Category Archives: Business & Marketing

MO Dept Conservation blogging

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Lorna Domke is in charge of “Outreach and Education” for the Missouri Department of Conservation and she has added a blog to her communication tool kit.

Lorna Domke“I get to learn a lot about what’s going on all over the state in forestry, fisheries, wildlife, resource science, protection and private lands services. We have lots of ways to get the word out including our regular website, the Missouri Conservationist magazine, and news releases. But on this blog, I’m going to share odds and ends of what I’m hearing from other divisions and what’s of seasonal interest.”

Lorna is the wife of my pal Henry, who blogs at HealthCareFineArt.com. Another TBF (Two Blog Family). If you know of others, leave a link in the comments.

Our short-list of state departments or agencies with blogs is growing: Attorney General (Consumer Protection); Missouri Gaming Commission; Children’s Trust Fund; KidsFirst; Dept. of Agriculture (Farmers’ Markets) Department of Mental Health; Lottery. I’m sure there are more that I haven’t discovered yet (Three of these are the work of former Learfielders).

It’s just a trickle now but as people discover how much more effective a blog is than the traditional website, this will become a flood.

Toxic Employees

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“Toxic employees are usually afraid, poorly managed and underappreciated. They can rarely be bullied into changing their behavior, often because they themselves are bullies. Managers can hire the non-toxic, re-assign the toxic and be really clear with themselves that they’re willing to pay almost any price to keep toxic employees away from everyone else. And if toxic employees appears to be a pattern, my bet is that it’s your fault, not the employees.”

— Seth Godin

State Fair video contest

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David Brazeal (the Man Behind the Curtain at Learfield InterAction) points us to this entry in the Missouri State Fair Video Contest.

“Show us in 60 seconds or less how you are preparing for the State Fair by entering the “Preparing for the Big Show” video contest. Create your work-of-art, then post the video to YouTube with the tag “mostatefair”. The grand prize winner will have his or her video premiered before the Jason Aldean concert opening night of the Fair.”

When pros see stuff like this or the summer intern video I posted earlier… I’m sure all they see poorly shot/edited amateur video. When I see these, I think, “Damn, that’s clever!” Or funny. Or interesting. And I’m reminded that almost anyone can now play in this sandbox. I love that.

Children’s Trust Fund relaunches website on Typepad

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ctf4kids.orgChildren’s Trust Fund of Missouri is one of our clients and, for the last few months, I’ve been helping them with a make-over of their website.

Their previous site was classic Web 1.0. It was designed by a company in St. Louis and any changes or updates had to be emailed to the developer who would, in time, make the change. Most of the “current” content was PDF news releases that weren’t very “new. The site was hosted on state servers. The CTF guys just were not happy with their site.

I persuaded them to try Typepad and incorporate a blog as their primary content element.

They took the site public at the first of the month and, although still tweaking some of the content, it looks and works great. And the best part… they are now in control. Paula and Alicia know how to add pages, maintain links, and manage the site top to bottom.

Kirk, the executive director, is finding his blogging feet and posting regularly. From his fingers…to the world. Boom.

We’ve shown them how to use Flickr, Google Calendar and YouTube. And all of this for a fraction of what they paid for their previous site, which simply wasn’t meeting their needs.

Helping folks like Kirk, Paula and Alicia tell their story is extremely gratifying. If Web 1.0 was selling fish, Web 2.0 is using great new tools for helping people learn how to fish.

Curly Howard alive and well!

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Curly Lives!The local media were on hand for the Big iPhone Event yesterday. I was stunned to learn that one of my childhood idols, Curly Howard, is not only alive… but working as a videographer for one of our local TV stations. AgWired’s Chuck Zimmerman did a touch-and-go and took this photo (which I consider very flattering).

I’m embarrassed that I didn’t introduce myself, but I did watch the voice-over package that aired on the 10 o’clock news. About 40 seconds.

There was a photographer from the local newspaper on hand. A rather stern looking woman who didn’t seem to be having any fun. Her paper ran the iPhone story on page one (above the fold) this morning. With a couple of her photos. I did not, however, find the story/pics on the newspaper website.

All of which reminds me of the wonderful freedom of blogging. I can post what I want (video, stills), when I want, with no pesky editors looking over my shoulder. I wouldn’t suggest for a second that my amateur efforts are on par with these pros. I would argue that I had more fun than they did and maybe some of that comes through in my posts.

And one more thing. The video that aired on the local TV station and the front page newspaper story –unless posted to their websites– is gone forever. With any luck, in a month or two, a Google search for “iPhone+jefferson city” will get you to smays.com.

Seth Godin: Different kinds of advertising

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“The first kind is the rational kind. Yellow Page ads, direct mail and Google AdWords fit into this category. This is advertising that works, if ‘works’ is defined as, “pay $3 and make $4.” With measurable direct advertising, you can count on profit-minded small organizations to give it a try (small buys) and if it obviously makes money, to buy some more.

The second kind of advertising is the glamorous kind, the kind that people think of when they think of the Super Bowl or Time magazine or of profitable ads that are worth selling. These ads don’t sell because they work. They sell because they are sold.

Let me be fair: they work if we define ‘working’ as: pleasing the client, pleasing the agency, increasing brand goodwill, and building, over time, a groundswell of awareness and brand respect that ultimately leads to profits.”

— Seth’s blog post on selling advertising.

Not for sale

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I received the following email today:

"I can pay you $35 for a text ad on your (website). The ad –for a free personals web site– would consist of a couple of lines of text with links to the web site. I can pay via PayPal, or send you a check. Would you be interested?"

The post on which he wanted to place an ad was about the anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The only possible connection I could see was "lonely hearts" and "personals" but that’s a reach.

I thanked him for his interest but turned down the $35. But it got me thinking. Would I have taken $350? No. $3,500? I know it’s ridiculous, but I don’t think I would. This space just ain’t for sale.

“Introducing the Missourinet”

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A lot of our company’s history is jammed into cardboard boxes and I stumbled upon a little piece this afternoon. This is a copy of an ad [larger image] that ran in Missouri Life Magazine, sometime in the early ’70’s.

Now Missourians from border to border know what their neighbors are doing.

They know what is going on in Jefferson City… in the major metropolitan areas… in the arts… in science… business.

They’re listening to their local radio station… an affiliate of the Missourinet.

The Missourinet is a statewide news network… very similar in operation to the national news networks. Some 40 radio stations carry its hourly newscasts. It has the state Capitol’s largest full-time news bureau. And each week its programs feature hundreds of on-the-scene reports from correspondents and newsmakers over the state.

Missouri + net? Get it? The official name of our company was “Missouri Network, Inc.” back then.

Blogger removed from NCAA baseball game for blogging

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A blogger from the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., was expelled from a college playoff game for live-blogging.

According to the Courier-Journal, staff blogger Brian Bennett was approached by NCAA officials in the fifth inning of a game between the University of Lousville and Oklahoma State, told that blogging “from an NCAA championship event ‘is against NCAA policies (and) we’re revoking the (press) credential and need to ask you to leave the stadium.'”

This hits close to home. The company I work for is one of half a dozen big players in collegiate sports marketing. We pay millions for exclusive broadcast and marketing rights for the sporting events at our partner schools. Does that extend to a reporter blogging int he stands? Does it extend to a fan blogging in the stands? I think our “company position” would be that it does. If and when it comes up, I think we have to handle it correctly but I’m not sure just that would be.