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Nov 8, 2007

Intuit Just Start pulls into South Station Tuesday November 13th

Intuit, the publisher of the popular QuickBooks software, has taken its show on the road for the past month, holding two day events in NY, Chicago and Seattle to encourage entrepereneurs to just get started.

The campaign pulls into Boston's South Station next Tuesday and Wednesday.

At the events, entrepreneurs can get business, software and marketing advice from experts.  There's also a contest which will award $50K in cash and resources to a lucky business owner;  visit IWillJustStart.com for contest details.

I'll be there on Tuesday November 13th  from 11am-6pm to provide online marketing advice. Drop by if you are in the area.

You can also get a free copy of QuickBooks Simple Start financial software, if the opportunity to see me in person isn't enough of a draw :-)

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Posted @ 5:11PM in Marketing, Web Marketing | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Aug 30, 2007

Getting Web site development right

Two of the most popular search terms for this blog are "b2b website" and "corporate websites suck." The second due to a 2005 post called Why Corporate Websites Suck and some ideas for fixing them.

But, as I was writing a memo about site development for a client, I realized that I haven't written about Web development here in quite some time. Since people seem to be coming here for just that sort of information, seems like I should rectify that :-)

So here's a step by step outline that covers the most important part of the process: defining the requirements and navigation for the site. I strongly believe that you must have a clear picture of the path(s) you want your visitors to take through your site, to get to the desired result, before you commit one line of code or design a single page.

These are the steps I follow. Every time. New site or redesign.

1. Assemble a team that represents the key stakeholders in the site. You do not need every individual, but you do want to be sure that the representatives are truly cross-functional. In some cases, you will want someone from the actual business area. In others, it may be more effective to have members of your team interview the relevant people. Some of the functions that should be included are sales,  marketing, business development, communications and customer service.

I do not recommend having the Web designers or developers too involved in this stage. You want to keep the discussion at a business level until you have a solid idea of what is needed across the company. Developers often get too wrapped up in how to do something rather than what is necessary, which should be the focus early in the process. Involving developers too early also can steer the discussion toward what the developers can do easily rather than what the company really wants. Later, when you get to the development stage, you may make concessions due to cost or complexity but it is too limiting and undermines creativity to start this way.

2. Once the team is assembled, the first order of priority is to identify the objectives for the Web site. These objectives should be closely aligned with your overall business goals. Some of the questions to ask:
a. Who are you trying to reach?
b. Why?
c. What do you want to tell them?
d. What do you want them to do once they are at the site?
e. What are the priorities of the business now and for the next three years?

It is helpful to pull the web stats from the existing site to better understand what your site visitors are doing. What areas get the most traffic? What are people coming to your site to see and do? It’s okay to let the team refer to areas on the current site that they feel need to be kept or improved, but don’t let them get bogged down in what they don’t like or think does not work. The point of this work is to develop a specification for the new site; rehashing previous decisions, good or bad, is not useful and slows down the process.

You are going to have multiple audiences and multiple objectives – everything from sales to customer service to media outreach to things very specific to your business plan. This is exactly what you want at this stage.

3. Next, you determine priorities. Of all the objectives identified in the previous stage, three, maybe four, will be critical to your overall business objectives. These are the priorities and the elements that should get attention on the highly valued “real estate” of your home page. For the most part, everything else can go on inside pages. Typically, the core priorities fall into these buckets:
* Identify product set and market segments so visitors know they are in the right place;
* Communicate key company news/events/messages to constituents;
* Purchase;
* Customer service.

4. The team should then discuss content. Starting with the existing content. What stays/goes? What should be improved? What new sections do we need? What data do we need to capture from our visitors? How will we let people search our site? Keep the team focused on the desired result, not the technology that might be used to get there. And don’t worry about writing the content yet; that comes later.

5. One or two team members should be deputized at this stage to develop a straw man home page, home page navigation and inside navigation. Their job is to synthesize all the discussions into a cohesive navigation. You still should not be thinking about design or functionality. Keep thinking content. The key questions:
a. What action do we want or expect to visitor to take?
b. How can we drive the visitor through our site to accomplish our priority business and site objectives?

As mentioned above, you need to stay focused on the visitor. How does she use the site? What did she come for? Every click should move the visitor forward to accomplish her objective. The goal as we develop navigation is to ensure that she is never more than one click away from the next thing she wants.

This is just about the most important part of the process: Making sure you have defined a clear path through your site for your users so they get what they came for.

Never assume that the visitor will figure it out. If you want him to do something, make that the attractive option. If he wants to buy something, make sure he can do it easily and quickly.

So, if we sold apples, our home page would make it clear we sold apples, and perhaps the range of varieties. Within one click, the visitor could get more information on the specific varieties (product page). One more click gets him to the order page, or perhaps the dealer search page if we don’t sell direct.

We can offer more information about our apples, but we have to make the desired path crystal clear. Otherwise our visitors get lost.

Typically, the home page has its own navigation, and the inside pages have two levels of navigation: a top line navigation which contains all the items that are common throughout the site, and not that different from the home page navigation, and a side navigation, which contains all the navigation items for the specific section of the site.

6. Once you have your straw man, the team reviews it and the straw man is adjusted accordingly based on feedback. Continue the review and revise process until you have a defined home page and navigation that meets the approval of your key team. This should all still be in outline and very rough graphic form “FPO.”

Now it is time to involve the Web developers and designers.Whether you are putting the project out to bid or using an inside development team, I always recommend that the marketing team and key stakeholders get a clear picture of what they really want from the Web site before involving the techs.

I also stay away from delivering a “spec” to the Web team in the first pass. I find it more useful to present what the site needs to achieve from a business and customer perspective to see how the vendor(s) respond. You may discover that some of the things that you’d like to have require more funds than you have budgeted. This is where the priorities developed earlier come in so handy. The budget needs to deliver the priorities first, and the “nice to haves” come after.

The goal is to develop a scope of work that delivers as much of your core needs as can be accomplished, along with a plan to incorporate any additional elements as time and budget permit.

