• Loosetooth uses this blog to drive traffic to a Cafepress store, which handles order fulfillment.
• CEO Blogs List

  Actually, that's a misnomer. This is a list of weblogs authored by people who are in a leadership position in various organizations (corporations, non-profit, etc.)

  Hundreds of CEOs are blogging, and the vast majority of their blogs are just plain dull ... as in "who cares?"

• CEO Bloggers Club:

  An international blog dedicated to helping CEOs be better bloggers.

  Membership rules: you have to agree to update your blog at least three times a week.

• See also: Seth Godin: BEWARE the CEO Blog
• Fake Blogs

  Not all fake blogs are lame, but Mazda's sure was.

• Mazda's Dumb-Assed Fake Blog Mishap

  Mazda blew it big-time with a fake blog HolloweenM3 that included not one but three Mazda commercials disguised as videos found by a blogger on public access TV.

  Bloggers derided them and it was gone in a day

• Journalist Blogs

  Still think you can ignore blogs?

  Journalists read blogs to spot trends, find sources. Read their blogs to find out what stories they're working on.

  J-blogs - thousands of blogs by journalists

• DAN GILLMOR on PR and blogging

• Harold Rheingold

• Maintaining a blog is Sisyphean

  Once you start blogging, you need to make the commitment to keep it up to date with very frequent content changes.

  That takes time and effort.

  Publishing a daily publication is WORK

  But you must publish very frequently to maintain credibility.

• Blog Directories

  Popdex

  Technorati Shows bloggers who is linking to them, has a Top 100 list of most popular blogs, breaking news, hot links

  

  Yahoo blog directory

  Zeal blog directory

  Blogarama

      

Who should blog for the company? What should they say? Who should approve it? What's the ROI? Microsoft obviously believes blogging has customer relationship and PR value because more than 1,000 of its employees are blogging.

 

One of the most famous, and interesting, is Robert Scoble, Microsoft's blog evangelist Here are Scoble's rules for corporate bloggers:

 

"Our rule here (at Microsoft)? Don't be stupid. :-) I call it be smart. But, it comes down to not pissing off your boss... and working to make sure you align your weblog with the image that the company is trying to project.

 

My suggestion for those who want to write a business blog:

1) Read tons of blogs first. I recommend that you read at least 50 blogs for two weeks before you start. Get an RSS Aggregator. That's a must. Learn how to use Feedster, Pubsub, and Technorati.

 

2) Show your passion for your company and your products. If you aren't passionate about your products or your company (in a good way) then it's probably best that you don't write a blog that'll be identifiable with your company.

 

3) Help other people share their passion (interview workers who you notice staying late to do something "extra special").

 

4) Try to answer any concerns bloggers might have. But, be careful. Work with PR teams and marketers in your company so you know what their stance is.

 

5) Take some risks. But know the consequences." - Robert Scoble.

 

Shoploosetooth.com
Uses blog to drive traffic to Cafepress store, which handles order fulfillment

JewelBoxing
Jim Coudal’s Blog about starting a business
The introduction says:

We thought it might be useful to document the process of starting an online business from scratch. Jim Coudal will periodically post here about issues involving our product and business plan. Hopefully things will go well but even if the whole thing goes down in flames, it’ll probably be interesting to watch.

International Association for Learning Alternatives' excellent example of an association blog has been active for more than a year and is frequently updated. Its About Us page explains its mission:

"The mission of the International Association for Learning Alternatives is to lead, promote and support learning alternatives and choice options.

This mission signals our interest in seeing that parents and students have choices of educational programs to meet their needs, interests, learning styles and intelligences. We believe that one-size education program does not fit everyone and that education is best served by having choices for all."

IALC is using blog software for a simple, interactive website that is searchable, automatically archives posts by categories, and allows active conversation.

Jones Soda is an alternative soda that appeals to the youth market, particularly teens who are skateboarders, snowboarders and followers of extreme sports. The Jones Soda Blog allows kids to have their own blog, where they can upload images, video and sound.

Jones Blog also features emerging stars of these sports and follows their careers. Junior bloggers can suggest new limited edition soda flavors (one was Thanksgiving turkey and gravy, which was a big hit last year, yecch!) and can even have their artwork or photos chosen for soda labels.

It's a truly interactive community created with blogging software, which is cheap, easy to use, feature-rich and interactive.

