Category Archives: Blogging

Dave Winer podcasts “because I want to say something”

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“There’s a mini-debate going on about whether podcasting is a success or worth it, or whatever, I’m not sure exactly what the issue is, but it’s framed this way –> if you can’t get advertisers to hitch a ride on your podcast then podcasting is not worth much if anything.

My phone doesn’t have a business model. Neither does my porch. I still like having a phone and a porch because they help me meet new people and communicate with people I know. Same with my blog and podcast.

I do a podcast from time to time because I want to say something. Whether I can run an ad on my podcast means nothing to me because I would never do it. … I would never burden my podcasting with the task of supporting me. It’s not why I podcast. … Blogging and podcasting exist independent of a professional’s ability to eek out a living using the tools of blogging and podcasting.”

You can read Mr. Winer’s full post here.

My colleague David is helping a number of clients with blogs and podcasts and none are ad supported. They exist solely to help tell the client’s story. Blogs and podcasts are inexpensive, effective, easy and fun.

For my part, nothing ruins a good hobby like trying to make money with it.

Unhappy Camper

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Fbl_motorhomeOur offices are just a couple of hundred feet from the headquarters of the Missouri Farm Bureau. As I headed out for lunch I noticed a motor home had pulled off the highway, just in front of FB building. I didn’t have my camera (I know, I know) so I didn’t get a shot but found this on the FarmBureauLies.com website.

This guy is not a happy camper. And I have no idea who is right in his dispute with Farm Bureau.

I’m just wondering how many people got back to their offices and did what I did… pulled up the website. And if you’re Farm Bureau (or any big company), what –if anything– is the proper response. I’m sure the lawyers would tell them they can’t say anything about a matter that’s being litigated.

As disgruntled customers take their grievances online, it would make sense for big companies (and small ones) to have a online strategy of their own (I looked for a FB blog but didn’t find one). Seems to me companies have to find some way to engage with their customers in this space.

If the sign on the camper read “Learfield Sucks” and was parked in front of our building, what would we do? If Clyde Lear had his way, he’d probably go and talk to the guy. Maybe record an interview with the guy, let him tell his story. And then post all or part of that on the company blog.

Would the guy be any less pissed? Who knows. Would we look more responsive or concerned as a company? To some.

Tweeting the Iowa Caucuses

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A couple of weeks ago I wondered if we’d see any live blogging from the local precincts that make up the Iowa Caucuses. I figured someone must be trying to pull this together and found this post by Patrick Ruffini at Hugh Hewitt’s Townhall.com:

“On Iowa Caucus night, I’d like to launch a little experiment in citizen journalism. Mobile technology allows anybody to communicate from anywhere, including from inside a caucus. Any caucus goer can become a citizen reporter, relaying key facts to the outside world instantaneously. I’d like to recruit an army of caucus insiders — both Republicans and Democrats — to report results instantly and share tidbits on what the campaigns are doing to sway last-minute undecideds.”

Caucus bloggers can participate via Twitter, email or by texting.

Not sure how busy I’ll be helping with RadioIowa.com, but I’ll try to keep an eye on this experiment.

Blogging as marketing tool

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Good story in the NYT Small Business section on blogging as a marketing tool:

“…while blogs may be useful to many more small businesses, even blogging experts do not recommend it for the majority.

Guy Kawasaki, a serial entrepreneur, managing partner of Garage Technology Ventures and a prolific blogger, put it this way: “If you’re a clothing manufacturer or a restaurant, blogging is probably not as high on your list as making good food or good clothes.”

Blogging requires a large time commitment and some writing skills, which not every small business has on hand.”

New blogging rules from the NCAA

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It seems pretty clear that the NCAA wants to prohibit anything approaching real-time coverage of the event. Companies –like the one I work for— pay millions for the exclusive broadcast rights to collegiate sporting events. A reporter (or a dozen reporters) up in the press box live blogging the game –in theory– dilutes the value of the rights we purchased.

