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A-list bloggers

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Okay, I admit, this A-list thing is like a scab that I just can’t stop picking at. I think the whole concept of having an A-list in the blogosphere — where barriers to entry were supposed to have flattened — is patently clue-less. And while I am trying really hard to ignore the whole thing, I just have to comment on the flap du jour.

The facts: Steve Rubel of the MicroPersuasion blog published a short post last week advising readers that it was pointless to send him email asking for links — he was just too busy. The best way to "talk" to him was to get the blogs he reads to link to you. Here’s his post:

"Like Scoble, lately I have been getting a lot of please “link to me” emails. I look at these, but as the volume increases I will not be able to scale. This is true for many of the more popular bloggers.

So, here’s a blog relations tip for you. One way to get coverage on a “top-tier” blog is by identifying who he/she reads regularly and then pitching those sites.

Here’s how to get this done. Start by going to the BlogPulse Profiles site. Enter the URL of your favorite blogger and click on the Sources tab and you will get a sense for their linking habits. For example, here’s Scoble’s. Use the smaller blogs as stepping stones that help you get “coverage” on the larger ones."

Now, I congratulate Rubel on his successful effort to become the super-ultra-A-list PR blogger (see my previous post, good on you, have fun at the top, watch out for exploding egos). If that’s your thing, and you’ve got the time to make it happen, fine. And I appreciated the reminder about BlogPulse.

But, posts like this are just plain ego, and I don’t think they have any place in the blogosphere. BTW I also have no time for people who don’t answer their email. You work your way to the top of the heap, great. Hire someone to help with your correspondence. The people you AREN’T replying to, or others like them, helped you get to the summit. Don’t forget them.

I digress.  Since I am trying to ignore all this crap, I was going to let it pass. Until I saw Media Orchard’s truly excellent post: the A-listers aren’t different from you and me. They call Steve on his premise, and remind us that the pr-news source-media relationship is symbiotic — we all need and feed off each other. The key is to make sure that what you "pitch" is really interesting to the one being pitched. And hope he has his listening ears on 🙂

Net net give "good news" and you should reap the benefits. Pitch crap, and that’s what you should expect, whether it is a magazine, a website or a blog.

Don’t skip the comments on the Media Orchard post –they are all pretty amusing, proving that no matter what, most of us seem to have retained a sense of humor.

The thing that irked me the most about the Rubel post was that it was effectively a conversation killer. In one fell swoop, he told thousands of people that he wasn’t really that interested in what they had to say, unless it got the stamp of approval from a blog or source he already liked/trusted. Doesn’t matter what you have to say. I just don’t have the time. And as the Media Orchard folks pointed out: the post basically said don’t bother me, bother them.

Now, I am sure that in practice that’s not really what he does or will do in future. I hope that if you have something really cool, and approach him with it, he’ll pay attention. But that’s not what he said on his blog, and in absence of evidence of what we do, what we say stands for  us. And in this case, I don’t think he comes off well at all. I truly hope he thinks twice about it, and that other marketing and PR bloggers don’t adopt the same clue-less policy. If we as PR and marketing professionals, who strive daily to get notice for our companies, causes and products, won’t stay open to communication, who the hell will?

A note: you can find Steve’s post by by googling it or just going to his blog (which is in my blogroll). I believe this post was antithetical to the spirit of blogging, and it is not going to get any "link-love" from me. I realize that this won’t make a bit of difference (my blog is pretty much the pimple on the ass of the elephant) but it satisfies my perverse sense of justice.

My last words on this (at least for now): I have only ever asked other bloggers for a link once, when I was working on spreading the word about a charity auction for Hewlett Packard last fall. Usually I have the time to build a short list of blogger-influencers for my clients, reach out to introduce the company and ask permission to send them our news and ONLY then start including them in our announcements.

In the case of this project, I had no time. So I asked a very small number of bloggers to help me spread the word quickly.

I wasn’t too surprised when none of very few "A-list" folks I sent it to thought it was worth mentioning. They don’t really know me. I was, however, pleased and thankful for all the marketing and business bloggers I reached out who did respond and mention the charity effort on their blogs. They are MY A-list.

UPDATE 1/16/06: gapingvoid has the top ten reasons nobody reads your blog. Funny in its own right, but his post also includes links to additional material that I found both interesting and useful: a 2003 article by Clay Shirky on power law distributions (also known as the 80/20 rule) and a post by Kent Newsome, Why it’s impossible to build a new blog in 2006.

ANOTHER UPDATE 1/16/06: Here’s another great post on the whole Rubel flapdoodle from infOpinions: FInding a path to blog PR bliss….Goose and Gander Extremely well said, especially the end:

"For me, I really don’t go to Rubel’s blog – unless I am sent a link or see it referenced in some other blog and it seems interesting.  It has lost value for me.  Heck, anyone can do RSS searches, Google Alerts, Yahoo! Alerts and any number of other RSS feed scanning practices.  I find all the things Rubel posts about, but in the other blogs I read.  And, I find something more.  I find the thoughts of those bloggers and what they think of these new ideas, tools, tactics and more.  They add to the conversation, not echo it.  That, my friends, is content worth reading.  They may not be A-List bloggers, but they are the true Kings and Queens – the royalty – of blogs.

I hope Rubel enjoys being there – in his blog.  Chance the Gardener has a new crop of squash. As in, squash the lil’ guys. He doesn’t have time for anything but the really big vegetables."

