11/10/2005
Open up your blog dictionary, here are a few more buzz words to add. From Josh Hallett, hyku - Synthetic Transparency: using blogs to give the impression of openenss, honesty and transparency but without really doing so.
How about blog clients? Software that helps you manage your blog posts without launching a web browser. Qumama is an established product that has been around for awhile and there's AvantBlog that supports palm-based blogging.
This week I met up with Eric Griffin, CEO of Bingo Bango Software who demoed Elicit. Elict has a few more bells and whistles than other blog clients. The most impressive is what looks like a very cool calendar program. Eric gave me access to the program and asked that I play with it. Will keep you posted on if it makes life easier for a non geek kinda diva.
Sidebar: Bingo Bango - you'll either love that name or hate it. It makes me laugh...and that's a cool deal.
Technorati Tags: Blog_Client
11/06/2005
Welcome INC readers!
"Bloggers and those who frequent blogs can be a prickly lot. They live by a code of their own, and you offend them at your peril." November 2005 INC Jory Des Jardins
Jory Des Jardins has written an interesting article about the reactions of the blogosphere when bloggers color outside the lines. In her piece, When blogs go bad, she tells the back-story of the GourmetStation character blog - Delicious Destinations. GourmetStation, an online brand that offers gourmet meals and gifting solutions, is testimony to the viral influences of bloggers.
Character blogs are old hat these days. However, in the Spring of 2005, Delicious Destinations was one of the first character blogs (term coined by Tris Hussey) in the retail space. When the blog launched some bloggers took issue to the character blog genre. The INC article includes the roles that well-respected bloggers, Hugh McLeod, Steve Rubel and Robert French, played in creating blogopshere buzz.
Sidebar: The article is a great read especially for marketers who are considering non traditional blog tactics and Jory tells the story fairly. Download: inc_magazine_november_2005_blog_gs_article.pdf
Link to Adobe Reader
However, sometimes, the pundits don't have all the answers - especially at the
beginning stages of a new strategy like business/marketing blogging. Sometimes to do excellent work you
have to have the courage to go down the Road Less Taken.
Just as good jazz musicians must understand the basics before they
break the rules, marketers who use blogs must know the "rules of the
game" too.
- Understand your your customers
- Stay consistent to your brand and positioning strategies
- Remember the Blog Mantra: Honesty. Transparency. Passion. Authenticity.
In a Biz Blog Profile interview on Diva Marketing, Ed Garsten sums it. "We're involved in the most explosive form of communication to come
along in at least a decade and there's no reason its growth and
potential should be reined in by artificial limits. It's called
progress."
Sidebar: GourmetStation is a Bloomberg Marketing client.
Technorati Tags: Character_Blogs, INC,
11/05/2005
Recently it seems workshops are being cancelled for lack of money or lack of interest. Not so LexThink's BlawgThink. Last year's conference was so successful that Matt Homann is offering BlawkThink 2005 - November 11 and 12 in the Windy City. A smart conference developed for smart people who like to think way far out side the box! Wish I could be attend..perhaps next year.
11/04/2005
Blogs have been called "reality TV for the web." I'm not quite sure that's right. In the Psychology Today article, Why America Loves Reality TV, the authors claim, "The message of reality TV is that ordinary people can become so important that millions will watch them. And the secret thrill of many of those viewers is the thought that perhaps next time the new celebrates might be them."
Well, first most identity bloggers will never capture a readership of millions. Second, if readers yearn to start their own blog the barriers to entry are so low it's laughable. A Google search for <free blog platforms> brought up 27 Million pages.
All that said, people have a curiosity about people. In sharing their
life's travels with the world identity bloggers tap into hearts and souls. In the stories they tell they connect with people on levels that are different than those of business blogs. Some stories are inspirational, some bring tears and some bring giggles.
However, common elements seem to be - a desire to share, to connect and to engage with other people. Elisa Camahort says that theatre blogs give you a back stage pass. Great line for identity blogs too...or any good blog!
Blogs like Dooce show us what it's like to be a new mom while Average Jane's and finslippy's writing makes a mundane day sound exciting. Too Sexy For My Hair bravely lets you and I experience the chemotherapy sessions that are helping Lori battle cancer. Multidimensional.Me tells about her life in the process of transition. Of course, the tales from the My Mom's Blog are always uplifitng. Time Goes By pulls no punches telling what it's like to get older in a young world.
