Sep 2, 2006

In Women We Trust -- book review

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being a stop on author Mary Hunt's virtual book tour for In Women We Trust: A cultural shift to the softer side of business, published by and available from Windsor Media Enterprises.

First, here's my short review of the book. Next, I'll post some tidbits from our conversation.

Mary's thesis is pretty simple, and not totally unfamiliar. Women have significant buying power, and businesses should pay attention. That's the really familiar part :-) She discusses how women are taking that buying power and using it with companies and service providers that sell to them in a female-friendly manner. And she doesn't mean packaging it in pink.

The key, she says, is to approach and sell to women in a manner consistent with and respective of women's culture. Women buy differently than men do. In order to sell your product to her, you have to approach her the way she wants, answer her questions, deliver a level of customer service that she demands, gain her trust.  She identifies nine "Trust Points"  Community, Respectful, Considerate, Fun, Safety, Honesty, Reliability, Thoughtful and Loyalty. If you deliver on the trust points, she says, women will buy.  And you'll reap untold benefits because women will tell each other about their good experiences with you, your store, your products. If you don't....

Now, none of this is big news. Especially if you are a woman

 :-)

What makes this book really worth adding to your marketing bookshelf are the checklists she gives for the Nine Trust Points. Even though the concepts are fairly easy to understand,  this stuff is hard for many companies to do. In part because it means giving back some control to the consumer, which is really really hard for corporate America's command and control culture. The checklists give you a place to start ... asking the right questions, evaluating your performance and delivery and service, and so forth. 

This would be a very useful book for marketers who want to reach out to the female consumer, and don't know where to start. It's a quick read and it will get you going. And if you already know where to go, but just need a little help convincing others, leave a copy on their desks :-)

Next post: my chat with Mary.

Tags: gender, in women we trust, Mary Hunt, marketing to women

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Aug 10, 2006

Week's end wrap-up, August 10 2006

Things have been pretty serious on the Roadmap lately,  so I thought I'd wrap up the week with some lighter topics.

Starting with my favorite post-BlogHer post: My Thoughts on BlogHer 06 by  Millie Garfield (Thoroughly Modern Millie/My Mom's Blog). I wish everyone could take as much joy out of life as Millie clearly does.

We have a hummingbird in the garden. This may not seem like much to many of you, but with 4 dogs and 3 cats, birds have been known to view our yard with some suspicion. We had a hummer a couple of years ago, so I started putting out hummer food, but this week was the first time I had seen one since that first sighting in 2004. They are the most amazing birds. I will try to get a picture, although I doubt I'll be able to capture it.

Instead, I will share a photo of a Rufous Hummingbird  taken by my cousin, who is an absolutely amazing bird photographer. This photo appeared on the cover of a bird magazine (name of which escapes me.)

photo copyright Thomas Johnson

I'm off tomorrow, and won't be online again until late Sunday, so I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Tags: blogher, blogher 06

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Aug 7, 2006

Open your eyes: Blogs and gender

Interesting conversation over at Neville Hobson's blog about gender. Neville started by stating that gender of a blog author doesn't matter to him -- what matters to him is the content.

Of course, content is what matters. Good writing, interesting ideas and original thought are what make you want to read, and continue reading past the first post. But gender does impact how likely it is that you will find a blog. As I commented on his blog, in a specific search, the odds may be a bit more even, but:

"Where it gets sticky is when you search a blog directory on a broad term like “public relations.” I just did it on technorati (http://www.technorati.com/blogs/public relations) and the first 9 results are written by men. And the 10th is Marketing Profs.

Same with the memetrackers, especially in the tech space - there does seem to be a male bias (see Chris Carfi’s post http://www.socialcustomer.com/2006/08/mr_rivera_tear_.html)

And then there are the lists. Sure there are blogs written by women on the various top-whatever lists, but they are predominantly (still) written by men. And when you look at who they link to, you should not be surprised if their chums are also lots of guys."

And the conversation continued from there, with a great deal of back and forth between Neville and me, along with comments by Kami Huyse, Yvonne DiVita, Sherrilynne Starkie and Carmen Van Kerckhove as well as a previous comment by Amy Gahran.

I'm not suggesting anyone should read a blog or link to a blog simply because it is by a woman.

Here's the thing, though. We tend to "hang out" in an online community of like-minded people. I forget which one of my respected PR and marketing colleagues pointed this out (identify yourself and get the recognition you deserve) but our virtual communities, not unlike our real ones, are about 50-100 people. We read many of the same blogs, we comment, we make an effort to meet up at conferences, and so on. You may belong to one or more overlapping communities, and even some very dis-similar ones if you have wide-ranging interests. But it is quite likely that you'll gravitate toward one. For  me, it is the collective group of PR/marketing blogs (big surprise there!). I read lots of other things too, but not as deeply. For example, I like the shows created by Joss Whedon, but I only read Whedonesque regularly.

In other words, in most subjects, I skim the surface, whereas in my chosen area, I take a pretty deep dive.

When we take that "deep dive" into a subject, in some subjects, like PR, we are likely to be finding blogs by men and women, and choosing them based on the content we find there, not the gender of the author. In other subjects, like technology, you will find women, but you have to look hard. The men have a far bigger profile. And there are not many women at the top.

When we skim, odds are  that our list will have more male authors than female, simply because the men are easier to find. I'll use politics as an example: I scan about half a dozen political blogs. Four are "owned" or written by men, while only two are driven by women, Ariana Huffington, Huffington Post  and Chris Nolan, Spot-on.

