Here’s a really good example of the difference between a "traditional" website… and a blog. The Fair Fan Blog ("…taking pictures from the top of the ferris wheel so you don’t have to") is a project of Learfield Interaction. The bloggerista is Laura (Last Name Withheld to Protect Her Hotness) and she’s off to a bang-up start.
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.
“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.
This year’s Gnomedex is billed as "The Blogosphere’s Conference." Speakers include: Guy Kawasaki, Cali Lewis, one of the JibJab guys, Justin Kan (Justin.tv), Jason Calcanis, and others. If you don’t recognize these names, it’s unlikely you’d enjoy the conference. But I look forward to it all year. This is my Indy 500/Super Bowl/World Series, minus the crowds (It’s a small conference, limited to about 300 attendees.)
For the first four or five years of the conference, I took vacation and paid my own expenses. But the Enlightened Management of Learfield now sees the value of this conference, so it’s work related and reimbursed.
Oooh, look! Goosebumps!
“We are approaching a decade since the first blogger — regarded by many to be Jorn Barger — began his business of hunting and gathering links to items that tickled his fancy, to which he appended some of his own commentary. On Dec. 23, 1997, on his site, Robot Wisdom, Mr. Barger wrote: “I decided to start my own webpage logging the best stuff I find as I surf, on a daily basis,” and the Oxford English Dictionary regards this as the primordial root of the word “weblog.”
[WSJ Online Thanks, Henry]
Thanks to Edward for pointing to this story on the Kansas City Star website about sports blogging:
Meet the new American sports fan — an Internet-induced mix of sportswriter, play-by-play announcer, talking head and regular guy. His name is Will McDonald and, from his one-bedroom apartment in Cleveland, the University of Iowa doctoral student, painstakingly records, on his blog, the comings and goings of each Kansas City Royals game.
For the sports world — the fans, the players, the leagues and the teams — the rise of the blogger has raised complicated questions about broadcasting rights, how to reach an audience, and where the sports fan stops and the journalist begins.
The lines have blurred so much, in fact, that the New York Islanders plan to give bloggers their own box next season. So much that the NCAA escorted a reporter out of the press box two weeks ago for blogging a live baseball game. So blurred that sports teams are holding meetings about how to handle the rise of the blogger, and no one seems to know what comes next.
I could be wrong, but I think the Islanders are on the right track.
DeLoss asks: “Whatever happened to that picture of you staring at a monitor? The background was dark and you were quite close to the screen, as if trying to detect something. I always thought that was a good shot for your
blog.”
Me too. When I started blogging, I thought I should include a photo but didn’t want to look like more of a dumb-ass than necessary. So I sat my camera (on timer) on a stack of books, turned off the lights and came up with this. Still pretty much how I see myself.
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.
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.
Darren Rowse (Pro Blogger) offers tips on how to build your personal brand:
While reading Darren’s tips, I mentally scrolled through the last five years of posts here at smays.com, and –more by luck than design– I think hit most of these. And a week doesn’t go by that my blog doesn’t come up in conversation with current or prospective clients (from them, not me). I’m not sure how valuable smays.com is as a brand, but it’s out there.
Start building your brand. Your company is not and cannot do it for you. [via LexBlog]
The Missouri Lottery is blogging. According to the release, you can "ask questions about games and promotions, watch videos from the new Reel Lottery video series, get updates on Lottery winners, and read posts from Lottery employees and players."
Chief Blogger in Residence is John Wells. He’s been with the Missouri Lottery for some time as Videographer/Satellite Coordinator. John has been wading in the blog pond since October of 2005 and has managed to turn it into his day job. Good for him. From time to time, John does part-time work for The Missourinet (a Learfield company).
The lottery should have been blogging years ago, but for many (most? all?) state entities, the blogosphere is a mysterious and scary place. I have to believe that John lobbied long and hard to help make this happen. On the other hand, it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the Power of the Blog. Good luck, John.