Categories & Tags: Most “abused” feature in blogs

Using tags and categories are easy ways for bloggers to expand their global reach, especially with sites like technorati.  Check out Andy’s Goode Life Blog for a good beginner’s write up on using tags.

There’s a double advantage to having categories and tags:  one reason we’ve already talked about, but the second reason is to help your audience.  Maintaining a good number of categories makes it easy for you to keep readers on your site and keep them coming back for more.  Logical categories keep your blog organized and concise, which ultimately helps your readers stay focused on what they are looking for.

All of my previous blog posts (Pre-2009), I used a variety of different tags and categories, but after a while their meaning did not make sense.  I was left with 15+ categories that really all meant the same thing.  Therefore, I’m conducting the following experiment:  Quality vs Quantity

Details of my experiment (note:  I’ve moved all of my previous posts to “Archived Pre-2009”:

1. My blog will eventually include no more than 10 Categories
2. Each blog will be tagged with (at-most) 3 categories; if I find myself tagging blog posts with more categories, then I will need to rethink my category naming conventions
3. During the course of one month I will monitor my search engine traffic from categories/tags I currently use VS others words that my audience uses.  If I find that users are finding me via other tags, I will start to adopt those in my strategy

I hope to find an increase in both the number of readers AND the length of time readers stay on my site.  This will be my primary PI (performance indicator) that I will meausre and use to determine my success.

My hope is to find a balance of the # of categories and how my posts are defined.  I’ve seen too many blogs out there with 25+ categories that seem too repetitve.  Ironically, the majority of the top technorati blogs have NO categories at all.

Please chime in if you have some great advice for using categories/tags.  I’m always looking to try new strategies.

Building An Online Community (Tool #1: Blog) (Part 2)

I’ve previously talked about the basics for building an online community starting with corporate blogs. This is great for building a foundation, but each online community must have an underlying strategy to keep it living. Strategic planning is vital in ensuring online community goals are met and evolving.

Here’s my list of milestones and goals for all online community blogs (within the first few months):

• Integrate corporate blogs in all customer touch points including:
  • Announcements
  • Product Launches
  • Product Developments
  • Support
  • Customer Events

• Create community blogs to foster industry conversations (2-way) and thought leadership

• Encourage Product Marketing to actively participate in the online industry conversation:
  • Watch corporate bloggers and step in when needed
  • Interact with other industry practitioners and build an online social network
  • Provide corporate bloggers with research and ideas from the blogosphere

• Allow corporate blogs to be used as a feedback mechanism to improve products, support/tech help, messaging, and strategy
  • Connect product teams with current customers/users to build better products
  • Connect users with users to solve technical issues and log information in archives/database

• Utilize corporate blogs as sales tools
  • Use blog entries as conversation starters
  • Refer to corporate blogs and/or specific posts for tech help/information
  • Use blogs/bloggers to answer questions from the sales field

• Improve communication with partners and vendors
  • Blogs = reseller tools to promote vendor’s product info and support
  • Another medium to foster communication, product awareness, and channel partner advantages

• Use corporate blogs as a mechanism to keep track of competitor’s successes and advantages
  • Listen to their customer feedback – what are they doing well?
  • How are their customers reacting to your product launches, etc?
    • How can this information help your company improve product and operations?

This is a great list to start off with. It’s general, yet each corporation can prone it to their own liking. Additionally, here are some other thought-provoking posts that can help with your planning:

1. How to sell social media to your boss
2. Social 2.0 and How to utilize it’s full potential in business
3. The 4 C’s of blogging
4. Benefits of corporate blogs
5. Users vs Consumers – Who’s in, Who’s out

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Steps to a SUCCESSFUL project and product launch

Everywhere around me, people talk about being an online community manager and being a community evangelist and how to deploy a successful online community. But, I think they’re (and me too) are getting ahead of themselves. There are some important Project Management skills and knowledge that you must have to be a successful manager.

The 4 Phases for any project/product launch are: Define, Design, Develop, and Deploy. These are critical milestones in every project that must be accounted for and documented in the critical path.

