Archive - Marketing RSS Feed

Perceptions of Bloggers

By on July 29, 2006 in Conversations, Marketing with 10 Comments

Rare is the day I don’t have a conversation (or nine) about blogs and blogging. The perception about blogging is all over the map. I acknowledge that we humans have a desire to "label" groups of people.

Some business folks think of bloggers as:

A Pajama Clad Community

Pajamaparty

A Horde of Political Zealots

Political_1

A Gaggle of Teens

Students_1

An Array of Geeks

Geeks

Many of these business leaders recognize a change, but can’t figure out what’s coming

Train

They are confuddled by all of this and don’t know what to do. They sit tight – and then…

Cubicle

Someone gets run over by the Cluetrain. Conversations are taking place – and they aren’t yet engaged. Sometimes, they don’t even know the conversation exists. But they have to do something, even the Wall Street Journal is tapping into the blogosphere. Huddle up.

Boardroom

Frustration builds. What to do – what to do. Let’s put a label on the bloggers and do nothing. We’ll just watch how things play out – it will go away…won’t it?

Envy

So, are these bloggers looked upon by these business leaders with disdain – or is it actually envy?

Get over the labels. You’re right.

Bloggers are people. People sharing passions, ideas and building relationships – and sometimes, building businesses. These people may be your customers

Blogging is a tool. A tool for communication and conversation. Some companies are using blogging to build relationships with their customers. Is yours?

Thanks to these Flickr photos in order of appearance:
- Pajamas by oetii
- Rally by Winograd Watchdog
- Students by David Hernandez
- Geeks by Twylo
- Train by jimfrazier
- Dead by mmonk
- Boredroom by c2k2e
- Generations by piacere

Do You Know Your Feed Response Rate?

By on July 26, 2006 in Blogging, Marketing, RSS Feeds with 1 Comment

What’s your email response rate? There are Open Rates (Reach) and Click-Through Rates (CTR). (Definition of the Difference) You’re probably already measuring this, though acting on it may be a different animal.

What’s your content feed response rate? Yes, that can (and should) be measured – and acted upon.

If you use FeedBurner’s TotalStatsPro (less than $5 per month), you can get an accurate measurement of Reach and CTR on a daily basis and a per-article basis.

Feedreach_1 

To improve your reach and click-through, try different things in the following areas:

If you’re measuring your feed statistics, are there numbers you look at more closely than others?

If you’re not measuring your feed statistics, how are you measuring the success of your efforts?

As more Internet users begin reading content through feed aggregators such as GreatNews (stand-alone) or NewsGator (web-based), it will be important to measure these numbers (and act on them).

technorati tags: Feed Statistics,

Experience Planning & Conversation Conducting

By on July 20, 2006 in Conversations, Marketing with 8 Comments

Scott Weisbrod begins his Beta version of an Experience Planner Manifesto with ten rock-solid points. Yet, I missed if the manifesto puts the E.P. in position to influence or empower a discussion – or simply read and react to what’s being said.

Then, I read Jordan Behan’s Give Them a Reason. Jordan reminded me of Mack Collier’s post yesterday about Universal Studios empowering (igniting?) a discussion about the film, Miami Vice.

A slew (Jordan’s math, not mine) followed. As Jordan points out, this can happen either online or offline.

To summarize:

  • Equip your customers with something to talk about
  • Pave the road you desire them to travel (then offer them a map)
  • Reward their efforts (at least recognize them)

Maybe the Experience Planner just needs to find and delegate to a Conversation Conductor. Start with a few, end up with a slew?

technorati tags: Experience Planner Conversation Conductor   

Good News for WebDev Folks

By on July 18, 2006 in Blogging, Marketing with 2 Comments

Michael Bloch of Taming the Beast shares a study showing that 30% of US small businesses are still without a web site. Mid-size businesses check in with 15% not having their own site.

Not surprising on this end. I’ve been doing research for some rural Chamber of Commerce and Merchant Associations. Frankly, I’m surprised the number isn’t higher.

Take a look at Old Town Salinas (CA). Over 300 members, but a large portion have no web site listed. And they’re less than an hour drive from San Jose.

Michael shares his thoughts on four possible reasons for these numbers:

  • a fear of cost
  • a fear of jargon and technical concepts
  • trust issues
  • a general fear of the unknown

Yep, yep, yep and yep.

If you’re a small or mid-size business looking to get a web presence, I’ll suggest two things:

  1. Consider blogware to battle a few of the reasons above. You can use blogware to produce a static web site or better yet – engage in a conversation with your customers.
  2. Research other business blogs by visiting iBlogBusiness Directory. Contact the business bloggers you find. Send the author an email and ask questions.

