Coming soon to a screen near you:
October  29-November 2, 2007
GUEST: Dianna Huff, Marcom Writer Blog

TOPIC: Writing Search Engine Friendly Copy

Is SEO magic? manipulation? a myth?

In a recent teleclass at which Dianna Huff was a guest, white paper guru Michael Stelzner asked, "What's more important: the words humans read on the landing page or manipulating information in favor of search engines?"

As a B2B marcom consultant and SEO copywriter, Dianna Huff bristles at the word, "manipulation." "The biggest myth," she says, "is that you can manipulate the search engines -- especially Google -- to do anything."

So what can you do with SEO? Is it a science, an art... or hocus-pocus? Join Dianna as she reveals what SEO is and isn't.... why direct response writers make ideal SEO copywriters, how to write copy that's BOTH search engine and people friendly, and why high-quality content will do more for your SEO efforts than "manipulating" the search engines.

ABOUT THE DISCUSSION LEADER:

Dianna Huff blogs at the MarCom Writer blog. When she's not blogging, she's working with clients on projects ranging from e-newsletters and Websites to search engine optimization and online marketing.

Should CEOs or other senior executives blog? That is an open question. Certainly some do, and do effectively.

Executives who blog include Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors, Jonathan Schwartz, President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, and Mark Cuban, owner of The Dallas Mavericks among other things.

Some of these blogs are easy to dismiss. Although Bob Lutz’s blog is great, GM is in such bad shape that perhaps this is a move of desperation? Companies in tough shape have little to lose by blogging or anything else. Sun Microsoft is a high tech company and lots of high tech companies blog – we can almost say there is a tradition here.  And Mark Cuban is, well, simply a maverick. Besides, as a billionaire entrepreneur, the rules are somewhat different. Oh yeah, he’s in high tech too.

How about Randy Baseler, who was the VP of Marketing for Boeing? He blogged at Randy’s Journal. Apparently it was such a success that Boeing chose another Randy, Randy Tinseth, as his replacement so the blog could carry on interrupted (was it Shakespeare, or maybe Jerry Garcia, that said something about “a Randy by any other name  . . . ?”). Or Bill Marriott of Marriot Hotels. Well, let’s just say CEO blogs, at least out of high tech, are few and far between.

So, should CEOs and other high-level executives blog? Quite frankly some are not great communicators -- some make me cringe every time they open their mouths, few have “extra” time, and this whole blogging phenomenon is in its infancy.  And what about “ghost blogging?” Is it the sin most bloggers seem to insist?

We’ll cover these and other issues this week, and let’s just summarize for the moment with:
“Some CEOs and other high level executives can blog quite effective, and conversely, some certainly shouldn’t!”