Gender doesn't make you a better writer or thinker. Gender shouldn't matter in the blogosphere, or anywhere else for that matter, unless you are picking a mate, and perhaps not even then, unless reproduction is one of your goals.

But no matter how often or loudly we say that gender doesn't matter,

it does.

And that's why BlogHer (and other efforts to even the playing field) are so important. We aren't proposing some sort of "blog affirmative action" where you must have so many women or minorities in your feed reader. That's simply absurd.

What I, and many other women, suggest is that you examine your biases -- conscious and sub-conscious -- and make a choice. Stay in your comfort zone, where you know everybody and they know you. Or take a step out, a virtual "walk on the wild side," and look for new voices. Perhaps even ones that disagree with you. We could all use a bit more diversity and a little less "group think."

Gender doesn't  matter when it comes to smart thinking. But it is an issue. So please, folks, open your eyes. I know it's unpleasant to remember that we still don't have equality of the sexes, but we don't. Ignoring it does NOT make it go away.

You may think you're being gender blind, but I'd tell you, you are simply blind about the issue of gender.

A final example. Some have wondered why we need a women's blogging conference. We don't have men's blogging conferences, they say.... After I get through banging my head on the wall at that, I remind them, that's because most conferences ARE men's conferences. They just aren't advertised that way. Bringing these issues to light, and creating a space where women (and like-minded men) could work on them together, is why BlogHer was founded and why so many women of different backgrounds embrace it. As Mary Hunt points out, we are part of a long tradition of women getting together to build strength in numbers. Susan B. Anthony anyone???

Be truly gender-neutral. Seek out the different voices. Not because they are women or minorities but because you understand that the system favors a dominant group (in tech, it's white guys, sorry), and you want to push past that to meet some new folks with some new ideas.

Who maybe aren't just like you.

Tags: blogher, blogher 06, gender, sexism, blogging, blogs

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Aug 3, 2006

A bit more BlogHer

There has been quite a bit of criticism of BlogHer from women who did not attend the conference (Shelley Powers, Tara Hunt, Kathy Sierra), as well as some who did (Melinda Casino and others). Hugh Macleod did a cartoon, which as Elisa Camahort points out, didn't link to women who had been at the conference and wrote positive posts, only to men and posts of varying negativity.

Now we are all entitled to an opinion, and in this country, we have the right to express it.  But, personally, I dislike criticism that doesn't offer an alternative. Don't like it, don't go. Or don't go again. There are things that concerned me during the conference -- I wrote a bit about them in yesterday's post, and I have some more thoughts here. But, offer the criticism with suggestions for improvement. Don't just complain. Or if you think the situation is beyond repair for you, do something else, go somewhere else. No conference can satisfy everyone. To be fair, some of the women mentioned above have already said that is their intention.

The conference wasn't perfect -- no conference is. Some of the sessions were great, some were not. Some of the sponsors did a great job. Some less so. The hotel has really gone downhill, but I didn't personally see any bugs, and the room was clean, so hey.  Internet access was problematic, but it was also free. And besides, it was a good excuse to get out in the sun and talk to people.

Of course  there was laughter and frivolous conversation. Pictures of  and anecdotes about children and partners were shared. There was also a lot of serious conversation and networking. Just like any other conference. Maybe a bit less discussion of golf handicaps.....

My biggest concern? Tech and business folks were definitely in the minority. While I do not begrudge the mommy/personal bloggers any of their hard-won success and recognition, I do not wish all women who blog to be characterized as personal bloggers.  We aren't, and some of us for very specific personal and professional reasons. After hearing about the coverage in the San Jose Mercury News  and on c|net, I wondered if maybe the public impression of women bloggers was shifting too far to the personal, ignoring those of us who do not blog about our families, personal lives or food. Many of the very things I value in the BlogHer spirit -- community, participation, dare I say equality of opportunity -- were somehow transforming into something soft and girly, and therefore less serious. Apparently we don't laugh, we giggle. And so on. Yet there is absolutely no a priori reason why these values are "girly." It is a filter applied because the conference is driven by and for women.

And of course, why we needed BlogHer in the first place. I know it will come as a surprise to some but sexism does exist. Not as overt as it was before Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, among many others, burned the figurative (and sometimes literal) bra, and told the world that "a woman without a man was like a fish without a bicycle," but it is there. And women face it every day, whether it is the disdain given to a stay-at-home mom for her choice, or the roadblocks faced by a young career woman who wants to get ahead without becoming "one of the guys."

The older I get, the more I realize that we need spaces that are women-centered because no matter how you slice it, our culture is still predominantly masculine. And why I applaud  BlogHer, and everyone -- women and men -- who participates in it.

The main BlogHer conference seems to be evolving into a place for the mom, the personal blogger, the solo entrepreneur. With BlogHer Business in New York in March 2007, we have the same opportunity to together build a vibrant community for women bloggers in the corporate space. Who aren't worried about monetizing  their blog as much as they are about building the business case for social media in the enterprise. Who want to talk with others about how to do it, not be lectured at by someone corporate, white and probably male.

So count me in. It's going on the calendar today.