7. You then move into the development stage of your site which typically will have three main areas: Design, Development and Editorial. Your Web developer will probably offer both Design and Development (functionality, coding) services. Editorial, ie writing the site, is best project managed by someone in-house using a combination of internal and external resources. If you spend the time upfront as I've outlined, the actual development project will be far simpler and smoother than you perhaps have experienced in the past.

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Posted @ 9:08AM in Marketing, Web Marketing, Web/Tech | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Aug 18, 2006

Summertime

"Summertime and the livin' is easy,
Fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high.
Oh your daddy's rich, and your ma is good lookin',
So hush, little baby, don' yo' cry.

One of these mornin's you goin' to rise up singin',
Then you'll spread yo' wings an' you'll take the sky.
But till that mornin', there's a-nothin' can harm you
With Daddy and Mammy standin' by."
(Summertime, from Porgy and Bess, Gershwin, Heyward and Gershwin)

This past week has been pretty busy, and I really didn't have all that much to say, so the blog went a bit silent. Lots of client work right now, so this state of affairs may continue until Labor Day, with maybe one post per week. Never fear, though, I will be back come September ...

I did want to share one truly amazing thing that happened last weekend. I took my mother and son up to Boothbay Harbor Maine for a long weekend (while my husband enjoyed his two-day golf school at home). Boothbay Harbor  is a lovely place, and I highly recommend it. But that's not the amazing thing.

We were eating our lunch outside on the 2d floor deck at this small cafe. Unbeknownst to us, the deck was actually over the water. My son was playing with a couple of plastic cars he had just bought, with his own money, when one rolled off the table, off the deck and into the drink. He was pretty upset and no amount of telling him that we could go buy another one would console him.

Here's the amazing part.

A man at an adjoining table who had just finished his lunch asked if the car was still floating, When Douglas replied Yes, the man proceeded to go down on the dock, asked the manager of an adjoining restaurant if he could borrow their little row boat, poled over to the car and retrieved it.

There is a lot of unpleasantness in the world. And occasionally an unexpected act of kindness like this that restores your faith. Whoever, wherever you are, thanks again. You made our day.

----------------------

Shel Holtz has assembled the thinking from a number of folks this week about blog monitoring on a list at the New PR wiki. Check it out. Add your own thoughts.

Lots of people commenting on Google's nastygrams about the use of its trademark "Google" as a generic. I expect Google knows it can’t prevent the use of “Google” as a generic, but they have to make these efforts to defend the trademark to keep it from passing *legally* into the generic. If it does that — becomes a legal generic — the word could be used inside someone else’s product name, and Google’s brand value literally stolen. You cannot trademark a generic term. Robert Scoble gave the best example: Google wouldn't want to see a new product called "Microsoft Google," would they?

So they make these “good faith” efforts to defend the trademark against improper use. They have to use the proper legal language and so on to make the case strong that they defended the mark in case they ever need it in a full-blown trademark defense. No wishy washy or nudge nudge wink wink letters.

I doubt they really want to prevail and stifle the word of mouth branding they get when we talk about "Googling" something. Think about it, the only way to “win” this battle is to lose the dominant market position so that you no longer define the market. I haven’t heard the term ‘Xerox’ in reference to photocopies in a long time. But ‘Kleenex’ for ’tissue’ is still going strong. Did Xerox do a better job than Kimberly-Clark defending the mark and getting us to switch to the actual generic term ‘photocopy’? Doubt it. Reality is: Xerox no longer defines the market for copiers, so the mark no longer works as well as a generic.

It is quite schizophrenic really — you achieve the goal of becoming the definition of the segment, and then you have to spend time and money preventing people from using you as the definition of the segment. Catch-22.

I’m sure Google would rather be Kleenex than Xerox.

(Some of these Google thoughts were originally posted as comments on Sherrilynne Starkie and Neville Hobson's blogs.)

Oh, and the lyrics at the beginning of this post? I Googled 'em.

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Posted @ 6:08PM in Blogging, Douglas/Dogs, PR, Web Marketing | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Jun 16, 2006

No more 2.0

After 20 years in high tech, most of them in the software industry, I have definitely internalized the concept of versioning. It's one of the reasons I dislike the term Web 2.0. In a software release, a major release - signified by a number to the LEFT of the decimal - means new/enhanced features. While I suppose that's true of the tools and services that are being lumped into the Web 2.0 label, it also means something finished. And that isn't true of the Web.

I'm going to start using the terminology Doc Searls used in the presentation I saw at Syndicate -- Static Web and Live Web. In Doc's construct the Static Web, we consumed information from Web sites. Yes, the Web was connected, but most of us were passive users of sites developed by others for  information, enjoyment and commerce. In the Live Web, we are all producers -- of blogs, podcasts, vlogs. Even Web sites. And the connections are alive, influenced by the audience as well as the original creator. There is no "audience" per se -- we all are simultaneously audience and creator. How are we building this Live Web? With social media tools like blogs and tags and wikis and photo sharing tools and podcasts and so on. But these are all just tools that facilitate the connection. The secret sauce? It's people talking to and learning from one another.

So, Hell no, no more Web 2.0 for me. I'm going with Live Web and social media.

And before I forget, the term "PR 2.0" must go too. For similar reasons. The fundamental practice of PR is still the same as it ever was -- it's all about connections and information and relationships. The tools are just how we accomplish the work. They are NOT the work.

And please don't get me wrong -- I LOVE these new tools. But I don't think they are the be-all and end-all. They are just tools. Learn how to use them, they'll make your life and work easier. Better even. But we have to get the fundamentals right first. Otherwise, it's like putting lipstick on a pig. You know -- it's still a pig. Crappy press releases will still be crappy, even if they have del.icio.us pages. Poor pitches aren't better because they use tags. Blasting a press release to a big list without bothering to verify the list or the interest of the recipients is still borderline spam.