 

 

Are blogs just a fad or a communication revolution? What role can blogs play in business? Who should blog for a company? What should they blog about? What kind of ROI can blogs produce? The best way to answer these questions, in my opinion, is with examples of successful blogs. So that's what I'll concentrate on today.    more »

Blogs extend a company's a brand. This is especially true in the case of a professional services firm.

A professional services firm's brand is based on the expertise of their employee professionals. There is nothing to drink like Pepsi to make customers feel good or shoes to look cool in like in the case of Nike's brand.

Traditional marketing of professional services is based on extending the reach of this expertise - getting the firm's employees in front of existing customers, prospective customers, the media, the public and other sources of referral work. The concept is based on the sharing intellectual capital - the more you did, the more people exposed to this intellectual capital, the stronger the brand.

Extending the reach of your employee's expertise is done through writing, seminars and interviews. Problem is that once the seminar was over or article was old this sharing intellectual capital was gone.

Blogs share this intellectual capital - except it's like doing so on steroids - the intellectual capital is shared at the 'go to' place for information - the Internet. Content is preserved, indexed and optimized in the world's library - Google. Content is streamed by RSS so people get the news when they went and how they want it. Best of all it is dirt cheap - far more cost effective than a seminar or a lengthy article for professionals whose time is their stock in trade.

The key is making it easy to extend the intellectual capital or the brand to the net. God knows marketing people in firms are swamped - they do not need another 'great new idea' that takes a ton of time. So use the intellectual capital the company has already reduced to digital form - the content they've already produced.

Where's this existing content? Articles, interviews, email newsletters, Web site content that is not indexed or optimized and seminar materials. Book publsihers and authors have a ton of content (hint for you, Steve)

You'll be surprised to see all the stuff that's been written. Get it up on a blog on the net and get this content working for you and your clients.

Wanted to wrap up thoughts on last post before going on to next one.

I am sure it's happened to other blog presenters here but my blog has done incredible things for my reputation -- mostly good. In our industry, the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) is one of the premier associations within which to be a leader. Its members are 3,500 of the leading law firm marketing professionals employed by the largest law firms and consulting services. Imagine being known as a leading authority on Internet marketing by this group and what that could do for one's business when you are in the Internet marketing business.

As a result of my new blog, which I have been publishing since only May, I am on the tech committee for the LMA, am recognized by its members as one the nation's leading experts on Internet marketing, have spoken to one of their chapters, did a national webinar which had their largest audience ever, am building a resource center for their members on blog software and will be speaking on bogs at their national conference next Spring. I hate to acknowledge I was not even a member of LMA until April. Wow!

In addition I have been interviewed by at least a dozen trade magazines, our products/services and customers have been featured by at least that many magazines, newsletters & the like and I have been asked to speak and write for other groups.

Plus my company lexBlog gets all its business via word of mouth and the net. My blog not only keeps me number one at Google on a search for 'lawyer blogs,' but subscribers to my blog become my customers.

This all happened in 6 months. There just ain't no way that was happening to this snot nosed kid from a small Midwest town on the Mississippi without a blog.

My point: anyone who has been around the corner in an area of business, marketing, or communications knows some things. Share your intellectual capital. It's easy with a blog. The results will amaze you.

Blogs enhance one's reputation as a trusted and reliable source of information. This happens with regard to the public, the media, current clients and leads for new work. Best of all, it happens in as little as 3 to 6 months.

I am a lawyer by trade but have been involved in Internet marketing for the last eight years. I practiced law in a small town in the Midwest for 17 years prior to jumping on the net and was as unlikely to seize the net as a marketing tool as any tech neophyte in existence.

A year ago I did not have a clue what blogs were. Today I support a family of seven (my wife may question that at times) by running a company that provides lawyers a turnkey blog solution for legal professionals, including some of the country’s largest law firms.

I’ll drop in posts throughout the day sharing my thoughts on blogs for PR and the like.

The best way to describe the power of blogging is to give you my experience with blogs. I had sold a consumer and small business Web site that served as a marketing platform for lawyers to LexisNexis.

Just prior to the expiration of my covenant not to compete the end of last year, I was looking for a way to get my name out as knowing a thing or two about Internet marketing for lawyers. I knew the best way to do it was publishing practical information to the Internet and then drawing people to the content.

Problem was that despite founding an Internet company which built its own Internet publishing platform, I did not know the first thing about html coding and building Web sites. I also knew there was going to be a significant time to ramp up to having a large audience. The days of getting traffic by participating on aol message boards, running listservs and email newsletters – all which worked wonders in getting traffic in 1996 were over.

