Marketing Roadmaps

Blogging

Round-up: Changing nature of blogs

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I’m working on some material about the changing nature of blogs as part of my preparation for a workshop I am leading at the University of Wisconsin next month. Here are some of the posts I’ve collected over the past few weeks that may be used in the session. As always, I’ll post a summary of the session here on the Roadmap.

In no particular order:

Three excellent posts from Newsome.org:  5 steps to good blogging, No comments: old school or playing hooky, and The politics of blogging

Guy Kawasaki’s How to suck up to a blogger

Stowe Boyd, Scoble on tips for joining the A-list

Foghound, Positioning and messaging is not an option

A WSJ article on blog ethics, chiefly around the issue of disclosing financial interest in companies you blog about, found on Media Guerilla, Blogger Disclosure Practices Tested

CorporatePR, When is a blog really a blog?

Web 2.0 malarkey from gaping void

The role of the roll, Shel Holtz

Technorati Favorites, opinions from Media Guerilla, Media Orchard

Micro Persuasion, How and When to Respond to Conversations, a summary of a discussion at the Word of Mouth Marketing conference in January

Cymfony’s new media Knowledge Center (seen on Micro Persuasion)

A post about the A-list "thing" that I missed in my earlier round-up, Why I hate the A-list mentality, Phil Gomes

Worker Bees, Does a blog without comments smell as sweet?

I also plan to talk about Dr. Myra, as an example of what NOT to do.

And Dell will get more than a passing mention, not just for the continuing saga of dis-satisfied customers in Dell Hell, but also for the news item I found on Threadwatch today. Apparently Dell is suing a website designer named Paul Dell for using the domain www.dellwebsites.com. Perhaps there’s more to the story than meets the eye, but it seems to me that Michael Dell can’t be the only Dell on the planet who is allowed to use his name in connection with a business endeavor. Hhmm? Just can’t shake the feeling — Dell is a company that just doesn’t "get it."

Bonus link (not for the workshop and your payback for wading through this post): Cheney’s Got a Gun (tip of the hat to John Wagner for the link)

Testing the Memetrackers

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If tests of the memetrackers were really necessary, couldn’t they have done something meaningful, like spread the word about a charity? Or told the world about an unsung hero? Something with meaning rather than nonsense words?

Maybe I’m missing something here, but as long as the test used something obscure, wouldn’t it achieve the same result as nonsense words for testing the memetrackers? And then these very popular blogs would be spreading the word about something worthwhile that could probably use the help…

Just wondering…..

BlogHer: More about the Room of Your Own Proposal

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Elisa Camahort has posted the candidates for the Room of Your Own slots at BlogHer this July so I thought I’d give a little more detail about the Business Blogging session I’ve proposed.

We’ve all gone to conferences where much of the audience is just as qualified (sadly sometimes more) as the panel of experts. But very little time is actually given for interaction between the panel and the audience. Usually, there is time for one or two questions, and that’s it. Not very satisfying for anyone really, but especially the audience — at least the panelists get the professional recognition for being on the panel.

The other problem (one that is handsomely addressed by BlogHer) is that all the conferences start to blend together — the same speakers seem to hop from one to the next, presenting pretty much the same material. Interesting the first time perhaps, but not so much the 2d, 3d, 4th time you attend a conference with the same players. And the same topics. Not really worth attending the sessions when you could save the airfare and read the same material on their blog or in their book.

Now, sessions aren’t the only reason for attending conferences — networking is a big part of why we go as well. For my part though, I really need to find value in both the conference program and the networking opportunities. It’s too expensive, both in hard cost and time away from billable work, to attend otherwise.

Hence the idea for a business blogging session that makes the audience members part of the panel. The focus is on "what worked, what didn’t" in your blog projects. What would you do again? What will you NEVER do again? We’ll learn from each other’s experiences to collectively build a set of blogging best practices.

A few folks will be identified in advance to kick off our discussion, however, the only difference between them and the rest of the people in the room is that they will have PROMISED to have something to share. Everyone in the room will have an equal chance to participate.

And that is the key word: Participate. We won’t have presentations or speeches. To the extent we can, we’ll post brief descriptions of the blogs that people want to discuss on the BlogHer site in advance so we don’t have to spend a lot of time bringing everyone up to speed on what a blog was all about. That way, we can focus on the discussion, not a ton of exposition.

I think this will be a lot of fun and look forward to reading your comments, either here or at the BlogHer site.

The A-list Train Wreck

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If you’re interested in the whole A-list debate, and I’m mostly not, but it’s like a train wreck (you know you shouldn’t look but you just can’t help it), you can find more chatter – some civil, some not so much – all over the place. Mostly set off by the New York article this week.

Now, why we expect the blogosphere to be any different than society at large, I do not know. We have social and business strata in the real world; it is inevitable in the blogosphere as well. Technology changes. Human nature doesn’t. An A-list is inevitable, ephemeral and it is damn hard work to get and stay on “it.” Not to mention the big bullseye on your back once you get there.

Some A-list blogs are great. And on the other hand, some of the best blogging is being done in the long tail, not in the Technorati 100. That is just the way it is.

Now, some things still piss me off from time to time. Not the fact of an A-list or the concerns of those in the long tail — but the attitudes that occasionally go along with BOTH. So I can’t promise to never talk about it again, but not right now.

Because as Vamp!Willow said in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Bored now.”

But if you’re not, and want to watch the train wreck, here are some blogs to check out. Links are to posts on the blogs related to the topic.

Beyond Madison Avenue
Blogging for Business
gapingvoid, Two posts of interest here and here
Seth Finkelstein, InfoThought
Media Orchard (while we are at it, kudos to Scott Baradell for having the right idea about Dr. Myra  from the get-go. More another day on why more bloggers didn’t “join the charge.”)
Micro Persuasion   
Naked Conversations
Newsome.org – multiple posts in the last few days Just check out his blog, it is pretty good!
Scobleizer

For my part, I just try to write an interesting blog that I and my readers will enjoy. Some days I hit it, some I don’t. I couldn’t tell you exactly how many readers I have, because I don’t track it obsessively. But I do know they are some of the greatest people I’ve ever “met” from the great comments and trackbacks I’ve had over the 15 or so months I’ve been blogging. 

Marketing 101: it isn’t about reaching the MOST people. It’s about reaching the RIGHT people.

Think about that.

HP Auction Results and Thanks

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The HP Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity ended last night. Top portraits in the Auction:

  1. The Police (by Kevin Mazur), winning bid $1025
  2. Jessica Biel, $640.16
  3. The Beastie Boys, $505
  4. Terrence Howard and Lucy Liu, both at $455
  5. Kevin Smith, $405

HP is matching the winning bids on each portrait, up to $1000 each.

A huge thank you to all the fan site, forum and list owners who helped spread the word to their fellow fans. In particular, we are extremely grateful to Jessica Biel and www.jessebiel.com for including the auction in two emails to her fans.

And my personal thanks to blog pals, old and new, for mentioning the auction:

NOTE: June 3, 2007 — Comments and Trackbacks closed on this post due to comment spam.