MarketUP: Marketing & PR Services

Some of the most interesting, observant and intelligent people I know are Bloggers (if I can use that term rather loosely). What I mean by that is they are individuals with thoughts, opinions and information to share - and they use an online platfom to publish on a fairly regular basis.

I won't go into a history of 'Blog' or blogging - only to add that it's come a long way both technically and stylistically from the early 'web log' format. Whatever publishing platform chosen: Blogger, WordPress, Typepad, Tumblr, or even Joomla or Drupal - we can now create sophisticated blogging websites, using design templates, widgets and plug-ins. There is little or nothing to distinguish blogs from corporate websites.

So anyone with time to write and something to say can publish day or night and compete with some of the 'big cheese' bloggers who've grown brands or businesses from their online writing: Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing fame, Jason Kottke, Perez Hilton, Jason Chen aka Gizmodo, Chris Brogan - to name a few.

And perhaps most famously, Arianna Huffington who turned her Huffington Post blog aggregator into a publishing empire, hired hundreds of other bloggers - famous and not so famous - and then sold it to AOL, all the while becoming a global communications guru in just six years!

These are the examples brought up at conferences, by online consultants, in self-published e-books on how to make money blogging. Blogging as a business. Getting paid to express yourself. Even my teenage daughter writes a respectable blog and dreams of a career as a writer. Nothing wrong with that!

But there is another kind of blog: one that is an extension of a business, that is about something other than blogging or social networks or how to get more from Twitter. Blogs published by folks who were already in business - marketing, PR, advertising, business development or entrepreneurs - who write about their expertise in a particular area: venture capitalist turned writer Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur-author-permission marketing guru Seth Godin, Robert the 'Scobleizer' (via Microsoft), advertising and PR expert Danny Brown, lawyer cum business owner-writer-speaker Jonathan Fields, Amber Naslund, Shelly Kramer... the list goes on.

Where do you spend your energy? Are you trying to figure out 'How to Monetize Your Blog' - or do you use your blog to monetize your business?

--Donna

Blogging for business

Photo credit: Business Week

I'm going to stop apologizing. While I had every intention of being more self-disciplined about my own Blog contributions - life, and clients, just keep jumping in front of my intentions.

Now a couple months have again passed since the last post, and it seems impossible to me that May 26th turned into August 7th - but there's the reality. Family, friends and co-workers can attest to the more-than-usual hectic schedule plus a couple of unforeseen events that contributed to this time lapse. But in the end it is about me and my choices: where do I choose to focus my energy every day? The answer is clearly, "On client deliverables".

I'm lucky that client work is above normal for this time of year and I'm even luckier to be working with the calibre of clients we have! In fact, we are so swamped that I've finally been able to realize a long-hoped for collaboration with @KnealeMann; albeit a tiny one to start, but which I fully anticipate will grow and flourish. Having conversations with Kneale is like getting an injection of Red Bull intravenously. He's FULL of ideas and creative solutions to business challenges! I need to drink a full pot of coffee before picking up the phone to speak with him. (Peace, Kneale - you're great).

In the midst of all this controlled mayhem I did make the choice to escape for a much-needed vacation with my equally-driven husband to a beautiful Caribbean island. Great decision! Best recharging trip ever - I highly reommend this kind of action to everyone.

So here I sit on a Sunday (late) morning...still drinking part of that pot of coffee...and feel the writing bug hit me. Yes, I do in fact have some "client work" that needs to get finished, and I will be doing that a little later. But for the moment it's peaceful, I can think, I can share, and I'm moitivated enough to do so.

Not that I don't secretly wish I was still sitting on a beach terrace on an island...no apologies.

--Donna

{EAV_BLOG_VER:f453c0ed6e636006} 

Interesting text string, no? I've been asked by Empire Avenue to place this in the first part of my blog post - so they can verify that my blog is written by a real person. Hmmm. I guess a bunch of robots are writing blogs that I have not yet uncovered.