****************************************************

I met blogger/podcaster Nicole Simon at BlogHer. She had the best button: "Bubble 2.0." She also took a picture of me checking my email on my Blackberry during the Saturday reception as part of her ongoing research to prove that women have just as many tech gadgets as men. Yup, I'm a "crackberry" addict -- even to the point sending an email to a client from Diamond Head in Hawaii last November. Here's the evidence:

And finally, in the category of "you have got to be kidding me," just before the Saturday am session (you remember the Janes) a young woman went around to all the tables handing out little business cards for A NEW SHOW FOR WOMEN PREMIERING THIS FALL ABOUT LOVE, LIFE AND RELATIONSHIPS STARRING GREG BEHRENDT THE GUY WHO WROTE "HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU." Yeah, just what we need, another guy telling women how to fix their lives. Yuck. Well, at least we know he'll be trying to be funny unlike the other guys who think they know what's best. Calling Dr. Phil.

BTW, I don't believe this was an official sponsor, just the energetic spirit of the show's producers, so no fair tagging BlogHer on this one. Anyway, maybe it was something in the water Saturday morning......

Tags: blogging, blogher, blogher06, sexism, business blogging, blogher business

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Aug 1, 2006

Dateline: BlogHer

Well, actually post-BlogHer, but hey, if I could have found the time (and WiFi) to post during the conference, I would have. Instead, I stopped worrying about Internet access, read my email on my Blackberry and enjoyed talking to people. You know -- face to face :-)

So here's the report, in somewhat random order.

First, I think our session, Business Blogging Case Studies Unpanel, went very well. Every single one of our pre-conference volunteers made it, and they were all wonderful. The conversation and questions after the brief presentations were great -- lots of good material, everyone answering each other's questions, and asking new ones. We've got pages and pages of notes to distill into our "tips and traps" document. Watch for a draft sometime later this month.

Toby, Yvonne and I are very grateful to everyone who made it possible -- the BlogHer founders Elisa, Lisa and Jory and all their support staff,  the case study volunteers, and everyone in the session, with a very special thanks to those of you who took the time afterwards to tell us how much you enjoyed it.

The conference itself. Last year, it was a bit of an experiment. This year, BlogHer is all grown up. It is a real, true, pink (not blue) blogging conference that happens to be focused on women bloggers. I think it was very successful, and certainly seems to have accomplished the initial goal, which was to let everyone know just where all the women bloggers were. Like any conference, it also had its good points and its rough spots.

Let's start with the good:

• Last year, there was a great deal of tension from and about the Mommy Bloggers. This year, I didn't sense that. In fact, it felt like the Mommy  Bloggers had really come into their own, realized their market power and were ready to flex their muscles. To quote the 60s anthem, "I am woman, hear me roar." To that I say, good for you. Ride it all the way, baby. The sponsors sure understood mommy buying power, didn't they? (Subsequently I did read one woman's anti-mommy rant, but while there I did not feel it, so I'll stick with my comment).
• There have been some criticisms about the number of sponsors, the fact that they were given the podium before certain sessions that they sponsored and of course, the size small t-shirt from the condom company. Except for the Microsoft Janes on Saturday morning, and about them, I agree with Amy Gahran -- blecchh, overall I thought the sponsorships and how the sponsoring companies were handled was well done. In fact, generally better than at most conferences. Sponsors got value for money, attendees weren't hammered in the head by the sponsors, unless they chose to engage, and the GM cars were REALLY cool. BlogHer didn't pick the sponsor's t-shirts or the size, so let it go. Most importantly, BlogHer seeks sponsorships so it can have a great conference, with food and drink and parties and swag, while still keeping the registration costs down. Very few other conferences do that. If we have to put up with a little marketing to have a conference where full boat registration --all days, all events -- is about $250, what is there to complain about, hhmm????
• Closing Keynote. One of the best keynote panels I have ever seen at ANY conference. Chris Nolan was a superb moderator, and the four women on the panel Arianna Huffington, Grace Davis, Mena Trott and Caroline Little were funny, open, honest, witty, wonderful. In fact, I hereby add them all to my personal list of Wonderful Wicked Women Bloggers even though I have only met Chris and Grace, and briefly at that. Lisa Stone has a great wrap-up.
• No more lists!! When asked by a "BlogHim" what men could do to help women bloggers, Mena Trott said No more lists! Speaking of Mena, she took a little blog-heat for talking about SixApart's new VOX product when asked about the future. To that I say -- what's wrong with that? If that is what she is passionate about, and really believes in, what's wrong with her saying so. Obviously SixApart thinks this is the right direction for the future, otherwise they wouldn't have committed so much to it. And she was clear to say the product was not for the BlogHer audience, but rather for the large numbers of folks who just want to share among a smaller audience of family and friends. I think people just like to pick on her because she's young and sometimes less polished than her older counterparts in the industry. Just my .02.

Now to the rough spots. This is just my opinion, and YMMV.

