A toss of a pink boa to divo Wayne Hurlbert for the opportunity to talk blogs with him on his new internet radio show Blog Business Success. Wayne is a kind and gracious talk show host - as you might expect from reading his blog Blog Business World.
We talked blogs 101 and I must admit I was a bit choppy at the start. When we went 'off questions' and began to have a real conversation the show picked up more energy and more 'fun.' LIttle Max even found his way into our discussion. Other topics included:
How blogs can enhance your company's marketing efforts
How blogs develop and nurture relationships with current and future customers
How blogs can add a new dimension to your public relations program
How blogs will help your website rise in the search engine rankings
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to
Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the weekend 'playground' time to be
sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly.
The Astro Divas (see below) advise that all work and no play makes Jane a dull diva and this is the weekend to let loose and partee! If you can't get enough of social media then
Adam Frucci's 2.0 Web Drinking Game is for you. Find a designated driver and have some fun .. and if you don't drink think chocolate instead!
MySpace
Take a drink for every friend request you get from a mediocre unknown band.
Take a drink if you manage to find the person you had a crush on in 2nd grade.
Finish your drink if they're still hot.
Take a drink for every profile you come across that has illegible text due to a huge, awful background image.
Take a drink for every girl wearing next to nothing in her profile photo with over 1,000 friends.
Digg
Take a drink if you see a story on the Digg front page about Digg itself.
Take another drink if the story is about Digg founder Kevin Rose.
Take a drink for every Nintendo Wii or Apple story with more than 100 comments.
Take a drink for every story that was obviously submitted by its author.
Take a drink for every story whose link is dead because the "Digg Effect" crashed the site.
Take a drink for every 5 commenters who complain about it.
YouTube
Take a drink every time you see a video of a celebrity doing something embarrassing.
Take a drink every time you sneak a peek at a NSFW video at work.
Take a drink every time someone forwards you a video that is so boring or lame you don't finish watching it.
Take a drink for every video designed to look like a home video that's obviously part of a publicity stunt from a major corporation.
Take a drink every time you find a music video you haven't seen in years and realize it's not as cool as it was when you were 13.
Wikipedia
Take a drink for every article that seems to be of questionable accuracy.
Take a drink every time you get in trouble for citing Wikipedia as a trustworthy source.
Take a drink for every article you find that you were sure wouldn't have an article on Wikipedia.
Take a drink for every 15 minutes you've wasted just reading random articles instead of working.
Finish your beer if you've ever actually corrected or submitted an article.
Flickr
Take a drink for every 10 photos you have uploaded.
Take a drink for every embarrassing photo of yourself you wish you could remove from your friends' pages.
Take a drink for every user page you find that has every mediocre photo they've ever taken.
Take a drink for every generic city skyline shot taken at an angle at an attempt at being "artistic." Editor: Hey…
Take the weekend off and enjoy the time with your partner or if you’re single find a party. Venus the planet of love enters Libra-relationships. Libra wants peace, balance and beauty. It is an air sign-intellect. So keep your pick up lines in check. If you have an intelligent conversation you’re more likely to score. Then during the work week, there is a love of art with this combination. Add some artwork to your office.
Be very careful of what comes out of your mouth. Mercury enters Scorpio. The scorpion can leave its sting with words and then you can’t take it back. This is where you really hate the saying the customer is always right. Bite your tongue and count to ten. The mind likes to probe and investigate in Scorpio. It can allow you to look deep into your situation. The caution though is that your thoughts can become obsessive. Don’t dwell in the negative.
For me, RSS, Real SIMPLE Syndication is the power behind blogs. But explaining it was alway far from Simple. Until that is Stephanie from Back in skinny jeans (Love that blog title!) took a very out-of-the-box divaish approach. She thought how would Oprah expain RSS?
In Oprah speak, RSS stands for: I’m “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place.
By the way, while your on the site take a skip around .. lots of interesting content.
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the weekend 'playground' time to be sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly.
Girlfriend, Max (my Westie pup) has a new friend - a 3-month old tabby kitten. When we go for walks Max stops at Little Kitty's house. And waits and waits and waits. Most days 7-year old Lindsay, Little Kitty's person, opens the front door and Little Kitty runs out to play with her doggie pal. It is too funny!
If you're a pet lover, you must check out a Diva Yvonne DiVita venture into new bloggy waters. This week she launched a most fun pet blog - Scratchings & Sniffings. The blog is sponsored by Ralston Purina but as Yvonne is quick to point out RP is not editing or directing content topics. Yvonne's goal is to build a community of pet lovers.
