While some scientists are worrying about the missing bees, lots of marketers are worrying about the missing buzz.

Tune in next week, when Lois Kelly, author of Beyond Buzz, tells us why it's not enough anymore to make noise in the marketplace. You have to engage your market in what she calls "meaningful dialog."

Learn how to put more meaning in your message November  5-9 when Lois Kelly hosts the IAOCblog "talk show" with:
Conversational Marketing: Mood over Matter?

ABOUT THE TOPIC:
We are all know by now that "Markets are conversations." But Lois Kelly, author of Beyond Buzz, says it's not enough anymore to spread "Word of Mouth." To succeed in the marketplace today, you have to have a meaningful dialog -- and really listen to your market.

Stay tuned for more details. And be sure to join IAOCblog.com November  5-9, 2007 when guest host Lois Kelly takes over the conversation with:
Conversational Marketing: Mood over Matter?

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADER:


Lois Kelly writes, consults and speaks about how to use conversational marketing and social media to more quickly connect with customers, employees and marketplace influencers.

Reviewing her new book, Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing, Northeastern University professor Walter Carl said “The Cluetrain Manifesto was a call for corporations to wake up to the global conversations about them, and potentially with them. In Beyond Buzz, Lois Kelly gives corporations the practical tools to answer that call.”

Lois' articles have appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, Advertising Age. Clients have included Sapient, SAP, Sun Microsystems, FedEx, The Business Innovation Factory, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Communispace. 

REMINDER:
Coming next week: October 22-26, 2007 Ted Demopoulos, author of Blogging for Business tackles the issue: Should CEOs Blog?

ABOUT THE TOPIC:
"CEO Blogs" are blogs written by executives. At their best, they put a human face on huge corporations. At their worst, they have been boring... or phony... to the point of doing more harm than good.

Are CEO blogs worth the trouble? Are they worth the risks? What if a CEO can't write... or hasn't got the time to write? Can they have ghostbloggers or blog less frequently? Will that undermine the whole purpose of blogging? The week of Oct 22, Ted will answer these and other questions on IAOCblog.com.

Mark October  22-26, 2007  on your calendar for a blog program that promises to be profitable... and provocative. The host will be Ted Demopoulos, author of Blogging for Business. His topic: Should CEOs Blog?

ABOUT THE TOPIC:
The term "CEO Blog" refers to a blog written by a high level executive such as a CEO. The few CEO blogs that exist are very popular, but should the average CEO or other executive blog? How can they possibly make time among their other responsibilities? Are the "rules" different for CEOs and other high profile poeple? Can they have ghostbloggers or blog less frequently? The week of Oct 22, Ted will answer these and other questions on IAOCblog.com.

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADER:

Ted Demopoulos’ professional background includes over 25 years of experience in Information Technology and Business, including 15 years as an independent consultant. Ted helped start a successful information security company, was the CTO at a "textbook failure" of a software startup,  and has advised several other startups. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, conventions, and other business events,  author of  What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere, coauthor of  Blogging for Business. Ted blogs at www.BloggingForBusinessBook.com

Please join us this week December 11-15, for a blog program: Blog Rules, with discussion leader, Nancy Flynn

ABOUT THE TOPIC:

Blogs have become as essential as email and newsletters. But with news stories about everything from embarrassment in the blogosphere to legal action... blogging carries risks. Know how to protect yourself and your company. Blog safely.

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADER:

Nancy Flynn is the author of the new book, Blog Rules: A Business Guide to Managing Policy, Public Relations, and Legal Issues from Amacom Books. Nancy is founder and executive director of The ePolicy Institute, and author of the books: The ePolicy Handbook and E-Mail Rules.

Talk about opening a can of worms with the first two questions on the theme of this week's discussion: Should the CEO blog?