If you’re a business blogger and not yet in the iBlogBusiness Directory, what’s holding you back?  Here’s a niche site I found there: Seeking Succession

If you’re a web developer and you’re looking for affordable solutions for your prospects who push back because of price, check out the directory, grab the feed right from the listing and plug it into your GreatNews feed aggregator – then show your client the example.

What’s that? You’re a web developer but don’t read feeds? I Hear that Train a comin’…

technorati tags: iBlog Business Directory

FeedBurner adds Blogbeat to Analytics Menu

By on July 17, 2006 in Blogging, Cool Tools, Marketing, RSS Feeds with 1 Comment

FeedBurner‘s acquisition of Blogbeat adds more strength to its menu of analytical services.

I currently use Google Analytics (site) and FeedBurner (feed) to measure metrics for visits, clickthrough, reach, etc. With FeedBurner’s addition, I look forward to having all stats under one service.

I’ve said it before – if you offer a feed, but aren’t measuring your feed stats, you’re missing out.

Here are a few reviews of Blogbeat, pre-FeedBurner days:

More on the acquisition from the FeedBurner blog.

technorati tags: Blogbeat Web Metrics

Ready to Get Naked?

By on July 13, 2006 in Blogging, Marketing with 3 Comments

In transferring files and bookmarks, I ran across this article from the October issue of Fast Company, Is Mad. Ave Ready to Get Naked?

Love this quote from Mark Finney:

"I used to kid myself I wasn’t going bald," said Mark Finney, the clearly hairless head of media for Orange, Europe’s third-largest wireless carrier. "I’d pull my hair forward, I’d cover it over this way, I’d look in the mirror and think, It’s never going to happen to me. Then suddenly I started realizing I looked really stupid. . . . I hate to say it, but Jon’s right and you’re wrong. You’re covering your baldness, and at a certain point, you’re going to look stupid." 

Business Leader or Business Follower?
Look, whether you’re in advertising, marketing, web development or even blog coaching – there is a responsibility to at least examine change in the marketplace. Your customers, employees and shareholders count on it.

Your business may have the same demographic it did 20 years ago – statistically. But has the personality of that demographic changed? And…will your 25-40 year-old customer tomorrow respond to the same marketing tactics you used yesterday?

Hold it. Do you really know, or are you guessing?

CBS Sunday Morning did a piece on Brave New Blogging World, but I wonder if in some circles, "Brave" should be replaced with "Blind."

"Most of the people who read blogs — they are highly educated. They are middle aged. And they are high income," says Carol Darr, the director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University.

"Cause the people who are reading blogs tend to be opinion leaders and they tend to be trendsetters. So they are influential far out of proportion to what their numbers are," Darr says.

Blogging isn’t the Emperor’s New Clothes. It’s about transparency. Give the customer a sense of ownership in your business – and deliver a sense of transparency. No need to go from one extreme (behind closed doors) to another (a glass house), but engage yourself with your customer. Look back twenty years ago. Are we still conducting business the same way? Change wasn’t embraced then, either.

Related:
- Best Question Today
- I Hear a Train a Comin’
- The RBI of Blogging
- Comments: Listen & Respond
- A Single Feed Creates a Lifetime of Loyalty
- Lose W.A.I.T. Now, Ask Me How
- Phew! or Ut-Oh?

Resources:
- Naked Conversations
- The Right Conversation

technorati tags: Naked Conversations CBS Sunday Morning

Business Blog Toolbox: Talking

By on June 30, 2006 in Blogging, Conversations, Marketing, RSS Feeds with 0 Comments

Earlier, we covered the tools I recommend for listenting and reading other blogs. That’s the side of the conversation the companies I work with learn first – and sometimes, it’s the only side we work on.

If we get that part down, there’s a better chance for success on the other side of the conversation – publishing a blog.  Let’s look at the tools I recommend for the talking and writing side of business blogging:

  • A Timer: Once we’ve determined the frequency of posting that makes sense, we write out time guidelines.  This included post composition, spell-check, linking, tagging and pinging. Budgeting time is as important as budgeting finances. Without the guidelines and a timer to remind us when to stop, blogging can get addictive (ya think?)
  • Blogware: Typepad. It’s inexpensive, flexible, offers in-depth support and is implementing some great features (i.e., Category Clouds) and works with FeedBurner. With TypepadPro, Advanced Templates give a business tremendous flexibility in design.
  • Feed Publishing: FeedBurner. Is there a blogging tool that’s easier to use or more valuable? Publishing a feed is easy, branding your feed is a must, FeedFlare allows a company to have a call-to-action in the feed.
  • Tagging: KeoTag. You can copy and paste your tags right into your blog editor, HTML-free. Tagging is important for findability reasons. If you can be found, you can build relationships. If you can build relationships, you can build business.
  • Pinging: Pingoat. Ping once, save the bookmark, and it’s one click away from here on out.
  • Blog Posting Mantra: Maybe it’s not like the one I use, but have something as a guide.
technorati tags: KeoTag Pingoat