All of this focus on tools reminds me somewhat of a phenomenon from the distant, pre-Internet past. Most of my career, I have been responsible for lead generation at the companies I worked at. One of the hardest jobs is lead tracking -- knowing where the leads came from so we can allocate marketing dollars appropriately.Why so hard? Because we rarely have the tools to capture the information we need. Way back when, the top lead source reported by reps nearly everywhere I worked was "Phone." Apparently, it was too damn hard to find out the actual impetus for the inbound call. My response? "Tell them to try and find out or we'll just spend the marketing budget on new phones and be done with it. No ads. No direct mail. No trade shows. "

Now, the new top lead source tends to be "Internet." Yup, same basic problem. Confusing the tool with the motivation.

We do the same thing when we focus on the social media tools we use in communications and forget about the fundamentals. I've had some back and forth with Todd Defren from SHIFT about his social media press release, both here and on his blog PR-Squared. I don't dislike the format, but I do think it, like the focus on the term PR 2.0, may have unintended, unfortunate consequences.

 In our recent exchanges on his blog and in email, we've agreed to try and pull together some sort of panel or workshop or something (wine dinner? Parmet?)  to pull together all these threads and hopefully move the conversation forward. 

But it won't be called 2.0 anything. Trust me :-)

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Posted @ 5:06PM in Blogging, Marketing, PR, Web Marketing | Comments (2) | TrackBack (1)

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.

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

May 7, 2006

Defying Gravity: Women Bloggers

"I'm through accepting limits

'cuz someone says they're so

Some things I cannot change

But till I try I'll never know"

- Defying Gravity, from Wicked

Last night, my husband and I saw Wicked at Boston's Opera House. The play (and the book it is based on) are wonderful, but the theme that really resonated for me was the friendship between the Wicked Witch and Glinda.

This is a busy week, so the blog will be pretty quiet. But tonight, I want to tell you about some "wicked" women bloggers who I truly value. In no particular order:

Toby Bloomberg, Diva Marketing. Toby was one of the first bloggers to welcome me into the blogosphere, and I continue to value her business and marketing blog perspective.

Yvonne DiVita, Lip-sticking. Yvonne is a pioneer in the field of marketing to women online. She is also one of the most delightful and genuine people I have ever met.

Toby,Yvonne and I will be facilitating a business blogging "unpanel" at BlogHer this July. Come and share your blog marketing experiences.

Elisa Camahort. I met Elisa when I submitted a speaking proposal for the first BlogHer conference last year. I was, and still am, totally impressed what she and her BlogHer partners Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardins have achieved with the BlogHer conference.

Kami Huyse. I virtually met Kami (and Andrea Weckerle) as a result of a notorious PR character blog. Kami is passionate about the practice of public relations, and her blog is full of information that helps us all be better communicators and professionals.

Andrea Weckerle. Andrea is one of the "quiet ones." You know, the folks who you think/know are totally serious and then they surprise you with another side of their personality. I'm still laughing at some of the content she and Bill Green came up with when they subbed for Scott Baradell at the Media Orchard. Andrea cares, and she uses her blog to make a difference.

Elizabeth Albrycht. Elizabeth is a fellow Corante blogger. Her background is strong and rich in PR practice, but currently she is working toward her Masters. As a result, her blog tends to have a more intellectual/theoretical bent. And we all benefit from her perspective. Down in the dog eat dog trenches, it is nice to spend a few moments every now and then on why.

Mary Schmidt. There are no words sufficient to describe Mary. Seriously. Mary is also a Corante blogger, and her perspective on marketing (and particularly customer service) is spot on. Even if you are already reading tons of marketing blogs. Frank. Honest. On your side. Friday Martinis. That is Mary. I'm glad she's on my side.

In fact, I am glad that all of these wicked, wonderful women bloggers are on my side, and am glad to call them friends. As my regular readers know, the label "friend" means a lot to me.

"Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

I do believe I have been changed for the better

And because I knew you...

Because I knew you...

Because I knew you... I have been changed for good."

- For Good, from Wicked

PS: There are a lot of great male bloggers on my reading list too. But tonight it is all about the wicked women bloggers. Take no offense!

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Posted @ 9:05PM in Blogging, BlogHer, Business Management, Marketing, PR, Web Marketing | Comments (9) | TrackBack (1)

Feb 23, 2006

More on the Changing Nature of Blogs

Yesterday, I shared my list of collected posts about the changing nature of blogs. I’ve been thinking quite a lot about this lately as I prepare for a business blogging workshop at the University of Wisconsin next month.

Here’s the definition of blogs that I usually give in this workshop:

In the simplest terms, a blog is nothing more than a website developed using a lightweight content management system like Movable Type, Blogger, or Word Press. The things that most clearly identify a site as a blog are:

  • Content presented in reverse chronological order;
  • Ability for readers to leave public comments;
  • Links in/out from/to other sites and blogs using a ping called a trackback.
  • An RSS feed

Now, not all blogs have all of these things, but by and large, most will.

For the most part, this definition is still okay. But more and more blogs are moderating comments, or taking/leaving them off altogether.   And underlying the whole concept of comments is an assumption that the blogger will respond to the comment, but many say this doesn’t scale when a blogger regularly gets lots of comments. Probably true, but what to do….

When is a blog, not a blog? Or is the definition changing?

As Elizabeth Albrycht discussed in her post, is the definition changing as companies adopt blogging as part of the marketing/business plan? And by this I mean a company actively developing and using a blog to advance its business interests, versus the collateral effect that happens when employees blog and add value to the brand. GM is a company actively blogging as part of the business plan. Microsoft is a company that gets benefit from its employee bloggers.

Another underlying assumption about blogs is transparency. But it is guaranteed that NO company can have the same degree of transparency as an individual blogging about her life or his hobbies. They can be honest about the business and clear about their motives, but they cannot, should not, reveal ALL. Is it still a blog?

What about the blog empires of Gawker Media and Weblogs Inc. These are more like magazines than personal journals. How do they REALLY differ from a Web 1.0 site?

One of the fallacies of blogging is that it brings us all closer. Well yeah sort of but not really. We read a blog and feel we know the writer, not unlike the kinship we feel for celebrities because we read about them in People at the hair salon. But we don’t really know these folks, unless we actually engage in conversation with them. Sure, you CAN build robust, lasting friendships in the virtual world, but for the most part, the closest we really are is acquaintances.

