Dana VanDen Heuvel, the meister of the blogosphere, once again does a great job live blogging the AMA Blog: Marketing Beyond the Website workshop. This time it was San Fransicso. Well worth a read. http://marketingpower.blogs.com/american_marketing_associ/
I don't know what happened to the Typepad icons for hyperlinks... weird.
The Brands are getting the power of blogs. Henry Copeland, the visionary behind Blogads, posted that Levi's bought a series of ads. He links to the very cool video ad - See Spot Lose His FREAKIN Mind! Great spot...good enough for for Friday Fun! This one is very clever and funny too.
On the road again talking about my favorite marketing strategy 
- what else but blogs..bebe blogs!
AMA Blogs: Marketing Beyond the Website is coming to the City On the Bay - San Francisco on April 28th. Still time to get in on the action! We've listened and learned along the way (TDavid you'd be proud!). This new version (session on blogs and the law, a live case study and more) includes our favorite speakers -
-Ben McConnell
-Bill Flitter
-Wayne Pelletier
-Henry Copleland
-Dana VanDen Heuvel
and me - Toby Bloomberg!and some new favs too!
-Shel Israel
-Sally Falkow
-Charles M. SmithAfter the Workshop "Wonk" For Bay Area Bloggers
Ben started this at our first workshop in Settle. A "Wonk Happy Hour."All blogers in the Bay Area - and people who want to see what bloggers actually look like - are invited to dish about blogs, or anything else, over a few - buy your own drinks.
Venue:The View
Time: 6p - ?San Francisco Marriott Hotel
55 Fourth Street
415.896.160
Then it's a jump up the coast to Portland to talk blogs at the New Frontier Conference - an explanation of emerging tools and trends.
In June, AMA continues its coast-to-coast road trip bringing Blogs: Marketing Beyond the Web to Boston. My home town. Red Sox and lobsters and blogs...oh my!
When: June 24th
Where: Batterymarch Conference Center
- near Quincy Market
Speakers include our favs -
-Ben McConnell
-Bill Flitter
-Wayne Pelletier
-Henry Copleland
-Dana VanDen Heuvel
-Charles M. Smith
and me - Toby Bloomberg!
and two very special new favs!
-Stowe Boyd
-John Cass
-Millie GarfieldI've had the opportunity to meet some of our industry's nicest and most talented bloggers during this project including Steve Rubel, Robert Scoble, Bob Bly, Rick Bruner. But Diva dahlings...I am so looking forward to meeting Thoroughly Modern Millie - an inspirational and a divine Diva!
The Boston Wonk is in the planning...with 5 speakers (Boyd, Millie, Wayne, John and Toby) from B'town this should be one of our most fun wonks!
Biz Blog Profile is a behind the scene look at how corporations, non profits and higher education institutions are using blogs to support their marketing goals.
Cheskin is an international strategic marketing research firm that embraced blogging before blogging was "cool." Way back in 2003, before Mark Edeleman and Bob Lutz hit the CEO blog scene, Christopher Ireland and Darrel Rhea were blogging at Cheskin's blog Fresh Perspectives.
Fresh Prospectives is a muli author blog that reflects the views of 25 diverse staff members including designers, strategists, marketers, researchers and Jennifer Gray, who holds an especially intriguing title - VP of Experience. Cheskin's blog is a great example of how a large service marketing firm (from a traditionally conservative industry - marketing research) can leverage blogs. Sidebar: Thanks Jennifer for your help with this case!
Biz Blog Profile: Fresh Perspectives
About Cheskin
Cheskin is a consumer strategy firm
with a history in marketing and design research. Our core belief is that
authenticity, meaning and relevance inspire trust resulting in lasting customer
relationships. This philosophy has been the basis of our work for many of the
Fortune 500 companies, across a wide range of
industries.
Why Cheskin Is Blogging via Fresh Perspectives
We first heard of blogging at
the 2003 TED conference. It was new
and we like new. We blog because it’s the most immediate way to show Cheskin is
the sum of its parts – our employees. We put a ton of energy into building
eclectic and seasoned teams to answer a variety of client needs. Blogging
amplifies voices that typically are silent on a corporate website. It also
sparks internal and external debate and thought – a cornerstone of the Cheskin
culture.
How Blogs Fit Into Cheskin's Marketing Strategies
It’s a part of the strategy. Some of
our bloggers have a loyal following, but blogs usually have a narrow target
audience. It has, however, become a surprisingly effective way to market
Cheskin. Blogs provide
an unvarnished cultural immersion for candidates and
clients.
Selling-in To Management
Our then-ceo, Christopher Ireland, liked the idea and challenged our then-marketing director, Denise Klarguist to make it happen. Calling on a few Cheskin friends, like Stuart Henshall, to get the ball rolling, we published our first blog within six weeks of first hearing about blogs.