“The NCAA this week announced a formal program limiting how often bloggers with media credentials can update their blog while attending championship college events.

The sports governing body set blogging limits for each sport. For example, those at football games can update their blogs three times per quarter and once at halftime. For basketball, bloggers can post five times per half, once at halftime and twice per overtime period.

The policy even sets rules for water polo (three per quarter, once at halftime), bowling (10 blog posts per session) and fencing (10 per session).”

The phrase that caught my eye was “bloggers with media credentials.” If
I’m just a fan, can I blog at will? If your credentials are at stake,
you probably wouldn’t fight this. But if you’re  a civilian, you could
tell the NCAA to piss off. Does this mean the NCAA thinks only bloggers
with some media connection can/will have a significant audience?

More ads flowing to blogs?

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The Society for New Communications Research is a think tank on new media. They recently asked a couple of hundred advertising agencies about their plans to advertise and market in “conversational media” (blogs and podcasts and such). Among the findings:

“In the next five years, a majority of advertising and marketing professionals expect to spend more money on so-called conversational media–or online media that encompasses things like blogs and podcasts–than on advertising through traditional media such as newspapers or magazines.

Today, a majority of these agencies said that they spend about 2.5 percent of their total budgets on conversational media, but by 2012, they plan to tip that percentage to more than they spend on traditional media.”

From a post by Stefanie Olsen over at the C|Net Blog (Thanks to Kevin O’Keefe at LexBlog for the pointer.)

As one who has made his living from “radio spots” for 30+ years, this is hard to imagine. But five years isn’t that long. I guess we’ll see.

Band of Bloggers: War Through A Soldiers Eyes

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Watched a really interesting program on the History Channel last night about military bloggers (milbloggers) in Irag:

“For the first time in history, modern technology is enabling viewers to experience war as it really is… directly from the battlefield. An ever growing band of military bloggers are using the internet, video cameras and cell phones to deliver honest, powerful and uncensored content. Band of Bloggers will be the site that will collect this raw and riveting “soldier generated content.”

Remember the early day of the war when network reporters (and anchors) were “embedded” with our troops, reporting from “the front lines?” Well, a lot of those reporters have got the fuck out of Dodge or been forced to do their reports from the basement of the Baghdad Hilton.

Questions of objectivity aside, you can’t get much more “front line” than these men and women. Some of them have even rigged cameras to their helmets to record video.

If Vietnam was our first televised war, Iraq is our first blogged war. If you’re a blogger or read blogs, you’ll want to watch Band of Bloggers.

Focus, Passion and Originality

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Karl Long, a Web/Social Media Integration Manager at Nokia, identifys three traits of a successful blog – focus, passion, & originality:

“Focus – I think one of the most important choices a blogger makes when they start their blog is what their focus is. Think about a first time visitor getting dropped on your blog from a search engine or stumbleupon, are they going to understand in 2 seconds exactly what your blog is about? If the answer is yes you will have a much better chance of building a readership quickly and you will have a successful blog. If not, you may well build a successful blog but it will take years as opposed to months.

Passion – This is the only possible way that you will be able to sustain regular posting of a high enough quality over the course of years. If you don’t have the passion your blog will become a ghost town very quickly. People talk about the passion in the writing, and how important it is for readers, but IMHO the passion is all about the ability to sustain you through the emotional roller coaster ride of writing a blog. Sure your passion will come through in your writing, but it is your passion that will keep you plugging away when no one is coming back, no one is commenting, and no one is linking to you. Passion may not be the only thing that will drag you along, but it is the most enjoyable so unless you are a masochist you better love what your talking about.

Originality – In branding terms, what differentiates you from the crowded playing field of blogs all talking about the same thing. They don’t call the blogosphere an echo chamber for nothing, because most of the time everyone is reflecting and amplifying what else is happening around the blogosphere. Original content and original ideas in the blogosphere stand out like beacons in the night, and not to labor the metaphor but they also attract other bloggers like moths to a flame.”

[via LexBlog]