I heard about blogs but when I tried publishing a blog on the radioland platform earlier last year it looked like hell and I just didn’t  get the concept of blogs. At the same time I ran across an article in Business 2.0 about a company named Six Apart operated by a husband and wife which in only 90 days was going to have 10,000 subscribers paying about $15/month for a blog platform. Those types of numbers alerted me to blogs being a big deal.

Within a day I had gone to Six Apart’s TypePad and was publishing to the net by that night. My stuff – the stuff providing lawyers practical info how to market on the Internet -- was live on the Internet. Check out Perry Mason and my old blog.

Within a month I had lawyers from all over the country calling me on Internet marketing issues and asking how to publish a blog and if I could help them. That’s lightening speed for getting my name out.

I came out of the garage, where I worked then, and told my family at dinner I was going to start a business of building blogs for lawyers. What did I see in blogs?

I saw empowerment – the ability to personally enhance one’s reputation in their area of expertise by becoming a reliable and trusted source of information for the public, the media, current & prospective clients and colleagues who refer work. Heck, that’s PR and marketing at its finest.

Next post is on extending the reach of your clients existing content via a blog – it’s easy, effective and is viewed as a no-brainer by your clients looking for broad reaching exposure.

Like many new media and technologies, blogging is best learned by blogging.  One can read bloggers, study  suggestions and think about it, but, in the end, one blogs or not. 

This is a lesson learned during 20 years of working with new media and technologies.  For many, there is no clear reason to take a step into the unknown and they shouldn't.  For some, there is a chance a medium or technology might be useful, and they should plow ahead systematically. 

I started blogging for personal and professional reasons.  It:

* Forces me to stay up with communications.
* Lets me think out loud where my thoughts are open to criticism.
* Serves as a daily complement to my web site online-pr.com.

Two of these three reasons apply to anyone. 

If there is a criticism of PR in general, the field has been slow to look at how new technologies and other disciplines fit into the hard work of communications.  Note the absence of the PR industry in the PBS Frontline examination of marketing that is on-air now, whether you agree with the program's point of view or not.  Most of what researchers are doing focuses on how communicators should frame and present issues effectively.  Isn't that what we are supposed to do?  Note that researchers emphasize repeatedly the need to listen to consumers.  

We say we listen, but do we listen well?  Do we set aside assumptions and learn what is really happening?  Steve Rubel made a strong case for blogging and listening yesterday.  There is no need to repeat his argument.  There is room for testing blogging to see if it works as a listening device, and it doesn't cost much to do. 

The danger is that blogging can become blathering  -- a way to spout rather than to learn.  Blogging tends to bloviating by the nature of what it is. 

Blogging should spark discussion.  Discussion should spark fuller examination of assumptions and ideas.  It should force honest practitioners to look again at how they consider the world.  Unfortunately, as a reader of many blogs, that isn't often the case -- not yet, anyway.  But, there is room to experiment and to learn. 

If there is one tip I have learned already from blogging, it is to get away from a focus on what blogging is and can do.  I have learned more about PR by looking across industries and news events to examine communications issues contained in them.  Blogging records a journey into the world rather than into a new medium.  You might find the same.

As PR professionals, we are trained to talk. We use phrases like messages, delivery, outreach and response. Think about the tools of our trade – press releases, media briefings, pitch letters – every single one of them address outbound communication. Now we have weblogs. But before running off and starting to publish, online communicators need to instead spend more time using blogs to listen and learn from the market. It’s the consumers control our message now. We must pay attention to what they say. This is not about "managing bloggers," but rather listening to what they have to say.

The Kryptonite Bike Lock Company is one who should have listened. Consider the following chain of events. On September 12, 2004, a forum poster at bikeforums.net noted that he can open his Kryptonite lock with a Bic pen. One day later, one of his fellow bikeforums.net forum members posts video of lock being picked, verifying the salacious claim. Before I go on with the story, think for a moment what might have happened had the company been listening and using monitoring tools and had learned of this incident while it was in this early embryonic stage. They might have been able to have prevent what happened next.

On September 14, Metafilter – a group edited site - picked up the trail. This was quickly followed by Engadget and dozens of other bloggers. Still, Kryptonite remained silent, probably unaware of the tsunami that was at their doorstep.