Define

• Define organizational and project objectives – LISTEN to goals, EVALUATE and audit, ANALYZE data, RESEARCH solution, create a NEEDS assessment proposal
• Define success criteria, project benchmarks
• Competitive/Industrial Analysis (if required)
• Define budget and cost
• Develop communication protocols and expectations

Design

• Build prototype or demo to test assumptions
• Develop architecture and navigation (design and look/feel)
• Develop technical design and infrastructure
• Test prototype usability and functionality
• Review progress in relation to project benchmarks

Develop

• Complete design based on client’s feedback
• Develop main sections and subsections from copy provided by client
• Test functionality
• Review progress in relation to project benchmarks

Deploy

• Coordinate offline advertising and marketing
• Deploy statistical tracking software
• Develop Meta tag code and search engine strategy
• Launch site line online
• Provide training and support
• Monitor success

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Now that the phases are set, these should be incorporated with the Project Plan. The typical plan is the critical path, which is the absolute minimum steps to finish the project on time. However, in order for the critical path to be successful it must take into account the following:

• The comprehensiveness of the work plan
• The correctness of the ordering of tasks and lags
• The accuracy of individual task-duration estimates

Steps to creating a Critical Path:

1. Identify tasks necessary to complete the project.
2. Estimate the duration of the various tasks in the network.
3. Identify task dependencies.
4. Draw a network that depicts the order in which various tasks can be executed.
5. Identify the critical path by adding up the duration of the tasks along each path and determining which path of the network will take the most time to complete.

Some like to not only create a critical path, but an “Adjusted Critical Path” which incorporates a contingency plan as well. This is a great way to help foresee any problems that could arise and allow time for damage control.

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Now that all of the planning is out of the way, a project manager must communicate with all members involved (developers, PMMs, Business Owners) via weekly meetings. Meetings are very important because they check the overall status of the project, can identify roadblocks, and ensure everything is on track. Since meetings are very important and should be efficient, here’s some tips…

Tips on running successful meetings:

• Planning a meeting
  • Set objectives for the meeting
  • Decide how long the meeting will last
  • Provide an agenda beforehand
  • Decide who will attend
• Running a meeting
  • Start the meeting on-time
  • Manage the meeting efficiently and stick to the agenda (do not introduce new topics that will confuse anyone)
  • Assign action items
  • Document actions
  • Summarize key points from the meeting in Meeting Minutes

These are rules and tips that have helped me, but I’m sure you have other tips as well.  Please feel free to share your thoughts with me!

Building An Online Community (Tool #1: Blog)

For the next few months, I will be putting on the hat of an Online Community Marketing Manager and pretending as if I’m starting my own from scratch. For simplicity reasons, let’s assume I’ve already got all the back-end server stuff taken care of.

Some questions to ponder about building an online community are:

• who will participate?
• how much time with contributors need to spend on the tool(s)?
• how long does it take to see results and how are these measured?
• how will the online community integrate with other promotional and communication efforts?
• should you allow comments?

Some corporations have only a few bloggers, usually expert thought-leaders, and others have a wide range of employee bloggers (like Sun and IBM). Figuring out what best fits the company’s culture is very important. Either way, here’s a good blog policy to follow (created by sun).

The next important question to ask is why you are blogging. How can you align the blog with the online community and most importantly, the overall messaging of the company. Here’s a few steps to do this:

1. What is the corporate message? Write it down on a piece of paper and figure out how you can achieve this
2. How can you shape the blog to support and coincide nicely with your company’s overall strategy?
3. What trends and topics are hot in your industry? Visit sites like technorati to find out. Using tools like Google Alerts to keep up with the market. You need to be 100% up to date.
4. Who should blog? An individual, a group, or the whole company?

It’s one thing to create tools and push them out there, but its another to have a strategy and a goal for them. They must be part of the value chain that ultimately leads to the corporate message. The blog should spark conversation within the industry, somehow promote the company’s image, and be used as a knowledge base for all.

There are a few important aspects of blogging that serve beneficial and could help jump start other community marketing tools as well:

• Tagging – the method of categorizing information by topic, idea, customer, solution, etc
  • Taxonomy – formal categories grouped by data hierarchy, data relationship, and data type
  • Folksonomy – allowing users the power to define categories to make info easy to search, find, and store (i.e. flickr)
• Webfeeds, RSS – allow sumarries and/or full text entries to be read in feedreaders (MyYahoo, Google Reader)
• Comments – allow all comments, only delete spam. This fosters a dialog between multiple individuals at a time
• Web Analytics – how will traffic be analyzed? Google Analytics is a great tool. What stats must every blog have?

These are all things a Community Manager must take into account and be ready for. Just the first step in creating a blog, but there’s more. What about other help docs? If I were to create help docs (as few as possible), they’d have the following titles (in no particular order):

1. How to incorporate blogs with Flickr
2. Best Practices for blogging: Blogging 101
3. Blogging etiquette: What should and should not be said
4. How to become social and up-to-date with industry trends
5. Blog Analytics Essentials: How to make sense out of graphs and stats

Last, but not least, the role of a Community Marketing Manager is important. This person must possess certain characteristics in order to successfully evangelize the importance of such tools and to keep a program growing. Jeremiah has the 4 Tenets of a Community Manager, which are very difficult to uphold.

