Category Archives: Business & Marketing

Blogging isn’t a business

Posted on by
Reply

Doc Searls was one of several blogger biggies taking part in BloggerCon IV (“Celebrating the art and science of weblogs”), this weekend in San Francisco. Looks like all of the sessions are available as MP3 downloads and I’m looking forward to the one titled “Making Money.” Doc’s take on blogging and business makes a lot of sense to me:

First, blogging isn’t a business, any more than emailing or phoning are businesses. It is, however, becoming more important to many businesses. And to the nonbusiness lives of millions. This is an example of what I call The Because Effect. In the Making Money session yesterday, John Palfrey called this “making money Off blogging” (“as opposed to making money by blogging”).

Blogging the U.S.A

Posted on by
Reply

My buddy Chuck is blogging and podcasting his way across the US, covering something called the AASHTO Interstate 50th Convey. It’s a paid gig for the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council.

This is just an amazing opportunity to to demonstrate the power of new media and Chuck is firing on all 8 ethanol-powered cylinders.

How would the client have promoted this in the previous century? Well, we’d send out some news releases, inviting the media to come to our kick-off (free snacks!). And, uh, we’d send out some more news releases about what is happening along the way. What else? Oh, we’d take some pictures and put them on our website. And if we were really clever, we’d hire a film crew to shoot a little documentary of the journey. In a few weeks (or months), after the thing is edited (down to say, 30 minutes)…we’d send copies to the media in hopes they’d watch it and be so enthralled they’d do an interview with us and put it on their (Network, TV station, radio station, magazine, newspaper). And if they did do an interview, we’d send out a news release telling everyone about that.

Or, you could invite everyone that might possibly give a shit (or should give a shit) to come along for the ride. And if it’s easy enough, and fun enough… a lot of them will.

The Unconference

Posted on by
Reply

How many conferences have you been to where one (or all) of the sessions went something like this:

The moderator gets up and welcomes everyone to the session…provides a brief overview of the session topic…and introduces the panelists. Each of the panelists gets up and does a little presentation which may or may not have anything to do with the stated subject of the session. And, as a bonus, these are often self-serving pitches for the panelists’ company, product or service. Each of the panelists runs over their alloted time so the last guy gets screwed. If there is any time left, the panel fields questions from the audience. Most of these are usually off-topic and self-serving as well.

In recent years, something called an “unconference” has gained some popularity. Dave Winer is a big proponent of this format and they’re employing it at Gnomedex later this month. Dave does a nice job of explaining the concept:

We don’t have speakers, panels or an audience. We do have discussions and sessions, and each session has a discussion leader. Think of the discussion leader as a reporter who is creating a story with quotes from the people in the room. So, instead of having a panel with an audience we just have people. We feel this more accurately reflects what’s going on. It’s not uncommon for the audience at a conference to have more expertise than the people who are speaking. The discussion leader is also the editor, so if he or she feels that a point has been made they must move on to the next point quickly. No droning, no filibusters, no repeating an idea over and over.

Gnomedex 6.0 will be my first “unconference” and I’m looking forward to it.

Clear Channel considers :01 Blinks

Posted on by
1

In early 2005, I linked to an Adrants item about Cadillac trying out five second commercials (and made the obvious reference to Max Headroom). According to Advertising Age, Clear Channel is considering one-second commercials (called Blinks)

The Blinks could be used in a number of ways. Clear Channel’s Creative Services Group crafted a demonstration spot using the McDonald’s jingle, and placed it between one hip-hop song and another. The group also created a Blink for BMW’s Mini Cooper with a horn honking and man’s voice saying “Mini,” and placed it before miniaturized news reports. (Neither marketer has a deal with Clear Channel for Blinks.) Other audio mnemonics that could use Blinks are the Intel chime and the NBC bells.

Sounds like a publicity stunt but who knows. Not sure how this syncs with CC’s “less clutter” philosophy. If anybody has heard one of these (or, better still, could send me a wee air-check), gimme a shout. [Thanks, Jackie]

What will the boss think?

Posted on by
Reply

Seth Godin calls this the most important “marketing pothole”:

Great marketing pleases everyone on the team, sooner or later. But at the beginning, great marketing pleases almost no one. At the beginning, great marketing is counter-intuitive, non-obvious, challenging and apparently risky. Of course your friends, shareholders, stakeholders and bosses won’t like it. But they’re not doing the marketing, you are.

Mark Cuban: “Blogging is personal, traditional media is corporate.”

Posted on by

“Traditional media has become almost exclusively corporate while blogging remains almost exclusively personal. (People in traditional media) get hired for a specific job and they have to do that job. They get hired by a corporation that is most likely public, which means their senior management , the people they ultimately report to, have to put getting the stock price up above all else. That is really what blogging vs traditional media in 2006 has come down to. Bloggers drive blogs, share price drives traditional media. Blogging is personal, traditional media is corporate. Which is exactly why blog readership is going up, while traditional media is consolidating, if not contracting. Traditional media goes to work, bloggers live their work.”

