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What do Thomas Edison, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Tupac Shakur have in common?

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No, it’s not that they are all dead, because Elvis? Who really knows for sure?

The answer is that rare signed memorabilia from all of them — plus dozens of other famous (and infamous) folk —  is part of a special auction event next week at online auction site Bid4Assets.

Full disclosure: Bid4Assets is a client. Also, unlike previous auctions that I have written about here, this is NOT a charity auction.

But there is some really cool stuff in this auction — worth checking out just for fun. And if you happen to be a collector, you just might find something worth adding to your collection. Here are some of my favorites.

And my personal favorite, the

There are tons more signed items — Beatles, sports figures, presidents, celebrities. The auction also has a lot of jewelry and rare coins, plus real estate in prime recreation areas, including the Southeastern US, Hawaii and the California/Nevada border. 

One day only. Bidding starts at 5pm Tuesday April 11 and ends at 11pm Wednesday April 12.

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By Anonymous. By a Character.

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After the recent spate of character blogs in the PR space, I started thinking about character and anonymous blogs. Which are not that terribly different, in concept and in execution.

There are good reasons to use both forms. And both can be abused, to the overall detriment of blogging.

Let’s start with the good reasons. Anonymity. If you are in real danger.. for your life. If your company discourages blogging of any sort, on or off the clock (boo hiss), but you have something to say. Not about your company but maybe your life or your hobbies or your politics. Doesn’t matter. When attribution is dangerous, anonymity makes sense.

It also makes establishing credibility a bit harder. WHO are you and why should I trust you? More on that in a minute.

Character blogs are not that terribly different from anonymous blogs (and vice versa). Someone creates a character as the blog voice. Or they leverage an existing popular character as the voice. The writer isn’t "real."  [To some degree, all of  us create a blogging persona, but the more closely aligned your true self is to your blog self, the better off you will be in the long run. ]

I digress.

A character blog is extremely hard to do well. The blogosphere is conditioned to expect a real voice, and when it is a created persona, it reacts. Sometimes belatedly, but in the end, characters with unclear attribution are not well accepted. Bloggers want to know who you are. Are you credible? Do you have real authority in your blog-space, or is your authority as imaginary as you are?

 Now, in my opinion, character blogs can work, although we haven’t seen that many examples. Yet.

But they have to be honest. At a minimum, they have to be up front that this is a CHARACTER. And clear about the objectives. The best example is Manolo the Shoe Blogger. Manolo is all about the shoes. Yes, there are gossipy type posts, but everybody who reads this blog knows: it is about selling shoes. Full stop.

So anonymity and characters can work. They can also fail spectacularly.

Anonymity and characters fail when they are used as a screen for venom and bile. When the writer uses the form to deliver criticism without credibility. Absent being in danger for their life, when someone criticizes something, we want to know who they are, and what gives them the right.

That’s why companies typically frown on anonymity, even in internal blogs. A student in one of my recent workshops shared that her company actively encouraged internal employee blogging but would not permit anonymous blogging. Employees had to have the courage of their convictions.

By far, the worst evil is the character blog that does not admit it is a character nor provide us with information about the people behind the character.

When a blog is anonymous, we evaluate the content and make an assessment about credibility. When someone starts a character blog, and tells you upfront that it is a character, we make a decision about information and entertainment value.

But a blog that pretends to be written by a real person. Clouded in pretense and falsity? A fake persona?  Crystally clearly false, and definitely far from  honest and transparent. 

So, blog anonymously or as a character if that is your best or only choice. But if you can, speak up as yourself, or at least as the author of your character. And don’t use your blog to advance a vendetta, settle a score or just to stir things up. Try to contribute a positive voice to the conversation.

Truly, it is just as much fun.

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Are bloggers public figures?

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This week, the blogosphere has been a-buzz with two brouhahas that raise an interesting question about how we define a public figure. 

