57 Blog 101 Questions

05/14/2007

What do you travel with? I mean when you go out of your home for the day or for a week. What do you always have with you to anchor you .. to keep you engaged with yourself and perhaps the world around you? In today's high tech world it might be your cell phone, camera or video camera.

Notebook_coffee For me it's always been a pen and note book and frequently a book. A little while ago I was sipping a coffee at a local Starbucks. Looking out at the parking lot watching cars whiz by was getting to be a drag so I dug out my little note book and begin writing random thoughts. As with writings in little note books no telling where the ideas will lead. This entree turned out to be Blog 101 Questions. Perhaps 1 or 2 thoughts will spark an idea for you.

  1. Are there really best practices for social media? What are they? Why are they?
  2. RSS why is it really so important?
  3. When will RSS add videos?
  4. Is there a "right" or "wrong" way to blog?
  5. Who are the influencers? Do they really matter and if so to whom?
  6. What is a blog? What is a business blog? What is a marketing blog?
  7. How do you address negative comments on your blog, on other blogs?
  8. Does a company need blogger guidelines? Does wikipedia have a generic entry?
  9. Are comment guidelines needed? Perhaps wikipedia has a generic entry for this too.
  10. How do you develop friendships at work? How do you develop friendships "on-blog?"
  11. How do you define honesty, transparency and authenticity? Are they different based on a company's culture? Should they be?
  12. What are the benefits for sponsoring a blog instead of advertising on a blog? Is it assumed exclusivity?
  13. When is it okay to sub contract blog writing? What is the trade-off for an organization?
  14. How do you manage a corporate blog?
  15. When does HR get involved with social media?
  16. How many corporate bloggers have job descriptions that incorporate goals, objectives? MBB - is there such a thing as "manage by blog" rather like manage by objective?
  17. What are the responsibilities of a corporate blogger? Does building relationship count as a "goal?" Does that devalue the relationship?
  18. What are the responsibilities of a paid blogger? Are they the same as a blogger on staff (see # 17).
  19. What is success? How do know you've achieved it if you don't set goals?
  20. What does blogger relations really mean? Does a camera or a dinner or a press release make a relationship? What is the company's courtesy to the blogger?
  21. What is social media research? How will it be integrated into traditional research strategies?
  22. How does pay per post, posts written by journalists and posts based on sponsorship relationships effect the data and analysis of social media research?
  23. How can you extend content from blog post in addition to podcasts, articles, books, white papers?
  24. For Shel Israel - "Will blogs change marketing? Or will marketing change blogs?
  25. What are the components of social media marketing? How many people think that social media is now an industry.
  26. <Side thought: It's ok to think pink.>
  27. What are Diva Marketing Biz Blog Series Companies doing  now? Where blogs successful  2 years later?
  28. Is a social media strategy right for all companies? When does it make sense?
  29. How do blogs communicate differently than other text forms?
  30. Why do communities succeed or fail? Does a community organically evolve?
  31. Will social media be the new darling of customer service or  the devil in disguise? How would a company incorporate social media tactics into a customer service strategy?
  32. What is the difference between blogger relations and media relations in the year 2007 and beyond? What side of the aisle are journalists who blog? 
  33. Will social media consultants specialize by industry or by functional area? Does one need a niche to be successful in this business? Will the big agencies squeeze out the folks with real experience and passion?
  34. How much experience and how long does one have to be involved to be considered an expert in social media?
  35. What are the various uses for blogs? Shopping/commerce. Reviews. Marketing
  36. SEO and social media blurring of functional and strategies. Is it an SEO deal or a PR deal?
  37. Where does podcast fit in? It can't be social unless there is a conversation loop. So is podcast really social media? Same with vlogs.
  38. What can we learn from mommy bloggers?
  39. Blogs tie into corporate values.
  40. Blogs take time. What to write. How to write.
  41. Why don't more businesses brand their blogs with the look and feel of their website? Why. Why. Why don't (some) business bloggers include an about us? And why no email address?
  42. A blog report card. Does it go against the culture of blogs but not the out comes of business?
  43. Vast marketplace of ideas. The wild west of the new web. It's quickly being tamed.
  44. Why do people read blogs? What do people want from blogs and bloggers? What do they want? Do they really want the conversational options?  What don't people want?
  45. How does a reader or community member Not an organization define engagement? Should we not start with that before defining engagement as a business goal?
  46. Are blogs and other social media initiatives making a difference? Are these tactics impacting and changing behavior like in purchase behavior?
  47. Side thought: If you can't connect to one .. you can't connect to many.
  48. Are blogs and social media marketing tactics little more than viral or SEO tactics?
  49. What do you need to know to get started? What do you need to know to continue?
  50. What is blogging etiquette?
  51. How do you integrate a social media program with a traditional campaign? Or how do you integrate traditional marketing into a social media strategy?
  52. What are the lessons learned thus far about social media marketing?
  53. Do blogs help us find and/or become the divas in the mirror?
  54. Not only company but country influences social media culture.
  55. Can you write a book about social media if you have no experience? Must you have experience to understand the culture of social media?
  56. Side thought: So many smart people generously giving information and ideas to the world at-large.
  57. Now that I have this written in a blog can I trash the paper list?