I encourage you to read Mr. Cuban’s full post. Say what you will, Mark Cuban has always been about five minutes ahead on the old “Information Highway.” And he understands blogging as only a blogger can. [via Scripting.com]

I can send you one of our brochures

Posted on by
3

If you’ve visited smays.com more than once, it was because of something you read here. Some idea that I expressed or someone else expressed and to which I linked. Frankly, there’s nothing else to do on this blog but read what I have written or pointed to.

Our company just spent a few sheckels (I have no idea how many) on some new brochures for one of our new business units. They look terrific. And the copy is pretty well written. But —if we believe Seth Godin— nobody is going to read them:

The thing you must remember about just about every corporate or organizational brochure is this: People won’t read it. I didn’t say it wasn’t important. I just said it wasn’t going to get read. People will consider its heft. They might glance at the photos. They will certainly notice the layout. And, if you’re lucky, they’ll read a few captions or testimonials.

He’s right of course. And we all know this because we don’t read the brochures that others hand or send to us. We put them in drawer or file until the next “clean up” day and then we haul them down to the dumpster. So why do we spend the time and money? Because we need something that tells people about our company/product/service and a nice brochure can be farmed out and done once and everyone stays “on message” by reading or handing out The Brochure.

The best brochure is stillborn. Dead at birth. A good business (or personal) blog, on the other hand, is a living thing. It grows and changes and reacts and responds to the world around you. I happen to believe this is equally true of “brochure websites.” That’s why good blogs get so much more traffic than static, change-once-a-month websites.

Anybody with a copy of PageMaker and a color printer can make a brochure. Some nice photos…a cool font…a clever logo…we’re done. Blogs are never done.

But I’m betting your customers –current and prospective– are more interested in the idea you have today than the ones you had six months ago that made it into The Brochure.

Update: It took just a few hours for Andrew to demonstrate that there are times when a nice brochure or flyer is the way to go. In this instance, he’s developing a piece of property and he needs a way to show people where it’s located and what the site will look like once it’s complete. Today’s Lesson: Not everything is a blog (and I must not be so quick to generalize).

Are your campers happy?

Posted on by
Reply

I seem to recall reading that JetBlue is one of those companies whose customers have good things to say about them. The MIT Advertising Lab blog posted a photo of a JetBlue booth at Rockefeller Center in NYC, where people can record their experiences and thoughts about the company. Perhaps for use in TV commercials or podcasts? One would think that JetBlue is expecting to get more positive stories than negative. This is what all companies and organizations should strive for, right? Loyal, happy customers. So I gotta ask myself, what would our clients (advertisers for the most part) say about their experiences with our company? Are we even willing to ask? The JetBlue booth offers a degree of anonymity. A less-than-satisfied advertiser probably wouln’t say so to the sales rep that sold the schedule.

My point is, if we really believe our product or service is good (great?) and it really works? Why wouldn’t we ask our clients? Now it’s starting to sound like a customer satisfaction survey and those are almost always bullshit. But if I were walking down the street and saw booth where I could go in and record my experiences with (Toyota, HBO, XM Radio, and now Mac)… I’d do it. I’d take the time. I want people to know I like these companies. And really shitty companies (and you know who you are) don’t even think about building little booths. Bottom line, it’s probably pretty easy to find out if your customers love you or hate you. Anything between is tougher. And I’m betting most companies really don’t want to know.

Communicate. Sell. Blog.

Posted on by
Reply

I was talking with one of our advertising clients today and we got off on to the subject of how a blog could help him tell his story. He works for a state agency so it is unlikely he’ll get permission to blog because government department heads didn’t get where they are by trying risky new stuff. But the client said that when he brought up the subject of blogging with some of the foot soldiers, their eyes lit up. They got a little pumped at the prospect (or as pumped as government workers are allowed to get).

About six months ago I posted on how I might use blogs and podcasts if I were still doing affiliate relations for our networks. Today’s conversation started me thinking about this again.

If I were a sales rep of any kind, I’d have a blog. I’d post about things of interest and use to my prospects. My blog would be how my clients (current and prospective) know me. If I could make it relevant enough, useful enough… my clients would come to me (or my blog). I wouldn’t have to constantly be begging for appointments. They’d call me up to do a lunch and talk about some idea I posted about.

Blogosphere bullshit, you say? Perhaps. My co-worker David has been posting on a new Learfield blog that illustrates this idea. His posts are informed. Passionate. They deliver value.

Selling has always been about communicating. Wanna communicate in the 21st century? Better learn to blog.