The inevitability of the A-list?

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The blogger A-list is inevitable. The good news: it’s also irrelevant.

Inevitable for so many of the reasons I mentioned in my June post , Who’s on top. We strive for success. When we reach it, we want the recognition. And we want to defend the territory, so we build barriers to entry. It is human nature, not-so-pure and simple.

The latest entrant in the ego-fest: EgoSurf. Here you can type your name and associated Web sites and blogs, and get an ego rating. Saw this a few places, lastly in David Parmet’s blog, where he laments:

"This is exactly the sort of A-lister bullshit elitist wannabe crap we all hoped blogging and social media would destroy."

I agree wholeheartedly. I’m certainly glad my score didn’t crawl up into the red "egomaniac" zone and wasn’t zero either, but I just don’t understand why anyone cares about this sort of thing, other than as a joke.

Sure, I ego-surf. Who doesn’t. But it doesn’t mean anything. I get lots of Google hits because of the online persistence of things that I’ve done in my career combined with length of time on the net. For 10 years, I was the spokesperson for internet filtering software companies, first Cyber Patrol and then SurfControl, during a time when the topic was hot. Supreme Court cases. Laws. White House Summits. Congressional Hearings. FTC Hearings. NSF Meetings. The list goes on. Since many of the online docs that include my name are government docs, they persist. An interesting look into my professional history, but not that relevant today. Unless you want to retain me to be your spokesperson for a controversial product 🙂

Of course, you can also find a recipe for German Chocolate Cake that I posted to Usenet in 93 or 94. If you’ve been online for any length of time, you will leave a trail. And it is cool to look at it every so often. But it doesn’t make you any more qualified or talented or smart etc. etc. than anyone else. I imagine you could get a high score from all sorts on online activities that are not at all professional (unless you are in the oldest profession.) Provided of course that you use a consistent identity.

So, why am I wittering away about EgoSurf and what does it have to do with an A-list of bloggers anyway?

Here’s why: people take this stuff seriously, and we shouldn’t. So what if there is an A-list of bloggers. Good for them, I hope they don’t implode under the pressure of their own egos and the demands of staying on "top" now that they’ve gotten there. Never mind that the whole concept of there BEING a top seems very clue-less.

All these lists are irrelevant.

The good news about the blogosphere is that you don’t need to be on some top 10 (or 100) list for your thoughts, opinions, hopes and fears to reach, and touch, an audience. For you to be able to meet other bloggers, IRL and virtually, whose work you respect.

Sure you might not get invited to speak at all those conferences (except maybe blogher, where one of the requirements is to check your ego at the door) but so what. Just eats into billable time, and it is usually the same old same old anyway 🙂 

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE to speak at conferences, but it’s just not top priority. I need to pay the bills, and that means client work. Sometimes it is a sexy project that people want to hear about. But most of the time, it is the day in, day out work of supporting the marketing efforts of my clients. And that takes up pretty much all of my time.

All you need in the blogosphere is a blog, and the courage to have an opinion. Readers will find you. Maybe not thousands, but it will be the right group for you. And that’s enough for me.

For a humourous perspective on the A-list thing, check out the top ten blogger lies at gapingvoid.

Grab bag: Good Marketing Stuff

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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.

Grab bag: Web 2.0

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As many of you know, I am confused about this Web 2.0 thing. I get that the Internet is evolving and social media have really changed the landscape, but do we really need a version number ?

Here are some more opinions for your reading pleasure:

Amy Gahran, Contentious: What is This “Web 2.0″ Thing, Anyway?

Creating Passionate Users, Have you updated your buzzwords?  (tip of the hat to Emergence Marketing for the link)

Stowe Boyd, Traitors in our midst: Web 2.0 anti-hype (thanks to gapingvoid for the link)

Grab bag: PR Measurement

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It’s been a little hectic here, with Christmas, client work, catching up from vacation and 2-week old puppies, so the blog has suffered a bit. I’m not in the habit of making New Year’s resolutions (talk about setting oneself up for failure) but I expect to be back to my regular blogging schedule of at least 3 times per week, starting this week.

To catch up I am starting with the grab bag of stuff in my RSS reader that I’ve just now had a chance to catch up with. I’m sure many of you have already seen these posts, but humour me 🙂

First, Shel Holtz and Andy Lark on PR Measurement. I think Andy has it right when he says the barrier to PR measurement isn’t the availability of tools:

"The barrier however remains a lack  of commitment at the top. Too many organizations I talk to are only looking to measure where Executives demand it. "

Shel’s post talks about some of the folks who are measuring PR… successfully. Problem is, these are the already converted…

The first step in solving a problem is realizing you have one, and I believe that many PR agencies don’t want to acknowledge that there IS a problem. The fallacy is that PR is about some intangible called "brand awareness" which cannot be measured. And on the client side, often the marketing teams either can’t (because they don’t get the support from sales teams) or won’t (because they are afraid) tie their PR efforts to sales results. 

For my part, I think we absolutely have to look at PR as part of our revenue generation toolkit, and expect as good, or better, results from it as we get from other marketing activities. If your PR agency won’t support the measurements you, the client, want, then get another agency. And agencies, if your client won’t support your desire to measure your results, understand that this is an account in jeopardy. Anyone can come in and attack you on qualitative terms, and you don’t have the ammo to fight back.

Measurement is in all our interests. I’ve written about this in the past here and here. It’s also not that hard. You just have to make the commitment.