So here’s what I think (Ta Duh). The definition of blog that I’ve been using is fine as it is. But the nature of blogs is definitely changing. And the change isn’t driven by whether it is a company blogging versus a person, as much as it is by VOLUME.

In the long tail, where I happily live, volume is low, and I have the luxury of being able to respond to comments, both privately and on the blog. I hazard a guess that the same would be true of a company in a niche market with a very targeted blog. They could still have a two-way conversation on the blog with customers and other stakeholders. 

But when the volumes rise (circulation and inbound comments alike), blogs seem to become more like magazines. Comments disappear. The communication becomes much more uni-directional – blogger out, with little response to comments. If they still have them, comments are more like the Letter to the Editor in the newspaper. The blog may even add multiple authors, versus the “one guy” it started with. The voice of the blog may get a little muddled, whether one author or many, and it is ever harder to find the point of view.

The blog may still look like a blog, but it quacks like a magazine.

None of this is a bad thing, per se. But it is different, and to some degree, challenges some of the underlying expectations we have about blogging.

As I say in the workshop:

  • Blogs are conversations, not speeches. Specifically, bloggers write about, and link to, other bloggers’ ideas. And they create space on their blog for readers to participate – to comment on the action.
  • Blogs should be authentic and transparent. There are many different interpretations of what these terms mean, and if we delved too deeply into that philosophical debate, we’d never get to the rest of our session. To net it down, some purists want bloggers to be real people, blogging about their experiences, with “everything” out there for the reader to know. Others put a more pragmatic definition on this, as I do, requiring honesty with the reader. Be clear about your intentions, and never lie. But we draw the line at complete transparency as it is actually impossible to achieve, whether you are an individual or a company.
  • Blogs are not overtly commercial – This is inherited from the open source nature of the Internet, and is not that difference from the deep sigh that erupted from academia when the Web went commercial after being a bastion of academia and sharing. But blogs do have a point of view. And as more and more companies adopt blogging as part of their marketing strategy, there is an acceptance that blogs can be used to build brands and create interest in products. No one seems to mind, as long as the blog is also providing entertainment, information and value beyond the sale. 

I don’t have an answer… In fact I doubt there is a single “right”  answer to this conundrum: the more popular a blog gets, the less like a blog it may "feel." However, it something we need to be aware of when we consider adding blogs to our marketing mix.

Posted @ 8:02PM in Blogging, Marketing, Web Marketing | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

Feb 17, 2006

The A-list Train Wreck

If you’re interested in the whole A-list debate, and I’m mostly not, but it’s like a train wreck (you know you shouldn’t look but you just can’t help it), you can find more chatter – some civil, some not so much – all over the place. Mostly set off by the New York article this week.

Now, why we expect the blogosphere to be any different than society at large, I do not know. We have social and business strata in the real world; it is inevitable in the blogosphere as well. Technology changes. Human nature doesn’t. An A-list is inevitable, ephemeral and it is damn hard work to get and stay on “it.” Not to mention the big bullseye on your back once you get there.

Some A-list blogs are great. And on the other hand, some of the best blogging is being done in the long tail, not in the Technorati 100. That is just the way it is.

Now, some things still piss me off from time to time. Not the fact of an A-list or the concerns of those in the long tail -- but the attitudes that occasionally go along with BOTH. So I can’t promise to never talk about it again, but not right now.

Because as Vamp!Willow said in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: “Bored now.”

But if you’re not, and want to watch the train wreck, here are some blogs to check out. Links are to posts on the blogs related to the topic.

Beyond Madison Avenue
Blogging for Business
gapingvoid, Two posts of interest here and here
Seth Finkelstein, InfoThought
Media Orchard (while we are at it, kudos to Scott Baradell for having the right idea about Dr. Myra  from the get-go. More another day on why more bloggers didn’t “join the charge.”)
Micro Persuasion   
Naked Conversations
Newsome.org – multiple posts in the last few days Just check out his blog, it is pretty good!
Scobleizer

For my part, I just try to write an interesting blog that I and my readers will enjoy. Some days I hit it, some I don’t. I couldn’t tell you exactly how many readers I have, because I don’t track it obsessively. But I do know they are some of the greatest people I’ve ever “met” from the great comments and trackbacks I’ve had over the 15 or so months I’ve been blogging. 

Marketing 101: it isn’t about reaching the MOST people. It’s about reaching the RIGHT people.

Think about that.

Posted @ 9:02PM in Blogging, Marketing, Web Marketing | Comments (4) | TrackBack (1)

Feb 1, 2006

Roadmaps Round-up: a bit of everything

Tonight my three seven-week old Scottie puppies have decided to WAKE UP at 9 pm. I would post pictures but they won’t pose :-(  Maybe tomorrow.

Lot of interesting stuff this week. I’ll start with Robert Scoble’s post about bloggers clearly posting their contact details. While I draw the line at birthdate (TMI), I agree that site owners should publish contact information, whether blog, LiveJournal or  Web site. If you are worried about spam, there are enough email services (gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc) that you don’t have to expose your main email address.

I ran into this problem a lot in the last week as I started fan outreach for the HP Charity Auction. I have very specific rules about how this outreach is done: individually, and only to fansites or blogs that have recently been updated. We want to be sure that hearing about the auction truly is of interest to the site owner and readers. We also NEVER post directly to forums or bulletin boards. Which makes finding a valid email address or contact link really important. For the most part, this is pretty easy. But in some cases, I have to walk away from a site that probably would really like to know that a certain star’s photo is part of the auction because I just can’t find an email address. And that’s a shame.

The lesson for marketers? Make sure your prospects can easily find an email address on your site or blog. It’s probably the most important thing on your site.

Moving on. Fred Wilson on Web. 2.0 is an oxymoron.  Fred, as he so often does, has it dead to rights.  Calling “it” Web 2.0 implies something static (and something that can be hyped, yuck). The reality is, this “stuff” is constantly evolving. Labels just don’t work. Let’s move on.

Speaking of labels, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the latest “a-list” dust-up. You wanna know more – read Media Orchard, Naked Conversations and Beyond Madison Avenue. I am personally pretty much done with the topic. Not on it. Don’t care.

