Marketing Roadmaps

Marketing

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.

Browster Promo, HP Auction, Presidential Potshot

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From blog pal Elisa Camahort (Worker Bees), news of a Valentine’s Day contest from her client Browster. Originally conceived of as a local contest for a V-Day dinner at a chic San Francisco restaurant, the company realized that dinner at a restaurant eliminated anyone not in the Bay Area. So it added three iPods as prizes. Well done! Check it out!

Three days left in the HP Charity Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity. Lots of people are checking it out, but the bidding is slow. Please take a look — if someone you know is in the market for an HP Photosmart printer, you might be able to get it at a good price, and help out a deserving charity. Plus you get a neat signed WireImage photo of a celebrity that you can keep or give as a gift or re-auction for that matter. Some of the celebs: Aaron Eckhart, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, William H. Macy, Al Gore and Terrence Howard.

Finally, tip of the hat to BL Ochman for the Dick Cheney Quail Hunt game. Nuff said.

Watching/Not Watching/Wondering

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Watching

Rocketboom. Today’s was particularly funny, especially Broke Mac Mountain

Wikipedia.  Dr. Myra and the congressional staffers (and Marty Meehan is my rep to boot), and all the other recent transgressions. Don’t these people get it? You cannot screw around with a shared, global resource like Wikipedia. You will get caught. And outed. Apply your no doubt significant skills in some other fashion.

Not watching

The G- D—y Super Bowl commercial. Incest isn’t funny. And that is all I can think about when I remember last year’s commercial:  the G- D—y bimbo shaking her boobs and butt saying the inevitable. It is just yucky. No links. No more discussion. If the commercial comes on while I am (sort of) watching the game, I’m going to take my bathroom break. Seems appropriate somehow.  Added: Tip of the hat to Media Orchard for a link to the putative schedule. Now I know when I can safely pee and not miss some play that my husband wants to "discuss." Yawn.

Wondering?

Okay, I cannot be the only person on the planet who finds the latest Gawker media venture a wee bit disturbing. Am I? Just about every blog I read it on today (lots) reported it matter-of-factly or with relish. I’m just thinking, eeww.

Tags: Advertising, Blogging

Roadmaps Round-up: a bit of everything

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Tonight my three seven-week old Scottie puppies have decided to WAKE UP at 9 pm. I would post pictures but they won’t pose 🙁  Maybe tomorrow.

Lot of interesting stuff this week. I’ll start with Robert Scoble’s post about bloggers clearly posting their contact details. While I draw the line at birthdate (TMI), I agree that site owners should publish contact information, whether blog, LiveJournal or  Web site. If you are worried about spam, there are enough email services (gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc) that you don’t have to expose your main email address.

I ran into this problem a lot in the last week as I started fan outreach for the HP Charity Auction. I have very specific rules about how this outreach is done: individually, and only to fansites or blogs that have recently been updated. We want to be sure that hearing about the auction truly is of interest to the site owner and readers. We also NEVER post directly to forums or bulletin boards. Which makes finding a valid email address or contact link really important. For the most part, this is pretty easy. But in some cases, I have to walk away from a site that probably would really like to know that a certain star’s photo is part of the auction because I just can’t find an email address. And that’s a shame.

The lesson for marketers? Make sure your prospects can easily find an email address on your site or blog. It’s probably the most important thing on your site.

Moving on. Fred Wilson on Web. 2.0 is an oxymoron.  Fred, as he so often does, has it dead to rights.  Calling “it” Web 2.0 implies something static (and something that can be hyped, yuck). The reality is, this “stuff” is constantly evolving. Labels just don’t work. Let’s move on.

Speaking of labels, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the latest “a-list” dust-up. You wanna know more – read Media Orchard, Naked Conversations and Beyond Madison Avenue. I am personally pretty much done with the topic. Not on it. Don’t care.

In the practical tips category, both Blog Business World and ProBlogger talked about Andy Wibbels’ blog editorial calendar. I haven’t used this particular tool, but I am a strong believer in an editorial calendar for business blogs, and most particularly group blogs. You have an objective for the effort, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it. An editorial calendar ensures that the important topics are covered. Not as big a deal with an individual blog but I find that I follow something like a calendar anyway. In any given week, at least one post is a round-up (like this one), one is original content and the third (on a good week) is a toss-up between the two. Or I post a picture of the dogs or the kid 🙂

If you don’t already read Jay Rosen’s PressThink, you should check out this post Guest Writer Andrew Postman: Introduction to the 20th Anniversary Edition of Amusing Ourselves to Death by His Dad, Neil Postman. There is an absolutely wonderful “easter egg” in Jay’s post. (Hint: click on Andrew Postman’s name – it’s not a link to his bio). And no cheating – I’m not going to put the link here – you have to go to the original. It’s that good. And not just for the “easter egg” – read the whole thing. It will make you think.

Speaking of thinking, a blog I am enjoying (and I don’t even remember where I got the first link to it) Dave Rogers’ Groundhog Day. One recent post: Competing Messages: Getting Your Cluetrain™ Ticket Punched. He concludes the post:

“As always, I’m an authority on nothing. I make all this shit up. Do your own thinking”

Yup. That’s a philosophy I can get behind 🙂

Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Marketing, Web Marketing, Sundance