• Overall the sessions I attended were good. But, the technical sessions seemed perhaps a bit too basic, and there was even less "Business Blogging" content than last year. One of the reasons people told us they liked our Unpanel was that it was one of the few business-focused sessions on the agenda. There was quite a bit of talk about perhaps suggesting a second track of advanced or business topics to the BlogHer organizers, which I would certainly support. I'm also going to think about where else I can suggest this Unpanel format. It had an energy that I really liked, and I'd love to do more of them. But.... as I've said before, I do believe the session has to have some structure and a collective product. Otherwise, it's just a chat.
• On a somewhat related theme, I did feel a bit overwhelmed by the mommy and food bloggers. There really weren't that many of us "business" types there (except of course the "Hims" and I'll get to that in a minute). Chicken/egg. Did business bloggers not come because there wasn't enough value or was the audience predominantly personal/small business bloggers, so therefore the agenda was developed for them in the first place. I really like BlogHer but I also want to find an event where the topics I am most interested in (business blogging, citizen journalism, using the new tools in business, etc.) are discussed in the same open, participatory manner that I so appreciate about BlogHer. Some have suggested the New Communications Forum. I plan to check it out.
• In response to the same question mentioned above about how male bloggers could help women, Chris Nolan replied LINK LINK LINK. Which is why I was really disappointed this morning when I read these opening lines on Robert Scoble's blog: "I think it’s interesting that I met two of my favorite bloggers for the first time at BlogHer (both of whom are men, Guy Kawasaki and John Battelle)." The rest of Scoble's post was great, and it is his blog so he can do whatever he pleases, but it just kills to see it start with links to other A-listers after the conversation at BlogHer. Then, when I went wandering over to Kawasaki's blog, I found that pictures taken of him with Scoble and Winer (3% of the Technorati 100) seemed to be what floated his boat. Again, someone I respect and enjoy reading but it seems like maybe he missed the point??? Apparently I am not the only one who's noticed this -- check out Chris Carfi's post where he relates that about 70% of the BlogHer related posts on techmeme this am, starting with Dave Winer's somewhat misogynistic screed, were written by men, while the percentage of male attendees at the conference was somewhere just north of 10%. Hhmm. The explanation from techmeme (in the comments) is that techmeme has a tech skew.  Again hhmm. Not good enough. It seems white men can't dance, but they still can link. To each other. This is what has to change for interesting women tech and business bloggers to break through.

A completely non-comprehensive list of some folks I ran into/chatted with at BlogHer:

• Beth Kanter, shoe and handbag blogger extraordinaire;
• Robert Scoble. I'd never met him before and even though I kind of pick on him above, I was glad to meet him, and found him to be a delightful, generous person. After the closing keynote, I was chatting with Erin Caldwell from Forward Blog (and Edelman) about her sightseeing plans for the following day. Scoble joined the conversation and proceeded to give Erin some wonderful travel hints for San Francisco. I also chatted with Patrick Scoble in the buffet line (about how boys like watermelon -- he agreed) and he seems like a really nice kid.
• Evelyn Rodriguez. I wish I had more reasons to chat with Evelyn on a regular basis. Her perspective really helps you sharpen your own.
• Mary Hunt, author of  In Women We Trust
• Tish Grier, my fellow Massachusetts and Corante blogger
• PR/Marketing pals Josh Hallet and Jeremy Pepper
• Nancy White who interviewed me in the podcast session.
• Elisa from Breakingranks
• Amy Gahran has created a wiki for BlogHer posts.
• Nellie Lide

Tags: blogher, blogher06, blogging, business blogging

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Jul 24, 2006

BlogHer 06 Business Blogging Unpanel

Well, regular readers have noted that blogging has been ultra-light recently. Reason? Burning the midnight oil on client work so I can enjoy my trip out to BlogHer at the end of the week.

I am really looking forward to the whole conference, but particularly the Saturday "Unpanel" on Business Blogging.

More than once, I've had a bit of angst about this, worrying that maybe nobody would step up and volunteer to share their case studies.

Well, I needn't have worried. My fellow women bloggers have come through and we are going to have some great case studies to get us started. And I hope that EVERYONE attending the session chimes in as we go along. No experts here. Just folk figuring it out as we go along :-)

I've posted a summary doc with all the links to the various case studies on my site. You should also check out the BlogHer post on the session (where this will be cross-posted.) One of the blogs is no longer active, but we have some docs and screen shots, also on my getgood.com site. Please, if you are planning to attend this session at BlogHer, take a few minutes to check out the blogs. While we will have WiFi, we will NOT have an overhead projector during the session.

And don't forget, we have a great giveaway, thanks to Debbie Weil, who couldn't be with us but has donated a copy of her new business blogging book. Hot off the presses!

My thanks to the wonderful women who have volunteered their case studies for this session: Stephanie Hendrick, Jody DeVere (Ask Patty), Celeste Lindell (Average Jane), Heather Sanders and Lori Taylor. And a special thank you to my co-panelists Toby Bloomberg and Yvonne DiVita who joined me in this experiment, and without whom the blogosphere would be a far less pleasant place.

Thanks! See you in San Jose.

Tags: blogher, business blogging

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Jun 16, 2006

BlogHer Unpanel on Business Blogging

This July at BlogHer, Toby Bloomberg, Yvonne DiVita and I are doing a Business Blogging "Unpanel" on Saturday July 29th.

Here's the scoop on the session:

This panel isn’t about us. It’s about all of us. Call it an “unpanel.” Call it a “rap session.” What we call it doesn’t matter. What we do, does. And what we are going to do is share our business blogging stories and then build a set of business blogging “best practices” based on our experiences. Everyone is part of the panel, and we’ll just do the best we can to keep up with the brilliance in the room.

Here’s the format. The first half of the session is devoted to case studies. Our goal is eight – we have three committed, so we need  BlogHers who plan to attend the session to step up and volunteer to share yours. How do you do that? Respond to this message (Please respond on the BlogHer site at this link) and tell us “I’m in” and let us know about the blog URL you plan to discuss in July.

During the session you’ll have 5 minutes to tell us the objectives of the blog, what worked, and what didn’t. Giving us the URL in advance lets us all check out the blog so you have to spend less time in exposition. And please, participants, do at least take a look at the blogs volunteered for the session. It will help us all get to the meat, which is creating our best practices deliverable.

Because what’s an unpanel without a collective product [You can see, Susan (who wrote this) really is a socialist at heart.]