Finally, just a few days after the initial forum post, the story leaped into the mainstream media with a story on September 23 in The New York Times. “The Pen is Mightier Than the Lock,” the Times headline screamed. Finally, only after the New York Times ran their story, did the company awake from its slumber and post a statement on their Web site. But by then it was too late. AP and dozens of other media outlets had picked up the trail.

Now that you are convinced that listening matters perhaps more than talking, here are three more ways listening to bloggers can benefit the online PR professional…

* Bloggers are a leading indicator of online trends. Journalists monitor blogs for the next big idea and for news. By finding the relevant bloggers who cover your company or clients, you will be in a better position to identify trends before they swim upstream into the mainstream press.

* Almost all established forms of online communications are unidirectional. Once your message is out, it’s out. Blogging, however, is a conversation. Once your message is out you can monitor how it’s being received. This gives you instant access to a real-time focus group some of the greatest thinkers of our day and allows you to understand what works/doesn’t work so that you can shape future campaigns.

* Word of mouth is a mystique that, until now, was hard to understand and measure. Now it’s possible. Influential Microsoft uber-blogger Robert Scoble once told me that in the 1980s when he ran a camera store word of mouth was his leading source of sales. At the time, however, he was frustrated because he couldn’t be at the water cooler while those conversations were taking place. But now, however, thanks to blogs, not only can he listen to these conversations but can intelligently participate in them.

Technorati, a blog tracking service, is currently reporting there are 4 million blogs in the blogosphere – and it’s doubling rapidly. This torrent of information is intimidating and scares many PR professionals from taking the time to listen. After all, who has the time to visit so many sites when clients are looking for the next big idea or the next big placement? That’s where RSS enters the picture.

RSS – or really simple syndication –  is a new tool that helps you monitor blogs and news sites. RSS "Tivo’s" frequently updated Web sites and delivers it direct to you so that you can scan them all on a single Web page. It’s an online communicator’s new best friend. Learn to use it, and listening becomes easy. Here’s how…

* Sign up for My Yahoo! or Bloglines – two free online RSS newsreaders

* Visit PubSub.com and enter search terms that are related to your clients/company/product. Include both the specific name of the product as well as any other terms you need to stay on top of – for example, competitors. PubSub will send you an RSS feed to add to your reader. Also visit Technorati and Feedster. These services, when used together, will enable you to pretty much catch anything relevant that hits the blogosphere.

* Use IceRocket to conduct relevant blog searches and subscribe to the result-generated search feed.

Although I am not blogging formally until Wednesday, I will introduce myself today.  I have been working with new technologies and PR since the early 1980s.  It seemed then  -- and now -- that computer tools should be put to use in PR where they make sense.  The challenge then -- and now -- is to get PR practitioners to take them up.  There is no easy way to do this.  I am part of a group of  "old hands" who have spent close to 20 years working with PR practitioners to get them comfortable with technologies.  Every one of us will tell you the task has been frustrating.  But that topic is for another time and place.  If you wish to read my bio, it is online. 

I recommend this article about how PR backed blogging initiatives must start driving global brand conversations.

 

The fact that the Internet-focused workshops at the PRSA Conference were so well attended shows that Internet Strategies are high on the list of priorities for PR practitioners.

 

And well they should be.  What are we trying to accomplish in PR?  A favorable operating climate in which the enterprise can expand, prosper and be viable. 

 

We remove barriers, create opportunities and conversations.  Our job is to get into the hearts and minds and create mutual understanding using communication and reality.

 

As the Internet has become the medium of choice, so must it become the place PR operates.

 

The Internet is the ultimate communication revolution.  Instead of the old mass communication linear models, we’re operating in a wired world of networked conversations.

 

The Cluetrain is here - PR either has to get on, get a clue, or get left behind.

 

PR is the tool that builds and strengthens brands. Studies like one by the IAB clearly show the link between brand value and search results.

 

Al and Laura Ries describe the Internet as a phenomenal brand building mechanism.  You’re either building your brand click by click, or it’s eroding with each visitor that comes to your website.

 

Perception is reality. When a searcher gets a page of results, they believe that the names on the first page – specially the ones in the 1, 2 and 3 position - are the major players in that field.  And they place higher value on those in the natural search results than those in the paid or sponsored results.

 

It’s that advertising versus editorial third party endorsement thing.

So where does blogging come into all this?