A long time ago .. perhaps 2005, corporate sponsored blogs, like Healthy Concerns were considered quite controversial. However times have changed - as is par for the course in our new social media industry. As the emergence of blog networks have demonstrated, blogs about topics/subject matters that are written by people who have a passion for the topic and can write to engage readers - but are not business or personal/idenity blogs - are now accepted as a genre of blogs.
While the author of the blog, not the sponsor, is the voice behind the content, corporate sponsored blogs are a low risk test into the blogging. The look over the shoulder peek is one way for businesses to dip a toe into the swirling waters of social media. Sidebar: Healthy Concerns is no longer a corporate sponsored blog.
There is a Solar Eclipse today 9/22. New Moons are generally a good time to start new projects, but it is at the last degree in the sign of Virgo, it squares Pluto and is conjuncts the South Node which suggests endings rather than beginnings and letting go of the past. Stay focused-prioritize. Complete the tasks you’ve been working on before taking on anything new.
The Sun enters Libra the sign of relationships Sat. 9/23/06 EDT-9/22/06 PDT. This is good for socializing. You may have a better chance to close the deal if you take your client out to lunch and discuss business.
On 9/24 Jupiter squares Neptune. Optimistic Jupiter conflicts with Neptunian fantasy. You may begin to see if your business dealings are really paying off or if you’ve been duped.
Sidebar: This week's Friday Fun is brought to by Saturday Smiles.
Josh Hallett will be one busy blogger this weekend and into next week. But then Josh is always on the go. In fact, too much so he thought. Last winter he had an ah ha moment .. enough of this on the road stuff .. it's time for people to come to visit me in - Orlando, FL.
Now FL is a great state and Orlando is
nice town, but really Josh besides the "mouse" why would anyone choose to come to Orlando? (only kidding!) Smart Divo that he is, Josh put together a FREE blog un-conference and this weekend September 22-24, 2006 marks - what may become the first annual BlogOrlando.
If Josh's email to me this afternoon is any indication - if you haven't signed up by now you may have to wait until BlogOrlando 2007. Check the BlogOrlando site during the weekend with 80 bloggers coming in from all over the world (Hi Nicole! Cruel To Be Kind) there is sure to be lots of live blogging. Wish I could be there with y'all but I'll be visiting my 92-year old Auntie Helen. Perhaps if I tell her about Millie, My Mom's Blog, we both will be there next year!
Want to talk blogs but didn't make it to Orlando? Come To Atlanta!
IABC & STC join forces on Tuesday, September 26th to present a panel discussion .. Beyond Blogs 101 - Your In The Game Now! And you'll never guess who is the esteemed moderator .. Josh Hallett! He's back on the road again .. and hopefully recovered from BlogOrlando.
The healthcare industry will have no choice but to engage and develop
social media if it is interested in helping people find accurate and
helpful information online.
Although there has been some dabbling into blogs, podcast and vlogs the healthcare industry, as a whole, as been reluctant to take the big leap into social media. Fard explains that part of the hesitation is a reflection a culture of tightly control of information.
In industries such as
pharmaceutical and biotech and hospitals which are all heavily regulated it is understandable that offering an open commincation forum may appear like a walk on the wild side. However, healthcare providers that have entered into this world
understand that providing an open dialogue is critical in educating
consumers of healthcare.
From Command & Control To Engage & Encourage examines two models of communication strategy. The traditional Command and Control where information is carefully crafted and messages are spoon fed to the media and other stakeholders in a more or less 'pure' form. Although this model may appear to increase the odds that what is communicated = what people actually hear, in the social media world, it no longer works. Consumers of healthcare are online searching, talking and exchanging opinions about healthcare products and services.
I agree with Fard'd position that it is fool hearty for healthcare organizations to bury their heads in the sands of denial. As in other industries, ranging from technology to packaged goods to services, no company controls their messaging or the brand experience. The internet changed the rules of the game. We're not in Dr. Kildare's world of the 1960's! The sooner healthcare providers shake off the grains of sand the sooner they can begin to use social media as a competitive advantage to build stronger relationships with their customers.
Fard offers a solution in a social media communications model he calls Engage & Encourage.