I admit: I got sucked into this newish gamified social network...and I'm not the only one! Just got home from Blog World (#BWENY) and heard @chrispirillo confess that he is addicted to the site. His 'value' is certainly one indication of his high level of participation.

The topic of 'Game Mechanics: The Future of Loyalty' was discussed yesterday at the conference by @schneidermike, Chris, Dave Tyler, and @JasonKeath - as applied to business promotion.

Fun. The panel was - and the insistance by the speakers that 'fun' was an important component of any form of gamification. I agree. Other points mentioned:

• 'Earn and redeem' drives behaviour
• 'Step' people along a path of learning the game
• Make it contextually relevant

There was much more - and it continued into the keynote panel at the end fo the day. In the end, if you are going to develop a gamified promotion for business - you still need to measure the success through increase in sales. Agree with that as well.

Day 2 - Wednesday, 25 May 2011

Admittedly, I should have posted a Day 1 yesterday, but it was a long day starting at 4:15 am and I needed a full night's rest to be energized for today, so I waited until this morning.

After all I'm in one of the most energized cities in the world - New York City. Specifically Manhattan - on 39th Street and 9th, just a few blocks from the Jacob Javits Conference Center, site of Blog World Expo East, or #BWENY for us hashtag users (I'm talking to you @Hashable).

What's in a word? Plenty, if you write enough of them. After reading about Wordle on the Social Media Examiner blog, under ideas for generating content - I just had to try it out for myself. I plugged in the URL for my MarketUP Musings, and this is what came up. I spent a few minutes picking the fonts and colors - to coordinate with our site colors.

It was really easy to do and instantaneous. I could probably waste a lot of time playing with many more word combinations. I have a graphic design background, including the study of typography, so I enjoy seeing how it can be used to create patterns and interest.

But equally interesting is seeing which words are picked out of my stream of writing to be empasized. 'Goldilocks' got major prominence, even though I wrote just one post with that title. However, I included several links with that name in them too - so it carried a lot of weight.

When you are writing copy for a website and want to know how well you are doing with keywords or phrases that you want your readers to find - run it by Wordle and see what comes up. It might surprise you.

--Donna

I procrastinate. Not on client work - but on our own company projects and updates. We are so busy being busy that time slides by rapidly and we don't employ those best practices which we strongly advise others to follow.

The proverbial 'Cobbler's Children Are Barefoot'. (many variants, since 1546)

Well, the complete make-over launch of our new website earlier this week is the result of a New Year's resolution to 'shod ourselves'.

As a result of reading a post by Kneale Mann on his Facebook page, I was already looking into the details of SOBCON2010 - to find a way to work it into my calendar. Then while checking the various details of location, agenda, timing, etc. - I discovered the challenge/offer from @LizStrauss and Terry @Starbucker to write a blog about someone who's made a difference in my life/business, and get a discount on the registration.

Several different articles - and conversations - converged in my brain this morning. It just took about 17 hours for me to get some thinking time for expression.

It started with the piece: Why Flattery is Effective - Research - Harvard Business Review. Definitely worth the read. The gist of it is - we all like compliments. They motivate us. Duh. Let me think, would I rather hear 'your hair style makes you look matronly... your suit is drab...you were too blunt and pushy in the meeting...your report had no conclusion... you bored the audience to death...OR, would I rather someone told me 'your hair is lovely/shiny today...your blouse is such a cheerful color...that was terrific diplomacy in a tough meeting...your report supplied important data...you really engaged the audience.' Hmmmm. Let me give that a NANO SECOND (or less) of thought.

I promised myself starting March 1st I'd be more self-disciplined and write something in my blog - EVERY DAY.

Well, today is March 11th and I missed days 1-10.

In the circular world of internet communication, I received a daily SmartBrief email that had a link to an article by John Jantsch, Founder of Duct Tape Marketing, which was posted on the American Express OPEN Forum for small businesses. The headline "10 Ways to Make WordPress More Useful" was a strong hook, as I use WordPress for my own blog as well as for some clients, and who doesn't want to make anything they do more useful?