And for the final grab bag entry this week, a few posts that caught my eye:
Toby Bloomberg on 5 ways to combat negative blog comments. I particularly liked this reminder:
"One of the benefits of a marketing blog is the opportunity to dialogue with customers, prospects and stakeholders. Sorry y’all, no comments does not make a conversation. It’s called a monologue. […] One person takes center stage with no opportunity for direct feedback. For my money, a blog without comments and trackbacks is an on-line newsletter. And that’s not a negative comment."
She’s absolutely right (that’s why she’s the diva) — there are places for both sorts of things, blogs and blog-like newsletters without comments.
The way I see it, companies just have to decide which thing they want to have and make sure it fits their culture and yes,their marketing plan. If you REALLY can’t handle the comments, don’t put up a blog with comments and then selectively delete the ones you don’t like. You WILL get caught out, and you would have been better off doing a monologue.
I have commented in the past that I (like Toby) do not recommend turning off comments. Rather, use the comments on a blog to have a conversation with the reader. Even negative comments. As we all well know, your BEST customer often is the formerly unhappy customer who you turned around. Of course… you DO have to be willing to do what it takes to turn the customer around….
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If you use TypePad, archive this post from Neville Hobson on how to republish and back-up your blog.
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Two thought provoking posts from John Wagner: Open your eyes to the next wave of PR bloggers and Can the big agencies be thought leaders in a changing marketplace? John has links to commentary by Shel Israel and Trevor Cook among others. Start from his post and follow the trail. I think John is on to something. It is very hard for the big guns, in any industry, to open the country club doors and let the "rest of us" in. The minute they do, they have lost the cachet of their leadership position. They aren’t "special" any more. However, more disturbing to me than the old school leaders having this "club" attitude is when I see similar behavior cropping up in the blogosphere…. Isn’t it a bit soon (and contrary to the spirit of the blogosphere) for there to be authoritative voices on anything? To identify anyone as "So and So, the voice of X in the blogosphere" strikes me as odd.
Just my .02.
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A great post by Jill Konrath on the Selling to Big Companies Blog: Why this voicemail failed. Follow her advice and I’ll bet you’ll have more of your calls returned.
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And finally, from Elisa Camahort at Worker Bees (one of my must-read blogs by the way), some additional commentary on conferences. We’ve both noted a trend where conferences are becoming less about the content and more about the contacts. Which may be okay for dot-com millionaires and folks who don’t pay their own way to these things, but as a small business owner who funds myself (whether I am a speaker or an attendee), I need to find value in the program as well as the people. I can’t afford to attend a conference where I already know most of the content and my only takeaway is to have a few meals with people I already know. And much as I’d love to submit my name as a speaker for some of these things, well, I’m not as well known as others in my field, and can’t afford to pay my own way (or take the time out from billable work) to the extent that others can, so I guess I’ll remain not as well known. So it goes.
And, yeah, I guess I’ll be staying home a lot too!
That’s it for the grab bag. Next up for the marketing plan series of posts are some words about channel marketing.