This should be enough for now. Please let me know how you’re doing…what roadblocks are you facing? Maybe we can help each other!

How to sell social media to your boss

Many of us understand and realize that social media is powerful for individuals and businesses. However, there’s a vast majority out there who either disagree or are too old fashioned. Unless you work for a young company, those people are probably your boss.So, I want to start my own community marketing program at my company…how do I do it? Fortunately, I was privileged to follow under the footsteps of Jeremiah, who introduced social media to HDS; we have forums, a wiki, and a few bloggers. Yet, it was far from easy…but I learned from him.

Still its very hard work, so I look up to experts for advice and I came across an interesting article that really sums up how to start one. Only one catch, this article tells how to start one if others in your industry are catching on too…nonetheless, i cant argue with his findings.

I started off this blog with the intention to summarize someone’s thoughts, but instead I’m pushing myself…I’ll give you my advice from what Ive learned.

Here goes…

“In order to sell social media to your boss you must…”

CREATE A NEED

Bosses are busy people…in and out of meetings and/or working on bigger/better things; which is they have no time to waste on worthless projects. So…make social media a NEED, not a want. Make him/her say “We need to have blogs.” Social media is a utility that every company should and needs to somehow get their hands on.

Sounds easy right? But, how do you create this need? Here’s a few ways:

• Show ROI and Success with SEO– One word: proactive. The success of the social media program is in your hands; if you’re not proactive, you will not be able to see ROI. I read about how to show to your bosses that this ‘new media’ program is worth it’s weight, but its missing one important aspect…SEO
  • SEO – Search Engine Optimization is something that every company should be worried about, yet are they? Whether or not its in your scope, SEO can be accomplished by social media (forums, blogs, wikis, etc). Smart and active blogs have the ability to: come up early in search engines, produce incoming/outgoing links, and store a collection of thoughts and information. All of this helps SEO tremendously.
    • Example #1: Everyone knows about the whole DELL SUPPORT finding. When you search “Dell Support” in Google, scroll down, what do you see on the first page? …a link to Jeremy Zawodny’s post: What the F*** is with Dell Technical Support?
    • Enough said, this shows the power of blogging, especially with SEO. (I think before it came up a lot sooner, maybe 3rd or 4th in the search results). How much did it cost? NOTHING, FREE.
  • How much WORK does it take? – Aside from initially setting up the blog, which could take 5-8 hours total for branding, back-end work, etc…it depends on your strategy (which could range from 2-10 hours per week). I recommend blogging 3 times a week to keep your audience interested and subscribed.
    • Each blog takes 2 hours max, blog 3 times a week, that is 6 hours per week
    • 6 hours per week times 4 weeks = 24 hours per month
    • This is all the time you need…if done correctly, your company can use the 24 hours of time to benefit the overall SEO strategy.
    • Example #2: Type in “storage bloggers”…what is the first search result? The storage wiki (referenced above) that Jeremiah started. It might have cost something, but definitely not as much as paid search.

• Illustrate how your company can benefit from “human” contact – one of the most valuable rewards from a community marketing program is the human contact. 10 years ago, this sort of communication was unheard of, but now its part of our life in and out of work. Human contact sparks relationship marketing and relationships build trust. Trust in every business activity is very important and difficult to achieve. Social Media is the hub for open communication and a new way of “marketing”
  • Social Media allows for all types of communication – prospects to prospects, prospects to customers, customers to customers. More importantly, this is all happening in YOUR space…you can listen and participate openly and freely.
  • Can be used as a sales tool – bloggers should be subject experts and because of this, the sales force can use it to their advantage.
    

    “Our product has XXX and it can be integrated with XXX solution, which is why we are the leaders in our industry. For more info, you can see XXX blog post on this…”

This list will continue to grow as I learn more about these new mediums.

Also, I’ve left out some important parts…but now its your turn!

Social 2.0 and How to utilize it’s full potential in Business

Social media, or Social Business has really been on my mind lately. Not because its a hot topic now-a-days, or because its buzzy…but I don’t feel like Businesses (overall) are really benefiting for the “social” side. Don’t get me wrong, becoming a social business can help, but it takes more work than just launching a blog/forum.  This post will first define terms like society, talk about common themes, and provide some incite on how to start a successful program.