In the practical tips category, both Blog Business World and ProBlogger talked about Andy Wibbels’ blog editorial calendar. I haven’t used this particular tool, but I am a strong believer in an editorial calendar for business blogs, and most particularly group blogs. You have an objective for the effort, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it. An editorial calendar ensures that the important topics are covered. Not as big a deal with an individual blog but I find that I follow something like a calendar anyway. In any given week, at least one post is a round-up (like this one), one is original content and the third (on a good week) is a toss-up between the two. Or I post a picture of the dogs or the kid :-)

If you don’t already read Jay Rosen’s PressThink, you should check out this post Guest Writer Andrew Postman: Introduction to the 20th Anniversary Edition of Amusing Ourselves to Death by His Dad, Neil Postman. There is an absolutely wonderful “easter egg” in Jay’s post. (Hint: click on Andrew Postman’s name – it’s not a link to his bio). And no cheating – I’m not going to put the link here – you have to go to the original. It’s that good. And not just for the “easter egg” – read the whole thing. It will make you think.

Speaking of thinking, a blog I am enjoying (and I don’t even remember where I got the first link to it) Dave Rogers’ Groundhog Day. One recent post: Competing Messages: Getting Your Cluetrain™ Ticket Punched. He concludes the post:

“As always, I'm an authority on nothing. I make all this shit up. Do your own thinking”

Yup. That’s a philosophy I can get behind :-)

Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Marketing, Web Marketing, Sundance

Posted @ 10:02PM in Blogging, Marketing, Sundance, Web Marketing | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jan 18, 2006

Humourous Web 2.0 link

A new friend sent me a very very funny Web 2.0 link... but before you click, please read the warning:

I think this is funny. BUT: It also has strong language and descriptive imagery. Some may find it offensive. It is probably not work-safe and my former employer's software likely would have blocked it. If you take this Web 2.0 stuff really seriously, you definitely won't like it.

You have been warned.

Web 2.0 link

Posted @ 9:01AM in Web Marketing | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jan 16, 2006

More Web 2.0

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one confused/concerned (previous posts 1 and 2) about the term Web 2.0.

Tris Hussey points to an exchange between Jeneane Sessum (for) and Halley Suitt (against), and comes down on the for side.

If I have to pick, I'm still against. And not so much against the ideas as I am the hype potential.

It's not that I don't understand the concepts that are being included under the Web 2.0 term. Or even disagree that many of the changes in the online world that have and are occuring as a result of "social media" are as revolutionary as they are evolutionary.

I just have an inherent dislike of labels. I also see too much old-style jockeying for position, influence and prestige (A-list anyone?) to believe that companies won't use this label to hype products that really aren't revolutionary or even evolutionary. Things have changed, but not as much as (yes) the hype would have us believe.

Posted @ 2:01PM in Marketing, Web Marketing, Web/Tech | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Dec 27, 2005

Grab bag: Web 2.0

As many of you know, I am confused about this Web 2.0 thing. I get that the Internet is evolving and social media have really changed the landscape, but do we really need a version number ?

Here are some more opinions for your reading pleasure:

Amy Gahran, Contentious: What is This “Web 2.0″ Thing, Anyway?

Creating Passionate Users, Have you updated your buzzwords?  (tip of the hat to Emergence Marketing for the link)

Stowe Boyd, Traitors in our midst: Web 2.0 anti-hype (thanks to gapingvoid for the link)

Posted @ 7:12PM in Blogging, Web Marketing | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Sep 8, 2005

Blogging workshop & Anonymous Blogging

Yesterday I did my first "To Blog or Not to Blog" workshop for a PR agency in NYC. It went quite well from all reports (whew!). The workshop is about 3-3.5 hours long, and basically covers Blogging 101 and how blogs and new media fit into the marketing communications plan.

What I'd like to do is convert this into an ongoing product, and the idea I have is a full day workshop, with the first half of the day devoted to Blogging 101, for up to 15 students, and the second part of the day  (one or two) two-hour hands-on workshop(s) for no more than 5-6 students to actually go through the exercise of evaluating a blog as part of the specific MarCom plan for a company, and then developing the mission and plan for the blog. In effect, teaching my students how to fish.

I think this would be very useful for mid-size companies and PR/marketing agencies who want to get into blogging, but just don't know where to start. I would love your feedback on the idea, and referrals of interested companies would be even better :-)

Okay. Shameless self promotion period is now over.

My next topic is anonymous blogs. During yesterday's workshop, one of the students asked about the credibility of anonymous blogs. Basically, she asked, how can an anonymous blog be a credible source of information?

The answer to this truly has multiple layers. It is of course the reader who makes a determination about credibilty, and that's true whether the blog is anonymous or not.

Am I going to trust the content of the blog?

We make this determination based in part on "how right" the blogger we are reading has been in the past. We also factor in the nature of the information -- how critical is it that our information be 100 percent correct. Finally, we look for endorsements -- other bloggers we know and trust, trusting this blogger. These things ALL factor into our trust equation whether the blog writer is identified or not.

But is there a difference with anonymous blogs? I think the answer is a resounding YES! If a blog is anonymous, we need additional validation that it is okay to trust this blog. The more critical the issue, the more validation we need. In fact, for some really high stakes issues like our health, there may never be enough validation to trust an anonymous blog. When someone is giving you health advice, you need some solid indices that it is okay to trust them.

Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson have been discussing the issue of anonymous blogs on the last few issues of For Immediate Release -- their comments are well worth listening to.

My take? The nature of the content really dictates whether you will trust an anonymous blogger. If the issue is fairly trivial, like what shoes should I buy for the fall, the fact that Manolo the Shoe Blogger is both anonymous and a character doesn't matter. I just like that Zappos usually gives you expedited shipping even when you order ground.

If the issue at hand is critical, and you are looking for validation, assistance, data to inform your decision, I truly do not believe an anonymous blog can generate adequate trust. You need to know WHO, and I'm not sure if even the sponsorship of a valued, trusted organization is enough to extend that trust to an anonymous blogger for a high stakes decision.

