it really mean? IMO it means you have to be open and upfront with your readers … your customers … about your intentions – why you did the blog, what you hope to get out of it. You have to be honest and fair with your customers, and take the lumps with the kudos. You don’t lie. It is okay to not divulge company information; no one wants to harm your competitive advantage. But you can’t be dishonest, and try to use the blog to manipulate your readers. It’s plain bad business. And if that doesn’t convince you, keep in mind that they’ll find out anyway and you will lose a tremendous amount of trust.
When shouldn’t you do a blog?
If short term lead generation is your number one goal, and your time and budget are limited, a blog is not the best, first thing to do. There is no reason NOT to do one, but there are probably other marketing tools like direct mail and telemarketing that can deliver leads faster than the blog. Do them first and then start a blog once you are underway.
Don’t do a blog if you are not comfortable engaging publicly with your customers and other members of your industry. Even if you turn off comments (which I don’t recommend), your words will be fair game for anybody and everybody to link to. If you are willing to engage, you will reap great benefits. If you aren’t, just don’t do it.
If you decide to start blogging, I would love to hear about your blog – please drop me a note at sgetgood@getgood.com, or leave a comment here!
See you in the blogosphere.
A few weeks, Jim Logan asked if I would be interested in joining with him and a few others on a new group blog called The Revenue Roundtable. After a few weeks of round robin e-mails, telephone calls and a lot of work on Jim’s part (thanks Jim), the Roundtable launched yesterday.
The Roundtable bloggers are Jim Logan, Michael McLaughlin, Jill Konrath, Brian Carroll, Kevin Stirtz and me. Our backgrounds in sales, marketing, business develoment and small business management are different, but we all share a results-oriented approach to business problems, so you can expect a practical, goal-oriented Roundtable. I’ll keep my philosophical musings and fake blog rants on the Roadmap
From the introductory post:
"We’ve joined together as a team to focus on a single objective: helping you grow a profitable business—while maintaining your sanity. Our panel of experts will help you clear the path to prosperity by sharing winning strategies for building a business, and by pointing out the inevitable traps you’ll encounter along the way.
The Revenue Roundtable team’s saying is “Be practical, or be quiet.” So, head off to academia if you want to read jargon-laden management theory. Stick with us if you want specific advice on marketing strategy, lead generation, managing a complex sale, and expanding your business with your existing customers. And that’s just the start.
The team will write on one topic each week so you’ll get an in-depth view of an issue. And, we want your comments, suggestions and participation so we can tailor the blog’s content to match what you ask for.
Come back often. Let the Revenue Roundtable be your Swiss army knife for growing your business."
Check it out — the first week’s topic is Customers!
Here are some good resources on blogging, whether you are a long-time blogger or brand new to the form. I compiled this list as a handout for a presentation on (surprise) blogging for business, and decided it was a good entry for the Roadmap.
Overviews:
BusinessWeek’s May 2 cover story on blogging
Wayne Hurlbert’s chapter from the upcoming book 100 Bloggers offers a nice, simple introduction to "citizen publishing."
Gapingvoid - The Porous Membrane: Why Corporate Blogging Works
Excellent summary post from Contentious: What’s a Blog. Bag the Stereotypes.
Marketing Watchdog Journal, Is a Blog Right for Your Business?
Jim Logan’s great series on Inside Baseball: Business Blogs. The easiest way to find the whole series is go to Jim’s site and select the “Inside Baseball” category.
Practical/How-to:
"How to write killerblog posts and more compelling comments" by BL Ochman
Some tips from Marketing Roadmaps on using comments and trackbacks
From Business Week’s Blogspotting, a link to a good definition of trackbacks from the Movable Type site
Recent examples of marketing blogs:
From John Wagner — all about qtags
From NevOn, an update on the GM blogs
From Marketing Roadmaps, two recent posts about various types of marketing blogs here and here
With all the recent hype about blogging, we are definitely going to see a spate of corporate blogs over the next few months. As well as negative commentary when blogging isn’t as “easy” as it seemed.
Not surprisingly, some will be in it for the quick hit, and be surprised: blogging takes effort and commitment to do well. Like anything worth doing, blogging takes time.
Those in it for the quick hit will fade fast. Those who “get it” and are willing to invest in the medium will achieve the long term results.
And, it is worth repeating: a blog has to make sense in the context of the marketing plan, with clear objectives and desired results. From the corporate perspective, that is what makes the investment worthwhile.
Opinions well worth reading on this topic:
Gapingvoid: Blog as if your life depended on it (for the next three months anyway)
Micro Persuasion: Let the blog bashing begin (and be sure to read the comments)
SiliconValleyWatcher reports that IBM will be launching a massive blog initiative next week. Lots of folks are commenting on this initial report, and it will certainly be interesting to chart the progress of blogging at IBM.
Hopefully, a lot of doubting thomases (and thomasinas) will recognize that IBM’s corporate adoption of the form is validation of the blog as a powerful marketing and brand awareness tool.
16 MAY UPDATE: Cnet news.com story on the announcement today, with links to the actual guidelines and policy.