First, let’s take a look at some key terms: Society, Social, Networking, and Business. (I’m trying to figure out how these can compliment each other) …I got these definitions from Dictionary.com (which uses the American Heritage Dictionary too):

• Society: a body of individuals living as members of a community
• Social: living together or enjoying life in communities or organized groups
• Networking: a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest
• Business: the occupation, work, or trade in which a person is engaged

All of these definitions involve people – like you – which make up society, networking, and business. This is not new information and does not come at a surprise, but in a lot of businesses today there’s still some missing links. Several other pieces to the puzzle must come together to successfully intertwine business and community.

The next common denominator in the definitions above is community. Again, not a surprise, but its a bit more complicated than just community. Simply finding a community, creating tools, and expecting them to embrace it is NOT enough. If I were to start my own community, I’d take these steps:

1. Define my community, including all sub-communities and groups.
2. Live/Engage with my community – wear their clothes, eat their food, talk/eat with them, think like them, and go to their events.
3. Research what’s missing – why they need it – how they should access it
4. Welcome the community to help you build their tools – especially with (beta testing)
5. Encourage feedback – they are your customers, do what they say (but with your unique twists)
6. Reach out to the community and business world – let them know you’re out there, build trust, build relationships, build a support system, and build a community
7. Find a sponsor – someone who benefits from your tool, but has a presence in your community. Make them your success story – brag about them and they’ll brag about you

Understand that your community program is living, it’s growing each and everyday. As more and more users engage themselves, the community grows and the support system grows…but keep this focused with your company, strategy, and competition. What else is happening in your market? Incorporate that too into your program.

Be the leader, be the innovator. This is not about being first, its more than that. It’s about staying on top of competition by moving ahead of the industry and anticipating your user’s/community’s next moves. This is why living their life and knowing your customer inside and out is vital. Evolve with the users as they evolve with the world.

This is WHY businesses are not captivating and reaping the rewards of a community marketing program. Deploying tools is not enough, there’s several months worth of research and planning that need to take place before hand. It’s okay if competition rolled their stuff out, your’s will be better!

If you’ve started a community marketing program (like Jeremiah Owyang), or are currently managing one (like Mario Sundar, Robyn Tippins), please let me know how you’ve done it! I want to know from YOU, the expert!

The 4 C’s of Blogging…what really matters

I just finished reading an interesting blog post about what matters most to bloggers by Darren Rowse, and I can’t help but put my own two cents. Keep in mind though, some of the topics might overlap (note: ive only read the bold bullet points, I have not read his full explanation yet, I want to see if we are similar or not)

I’ve been blogging for a little over a year now and I’ve seen the ROI. It might not be monetary in my case, but my network has definitely grew and I’m left with a feeling of fulfillment. However, there’s several tips I like to follow on my own when writing blog posts; similarly, this is how I look at other bloggers/blog posts as well.

The 4 C’s of Blogging

1. Content: the content of every blog is key in attracting an audience and retaining loyal readers. A good way to narrow down the blog content is to establish a foundation/purpose for what content will be published; whether or not its general topics, industry-specific, or who the target audience is. I’ve seen many good examples of this, here’s one; I picked this example b/c Marc has managed to generate a great amount of traffic/comments/ROI in just a few short days. Although, the key is to stick to it and not drift off to far from the overall purpose (unless you’re evolving with time/industry/users).
2. Clarity: this has probably been the hardest obstacle; often, I have trouble conveying my thoughts clearly and instead some blog posts are full of unnecessary text. So I’ve adapted a motto that less is more. If I could, I’d go back and revisit some of my old blog posts and rewrite them just for kicks. I’m sure (at least I hope) that I’ve improved as a writer/blogger…if so, then that’s all the ROI I need.
3. Cost: there’s no real, tangible cost for blogging, at least for what I do. However, the opportunity cost is very clear as time plays a big factor. If I wasn’t blogging, I could be doing other things like Tae Kwon Do, Salsa dancing, working (hahaha!), or even watching TV. But, I have a passion for blogging and thats what counts. To me, its not a cost, but a privilege to have somewhere to express my thoughts and have others add in their own input.
4. Conversation: the phenomenon of blogging. Engaging others in a conversation about something you’ve started is very rewarding. These conversations are almost like reading a text book with commentary b/c on the surface there’s opinions, but when you dig deeper the facts arise. Through the research you gain so much more than what you started for and it almost leads you to another topic/journey of knowledge. Its a never ending conversation.