By all means, blog anonymously if you want to share your life and experiences. There are many valid and important reasons why people might want to blog anonymously

But, if you want you opinion to really matter -- if you believe that your opinion on an issue mght make a difference, you really need to step up to the plate and stand for your opinion.

People will want to know who you are.

Posted @ 9:09PM in Blogging, Marketing, PR, Web Marketing, Weblogs | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Jul 7, 2005

Marketing Roadsigns newsletter

Yes, I too have decided to launch a monthly newsletter. Since it will be a companion piece to the Roadmap, it will be called Marketing Roadsigns. You can sign up here on the Roadmap and on my website www.getgood.com

First issue will be sometime this week, and it will be archived on the website.

Update: July 2005 issue posted.

Posted @ 6:07PM in Blogging, Business Management, Customers, Integrated Sales & Marketing, Marketing, PR, Web Marketing | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jul 6, 2005

More on character blogs

Lots of interesting stuff from my blogroll today. I'll start with a comment on the July 4th Hobson & Holtz report.

Early in the show, Shel and Neville discussed a query from a listener, Sebastian Keil. Sebastian has a client, a rental car company, that is considering having a character blogging feature on its corporate blog, where the CEO will also blog. The idea was to have an occasional post from a rental car about where it recently went. Neville and Shel discussed the whole character blog thing at some length, and both agreed that it was not a good idea. You should listen to the show for the whole conversation.

It seemed to me that in the discussion about the character blog aspect (a question of form) they were missing the most important element: WHY the company thought this might be a good idea (the issue of content). Because in the WHY was the clue to perhaps a better idea for the company. I sent the following comment as soon as I got home:

As you both know, I am not at all opposed to character blogs in principle. In this case, however, I agree with you both – a character blog in the voice of a rental car is not the way to go.

My advice: I’d focus on two things Sebastian said about the project, first the WHY: they want a way to show all the ways you can use a rental car, and part of the HOW: they plan to put disposable cameras in the cars for the renters to take the pics that would tell the story.

So – I’d go with a customer blog: put the cameras in the cars, and provide an incentive for the renters to tell their stories. Then you post the best ones in the blog. The incentive could be you’d give everyone who used the camera and provided a brief diary of their trip with a custom digital photo album created from the pix and for the ones you actually use, you could give them a free day or whatever discount makes sense. End of day: you get your stories and you increase customer loyalty in the process.

With this format you could do it as a separate blog or on the blog with the CEO, whichever you preferred.

There is nothing wrong with a character blog. It is just a form. But as marketers, we really should look first to the real voices available to us. Odds are, they will be just as, if not more, compelling. Executives. Employees. Customers. Evangelists.

If after evaluating the real voices, you still believe that a character blog is the best choice, by all means, try it. It could be just the ticket. Just remember: it is hard work to make characters real, believable, compelling and consistent. After all, if it were easy, we could all be best selling novelists or award winning screenwriters. And even the best fictional franchises have been known to "jump the shark." :-)

A character blog isn't a bad idea just because it is a character blog. But it is a bad idea if there's a better way.

Posted @ 6:07PM in Blogging, Fake/Fictional Blogs, Marketing, Web Marketing | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1)

Jun 25, 2005

Stuff and a question

The stuff is just that -- some interesting stuff I have been saving to post on, and haven't had time to blog much lately. I should probably do a link blog, to make it easier to publish these links. Maybe later this summer when I have a minute to breathe.   

From Shel Holtz, two posts about RSS: a plain English guide to RSS and RS huh?

A guest post on Pro-Blogger by Toby Bloomberg on how blogs must earn their keep. (And an aside, it was great to meet Toby and a bunch of other folk at the marketing wonk after yesterday's AMA blog seminar in Boston)

The question is about SEO techniques. I am revamping two, possibly three client websites (cross fingers), to make them SELL not just TELL, and I am curious about some SEO "things."  I am NOT an SEO expert and my clients know that. But I have had a lot of online marketing experience, which does qualify me to some degree to know what's what. So here's my question:

I believe that a well written website that sells not tells should do well in search engines. Yes, you should make the effort to understand the right keywords to incorporate in the copy, and there is no harm in submitting to the engines and the like, but that done: If your website sells your products AND you have a robust marketing program that drives qualified prospects to your site, what happens with the engines is additive, not the baseline of your marketing success. Agree? Disagree? What am I missing?  Bob Bly had a related question on his blog not long ago, but I don't know that we reached closure :-) .

Posted @ 7:06PM in Blogging, Marketing, PR, RSS, Web Marketing | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Jun 1, 2005

Deep Throat, blogging tips, asking for the order (and lions and tigers and bears, oh my)

As expected, I am really busy this week with the Revenue Roundtable and client work (hurrah), plus trying to jam everything in by COB Thursday as Friday is the Scottish Terrier Club of New England Specialty Show, and I will be there all day.

However, I do have a few things to share before I race off to prepare for a new prospect meeting tomorrow.

First, the big reveal of Deep Throat. I came of political age during Watergate. I think my first adult non-fiction book was All the President's Men and I definitely remember going to see the movie on a hot summer day in whatever year it was. It is hard to believe that all that took place more than 30 years ago.... when it still colors so much of what we feel about politics, regardless of what we believe or how we vote.

For my part, I am glad that Mark Felt, and his family, didn't wait until after his death. For whatever reason, and however it came about, I'm glad Felt will get the accolades due him while he lives. If his family benefits, that's great. He did a courageous thing, whatever his personal reasons were, and he deserves to get the praise in life. He'll certainly be criticized as well -- I can see the revisionist wagons circling.

So often, we wait to honor great men and women until after their deaths. I for one am pleased when the subject of the praise actually gets to hear it themselves. I remember a few years ago, here in our town, the local chamber of commerce had an event to honor an elderly civic leader who had done a tremendous amount for the town and the area. Literally put us on the map.

As my husband and I were waiting in the long line to greet the man and his wife, it crossed my mind that the whole event was a bit like a wake, except in this case, the man who actually KNEW everybody was still alive, and could enjoy the love of his community. I thought it was wonderful, and wished that we as a society were better at thanking our elders in life, not just honoring them in death.