How Cheskin is Marketing the Fresh Perspective Blog
We aren’t. It’s on our website. We
highlight it on our front page. We link to it in our email signature
lines. We talk about
it. Other than that, it’s become a very active ‘passive’ marketing strategy. We
do very little to market our blog, but increasingly, our blog is marketing
Cheskin.
Lessons Learned
The technology and design interface
matter, so spend time on it. Designate a blog champion or a
blog-spotter. When you hear something good, make a habit of saying, ‘blog that’.
Encourage the good bloggers – applaud them and send good blog ‘fodder’ their
way.
Keep an eye on your blogs. A naively
written blog or a fringe point of view can create problems. Don’t censor, but do
pay attention. Podcasting and project-based blogs
for project teams are what we’re looking into now. Christopher Ireland, Cheskin Principal, On Blogging It's refreshing to point my clients in the direction of our blogs for frank and up-to-date information on topics of interest. While blogs can occasionallly be off-mark or not exactly what I would say, it's great to see a group of people thinking, exploring and having the guts to share that with the outside world.
Future
Direction
Brand Autopsy is running a pretty slck series based on the guru of marketing, Philip Kotler's book, According to Kotler. Brand Autopsy: According to Marketing Bloggers.
Over the next month Paul <ooops> didn't notice that John Moore, not Paul Williams will be leading the charge on this one!) will post the same questions asked of Dr. Kotler to the community of marketing bloggers (or should it really be readers of blogs?). In addition to a fun series, this post is a great example of a couple of content blogging strategies.
1. Creating a "series" encourages repeate visits
2. Creating a challenge to beat the Guru at his own game (should) encourages comments
"Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make.
It is the art of creating customer value." Philip Kotler
By the way, love the the graphic and title (Marketing Bloggers - According to Bloggers) take off on the book! Brilliant John (and Paul too). Perhaps...this is The Book...hmm..where have we seen that play before ..?
The blogosphere has a new voice - Jane Genova. Jane is one smart diva whose thoughts challenge, as well as, delight. Nice post on women who have found and are projecting their authentic voices.
Drill down to the essence of who you are, not who you think you should be presenting yourself as, and let that loose.
Welcome Jane!
Hey - TDavid - another blog to check out!
BusinessWeek online has one of the first articles on business/marketing blogs that I've read that stays on topic. Online Extra: Six Tips for Corporate Bloggers. Meaning no meandering about citizen journalism, teen diaries or politics.
To quote from the intro - "Those who figure out how to mine this treasure while protecting their own gems will fare just fine in this new world. But it's a risky world, full of hazards."
Six Issues Discussed
1. Training Bloggers
2. Fake Blogs
3. Track Blogs
4. Public Relations
5. Transparency
6. Corporate Secrets
Happy Friday Divas and Divos! Friday Fun is our - yours and mine - virtual pre happy hour space to be silly-sophisticated as we count down the seconds to martini time. Sometimes this spins into an idea for a marketing strategy. Sometimes it's just for fun.
Yesterday, Max got a hair cut. Max is my absolute wonderful, but sometimes very bad Westie pup. (A rescue from my dear friend Alf.) To complete his new look Jenny sent him off with a cute blue & white bandanna. What a handsome puppy!
Dahling, everyone, even your sweet pets, not only deserves but needs to be pampered. The High Maintenance Bitch is stylin' and profiln' the diva way for your pets! From the products: Martini Collection of feather boas, Poochie Purses, Doggie Disco Diamonds, Horoscopes (Max is a Capricorn and this Diva is an Aries) and more to the website and other marketing strategies the concept and execution are great examples of innovation and creativity.
Sidebar: How can you spin this type of strategy for your brand? All silliness aside, what can you do to add innovation to marketing your products/services? It may not be a feather boa. Within a B2B environment it might be more of a challenge. The end result maybe a campaign that helps break through the clutter. Would love to hear your story.
For Julie and the Divas at Coopermark Bank, the Atlanta GNO Babes, Divas Kate & Polli and all the Divas reading this - here's one for us!
High Maintenance Bitch Martini (tm)
Martini glass should be chilled or not
1. Rim Martini glass - dip edges of glass in cherry syrup thin dip in sugar
2. Add stoli vanil
3. Stewarts cherries and creme soda
4. Add ice to martini shaker and shake it up bebe!
5. Garnish with cherries
Heard it from: Seth's Blog
Dana VanDen Heuvel, the meister blogger, poses an important question. In a recent post he asks, "Who's thinking of the corporate governance of weblogs?" Within a boutique business or a one person shop, it's not too complicated to ensure that confidential strategies stay in-house.
What happenes when corporations add blogging responsibiities to a job description? How does the business world walk the fine line of keeping the spirit of blogging alive with quality control or (gasp) post monitoring peaking behind the virtual corner?
Seems to me this soon could be questions that keep managers up at night.
Nicole Eddington passed this Free RSS submission tip along and asked that I share it with you. Feed Shark is a tool that submits your blog or RSS feed to over 20 different sources.
Thanks Nicole! The Diva Tiara Award to you!