Business Blog Toolbox: Listening

By on June 30, 2006 in Blogging, Conversations, Cool Tools, Marketing, RSS Feeds with 3 Comments

Before a business starts publishing a blog, they should listen to the conversations and hone their blog-tracking muscles. Here are the tools I recommend for the listening role of business blogging.

Each of these tools is free if you use them, costly to your business if you don’t.

  1. Feed Aggregator: GreatNews – Why is a feed aggregator listed first? Because the first step a business should take when engaging in the conversation is the role of listening. Of all the choices of feed readers available, GreatNews has the best support, most features – and most importantly to business leaders, can be synced with Bloglines. Among the best features are the Label This, Email This and importing/exporting OPML files into Grazr.
  2. Blog Tracking: Technorati – Again, listening before talking in the conversations. Technorati’s multiple search functions (by word, by post, by blog, explore) make it easy to separate signal from noise. Watchlists make it easy to track what’s being said about you, your company, your clients, your industry. Most importantly, the searches can be tracked via feed into your GreatNews aggregator.
  3. Conversation Tracking: co.mments.com – One of two comment tracking tools I use, this one allows me to track a conversation whether I’m involved or not. By plugging the feed into my aggregator, I instantly know what’s being added by newcomers. (Note: GreatNews also has a Track Comments feature-but I haven’t used this yet. If you have, let us know how well it works.)

If you’re considering (or already) publishing a business blog, these tools are a must. By using them they will allow you to:

  • Find your audience
  • Listen to what’s being said
  • Separate Signal vs Noise
  • Engage in the conversation
  • Differentiate: your audience AND your blog

There are four tools I recommend for publishing a blog, and we’ll cover that later today.

technorati tags: co.mments

Kami Asked for Everything…

By on June 24, 2006 in Blogging, Marketing, RSS Feeds with 0 Comments

Kami Huyse at Communication Overtones asked for Eveything You Know About Corporate Blogging. We’re not giving away the store, but we’ll share some opinions to a few of her questions:

What makes a blog a blog? How is it different from an Internet Chat Room or a Bulletin Board?
I often use the analogy of a Radio Talk Show. There is a more structured conversation on a blog, normally with the blog author opening a topic for discussion.

How can blogging be measured for ROI as a communication tool?
I recently wrote a post on this subject, The RBI of Blogging.

How can blogs be used to communicate to key stakeholders?
How does RSS Feed work with this?
These two questions belong together, but in some ways, the second question is the answer to the first. Teach your stakeholders the benefits of Content Feeds, equip them with the tools to get your feed, and the communication becomes more effective.

How can blogs be used to collaborate internally?
Dr. Delaney Kirk’s Managing Diversity class is using a blog to extend the discussion outside of the classroom (The class blog is still private until July). The conversation is lively and continues throughout the week. I’ve also posted on this recently in Knock Down the Cubicles.

How can blogs be used for Media Relations?
We’re about to launch a site for a state-wide professional association. The public site will include periodic postings meant for the media (social and mainstream alike). This will include reports, press releases, general announcements. Another blog will be used behind a password protection for communication amongst the board and their constituents.

How do you monitor or control messaging and/or negative posts internally?
A crisis control plan needs to be crafted and reviewed constantly as the conversation and community grows and changes. Watchlist Feeds and Search Result Feeds should be monitored so your team can respond quickly. Phew or Ut-Oh?

I hope Kami shares her IABC presentation with us. I’m sure we could all benefit from your thoughts. Either reply on her post or write them up on your site.

Basturea: New PR FeedFlare in 7 Easy Steps

By on June 23, 2006 in Blogging, Marketing, RSS Feeds with 0 Comments

Constantin Basturea provides an easy tutorial for adding a Personal FeedFlare in words and pictures. This particular tutorial is to add a link to the digg-like New PR site that Constantin set-up when PubSub started to sink.

If you’re a professional in Marketing, PR, Branding, Journalism, Sales, Education, IABC, IAOC, PRSA or a small business owner looking to tap into some serious brain power – you should be tracking these conversations.

if you’re using a blog for your business, you should be using a Personal FeedFlare…here are a few posts on how to do that:

technorati tags: NewPR FeedFlare IAOC
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