• BONUS – Customer: this is really a bonus, because not many people get this. Believe it or not, your readers are like customers…you have to shape your posts according to the audience. This will help keep your blog posts focused and it will keep users coming back. As a user, I like bookmarking a site that I know will always have relevant information to me. It actually makes me feel good that someone out there cares about my interests, cares about what I’m reading, and cares about me.

I hope I’m pointing in the right direction…if not please let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well. Later, I’ll update this post with Darren Rowse’s/ProBogger’s thoughts.

Top 5 Reasons Why Social Media Works

I’ve been thinking a lot about Social Media and why its so valuable. So, I’ve noted the top 5 reasons why I think Social Media works today.

1. Normal, everyday people are given the opportunity to reach out of their comfort zone and explore new areas of interest, meet new people, and take risks
2. Users have control over what they do and accomplish online. Their destiny is in their own hands; they can be who they want, when they want
3. Its not a fad, but a trend that works. Its a concept that attracts users and will continue to until social media 2.0 comes out
4. Possibilities are endless. Who would of thought MySpace would have been so successful? What about YouTube? These platforms are just the beginning, and soon users will have the tools to do just about anything.
5. Social Media is easy. Its easy to use, easy to set up, and if done right, easy to make money.

Social Media is growing and is continually being used by businesses to attract new users. But, I think what’s most important is this marks a change in how the internet is being used. The internet has evolved, businesses have evolved, and users have evolved.

Internet, Businesses, and Users are the key to Social Media

Social Media is the one platform where all of these three aspects can come together and converse. Now that they’ve started interacting, we need ways to enhance their communication. The relationship and foundation has been built, but now is when creativity and technology need to interlock. As we discussed earlier, the possibilities are endless, but executing these ideas is key.

What’s Next for Social Media?

I definitely believe video is the next best, not just video recording, but live streaming. People want instantaneous change, they want to see things on the fly, right when they happen. We’ve come a long way, but I think we still have a few more steps to take.

Just imagine if the first people to walk on the moon had live streaming, how awesome would that be? Or how about the presidential election? Ah ha, there’s an idea!

 

What does your top 5 list look like?

How To Make The Best out of a Business Trip

As an intern, I did not expect to ever go on a business trip, so when I first heard about the opportunity I was excited. 

Yet, the excitement was soon overcome by nervousness.  What was I going to do?  How would I act?  What would I say?  I will no longer be in my comfort zone, instead I will be far away at another company working.

Now that I look back at the experience, I am very thankful not just for the opportunity but for everything that I learned.  Every new intern and new hire will experience the same feelings I did, but my goal here is to help that person make the best out of the trip.

• Do the most you can to prepare before hand
  • It is very important to know what is going on, even if your role is small
  • Prepare like you are the one presenting just in case you are needed…you never know
  • Ask questions before the trip so you are well prepared
• Listen and Observe
  • Pay attention to what is going on, do not wonder off b/c one day that will be you
  • Take good notes to reflect on after the meetings
• Participate
  • Even if you have a small role, the experience of presenting is important
  • Ask questions when needed so you can understand what is going on
  • Show others that you are part of the conversation
• Act as if you are the one presenting
  • When questions are asked, answer them to yourself, and compare your answers to what is actually said
  • Learn what the best way is to answer questions, even if you do not know the answer
• Reflection
  • Reflect by yourself or with your partner about the meeting and the outcome
  • Ask the following questions:
    • "What were the concerns from the meeting?"
    • "What are the key points from the meeting?"
    • "What needs more work?"
    • "What are the next steps?" 
    • "Was the meeting a success? Why or why not?"
• Get to work!
  • Use the new knowledge from the meeting and add value to the project
  • Contribute and start preparing now for the next meeting
  • Keep in contact with the other company/partners, show the progress, and ask for their input

My business experience was a complete success as I learned important lessons that will help me contribute even more next time.  This is important, especially as an intern, since I will soon graduate and work full time in the corporate world.  I am thankful for this opportunity as an intern, and I look forward to future opportunities.

I would love to hear your experiences as well.  I am sure that I will learn from you as well.   

UPDATE: How To Become A Successful Blogger

UPDATE:  Robyn Tippins just added her own characteristics of a successful blogger that are worth reading.  With her list and my list combined, I think we have something here.  I encourage you to read her list on how to become a successful (business) blogger as well! 

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I recently wrote about how to become a successful intern, since I am an INROADS intern, but Robyn Tippins thought it would be a good idea to write about being a successful blogger.

I will give this my best shot, but these are characteristics that I currently working towards since they seem to be prominent in most successful bloggers.