In the PR corner, we had  l’affaire smurfette, a gossip blog which targeted Steve Rubel and Edelman PR in its initial attacks. In the tech corner, we saw a series of increasingly personal attacks on well-known Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble following  the Windows Vista "announcement."

I’m not going to rehash the details of either of these issues. I’ve said what I had to say about the PR gossip blog. And I didn’t read all the Scoble stuff — there was just so much, and a lot of it just junk. Suffice it to say that criticism is one thing, personal attacks are another. Some of the comments I saw on Scoble’s blog were completely beyond the pale — they weren’t criticism, they were out and out attacks. What is the point of commenting in someone’s blog that you aren’t going to read it anymore? If you don’t like the neighborhood, don’t go. Just stop reading. If you want some more background, check out these posts from Naked Conversations and Neville Hobson.

Anyway, moving on from the details of these dust-ups, there is an interesting issue underlying both situations. Gary Goldhammer first posed the question in relation to the smurfette blog and Steve, but it is equally applicable to Scoble: are very well known bloggers  public figures, and as such, subject to a level of public scrutiny that normally we would call an invasion of privacy? In other words, negative attacks.

The possibility of negative attacks is one of the most oft-cited reasons why companies don’t embrace blogging (mentioned by John Wagner in the comments). Companies are afraid that having/putting their employees in a public venue opens them up to negative attacks. And they are right. It might. Might not. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t embrace blogging. They should. For all the reasons we all know.

But we truly haven’t given enough attention to the fact that if you blog publicly (not anonymously), you are a public figure. Full stop. Some may be more famous than others, but the minute you post, you are part of the public record. What you say can be used "fer you or aginst you" and you can’t control it. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the only off the record comment is the one you haven’t uttered or written. Once it’s out there, it can go ever so far. Think of all the folks — a to z list — that have gotten into unexpected hot water because they just weren’t prepared for the impact of their blogged statements or actions. They didn’t realize that once they blogged it, they were no longer private citizens with personal opinions. It was public, baby. Subject to all sorts of new rules that most folks just aren’t prepared for.

What should we do? I’ve mentioned this in past. I think companies should give their employees who blog (whether personally or for the company) some basic communications training to help them deal with the fact that they are now quasi-public figures. When you blog under your own name, you own it. Forever. Most employees in a firm have never been in this position, and the first time they get roasted, it is going to hurt. Help them prepare. That doesn’t mean stifling or controlling their words. It means helping them understand how their posts will impact others so they can make an informed decision about what they write.

This kind of training would be at least as (and probably more)  valuable than the usual corporate orientation.

Thoughts?

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Blog recommendations for sales people

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Since PR is apparently passe (link found on Burningbird) and marketing is a dirty word, I figured I go for broke today and write about the third topic area of this blog, sales. Because, hey, sales  is probably the only corporate function that gets dumped on more than PR and marketing 🙂 As they say, in for a penny, in for a pound.

Right now, I am working on the first issue of a newsletter of sales/marketing tips for my client GuideMark. GuideMark specializes in CRM for banks. Central to the value proposition for CRM is that it will help the bank improve its sales process. The newsletter is an additional tool in the toolkit (or weapon in the arsenal if you prefer the Art of War metaphor). It will be distributed to our clients’ sales people as well as prospects and anyone else who chooses to sign up on the Website.

The newsletter is written for the line of business sales person. It must be short, so they’ll read  the first issue, and value laden, so they’ll read the second.  Sales people are busy folks — on the road,  meeting prospects, solving customer problems, closing business. They don’t have a lot of time to spare for business reading unless it directly helps them get the job done.