1. Is it OK to ghostwrite a CEO blog?

2. Should a ghostblogger for a CEO reveal him or herself?

Suffice it say that there does *not* appear to be agreement on these two questions. The writer/copywriter types generally weigh in on the side of, "Of course it's OK to ghostblog; that's what executive speechwriters do." Those who are not writers, per se, but who work in a corporate environment (see comments here) disagree. If the CEO doesn't write it, they say, then it ain't a CEO blog.

I tend to agree with the later. But am willing to stake out a middle ground where the CEO gets editing help. How "heavy" that editing is gets stickier...


Question #3: What should the CEO blog about... or not?

Let's get the obvious out of the way. What can't CEOs and other senior execs blog about?

- proprietary company information (which could range from new products or strategies to competitive intelligence to water cooler gossip)

- financial information (forward-looking statements, anything the SEC would frown on)

- anything he/she doesn't want to reveal

With that out of the way.

The topic/style of a CEO's blog seems to be driven by the CEO's personality, writing ability, size of the company and nature of the business. Some of the best CEO bloggers, so far, run privately-held companies. Their approach seems to be I'll write about whatever the hell I want to - it's my company and my brand dammit.

Private Company CEO Bloggers

GoDaddy founder/CEO and blogger Bob Parsons is deliberately provocative. He likes to circumvent the media by telling his side of things (about GoDaddy's rejected Superbowl ad, for example). Doesn't mind being politically incorrect (see my interview with Bob shortly after he blogged about the use of torture in U.S. interrogation techniques). And is happy to tell us about the newest Go Daddy Girl ("sexy, hot and blazing fast"). Clever blog title as (well sex always sells, right?) it attracts readers and Danica Patrick is in fact an Indy car racer .

He also writes about business. A recent entry is a long and detailed explanation of why Go Daddy withdrew its IPO filing.

As to whether Bob actually writes all this stuff himself, I have no idea. He told me he did (that was over a year ago). But his blog postings seem to have slowed down a lot since then. Anyway, his blog is fun to read, well written and he often gets hundreds of comments in response.

So there's one side of the scale for a CEO blogger.

Also in this category is Alan Meckler, CEO of Jupitermedia and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

Zane Safrit, CEO of Conference Calls Unlimited, and one of my favorite CEO bloggers, probably also fits in this category. Zane isn't outrageous but his postings are always thoughtful. He writes about a bunch of stuff that interests him from current events and health care policy to the challenges of running a small young company and things that make him laugh. His blog has a new tagline which is spot on: Thoughts from running a small company in a rapidly changing industry.

Public Company CEO Bloggers

At the other end of the spectrum are public company CEO blogs. There are fewer of them. The worst is probably Whole Foods' John Mackey. His last blog entry, as of this writing, is dated June 26, 2006. The best, hands down, is Sun Microsystem's Jonathan Schwartz (the first Fortune 500 CEO blogger). He's a terrific writer with a light touch and seems to have an uncanny knack for taking really techie stuff and turning it into something meaningful for us non-geeks. From a recent entry:


Huh?

But then he writes:

More later but please dive in and add your two cents (or more) on what CEOs should blog about - or not - and why.

Yesterday's responses to the question, "Is it OK to ghostwrite a CEO blog?" added up for the most part to "Yes." I still have some reservations, idealist that I am.

Disclosure: I'm a non-corporate type who relishes *not* being locked up in a cubicle. Don't get me wrong; I love working with the smart folks who are brave enough to work within the confines - and exciting potential - of a large corporation. I envy their big salaries, big budgets, business cards stamped "SVP of" and all that. No quibbles there.

But practicality rules. A lot of CEOs (most?) are not naturally talented writers. Many don't have the time or don't want to spend the time to write the blog.

So... given the reality of blog editors and/or ghostbloggers for CEOs and other senior executives, should the ghostblogger reveal him or herself?

This could be done by a disclaimer on the blog. Or via the "bio link" of the CEO blogger at the bottom of each post. For example, you might click on the CEO's name and up would pop a mini bio and words to the effect of:

Er, now that I've written that, I don't know if it really works. So, fire away. Waddya think? Should a ghostblogger for a CEO reveal  himself and if so, how?