The second half of our session is devoted to a group discussion. And we aren’t there just to chat. We want to leave the room with at least the shell of a best practices document –things that work become our best practices, things that didn’t are warning signs. This is the critical piece of this session. Without the deliverable, we’ve had a nice chat. When we create this document, we’ve helped ourselves and others be better business bloggers. Cool, huh.

So, please, if business blogging is your bag, and you are planning to attend this session, consider sharing your story. Yvonne, Toby and Susan can fill the time, but we don’t want to. We want to hear from and talk with you. Way more fun :)

Here are the case studies already on deck. Add yours in the comments. First come, first served. Five spots left, and we will do the session in the order received on the BlogHer site.

Masi Guy at http://masiguy.blogspot.com/
Know Your Bones at www.knowyourbones.com
Our Fathers Who Art in Heaven at http://murak.blogs.com/
Research from Stephanie Hendrik, a doctoral student from the University of Sweden: Stephanie will present research about when companies do inauthentic things with blogs. Things like fake blogs and fake commenters. Due to ethical considerations, she is keeping the the blogs in the study anonymous, but she is preparing a brief abstract for us which we’ll post here.

Two questions we know we’ll get:
Q. Can I talk about more than one blog?
A. Yes, but you still only have 5 minutes. Use them wisely.

Q. Will you stop taking volunteers after the 5 spots are filled?
A. Nope, keep signing up. People may decide to go to another session, or that they don’t really want to speak. Some people may take less than 5 minutes so we’ll have extra time. Who knows what will happen. Until it happens! So please sign up. We’ll go in order received until the time allotted for case studies runs out.

If you are planning to attend BlogHer, please consider joining us and sharing your blog case studies. Please sign up on the post at the BlogHer site --it is a whole lot easier if all the sign-ups are in one place. Thanks.

(cross posted to Marketing Roadmaps and MarCom Blog)

Tags: blogging, business blogging, BlogHer

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Jun 8, 2006

My penultimate Syndicate post... finally

Well, I never thought I would be so busy that it would take nearly a month to finish up my reporting on Syndicate, but so it goes.

Before I get to the final sessions, and my chats with the "bad boys of PR," I want to remember to share one observation. At and after the conference, there was a some gnashing and wailing that not more marketing and PR people attended this conference, even though the content was extremely germane to their practice areas. The reason is simple: they don't see the value. Why? First, the conference sounds techy - syndicate, RSS, all sorts of terms that make marketing folk blanche. Second, it is expensive against the perceived value. Finally, and most important,white men may not dance, but they sure do blog and podcast. With a few exceptions, the speaker list was a list of insiders, and mostly white guys. It's a club. No one wants to go to a club meeting when they are going to be the outsider sitting alone during the coffee break.

I may sound like a broken record, but this is why I am such a fan of BlogHer, and the truly participatory community that it has engendered. See you there!

Back to Syndicate. At this late date, a synopsis of the two final sessions seems somewhat redundant. So in reverse order, let me tackle first Doc Searls and then the PR session, and simply give you some impressions.

This was the first time I saw Doc Searls speak, and I definitely see why he is in such demand. He gives a good show. He spoke about the differences between the static web and the live web -- which by the way are far more evocative for me than the terms 1.0 and 2.0. One of his concepts that I really liked was the "rolling snowball" -- "if it's a good idea, it can't just be yours." The value chain is replaced by the value constellation. Attention has been replaced by Intention. It's not advertising, it's people searching for info. He also talked a bit about the gesture stuff, which is still a bit unclear to me. But that's okay. Then he ended with a bunch of claims, just to get people thinking. Here are the ones I was able to capture.

A free market is not 'your choice of site'

The consumer is a relic of the industrial economy

The Net is not a place where 'consumers' 'access' 'content' -- it is about production

Branding is for cattle. Respect is for human beings

Everything and everybody is becoming unbundled (mentioned Terry Heaton as a leader on this thought)

TV as we know it is already dead (1 in 3 teens can't name the leading networks, FCC moving TV off branded channels by 09)

Clear Channel killed commercial radio. Listeners are resurrecting it.

Hi-def will be cheap and standard by the end of the year

Email marketing is creepy. So is SEO. (My opinion: especially SEO)

Livest part of the live web is cell phones.

Everybody is already an influencer. We're all getting networked.

Closed formats are doomed. (Ed comment: Amen) Majority of desktops and laptops in 5 years willbe LINUX (lively conversation here)

Radio is going to be fine as long as they put them in cars

On branding: it's not brand, it's reputation

Next post: The PR Boys at Syndicate.

Tags: Syndicate, Doc Searls

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May 10, 2006

It's Springtime, Must be Showtime

It's a rite of passage -- that moment when you realize that the bulk of industry conferences and trade shows are scheduled in the Spring and early Autumn. Not all, mind you. There are trade shows going on all year long in the USA. But the concentration in May June September and October, at least in the US, is amazing. You could literally go from conference to conference, just returning home to get clean shirts and underwear. I suppose some people do.... At least I hope they are getting clean undies....

Anyway, here are a few conferences and events coming up over the next few months that marketing and PR folk should check out.

Next week in NYC, Syndicate (May 16-17). Everything you always wanted to know about syndication. I will be live-blogging the conference for Corante. Posts will appear here and on the Corante Marketing Hub for sure, maybe some other places too. PubSub is aggregating the blogs from speakers, sponsors and attendees.

