Tag Archive for 'blog'

We Have Met The Enemy

And apparently the enemy is us.

An invitation to a two day (TWO DAY!!!) conference on Twitter just popped into my email inbox.

I have no particular beef with the organizers and speakers. But really – is this what people (more to the point, what their employers) are spending money on – conferences on the latest social media toys?  Aren’t we in a recession with budgets being slashed and PR people being turned out of their cubicles?

Aren’t there more important things to think about? Like, for example, smarter ways in which we can help our clients engage with their communities and build the kind of relationships that last longer than it takes to type 140 characters?

More to the point, do we really need two day conferences to learn how to use Twitter?

Twitter is a tactic – it’s a thing people do. Some day it will seem as natural as answering the phone. For some of us it already is. Do you think businesses should spend money on training their marketing staff on answering the phone?

Dumb question, I know.

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Happy Birthday cont…

Speaking of significant dates, it was sometime earlier this month that this blog celebrated its fourth anniversary.

I had already been blogging for a couple of years at another location but the convergance of media, marketing, public relations and social media was too tempting a target so I abadoned my career as a daddy blogger and (if I’m not mistaken) I became PR blogger number 140-something.

Back then you could count all the significant marketing bloggers on your hands and toes. Now … well you know.

Here’s one of my early posts, where I think I really started hitting my stride.

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Who Will Tell The Advertisers?

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I had lunch today with Michelle Leder, author of footnoted.org and former co-conspirator on the Take19 blog.

We were talking revenue models, advertising and the real value of blogs. Michelle’s readers are mainly high-income, high-worth, deeply involved in the financial sector, in short, a very desirable demographic.

And suddenly in the middle of discussing click throughs and CPMs we wondered if advertising is even the solution. What about a world where, as the New York Times reported today, consumers are spending less and saving more? Who will click on an add urging you to buy another iPhone killer when you are still paying off the last one? Who will even care about the newest bright shiny toy at C.E.S. when they are struggling to pay the mortgage?

And with so many blogs and blog networks making bank off of the consumer technology industry, how much longer can so many gadget blogs and videobloggers remain afloat?

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Pitching The Bloggers

Here’s a scenario I imagine going on in a lot of agencies these days.

A client wants placement in ‘the blogs.’ The account team pulls up a list in Bacons or Technorati or whatever. Hundreds of bloggers – relevent or otherwise – get identical emails. At best, there are no responses. At worst, some of the bloggers post snarky comments, naming the agency and the poor AE who had the luck to have her name attached to the pitch.

And the agency and client conclude that pitching bloggers, and using social media in general, isn’t worth the time and effort.

Oddly enough, pitching bloggers is really no different from pitching journalists. Just replace “bloggers” with “reporters” in the scenario above. Doesn’t that sound like how most agencies do business? Wouldn’t you get more results by actually taking the time to learn what reporters, or bloggers, wanted – or if they are even interested in the first place?

There are two excellent blog posts today on the subject – one from Ragan’s quoting some excellent advice from fellow Catalyst Shel Holtz and the other from Jim Lodico on Social Marketing 2.0.

Go and read them both.

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Finding Blogs

The most obvious question – how do I find the blogs / bloggers I need to be following – is one that doesn’t really have a clear answer. ReadWriteWeb has a round-up of the most frequently used sites for finding niche blogs – any one of the sites listed is a good place to start.

But the real work comes from following a couple of blogs and seeing who they link to and follow. And then gradually you will know who the authorities in any given field are, and conversly who the gasbags are.

It takes time, I know, but nothing worth doing is worth doing sloppy.

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