Search engines like text, good content focused on keywords, and links. No wonder they like blogs.  A well executed corporate blog will

·         Increase your footprint on the Internet with a ‘cloud’ of content  on your subject

·         Create top ten search results on many keywords relevant to your industry

·         Establish you as an expert on these subjects

·         Raise awareness of your company, product or service

·         Create interaction with your  customers

·         Give your company a human voice

·         Make the company more real to your customers, raising the affinity and understanding.

·         Increase your brand value

·         Raise your visibility with the mainstream media

By blogging in a platform that understands and mirrors the search engines, and by learning how to write good blog content based on researched keywords, you can achieve uncommon results. 

There are many blogging tools available now – but they are not all equal.  Some give excelelent search reuslts and some don't.

Case in point is the VoIP Insights blog I created for a client.

They went from zero number one search results to over 51 in just three months – effecting a huge change in their visibility and brand perception. Traffic to the corporate website increased by 50%, the blog has more visitors than the corporate website now, and their RSS feeds are getting picked up by consumers and journalists.

This blog is getting attention from the mainstream media too. They just had their first article in a national magazine that targets their perfect audience – CIO’s.

I have blogged in several other platforms with mediocre results.  You need to find one that gives you fast search visibility, with tools to create a rapidly growing footprint and metrics built in to monitor your results.

I am currently working with DVCO and MyST Technology on the R and D for PR Watch, a tool to improve the PR aspects of blogging. It’s an exciting adventure.

Blogging As a Business Tool

Every business needs to consider blogging in their PR strategy.  Yahoo’s study released last week showed that even loyal newspaper readers prefer the Internet for news. 

77% of Internet users get their news from the news engines.  Savvy newshounds are going to the blogs.

Blogs are the perfect viral medium and an excellent way to promote a product or message.  Bloggers are influencers – the sneezers Seth Godin talks about in Ideavirus.  These thought leaders have a following, and it’s the early adopters who are reading blogs. 

Journalists are also reading blogs. They have learned that there is a buzz in the blogs that takes a while to filter down into the mainstream media. So they are trolling blogs for good story ideas.

The Forrester Research report on corporate blogging says that at the very minimum, companies ought to be monitoring blogs to learn what is being said about them.

PR Watch has a tool that even gives you a graphical analysis of blog content (via Technorati) to determine sensitivity and resonance of keywords in other blogs. And their Net Intelligence uses RSS feeds from competitor’s blogs to look for many nuggets of competitive intelligence.

A good PR strategy today should include monitoring blogs for mentions of your company and product, pitching other bloggers and creating your own corporate blog.

Remember, when you pitch bloggers the old rules apply. Read their blog.  Start a conversation.  Don’t ever pitch them something that doesn’t fit their blog.

Use your own blog to create a cloud of content, increase visibiilty and raise brand awareness.   

Blogging is a great PR tool. 

When you understand how the search engines work, and you blog well and often in the right platform, you will create top ten search results, generate conversations and win mind share. 

Sally Falkow

Web Content Strategist

sally@falkowinc.com

 

 

I discovered the Internet early in 1998 in South Africa.

When I was back there on a speaking tour earlier this year I realized how far behind the US they are in terms of Internet use.  I was amazed that I was online back then.  There were probably only a handful of us at that time.

It did not take me long to see the potential of this new medium. The Internet has completely changed the way we communicate and do business.

When I relocated to the USA in 1999 I worked for an Internet Service Provider who was on the cutting edge of broadband.  I learned a lot and had the benefit of some very advanced thinking about how to use the Net and what it could do.

When I spoke to other PRSA members about using the Net for PR I found very few like minded souls.  Mostly I got a lot of blank looks. 

That prompted me to hold workshops on the use of broadband and the Internet for marketing and PR professionals - and I've been doing it ever since.

My expertise and interest in the Internet has always been from the PR angle. My long interest in consumer behavior and research ( I lectured for Oxford-Brookes  University UK in these subjects for five years) has carried forward to the Internet.

I follow and participate in research that delves into user behavior and perceptions online. I have been very involved in studies about brand perceptions and search visibility in the past two years.

And so I came to blogging.  When it is done right it can affect search visibility and brand perception. My interest is in how  blogs affect the way people communcate, perceive and react online. 

More about what I do

Sally

An introduction to IAOC BlogFest 2004 and moderator Steve O'Keefe.   more »

IAOC had its coming-out party October 26 at the PRSA international conference in New York. Appropriately, the next IAOC event is online and on blogging.   more »