Next month:

NYC, June 8-9, the 2006 Innovative Marketing Conference, sponsored by Corante and the Center on Global Brand Leadership of Columbia Business School. It is a two-day event. The first day is a "CMO Summit" for CMOs and VPs of Marketing. The second day is a "Marketer's Forum"  open to the public. I'm not attending this one, as I have a conflict, but the speaker list is fantastic, so I urge you to check it out. Somewhere in my pile of email is a note that my readers can get a discount, so if anyone is interested, drop me a note and I'll dig it out.

Interested in bank marketing? I certainly am, thanks to my client who sells CRM systems for banks! The Boston Chapter of the AMA is getting an exclusive first look at TD Banknorth's new marketing campaign from Tom Dyck, TD Banknorth EVP and Director of Marketing. The presentation will be held Friday June 9 from 11 am - 1:30 pm at Banners Restaurant at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston. Plus we get a special behind-the-scenes tour of the Garden, including areas not usually accessible to the public.

July:

San Jose, CA July 28-29. BlogHer. Day One is sold out, but last I heard, there was still space at the cocktail party and  for Day Two. Come be part of the Business Blogging unpanel on Day Two that I am doing with Yvonne DiVita and Toby Bloomberg. We want you to come share your stories!! The whole concept of the unpanel is that everyone participates and together we build a collective deliverable. In this case, we'll call it best practices for business blogging. More background on the unpanel in this post. And more to come late May, early June.

Disclosures: I am a member of the Corante Marketing Hub and the Boston Chapter of the AMA, and a speaker at (and longtime fan of) BlogHer.

Tags: BlogHer, RSS, Syndicate, AMA Boston, business blogging, bank marketing, Corante,  trade shows

Posted @ 4:05PM in Blogging, BlogHer, BlogHer06, Business Management, Marketing, Media, Podcasting, PR, RSS, Web Marketing | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Apr 13, 2006

BlogHer 06 Room of Your Own Update

Our proposal for a Business Case Studies Room of Your Own at BlogHer 06 made the cut. Toby Bloomberg, Yvonne DiVita and I will be leading a "rap session" about business blogging on Saturday July 29 from 1:30-3:00pm.

 As I've written here before, this is an "unpanel" (borrowing the un-nomenclature from Dave Winer's unconference).

We'll kick off the conversation, but the underlying concept is that everyone in the room is the panel. Our goal is both to learn from each other in the room and produce a business blogging tips set so that others can benefit from our collective wisdom (and mistakes!)

I'm really looking forward to the session. I already know that two of my favorite marketing bloggers will be in the room with me. There's no artificial dividing line between the panel and the audience -- no somebodies here, we're all nobodies, and everybody has an equal voice. And we have the goal of a specific work product from the session, the tips. We won't just be talking to hear our own voices, we'll be focused, working toward delivering something of value.

On the subject of conferences, and the oft-heard complaint that it's always the same speakers saying the same things,  you won't find that at BlogHer. BlogHer deliberately seeks out new voices. The sessions will definitely not be the same old same old.

And, oh yeah, you will find a higher percentage of women speakers than you've probably experienced since Girl Scouts :-)

Hope to see you there.

Tags: blogher, blogher06, blogging, marketing, business blogging, nobodies, nobody

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Posted @ 9:04AM in Blogging, BlogHer, BlogHer06, Marketing | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 10, 2006

The Week in Review: March 6-10

A new (and very interesting) client has just come on board,  I had deadlines for some other projects, and I had to take a quick trip mid-week. Time has been tight, so blogging has been light.

So this post is going to be the week in review --  comments on the things I probably would have blogged in more depth had I more time.

Of course, the top PR blogging news of the week was the Edelman-Wal-Mart blogger relations story, starting with the New York Times article on March 7th, and continuing on with commentary from just about every PR/Marketing blogger on the planet. Except me of course. I was at a client :-) Check out the great round-ups of the commentary written by  Constantin Basturea and Tom Murphy. And don't miss Richard Edelman's post. For more coverage, here are the google and technorati searches on "Edelman Wal-Mart"

My .02 -- this really does look like a simple effort at blogger relations, perhaps not the best execution, but not intentionally sinister.  In fact, I think Wal-Mart would be foolish to not engage in grassroots blogger relations, given how well organized its critics in the blogosphere are.

Here's my take-away from this tempest in a teapot:

First, we have to be fair in our criticisms. Part (but not all) of the outrage about the Wal-Mart outreach was outrage about Wal-Mart in general. You have to put both your friends and your enemies to the same test. If something would be okay if your buddy did it, but it is bad if the evil empire does it,  you are not being fair. This is not dis-similar from what happened in the initial outrage more than a year ago about character blogs. GourmetStation and others were being lambasted for having characters as the blog authors. I pointed out a certain inconsistency using the example of Spencer F. Katt, the PC Week/eWeek mascot for 20-plus years who has both a column and yes, a blog. Somehow, a character everybody knew and liked was okay. It was only the new ones that were bad blogging practice :-)  Wrong. Be consistent in BOTH your flames and your kudos.

Second, as PR practitioners start reaching out to blogs... as they should, and as most of us have preached, dare I say ad nauseaum, we have to expect mistakes. Given the ongoing commentary on PR blogs about the general quality of much PR practice, we shouldn't be surprised if some PR agency efforts at blogger relations are better than others. I have no particular opinion about Edelman's blogger outreach program. Time will tell whether it was good, bad or something in between. I am certain however, that no blogger outreach program will be (or should be) successful without complete transparency. You MUST be completely honest about your role and your vested interests. And not surprised if your entire campaign is published on a blog somewhere.

Again, a comparison. When I started to get a great deal of media exposure as spokesperson for Cyber Patrol in the late 90s, I was very careful to make sure that my public statements passed the ultimate test: would I be embarassed if this were on the front page of the NY Times? Different times, same general principal. Ain't no such thing as "off the record."