Engage & Encourage - A New Media Communication Strategy
Phase I - Engage Aggressively working with influential developers of social media to encourage them to talk about healthcare issues, products/service
Conduct research to identify influential social media
Monitor the conversation www.boardtracker.com sphere.com
Phase II - Encourage
Collaborating with social media to encourage the accurate transmission of healthcare messages
Producing social media that will help enrich and expand online healthcare dialog
Stage I - Research Social Media & Develop Messages
Stage II - Engage Traditional and Social Media
Advertising on blogs, podcasts,wikis, bulletin boars
Public/social media relations - developing messages to journalists and creators of social media and encouraging them to tell your story
Posting Multimedia on a Video Sharing Website
Stage III - Social & Traditional Media Deliver Messages
Monitor mentions
Stage IV - Encourage Accuracy & Dialog
Develop your own social media e.g., blog, podcast, vlog, discussion board to help shape the dialog
Stage V - Measure Audience Response
Media coverage, advertising reach, audience response
In addition Fard encourages healthcare organizations to get into the game by producing their own blogs, podcast, videos, wikis an/or message boards.
The eBook is an easy read and offers tips on how to begin the development of a social media communication strategy. Although written for the healthcare industry the concepts are applicable to any industry. The end quote brings it home.
Remember, we may live in a new world, but the old rules still apply. Powerful communications has always been about getting people to pay attention and take action. The engage and encourage strategy is just another means of achieving the same objective.
Sidebar: Fard Johnson's definition of social media - The term social media refers to a group of technologies that enable people to collaborate, interact or meet via the internet.
The Medical Blog Network is conducting one of the first comprehensive surveys of healthcare bloggers. If healthcare is a componenet to your content please take a few seconds .. remember .. your opinon counts! Healthcare Blogging Survey.
Date: December 11, 2006 Place: Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, co-located at Consumer Health World Why: Social media/blogging in healthcare is undergoing explosive growth
I am thrilled to be part of this innovative program. I'll be moderating a panel discussion - Mapping Out Your Game Plan: The Nuts-and-Bolts of Getting Started. The panelists are some of the most talented in this space.
Elisa Camahort: Co-founder and President of Events & Marketing, BlogHer LLC; Professional Blogger, with 9 Blogs Currently Active Enoch Choi, MD: Urgent Care Physician, Palo Alto Medical Foundation; Online Content & Community Expert, Consultant to Google Health and Healthline Craig Lefebvre, PhD: President, Lefebvre Consulting Group; Social Media, Social Marketing & Community-based Health Promotion Expert Shahid Shah: CEO, Netspective Communications LLC; Healthcare Enterprise / Product Architect & Blog Consultant
In addition the keynote speaker is Steve Rubel, VP Edelman. Other speakers include a few bloggy pals Fard Johnmar, Envision 2.0, Nick Jacobs, Windber Medical Center, (Nick was one of the .. if not THE first hospital President/CEO to blog), Patricia Goldman, March of Dimes, Carol Kirshner, Promedica Research Center (and my partner in crime in co writing the Medical Marketing (blog) column at the Medical Blog Network.)
Divo Wayne Hurlbert has crossed over. No not in the spirit sense. Wayne is adding "mainstream" radio talk show host in addition to his highly respected social media credentials. Catch him on Blog Business Success Wednesdays nights. First show is September 27th.
And watch out Larry King, Russ, Sean Hannity and Neal Boortz there's a new guy in town!
Blogger Storiesis a special blog that I launched to tell the stories of how people have
been touched by blogs,
podcasts, vlogs and other online interactions. Building a library of
stories gives us an opportunity to understand how lives have been
influenced by social
media .. from the heart.
"Bedtime stories site for bloggers, where blogging dreams and posts may change the world." - A Bugged Life
What do a media guru from the other side of the world, a conversation conductor from the heartland of the U.S, a cupcake aficionado from Manhattan and a woman with a passion for green (and I don't mean Kermit) from a suburb in New England have in common? Read the lastest Chapters of Blogger Stories to find out.
Anousheh Ansari's vacation is sure to make yours, mine and anyones seem like a yawn. Anoushe is the firsrt women tourist in space. What's more she's blogging her trip. This has to set new heights in live blogging (ouch).
Talk about being a role model for our daughters - the Anousheh Ansari Space Blog even has comments open. What else would you expect from a brave, adventurous woman? For those silly people who are still asking, "Where are women bloggers?" Here's one for you!
toss of a pink boa to divo Wayne Hurlbert for the opportunity to talk blogs with him on his new internet radio show Blog Business Success. Wayne is a kind and gracious talk show host - as you might expect from reading his blog Blog Business World.