How To Become A Successful Blogger

• Think PASSION, not numbers
  •  Some bloggers start off or eventually participate in the popularity/number contest–AKA your technorati rank
  • Numbers and Ranks are a distraction, instead write about your passion
  • Blogs written with passion are much more powerful, resourceful, and interesting 
• Join the CONVERSATION
  • Shel Israel, author of Naked Conversations, said we should join the conversation by listening FIRST–excellent advice!
  • Listen to what others have to say, start writing your own thoughts, comment on other blogs, and invite them to talk with you
  • Be a good listener and a good contributor
• Exhibit THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
  • Keep your posts unique and resourceful
  • Add value to what has already been said and introduce new ideas and questions
  • Make your posts thought provoking, not just a summary of what's going on
• Create TRUST
  • Shel Israel said blogging should be like:
    • "Two neighbors leaning on a fence talking about their interests"
  • Create trust by creating an informal and open global conversation
  • Invite others to agree and disagree with you
• Enable comments
  • Comments are an important feature of blogs, enable them and help keep the conversation going
  • Positive and negative feedback are both good, don't worry
  • The best thoughts, perhaps some you did not think of, come from comments
• Become the starting and ending point for all conversations
  • You want the conversation to start and end with you
  • First, keep up to date with global trends, news, and innovations and provide your honest opinions
  • Be enthusiastic and raise eyebrows
• Network with other bloggers
  • Build relationships, do not just sit back and hope things will happen
  • Venture out in the blogosphere, meet new people, and build friendships
  • Commend bloggers for a job well done and help them become thought leaders as well

This is an on-going list that I will continue to update with YOUR COMMENTS!  I would really like your feedback for making this list the resource for all bloggers!

YOUR COMMENTS ARE NEEDED!

  🙂

How To Become A Successful Blogger

I recently wrote about how to become a successful intern, since I am an INROADS intern, but Robyn Tippins thought it would be a good idea to write about being a successful blogger.

I will give this my best shot, but these are characteristics that I currently working towards since they seem to be prominent in most successful bloggers.

• Think PASSION, not numbers
  •  Some bloggers start off or eventually participate in the popularity/number contest–AKA your technorati rank
  • Numbers and Ranks are a distraction, instead write about your passion
  • Blogs written with passion are much more powerful, resourceful, and interesting 
• Join the CONVERSATION
  • Shel Israel, author of Naked Conversations, said we should join the conversation by listening FIRST–excellent advice!
  • Listen to what others have to say, start writing your own thoughts, comment on other blogs, and invite them to talk with you
  • Be a good listener and a good contributor
• Exhibit THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
  • Keep your posts unique and resourceful
  • Add value to what has already been said and introduce new ideas and questions
  • Make your posts thought provoking, not just a summary of what's going on
• Create TRUST
  • Shel Israel said blogging should be like:
    • "Two neighbors leaning on a fence talking about their interests"
  • Create trust by creating an informal and open global conversation
  • Invite others to agree and disagree with you
• Enable comments
  • Comments are an important feature of blogs, enable them and help keep the conversation going
  • Positive and negative feedback are both good, don't worry
  • The best thoughts, perhaps some you did not think of, come from comments
• Become the starting and ending point for all conversations
  • You want the conversation to start and end with you
  • First, keep up to date with global trends, news, and innovations and provide your honest opinions
  • Be enthusiastic and raise eyebrows
• Network with other bloggers
  • Build relationships, do not just sit back and hope things will happen
  • Venture out in the blogosphere, meet new people, and build friendships
  • Commend bloggers for a job well done and help them become thought leaders as well

This is an on-going list that I will continue to update with YOUR COMMENTS!  I would really like your feedback for making this list the resource for all bloggers!

YOUR COMMENTS ARE NEEDED!

  🙂

Blogs are really a REALITY CHECK for Corporations

I don't know about you, but when I hear someone talk about how much money corporations are making, I tend to think of the agressive, fast talker agency that is trying desparately to get $$ from you. They conceivable make a product/service sound the BEST, when sometimes thats not the case.

Do not get me wrong, all businesses are not like this, but this is where I see it going. BUT, blogs have a chance to put these businesses in check and force them back to their roots–the CUSTOMER!

Blogs are not bringing anything different than what we already know. We started off wanting to please the customer, but we have drifted away from this goal as increasing profits seems to be first priority.