What would you do if you came into a huge windfall? That's what happened to the blogger who calls herself "Windfall Woman." This Halloween she not only gave out candy but $10 gold coins... that's lots better than the chocolate mini bars I dropped into trick or treat bags. Which by the way I didn't get rid of and now have to hide the rest of the candy so I don't eat it.
WFW and I exchanged a few emails. After coming down from the initial shock of this "TREMENDOUS windfall" WFW set a couple of goals: 1. make sure people do not treat her differently and 2. make sure she does not squander her new found money. She guards her identity very jealously and few if anyone knows about her riches.
Blogging provides her with a way to share experiences, as well as, an emotional release. Do I think WFW is for real? I don't really know ... nor do I care. As she wrote to me, "Maybe people will find Windfall Woman's life interesting enough to continue to read about it." From the number of comments it seems lots of people do!
So Girlfriend, if you've missed Desperate Housewives or the Apprentice or American's Next Top Model or the latest re-run of Sex In The City ... it's almost Friday Fun cocktail hour ... shake up a dirty martini or a cosmo and dish a bit with some of the women of the blogosphere who are letting us in on a corner of their lives.
11/03/2005
Look for the cool, new blog from Kathy T Gives Good Hoover. Great early awareness marketing strategy from Cinema Concepts Films.
11/03/2005
AOL/Roper Hispanic Cyberstudy 2005 was in the goodie bags at the AiMA Hispanic event that took place last week. You might be surprised to learn Hispanics are coming online quickly. However, although there are significant opportunities to tap this market, keep top of mind, it is comprised of multiple niches - each with their own concerns, needs and challenges. That said there are some points that run across all niches.
Almost half (44%) of the adult Hispanic population has access to the internet at home. The study shows that Hispanics are in search of communities that reflect their lifestyles, issues and concerns. The recurring dominate theme is improvement, self-improvement - and making a better life for their kids.
Key Findings From The AOL/Roper Hispanic Cyberstudy 2005 Research
Empowering Trends
-Give their children advantages and in turn be "good" parents
-Communicate with others, not only by email, but even more so than the General Online Population, via chat rooms and online bulletin boards.
-Be smart consumers, educating them about products and services they didn't know about before.
-Find entertainment - music, video clips, movies
Entertainment and Movies
-Online Hispanics rely on the internet for entertainment information far more than the general online market, preferring it to other media for the breadth and depth of information provided and its 24/7 availability
-Online Hispanics are powerful word of mouth agents for the movies - more than twice as likely as others to chat about movies online and to send links to others.
Consumer Products
-The online Hispanic population is very positive about the internet as a source of consumer information. As a group they find the internet a convenient, accessible and high quality resource for information for their household goods.
-Online Hispanics depend on the internet to be more educated consumers. In fact, online information influences off-line purchasing. Four in ten print out online information to bring to the stores.
Read More About Marketing to the Hispanic Community
AOL Hispanic
Mundo Hispanic
Batanga
Sidebar: An RSS feed would be a great strategy.
Cheskin Marketing To Hispanics
Creating a Targeted Direct Mail Campaign
Reaching Hispanics Online -iMedia
Marketing to Hispanics Online - JupiterResearch
Sidebar: Nice piece of research including charts and online activities
Hispanic Business
11/03/2005
TypePad I am demo-ing your platform to a potential new client and quess what? The interface is not showing the link wizard. Not a good thing guys!
11/01/2005
Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing Social Media and Blog Consulting Services
A successful blog/social media/blog strategy is more than a well-written post .
What Separates Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing From Other Social Media and Blog Consultants?
Our approach to social media/blog strategy is slightly different than other blog consultants.
Yes, we believe that blogs can build stronger relationships, humanize your organization, extend brand awareness, lift search engine rankings and more.
Yes, we believe that social media/blogs can create community.
Yes, we believe in the Trinity of Blogs: Honesty. Transparency. Passion.
We also believe that to be effective business & marketing blogs/social media strategies must integrate into an organization’s marketing plan, support business objectives and support the brand.
We understand that business and marketing blogs are different from personal blogs. And we understand the risks corporatations may want to take may not be the same as the risks that boutique companies are willing to assume.
The Challenge
Social media/blogs often change an organization's business paradigm. The challenge is to ensure the culture of an organization can accept an open communication model between internal staff and external stakeholders.
- That takes trust from management that allows employees an unfiltered voice in the conversation.
- That takes trust from employees that although they understand and buy-in to values and goals they can express themselves in an authentic voice.
- That takes trust from customers and stakeholders that their voices will be heard and listened to.