This is one of the questions I get asked most often. What I want to know, dear reader, is what you think?

A bit of context: Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems and the only public Fortune 500 CEO blogger, says he writes his own blog. He told AP reporter Rachel Konrad:

The quote is from her story titled Sun CEO among few chiefs who blog. It was widely distributed in dozens of newspapers over this past weekend. (I also got quoted in it, which was kinda fun.)

So is Jonathan an anomaly? Could or should CEOs of other Fortune 500 (or Fortune 50 or Fortune 1000) companies write their own blogs? If yes, why? (Authenticity? Efficient and powerful communication?)  If no, why not? (They don't have time; can't be transparent, enough, etc.) Jump in and add your thoughts below.

ABOUT THE TOPIC: CEO blogs are the, topic du jour these days with Sun Microsystems' CEO Jonathan Schwartz, the first Fortune 500 CEO blogger, evangelizing the benefits of this powerful new communications channel. Dozens of CEOs in the U.S. and other countries, heads of both public and private companies, are starting their own blogs. Here's a list of CEO and senior executive bloggers.

But there are lots of questions:

Can a CEO or senior executive write openly enough to make his or her blog compelling and not just a PR stunt? What if the CEO isn't a good writer? Is ghostblogging a CEO blog OK? Does a CEO have time to blog? What should the topic of a CEO blog be? Why should a CEO give away insights on a blog when he or she could charge for them in a speech? How do you quantify the benefits or ROB (Return on Blogging) for a CEO? Is a blog really the new must have accessory for a CEO, as Jonathan Schwartz says it is?

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADER: Debbie Weil is a corporate and CEO blogging consultant and author of the recently-published The Corporate Blogging Book (Penguin Portfolio 2006). She shows the big dogs how to use blogs as a next-generation marketing and communications strategy. She also writes BlogWriteForCEOs, considered one of the most influential blogs about business blogging. She invites you to download Chapter 1 of her new book. And of course to order your copy on Amazon! (It's also available at Borders and Barnes & Noble and other major bookstores.)

Debbie has a unique background as a veteran journalist with an MBA and corporate marketing experience. She has worked as an Internet marketing consultant with startups as well as Fortune 500 companies for over a decade. She's the publisher of award-winning WordBiz Report, an e-newsletter read by close to 20,000 subscribers in 87 countries.

She has been quoted on the topic of corporate and CEO blogging in Fortune Magazine, The New York Times and numerous other publications. A graduate of Harvard with a degree in English, she has an MBA from Georgetown University and a Masters in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin. She is based in Washington DC.

Ever notice how many blogs are about blogs?!   more »

There's a lot of good, bad... and ugly... blogging out there. I'd like to take a look at some of each. Like most bloggers, I'm opinionated. But I'm open to suggestion. So let's start the discussion rolling on what's good, what's bad and what's blecch in blogging.   more »

Too much has already been written about blogs. And many of you know far more about blogs than I ever ...   more »

This, via Ben Silverman in the PR Fuel newsletter - thought it might be interesting for some people to have a look at:

quoting Ben: PR giant Edelman and market research firm Inteliseek have
released a white paper, "Trust MEdia: How Real People Are
Finally Being Heard - The 1.0 Guide to the Blogosphere for
Marketers & Company Stakeholders." The version available to
the public is a good primer for PR, marketing and
advertising professionals who are looking to get a better
understanding of the blogosphere and how to deal with it
(and not deal with it).

Here's the link to the pdf file:
http://www.edelman.com/image/insights/content/ISwp_TrustMEdia_FINAL.pdf

Gwendolynn

Blogs are effective book promotion tools if the blogger has a clear purpose and stays focused. As a new blogger, I established a very clear set of goals for my own blog (delineated in the blog post).   more »

Gwendolynn Gawlick here, also known as PR Diva. I've worked as a literary publicist for about 7 years or so. ...   more »