Moving on, conferences. Without a doubt, the model of conferences where the panel is presumed to be the "experts" and the audience the "students" is outmoded. In tech and in marketing, the two arenas where I have spent most of my professional career, the audience often knows as much, or more, than the panelists. I've written about this here a bit, and it was one of the inspirations for the Room of Your Own proposal for Business Blogging currently under consideration for BlogHer 06. Our idea is that the panelists are there to kick off the discussion, but in fact the entire audience is the panel, and an active part in building our takeaway "best practices" for business bloggers.

This week,  some smart bloggers asked some great questions about the "conference issue:"

• Kent Newsome, This is not the summer camp I remember
• Christopher Carfi, On The Conference Thing: Etech, SXSW, Unconferences and Monocultures

And if you haven't figured it out yet, Elisa Camahort brings it home: BlogHer is the conference that takes a truly different approach. See you there in July.

In the category of smart business advice:

• PR Squared has a series of three posts of "bad advice" about customer references which of course are excellent advice for PR and MarCom pros. Here they are:  one, two, three
• Converstations gives some great advice on how to best write your posts in A Blog Posting Mantra.
• And Jill Konrath has some great advice on thinking like your customer.

In the news:

• Boing Boing continues its campaign against Smart Filter
• Google settles a click fraud case. I remember asking an SEO rep about click fraud about a year ago. "Not a big problem," she said. Yeah right.

And finally, if you stuck this post out this long, you deserve some fun. Don't miss this clip on trendspotting from the Daily Show. Thanks to Small Business Trends for the link.

Tags: Edelman, Wal-Mart, PR, Public Relations, blogger relations, BlogHer, conferences

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Posted @ 8:03AM in Blogging, BlogHer, BlogHer06, Fake/Fictional Blogs, Humour, Marketing, PR | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Feb 25, 2006

Spam and Porn and BlogHer

So today is apparently not my day. I got a notice from a blog search engine (FINDINGBLOG) that two of the blogs I write were rejected because:

Your submission is not compatible with our listing policy because:

(1) it is not a human-maintained blog, or

(2) it is a product-selling blog or a sign post for another website, or

(3) it contains sexually offensive materials.

Now, last I looked, I WAS a human, I don't sell anything on my blog, and except for the occasional expletive, you'd rate my blog "G." Now I know how all those sites that were "Blocked by Cyber Patrol"  must have felt. Anyway, I suspect they automatically rejected me because I use RSS Submit, rather than manually doing my submissions. So it goes. Probably not the best policy on their part, but their prerogative.

Then I went and posted some additional information on the BlogHer site about the Room of Your Own that I've proposed for BlogHer and apparently I did something wrong there too, because they are holding my comment as "potential spam, to be reviewed by a site admin." I think I forgot to put a subject on the post, cause the content was pretty straightforward. I wanted to let folks know who had committed to attending the session, if we are lucky enough to be one of the final six.

Not to leave you in suspense, the other marketers (in addition to me) who've agreed to participate and kick off the session with their stories are Debbie Weil from BlogWrite for CEOs and Toby Bloomberg from Diva Marketing. Plus one or two others who haven't yet finalized BlogHer plans,but once they do, I'll let you know. And remember, we are just there to kick off the conversation. If we are selected, my hope is that this collective Room produces a set of tips/best blog practices to help us all be better bloggers for our businesses and our clients.

To be fair, I am sure the post on the BlogHer site will be approved once someone logs on. It was just my day to be blocked I guess.

UPDATE 26 Feb: I heard from the BlogHer folks today. Apparently, there was an issue with a spam filter -- which was pretty much what I had figured, having worked for web and email filtering companies for 10 years.

Also heard from the FINDINGBLOG folks. I'll let the complete email trail speak for itself.

My query:

I'm curious about your criteria. A blog I write (Marketing Roadmaps at getgood.typepad.com) was just rejected for listing with you for the following reasons:

(1) it is not a human-maintained blog, or

(2) it is a product-selling blog or a sign post for another website, or

(3) it contains sexually offensive materials.

None of which are true, which your editors would have seen had anyone actually visited or read the blog.

So, just wondering what the deal is. I plan to blog this and I'd like to have the facts straight.

Thanks

Susan

The reply:

hi,

i'd like to clarify one thing before continuing conversation further:

did you use any automatic submission software to submit your blog?

if you did, what software did you use?

My answer:

Yes I use RSS Submit, so if you automatically reject anyone who uses automatic submission software, that would explain it.

Doesn’t make sense, given that many of us use such tools, but certainly your prerogative.

Regards

Susan

Which apparently they did not receive because I got another email today:

Not having heard from you yet, I assume you did use some sort of automatic

submission tool to submit your blog to us.  Correct me if my assumption is wrong.

Our editors volunteered to help us review each blog submission manually.

If you don't want to spare your time to submit your blog to our directory on your own, there is no reason we want to spare our precious time to review your automatic submission either.

WOW. I sent a final reply:

I actually did reply right away, and told you that I used RSS Submit, so if you automatically reject any submissions made by automatic tools, that would explain it.

It is certainly your prerogative to make that decision, but you might want to consider telling people that’s the reason. Telling them that they are not human or that their blog contains porn is not so great.

Best regards,

Susan

**********************************************

And that’s all I have to say on the subject.