Here's why I think Blogs are a REALITY CHECK for corporations:

1. Blogs force companies to focus on their customers
   • Customers have POWER! …BUYING POWER that is
   • If you focus on the customer, profits will come
2. Informal Blogs create "trust"
   • Customers want to feel safe with companies
   • Establishing trust enhances relationships
   • Relationships will bring business
3. Blogs force companies to consider them as the "NEW PR"
   • the NEW PR = Public Relations
   • I do not like to think of blogs as PR, but in a way they are because you are creating a conversation with other people and/or customers
4. Blogs help companies communicate with customers at THEIR level
   • This is important!
   • Communicating with customers at their level creates a strong relationship (personal and business)
5. Blogs tell your customers: "I CARE!"
   • Show that you care for your customers, not just want their money
   • Allowing customers to talk openly about your products/services is KEY…even if you receive negative feedback

A corporation must focus on fulfilling the needs of their customer. This has been a focus for the corporate world since the beginning of time and blogs offer a way to reach your customer!

Want to increase your profits? Well, tisten to your customer! Allow them to communicate with you! Show them you care!

Here's a list of others who are talking about PR and blogging:

• PR stands for Relating to the Public – Jeremiah Owyang
• 7 Tips on Pitching Bloggers – Rohit Bhargava
• Thinking out loud: Is the PR blogosphere fragmenting? – C Basturea
• Are PR companies tempted to make false promises on "new media" communications? – Silicon Valley Watcher

What are YOUR thoughts about PR and blogging?

Why blogs are like diaries, NOT books

I have been thinking a lot about if blogs should be used to make money or not. Now, before I continue, I know that many people may have blogs and indirectly making money. 

This is fine, but I have a problem with those who are running a blog, have Google Ads, and using their blog to market products/services like crazy because they want to make money! Honestly, this really irritates me!

Stowe Boyd agrees that blogs should not be used to make millions, rather blogs are more like diaries. However, Guy Kawasaki disagrees and believes that blogs are more like a book. In his post "How To Evangelize a Blog" he mentions several "strategies" to running a successful blog. Yet, I hesitate and honestly, I grinded my teeth while reading it. For some reason this sticks out at me and the majority of the strategies Guy talks about totally goes against the purpose of a blog (from my point of view).

Here's a breakdown of the key points from both Guy's and Stowe's posts. Read on and let me know what you think.

Guy's Blog:

• Think book not diary
  • blog = product
    • "If you want to evangelize your blog, then think “book” not “diary” and market the heck out of it."
  • diary = collection of spontaneous thoughts and feelings
• Answer the little man
  • "It's tough to market crap, so make sure you have something worth saying. Or, write a diary and keep it to yourself."
• Collection email addresses
  • "When I started this blog, I sent out 10,000 email announcements."

Stowe Boyd

1. It's more like a diary than a book
   • "It's bottom-up, a world of people writing their daily thoughts, individuals whose thoughts and writing could influence you, push you."
2. It's not a book, it's not a sermon, it's a dance. (Jeremiah Owyang agrees)
3. Find your voice. Takes sides, write about what matters to you, don't give up, and sharpen your pencil every day.

To me, it seems like Guy is 100% committed to marketing, while others strongly believe that blogging is NOT about marketing, becoming an online blog celeb, or making money. Yet, it's more about writing one's thoughts about interests that may disagree or agree with others.

I am really irritated when I hear a blog being used to market "the heck out of" a product, or a bragging medium "I have X-amount of visitors" or even about sending out "10,000 emails" marketing a blog. Is it just me?

I could be wrong here, but all this talk about making money from a blog really creates a bad taste in my mouth. Even the WSJ posted an article about this.

Blogging CAN, but SHOULD NOT BE USED TO MAKE MONEY!

Here are a few links so you can get involved with this conversation. Let me know what you think or what you find:Jason Calacanis & Alan Meckler

The 10 Commitments of an Exemplary Blog

In my last post, The 5 Practices of an Exemplary Blog, I introduced some practices that can be used to run a successful blog. However, that is NOT enough, a publisher must remain committed and strive to be better. So to help with this, I am introducing another set of guidelines that can be used to enhance your user's experience and inspire conversations. These commitments have been introduced by Barry Posner, Dean of the Business school at Santa Clara University, but in a student-leadership context…instead, I am relating these ideas to Blogging.

The Ten Commitments of an Exemplary Blog1. FIND YOUR VOICE by clarifying your personal values and including your expertise. All publishers must have their own unique voice that sets them apart from all others. Whether its with humor or language, defining and exemplifying your own voice is key.2. SET THE EXAMPLE by aligning actions with shared values. (GO FIRST!) Exemplary Blogs are leaders and need to model the way for others to follow. Set the example for everyone else and let them drive their own experiences, then allow them the opportunity to reflect and converse.

