Diva Marketing's New Look: Understanding The Past
07/03/2005
What a strange but fun experience it is to be the "client." Peter Faschner, Blog Studio, is creating a new look and feel
for Diva Marketing. As promised we both are blogging the experience.
Last week we discussed strategy, vision and what makes Diva Marketing Blog unique. We also talked about the past. You can't create a new strategy without a look in the mirror. So much has changed since I first launched Diva Marketing Blog. I must admit I found myself going off on tangents. However, Peter, being the good consultant, kept me focused and on-track.
If you're following along with this process, it seems appropriate that you should know the backstory since those experiences will influence the creation of the Peter's design.
Dana VanDen Heuvel of Pheedo (congrats! on the new gig) and Blog Savant, challenged me to launch a blog. I had been encouraging companies to consider blogs as a cost effective, easy to use website. Girlfriend, I was about to find out that was only the olives (one must have more than one!) in the martini.
Diva Marketing Blog was to be an experiment. A way to find out what blogs were all about. The focus - to provide tips and ideas on how to move a brand forward. That was about it. Nothing much more. No goals. No expectations.
Within days of hitting the publish button something interesting happened. I received emails from "real bloggers" like John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing and Yvonne DiVite of Lip-Sticking welcoming me to the blogosphere and saying nice things about the new blog on the block.
Sidebar: Dana had added Diva Marketing to his blogroll
People were reading my work and making an effort to contact me. Hmmm....perhaps there was more to this blog thing. Soon I was receiving comments and trackbacks from amazing people like Michele Miller and Nevile Hobson.
I noticed hits coming from Google. The spiders were finding Diva Marketing Blog! It took weeks before Google indexed my website. What was going on here?
I quickly learned 2 blog lessons: the blogosphere is a community of people interacting with each other and search engines love blogs. Both elements that could be leveraged in marketing strategies. This blog thing was really getting interesting now.
I read more blogs and more about blogging. I emailed bloggers and had off list conversations about blogging. I searched for articles about blogs (few if any) and dropped comments on blogs. I began a collection of blogs: blogs from Fortune 1000s (very few), non profit blogs, healthcare (hardly any), blogging basics, RSS, etc. Websites seemed dull and lack luster. The blogosphere became my teacher about blogs. Bloggers were learning together through blogs about blogs. Fascinating.
According to Henry Copeland, Blogads, I had become (drum roll please) a blog evangelist. AiMA asked me to chair an event on blogs. Paul Chaney attended that one. Paul was the first blogger I met in-person. At a funky bar in Atlanta, we talked for hours about blogs.
The American Marketing Association asked if I would chair a Hot Topic Workshop on blogs. With a team of talented marketers, who were A class bloggers, we developed the first program, dedicated to teaching marketers how to strategically leverage blogs, that was rolled out across the United States. 5 cities (soon to be 6) in 7 months. TDavid made us earn our stripes when he challenged the program's value. Blog Lessons 3,4 & 5 - We learned first hand the influence of blogs, the importance of monitoring the blogopshere and the need to join in on the conversation. Kudos to AMA for allowing me to respond without edits. Read the comments. Thanks to TDavid for helping us produce a better event.
Sidebar: TDavid is a blog buddy now.
Meanwhile, I began working with GourmetStation to launch Delicious Destinations, a fairly new blog genre, a character blog, that created some buzz of its own in the blogosphere. Had the opportunity to work with GS's president and CEO, Donna Lynes-Miller, who was willing to take a risk with blogs and ads on blogs. And who bravely and generously allowed me to blog the process.
Along the way, I met many, many wonderful, smart, talented people from all over the world. I was elected to the board of the Pro Bloggers Association, was invited to speak at conferences like BlogHer and organizations such as 3M, working with Herrate Marketing to develop the first workshop about blogs offered in San Salvador, been podcasted, secured a few more blog clients, had articles published, been quoted in some pubs and will be highlighted in a book about blogs - Naked Conversations written by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. Interestingly, the Chapter is title Consultants Who Get It.
Which leads me back to the beginning of this story. The goal and vision of Diva Marketing Blog. Needless to say, Diva Marketing Blog is no longer an experiment.
-Without intending to Diva Marketing has become a brand
-Without intending to blog consulting is playing a greater role in Bloomberg Marketing's offerings
Sidebar: Marketers appreciate that my approach to blog strategy begins with goals and the development integrates blogs into the master marketing frame work.
-Without intending to my interest in developing workshops, writing and speaking about blogs is increasing
It seems right that the design of Diva Marketing Blog should work a little harder in these directions. But always keeping the sass and savvy! Now it's in Peter's hands. Since we've made this process transparent your thoughts are warmly welcomed.