Wakes and funerals serve an important religious and grieving function. But they aren't really for the person who has died. So... moral of the story: take time to thank and honor people today.

Thank you, Mr. Felt.

This story will be all over the blogosphere and the media today, tomorrow, the next day, but do read Dan Gillmor's post, Deep Throat: America owes Gratitude.

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

Now a few little housekeeping things, items that caught my interest over the last week. If I had more time, I'd write more about them, but the clock is ticking.....

Standing Out from the Blogging Crowd, an item on BusinessWeek's Blogspotting, linked to tips for better blog writing from Robin Good.

Jim Logan on the importance of asking for the order.

Scottie Claiborne on links that drive search engine rankings (seen originally on Micro Persuasion). I need to get serious about promoting this blog ... one of these days.

Posted @ 10:06AM in Blogging, Integrated Sales & Marketing, Mathom Room, Politics/Policy, Web Marketing, Weblogs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

May 4, 2005

More customer blogs

Let's start with the Vespa blogs. Reported in many places including Steve Rubel's blog (CooperKatz is doing the blogs and PR for Vespa).

I am looking forward to these blogs, as I believe the customer evangelist blog has real potential as a marketing tool for certain types of companies:

  • Companies in markets where a strong sense of community develops offline and online;
  • Products or issues that elicit passion;
  • Topics and issues that are at the intersection of company and customer interests. No one wants to read a blog, written by customers or not, that JUST talks about the product;
  • If corporate-sponsored (versus a customer evangelist doing it on his own -- more on that later), a sponsor that is willing to let the blog happen. The good and the bad.

As I wrote last week, I have been building this type of blog for a client for the past two months, and I am really pleased to see others embracing this model.

Others places I read about the Vespa blogs: blogspotting (with an amusing jab at the Technorati 100), BlogBusiness Summit, NevOn (who reminds us that blogs are part of an overall marketing/communications strategy, not an end in themselves), the Social Customer Manifesto.

Another company doing a unique company-sponsored blog is Nokia. It owns TheFeature, but takes a hands-off approach. As described in the About section on the site:

"TheFeature aims to be nothing less than a voice - an opinionated, independent voice for the mobility community. It is the mobile Internet industry's premiere thinking space - designed to help you manage the flow of information in a sector where the flood of data is increasing as fast as its growth, scattered throughout multiple channels, frequently obtuse in nature, and devoid of context...."

"Although TheFeature is owned by Nokia, the Espoo, Finland-based manufacturer of technologies for mobile communications, the opinions expressed herein are solely those of its writers and content providers, and are not official statements by Nokia or any of its business partners or affiliates. The TheFeature staff and its content partners are committed to editorial independence and to the openness of its forums."

Thanks to blogthenticity for pointing me to this site.

The other type of customer evangelist blog is the customer who is so passionate that he or she creates a blog about the product. This blog is not sponsored by the company. Halley Suitt, in a post on the Tom Peters blog and an article in Worthwhile magazine, calls these corporate fan blogs and highlights some of the issues companies have to face when they have passionate fans who blog.

Issues notwithstanding, I believe that companies that are willing to either give voice to the community through a company sponsored site, like Vespa, Nokia and my client Software Secure, or can strike the proper balance with independent fan blogs, will reap tremendous benefits by engaging with their customers in this online conversation. 

Posted @ 1:05PM in Blogging, Customers, Marketing, Web Marketing, Weblogs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2)

Apr 22, 2005

Another good article on RSS for newbies

This time from SiliconValleyWatcher:

Of course, you know what RSS is ... so here's an article for your clueless boss, by Nick Aster

Posted @ 1:04PM in Blogging, Web Marketing, Web/Tech, Weblogs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Apr 15, 2005

Roadmaps Round-up

Just a bunch of good stuff. Have a great weekend!


Fusion Brand: Great post on Brand vs. Customer Architecture: Which is More Effective?


How to Blog for Fun and Profit has a short post about a Cnet comparison  of Typepad and Blogger 


Quite some time ago, Steve Rubel (and others) blogged about InfoWorld’s special report on blogs and wikis. I have been intending to include it in a link round-up for weeks, so here is the link to Steve’s post. 


Another great resource post that I have been sitting on is from NevOn: Tips for successful media relations  This post Introduced me to David Tebbut’s Teblog.


Yahoo is offering free 5-page websites to small US businesses, to be hosted in Yahoo! Local. Thanks to Nick W at Threadwatch for the info. 

Posted @ 9:04AM in Blogging, Business Management, Customers, Integrated Sales & Marketing, Marketing, PR, Web Marketing, Weblogs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Apr 14, 2005

Upcoming events: BlogherCon and Camp WorldWIT

BlogherCon to be held July 30:

"Where are the women bloggers? We're right here. . . www.blogher.org  This flagship event is open to all bloggers—including men and beginners—interested in enhancing their online exposure, learning the latest best practices in blogging, networking with other bloggers, and specifically cultivating the female blogging community.”

Not sure if I will be able to attend, due to other commitments, but it is shaping up to be an interesting event.


However, I will be at Camp WorldWIT: Women in the Lead from May 19-22, speaking on a marketing panel, "First to Market: Make Your Name Hit and Stick," Friday, May 20 from 2 – 3:15pm.

"Camp WorldWIT 2005: Women in the Lead is WorldWIT's second annual global conference for women in business and technology. From May 19-22, 2005, we'll gather in beautiful Williams Bay, Wisconsin, at the rustic and comfortable Conference Point facility. During the long weekend, campers will share entrepreneurial and corporate learning, hear outstanding keynoters and on-point breakout speakers, and have ample opportunities to network and share best practices."

My presentation will (surprise, surprise) be about how to use weblogs in a marketing strategy to build a sense of community among your customers and enhance your expert reputation in your field.

Posted @ 9:04AM in Blogging, Marketing, Web Marketing, Weblogs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Apr 6, 2005

What role the blogroll?