It also looks like they don’t spend too much time writing blogs either. A Technorati search on the tag ‘sales’ delivers mostly marketing and PR blogs, including this one in 8th place. Now, I’m barely a Technorati blip in my main business areas of marketing and PR. There are lots and lots of marketing and PR bloggers, and since I don’t worry too much about my ranking, I don’t expect to be terribly high.**

The fact that this blog ranks that highly for ‘sales’  is a clear indication (to me) that there are not too many folks blogging about sales issues. Lots of Websites selling sales training and professional development but not many blogs. Combining this little bit of data with what I already know about the sales process, I will guess that there aren’t too many sales folks reading business blogs either.  But there is a lot of information in blogs that really could help our mortgage account executive and small business banker clients. So we are going to have a regular feature that covers valuable free online resources. And rather than just a list of resources, or a blog description, we are going to link the reader directly to a specific post or page that will provide immediate value.

Here’s the first article:

Online Resources that Help You Sell

Let’s face it. There is a lot of sales “stuff” online, and much of it isn’t worth the time it takes to read it. Or it is just trying to sell you something, and you don’t have time for that. You need to be on the phone, on the road, talking to customers, closing business.

So we’ll help you cut through the clutter. Every issue, we will introduce you to some online resources worth your time. And if you have a site or a blog that you find useful, please send it our way.

This issue, we have two blogs to tell you about:

Guy Kawasaki’s Bona tempura volvantur. One of the original Apple evangelists, Kawasaki is now a venture capitalist and author of a number of well known business books. His blog is fairly new, and chock full of advice, some taken from his previously published works, some new. All useful. One recent post worth checking out: The Art of Sucking Down.  How to get people on your side, for the reservation, the upgrade, the access to your prospect. Follow his advice and your life will get easier.

Selling to Big Companies blog, by Jill Konrath. Even though Konrath’s focus is on the high ticket sale, her advice is good for most B2B sales situations. One of her most useful posts, from last December is Why this voicemail failed. She gives some great tips on how to leave a voice mail that just might get a call back.

And on the topic of voicemail, if there is a decent chance that the person you are calling might actually remember you, leave your phone number in the very beginning part of the message. “Hi, this is Susan Getgood from GuideMark 978-555-1212…” and then proceed with the rest of the message. That way, if the person is busy and doesn’t have time to listen to your whole message, she quickly has your callback number and can delete the message.

I’d love your feedback on this feature as well as any recommendations for blogs we should cover.

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** Special note to my readers and commenters: I may not have quantity in my readership, but you guys are definitely quality. Thanks!

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Les blogs francais (French blogs)

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This morning, I received the most delightful email from new PR blogger Philippe Cherel announcing his blog, PR.ojet Z, and thanking a number of PR bloggers (myself included, merci Philippe) for inspiring him in his blog endeavor.

He also mentions the same list in his inaugural public post today. Lucky for us though, he has been blogging away for about three months and has a nice collection of posts for us to dig into!

Inspired by a student in my recent blog workshop who asked if most blogs were in English, I had recently decided that it was time to expand my blog horizons beyond English language blogs.  Since the only other language I speak (relatively) fluently is French, PR.ojet Z  fits nicely into my daily reading and hopefully will help me brush up on my business vocabulary. Last time I lived in France for any length of time was the early 80s, well before the "PC revolution." And I was a student, so my day-to-day vocabulary is (was) decent but I really don’t have a great grasp on professional and tech terms.

The other French language blog I am reading regularly  is "De Quoi Je Me M.E.L." the blog of Michel Edouard Leclerc, the head of French supermarket/hypermarket group E. Leclerc. The name of his blog is great — both his initials and a play on words. The verb "meler"  in the form above roughly translates to: "What I meddle with." In English, we’d probably say, what I stick my nose into. And Leclerc definitely pulls no punches in his opinions. For candor, his US counterpart is probably Mark Cuban, although they talk about very different things. Leclerc also doesn’t strike me (at least so far) as a ranter, which Cuban can be from time to time.

UPDATE 4/2: I am getting slammed with porno trackbacks to this post, so both trackbacks and comments have been closed. Sorry. Send me an email if you have a comment or a link and I will add it manually.

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