Posted @ 9:02PM in Blogging, BlogHer06 | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Feb 21, 2006

BlogHer: More about the Room of Your Own Proposal

Elisa Camahort has posted the candidates for the Room of Your Own slots at BlogHer this July so I thought I'd give a little more detail about the Business Blogging session I've proposed.

We've all gone to conferences where much of the audience is just as qualified (sadly sometimes more) as the panel of experts. But very little time is actually given for interaction between the panel and the audience. Usually, there is time for one or two questions, and that's it. Not very satisfying for anyone really, but especially the audience -- at least the panelists get the professional recognition for being on the panel.

The other problem (one that is handsomely addressed by BlogHer) is that all the conferences start to blend together -- the same speakers seem to hop from one to the next, presenting pretty much the same material. Interesting the first time perhaps, but not so much the 2d, 3d, 4th time you attend a conference with the same players. And the same topics. Not really worth attending the sessions when you could save the airfare and read the same material on their blog or in their book.

Now, sessions aren't the only reason for attending conferences -- networking is a big part of why we go as well. For my part though, I really need to find value in both the conference program and the networking opportunities. It's too expensive, both in hard cost and time away from billable work, to attend otherwise.

Hence the idea for a business blogging session that makes the audience members part of the panel. The focus is on "what worked, what didn't" in your blog projects. What would you do again? What will you NEVER do again? We'll learn from each other's experiences to collectively build a set of blogging best practices.

A few folks will be identified in advance to kick off our discussion, however, the only difference between them and the rest of the people in the room is that they will have PROMISED to have something to share. Everyone in the room will have an equal chance to participate.

And that is the key word: Participate. We won't have presentations or speeches. To the extent we can, we'll post brief descriptions of the blogs that people want to discuss on the BlogHer site in advance so we don't have to spend a lot of time bringing everyone up to speed on what a blog was all about. That way, we can focus on the discussion, not a ton of exposition.

I think this will be a lot of fun and look forward to reading your comments, either here or at the BlogHer site.

Posted @ 9:02AM in Blogging, BlogHer, BlogHer06, Business Management, Marketing | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Jan 13, 2006

Going to BlogHer 06

I plan ahead. Way ahead. Especially when I really want to do something. So, I've made my travel plans for BlogHer 06 this July.

Conference is being held at the San Jose Hyatt, July 28-29, 2006. The BlogHer team negotiated a great hotel rate of $75.00 per night, so don't wait too long to book your room.

Hope to see you there!

Posted @ 9:01AM in BlogHer06 | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Aug 11, 2005

blogher observations

Rather than do a blow-by-blow of blogher, I’m going to make some general observations, and share my main take-aways from the day.

And, before you read any further, let me be completely clear – I have no criticisms whatsoever about the blogher conference AT ALL. Lisa, Elisa and Jory, all their volunteers, helpers, and sponsors, panelists and attendees – everyone did a great job. It was one of the best conferences I have ever attended, although I could have done without the "opera" at Nicolino’s.

I do however have some observations that I would like to share that perhaps will help us improve future events.

Conference program. One of the things I liked about blogher was the highly participatory format of the sessions. It really worked for most of the sessions.

The message was clear from the outset; the organizers felt that everyone in attendance could just as equally be on a panel as those sitting in the panel seats. The main difference was that the panelists had a unique experience to share with their peers. And, by and large, I think this was true of the blogher audience. Everyone I spoke to was pretty knowledgeable.

The participatory format really works well when the topic is issue-oriented, and diversity of opinion, of panelists and attendess, creates an energetic session.

Here’s the BUT:

Where I think the participatory format falls down (and in general btw,  not just re: blogher) is when the intent of a session is to teach new skills or new materials. Under these circumstances, I think a more traditional presentation “teaching” format works better.  That’s not to say that the audience shouldn’t be involved, but in a much more structured format that educates as it engages.

My take: anything that needs to convey new skills, and especially anything for newbies, should use a more traditional presentation model, so the attendees walk away with the new skill. As long as the overall agenda strikes the right balance, and offers a mix of session types – skills, issues, debates, birds of a feather – we can keep the conference from turning into death by powerpoint.

Second comment. Of all the sessions I attended, the only one I was a bit disappointed with was the closing session. I really liked the idea that Lisa, Elisa and Jory put forth at the beginning of the day, that the closing session would build the mother of all to-do lists. In practice, however, I think the group was too large to effectively do this. In my opinion (and YMMV), a number of the comments sounded more like folks waxing philosophical than actual concrete suggestions. Almost like the person really had something they needed/wanted to say, and they hadn’t yet had their moment in the sun. What they said wasn’t necessarily bad or uninteresting. It just wasn’t a concrete action. Hence my disappointment.

Not all the comments were like that – there were some good concrete suggestions. One that springs immediately to mind without even looking at my notes is Mary Hodder’s suggestion for a “speaker’s bureau,” which has already been executed as a speaker's wiki.

But I didn’t feel like we walked away with a collective to-do list as much as individuals quietly left with theirs.

Now, one should never make a criticism without a suggestion, so here’s mine. Next blogher, the session before the closing session could be small group sessions. Perhaps organized in advance by interest area, but with a specific goal in mind – to walk into the closing session with at least one to-do to present to the assembled group. Each designated spokesperson would get a few minutes to present the group’s to-do and the ensuing discussion could be focused on agreeing a final, blogher to-do list.

With a group that large, I just think you have to focus the discussion and give everyone a chance to have their say beforehand.

Next post … speaking of personal to-do lists, I’ll share a few things that are on mine after blogher.

Posted @ 9:08PM in BlogHer, BlogHer06 | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)