What is the role of the blogroll? In the early days of blogs, they helped establish the community, kind of an “oh wow, there are other people out there publishing just like me.”  Everyone could share in the accomplishment as the group grew… and grew … and grew.

As a result, putting together a blogroll is something of a rite of passage for the new blogger – you know, or think, you need one, and you want it to be JUST right. Who should be on MY blogroll, what will my choices say about me…

I know this from my own recent, personal experience when I started my blog last November. I made the decision to consciously manage my blogroll, rather than just publish my Bloglines subscriptions. In other words, I read many more blogs than are on my blogroll.  The ones on my public blogroll are there for a reason, which I will get to in a moment.

So what is the role of the blogroll, NOW?  For some, being on MANY MANY blogrolls is a measure of popularity; measurements like the Technorati 100 tell us who are the most “linked to.” Now, that is one measure of worth, but in the days of the Long Tail, it is not necessarily the most important one.

Part of the long tail thesis (and apologies if I paraphrase incorrectly) is that the Internet has energized micro-markets, or niches, making it possible to target to specific interests in ways that the mass markets just could not. So, we need to think not in terms of mass popularity, a la the Technorati 100, but rather in terms of OUR AUDIENCE.

So, your blogroll should be for your audience. If you have an audience of one (or two if you count your Mum), then it can be whatever YOU want. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

But if you are writing your blog for a broader audience, you need to think about how they will use (or not) your blogroll.

I say OR NOT, because all this is complicated by the fact that RSS aggregators don’t show the blogroll. They just feed the actual content of your posts, unless you go to the complicated step of creating multiple feeds from your blog, with one of them being the blogroll. And who has time for that… I’m not sure I even know how to do this, although I am sure it can be done.

Now, it may be that only a small population is using RSS at this point, but it will grow. Put the blogroll in its proper place. It is FAR less important than the content of your blog.

So here is my advice:

  1. Focus on the content of your blog. Make it compelling, worth linking to and generally interesting to the people in your audience – the ones you want to read your blog. Don’t worry about the masses.
  2. Link to others. A lot. It will make a difference.
  3. Your blogroll should fit the nature of your blog. If it is a personal blog, put whatever you please on your blogroll. Don’t have one at all if you don’t want. It is YOUR blog. The window into your soul. Or not. Your choice, and you know what they can do if they can’t take a joke.
  4. If you have a business-oriented blog, you need to think about your blog as a resource for your customers. Your blog, and your blogroll, should help them as well as be a place for your personal expression.

My blog fits this last description, so I will share my “policies” should they be helpful to you.

First, for the most part, I stick to marketing and business topics. I rarely blog about my personal life. The one exception, as my readers know, has been to share with you the achievements of a Scottish Terrier that I co-bred and co-own.

Second, my blogroll is focused on my intended audience, not on me. The bulk of the resources listed are marketing and Internet business websites and blogs that would be helpful to my marketing colleagues and current/prospective clients.

Third, because people do want to know a bit about the person behind a blog, I have included a few hints as to my views in the blogroll (hint: check the politics and N.E.C. category). And my life isn’t hidden – if you only look a little hard, you can find a link from my business website (www.getgood.com) to all kinds of family stuff. I just don’t blog it, not my style.

Item four: I read a blog for at least a week before I add it to the blogroll. I have to say “YES” about something the writer has said more than once to add it to my blogroll. Likewise, if I have a blog listed and find that I am just not reading it much any more, I will take it off.

That is item five. Your blogroll should be actively managed. Don’t just put it up once and forget about it. If you are going to have a public blogroll, you need to make sure it reflects the views and opinions that you intended. If you don’t want to manage your blogroll, or make your news aggregator list public, then it is almost better that you don’t have one.

Finally: much of this is related to a business blog, versus a personal blog. I do believe that the rules are different if you are promoting a business, or presenting yourself as an expert in a field, versus emoting a personal view. When it is your business, and your livelihood is at stake, the stakes are higher, manage accordingly.

Peace out.

Posted @ 10:04PM in Blogging, Marketing, Web Marketing, Weblogs | Comments (1) | TrackBack (2)

Apr 4, 2005

More on RSS aggregators and some other random stuff

RSS aggregators

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of RSS aggregators. Some of my feelings about blogrolls (and utility thereof) are no doubt related to the fact that I read blogs (and any websites I can) in my RSS aggregator (Bloglines if you care) so I rarely see blogrolls.

A couple of good resource articles last week on RSS.

Random Stuff

Via Communication Revolutions , a link to Robin Good’s Best Blog Directory and Submission sites

Also from the Diva: 55 women bloggers. I am proud to be on the list, in no particular order J Thanks, Toby. Go to her main page for the post; I can’t get permalinks or trackbacks to the DIva to work for this link. I will fix it later if I can.

Always a great blog for good tactical sales/marketing strategy, Jim Logan has a nice post on testimonials.

Posted @ 11:04PM in Blogging, Business Management, Marketing, PR, Web Marketing, Weblogs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 31, 2005

Thanks, Marketing Playbook

For some reason, no matter what I do, I am unable to leave comments on the Marketing Playbook blog.  I've registered two Typekey accounts, and neither will work. So, to the guys at Marketing Playbook, thanks for mentioning Marketing Roadmaps as a Business Blog you like.

Posted @ 8:03PM in Blogging, Marketing, Web Marketing, Weblogs | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Mar 23, 2005

Roadmaps Round-up

Later this week I will have a post about calculating lead ratings, requested by a reader in Korea. I do love the Internet, and the way it lets you virtually meet people from all over the world.

It is a fairly involved topic though, so I probably won't get to it until the end of the week.

In the meantime, I have a few links that I have been saving up to write about, and just won't get the time before they are stale. So here they are in list form:

Courtesy Topaz Partners, a link to an article in CMO magazine about marketers embracing the blog form.

A post from Working Smart about Corporate Blogging Rules. Commentary by NevOn on same. I will come back to this topic I am sure :-)

From AdRants (and others), Forbes article on the top corporate hate sites

From CorporatePR blog (Elizabeth Albrycht): 10 ideas for corporate RSS feeds

UPDATE: from Me