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Comments

It's amazing how many questions people have, and even more amazing that we've acquired the knowledge they are looking for. Keep up the great work!

GL

Posted by: Geoff Livingston on May 15, 2007 7:09:48 AM

57 questions equals 57 answers; are we being timed?

I feel a little project brewing.

Posted by: Tim Jackson on May 15, 2007 9:23:04 AM

Toby:

First off, this is an inspiring list -- so many sparks in such a compressed space. Thank you. We quoted in our "Ask?Away" format at ConversationAgent.com today.

The topic of the conversation with Mark Goren is storytelling in marketing, and it touches upon many of the points you inquire about here. Will you join us?

As for #41: "Why don't more businesses brand their blogs with the look and feel of their website? Why. Why. Why don't (some) business bloggers include an about us? And why no email address?" Maybe this will spark a post for someone -- the amount of contact information on a company web site is directly proportional to the size of the company.

It goes from very personal -- the owner; to team -- the mid size group; to "don't bother the important people with this" here are the staff you should email, better yet, here's an anonymous form for you -- for large corporations. That alone says a lot about the type of culture and company you are contacting.

Posted by: Valeria Maltoni on May 15, 2007 1:18:00 PM

Toby: Wow, great questions here. I think you've just inspired my next Question A Day series. I'll let you know which ones and when I'll be answering them. Thanks!

Posted by: Mark Goren on May 15, 2007 4:37:38 PM

Toby, I think you've just inspired my next Question A Day segment! Not all 57, though, but I may do a week's worth. Great post!

Posted by: Mark Goren on May 15, 2007 11:18:12 PM

Toby,

WOW! You continue to amaze me! what a great list of questions - lot's of food for thought.

Keep up the good work.

Merrill

Posted by: Merrill Dubrow on May 16, 2007 8:47:17 AM

Wow! I ask myself some of these questions all the time... it's inspiring to see them in print - somehow, makes them more 'real.'

Posted by: Yvonne DiVita on May 17, 2007 10:16:01 AM

Remarkable set of thoughts there.

Referring to Q.18: A paid blogger attempts to write articles about the particular company's brand, performance, quality and such - usually are positive remarks to pull up the brand image amongst the public.
It's hard to say if they are the same as bloggers on staff because these are those who experience the company in real-time. Question is, when employees don't like something about their company; could or how do they write negative comments in their corporate blog section?

101 questions - that's a lot to answer for.

Posted by: LLShin on May 18, 2007 12:47:49 AM

Just exactly what I needed... Same questions bothering me and hope to get some answers here...

referring to question no:2 --- >

as i have understood, rss makes the "indexing" of blogs easier. Sort of a library catalog for blogs so to speak.

http://worldsoffthebeatenpath.wordpress.com/

Posted by: leigh keiruff on May 30, 2007 11:31:18 PM

Leigh - Never thought of RSS as a catalog for the blogs that you're most interested in following. Makes sense to me.

Posted by: Toby on May 30, 2007 11:47:02 PM

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