3. ENVISION THE FUTURE by imagining exciting and emerging possibilities. Most successful bloggers are "early adopters" and are constantly searching for the next opportunity. While some are just starting to blog, others are moving on to podcasts/audio conversations, and soon few will be moving towards video conversations.

4. ENLIST OTHERS in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations. Publishers know their audience and should always write with them in mind. Appealing to their needs heightens the experience and enriches the conversations.

5. SEARCH FOR OPPORTUNITIES by seeking innovative ways to change, grow, and improve. An exemplary blog is always changing and finding new ways to both attract new readers and fulfill needs. There is always room for improvement, but those blogs who embrace the idea of positive change and run with it succeed.

6. EXPERIMENT AND TAKE RISKS by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes. Never be afraid to challenge the common belief, after all the worst that can happen is you are wrong. But in some cases, the "minority" belief is right, as we have seen in Why Blogs are NOT Important

7. FOSTER COLLABORATION by building trust. (Let the user's drive the conversation). Allowing the user to take control builds trust. This is why RSS Syndication has been generating some hype among many online companies. In short, RSS gives users complete control over what they want to read, which establishes a sense of trust between the reader and the publisher/coporation.

8. STRENGTHEN OTHERS by sharing power and discretion.

9. RECOGNIZE CONTRIBUTIONS by showing appreciation for excellence. Recognize those who are thought-leaders and provoke interesting conversations.

10. CELEBRATE THE VALUES AND VICTORIES OF OTHERS by creating a spirit of community. Ah Yes, building a community is important and perhaps an important goal for every blog. Exemplary blogs build communities where everyone is NOT afraid to speak and everyone has a voice. This voice is what drives the conversations and enhances the reader's experience.

———————————————————If you had to make your own list, what would you have?

The 5 Practices of an Exemplary Blog

I recently attended a presentation by the Dean of the Business school at Santa Clara University, Barry Posner, and he introduced 5 simple leadership practices students can use to be successful. However, I believe these practices are universal and I am going to apply them to leading a successful blog like Scobleizer and Web Strategy by Jeremiah

The Five Practices of an Exemplary Blog

Practice #1: Model the Way
Successful blogs exemplify thought-leadership. They add-value to current, basic knowledge and introduce their own perspective. They carefully turn "data" into "information" by adding knowledge and this is a vital step in creating an audience. Exemplary blogs lead by example by showcasing their knowledge and revealing it for the whole world to learn and follow. Successful bloggers are not afraid to take risks, even when their thoughts are controversial.

Practice #2: Inspire a Shared Vision
Exemplary blogs not only lead the way, but they inspire others to join the conversation and provide value-added information to the world. There is no such thing as “my” vision, it is “our” vision and our conversation. In fact, the joint enthusiasm for a shared vision provides just a spark of inspiration for others to join the conversation amongst an emerging community—community of experts, leaders, and evangelists.

Practice #3: Challenge the Process
Perhaps one of the most difficult of the Five Practices is being able to challenge a common belief and take a stand for what you believe in. Although this creates controversy, challenging the common beliefs and supporting your own is the way to go. In fact, just recently Jeremiah Owyang posted a blog about Why Blogs are NOT important. With all the buzz surrounding blogs, he wanted to make the point that the conversation taken place in the blog is what IS important. And now…other experts are adapting his beliefs and sharing them to their audiences.

Practice #4: Enable Others to Act
This may be one of the most important practices… “Enabling Others to Act.” Exemplary blogs welcome others to take part in the conversation and provide both negative and positive comments….this is the whole purpose of a blog! Blogs are not just another PR medium to attract customers, they serve a much more significant purpose, which is to converse with your audience (publisher to user, and user to user). The conversation that takes place between all users is rich in itself and sometimes is most beneficial, but it cannot happen if the blog does not enable others to act…so ask questions in your blog, ask your audience how they feel.

Practice #5: Encourage the Heart
Successful blogs should always “Encourage the Heart” by “recognizing contributions and celebrating values.” There are thousands of thought-leaders in the Web and when you come across one, publicize it. Let your readers know, tell them you have come across an interesting article/blog and you encourage them to read it. This does two things: first, it allows your readers to learn from others, and second it recognizes a “job well done” of another publisher. Nonetheless, the simple acknowledgement motivates publishers to continue their work and continue their conversations.

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So what do you think about these practices? I want to here your thoughts and even additions…