Experience Makes A Difference
With over 15-years of strategic marketing experience, including more than 8-years developing internet-based plans, we bring important perspectives to the table. We know traditional and new world marketing. Yes, we've been around the block a few times so we can help you avoid stubbing your toes.
Social Media/Blog Strategy Process
The customized blog strategies that we create with you keep four elements top-of-mind:
- Your customers and stakeholders
- Your marketing goals
- Your business goals
- Your company culture
Planning: strategic development
- Developing goals and objectives
- Identify target audience
- Determine type of blog
- Identify blog author/s
- Develop content strategy
- Develop comment guidelines and blogger guidelines
- Work with graphic artist to ensure blog look and feel is consistent with: goals and objectives, branding, etc.
- Integrate into marketing strategy
Coaching/training
- Content
- Voice
- Conversation etiquette
- Building relationships and community
- Monitoring blogosphere
Launch Strategies
- Blog Specific Tactics
- Develop url, blog title, title tag
- Linking strategies that build community
- Optimize for blog search engines - tagging and pinging
- Submit to major directories
- Optimize for traditional webite search engines through organic search strategies
- Blogger relations
- Mitigating negative responses
- Traditional and interactive marketing tactics
- Internal organization communication campaign
Evaluating: results analysis
- Identify success metrics
- Indetify analytic software
- Monitoring social media buzz
- Tracking success metrics
Managing The Feedback Loop
We realize that blogs change the culture of an organization and impact business processes. We help clients put systems into place that will support customers’ (and other stakeholders) expectations of an open conversation environment. For example developing communication flow to funnel information from comments and trackbacks into existing (or new) customer or tech support systems.
Note: Any of these components can be “unbundled.”
Other Social Media/Blog Consulting Services
- Customized professional development seminars and workshops
- Ideology sessions
- “Smash-up” campaigns that integrate Web 2.0 elements, word of mouth, viral and traditional strategies
We work with a team of talented (blog) creative designers, blog copywriters and tech staff. That means we can support your social media/blog strategy from concept to launch and beyond.
A nice complement from one of our favorite clients, Ms. Donna Lynes-Miller, Founder and CEO, GourmetStation.
"Whether you're a large, medium or small business you will benefit from the services of Bloomberg Marketing. I know we have. All marketers must bow to the giant goals of developing fresh strategies, converting more prospects to customers, driving sales and increasing profits.
Toby Bloomberg can help you achieve these goals. She can help you hone in on a crystal vision - then develop strategies & tactics to make your vision come to life.
Toby is passionate about our recent blog project. She had developed a strategy that integrates blogging with brand building plus search engine visibility to drive more traffic to our site - that means more prospects and more sales." Donna Lynes-Miller, 
Founder and CEO GourmetStation
Happy to talk blogs/social media with you. Catch you on the road!
Toby
Corporate website: Bloomberg Marketing
Blog: Diva Marketing Blog
Blog: Blogger Stories
Email: [email protected]
Bloomberg Marketing
develops integrated marketing plans using interactive tactics and
weaving traditional initiatives when appropriate. Because ... not all your customers are online all of the time.
11/01/2005
There's a lovely new diva who recently joined the blogosphere. She talks about life, her loves and even posts her poetry. In fact, one might say, that blogging is a family affair since her husband and step-son also blog.
Her wise Advice to My Step-son As He Begins His Blogging Adventure should be a must read for every new blogger and incorporated into corporate blogging guidelines.
1. Remember what you write is out there in the public for EVERYONE to see. Guard your privacy against your desire for public attention.
2. Everything you write could one day be used against you. Write so you give your friends pleasure, but not your enemies.
3. You have entered a whole new playground there are so many great friends to meet, so many new things to learn. Enjoy your new experiences and cherish your new friends.
4. Just like every playground there are some bullies in this one too. Don't let the turkeys get you down! If someone leaves an inappropriate or mean comment don't take it personally and don't dwell too much on it. They are not worth it.
5. Before you publish something ask yourself what your Dad or Mom or friends would think about it. Would they approve? What about a future college recruiter? Or someone who is interviewing you for a job? If you are not sure ask someone. Remember Rule #1.
6. Don't write about someone without their knowledge; portray others as you would like to be portrayed yourself. Remember Rule #2.
7. I hope you continue to ask questions and keep alive your curiosity and take us along on your journey.
Thank you Maryam Scoble and welcome to the blogosphere!
Technorati Tags: Blogs, Maryam_Scoble, Blogs_Basics
