Gross Blog Anatomy

DISSECTING BLOGS FROM A MARKETER’S PERSPECTIVE

What gives me the right?

Who am I to be some sort of blogging “expert?”

Marqui “pay bloggers” program

Launched an ethical debate in the blogosphere

● Twenty bloggers, three-month contracts

● Established readership, wrote about development

● Post once per week, mention Marqui, flag your post

● $800 / month, we’ll publish everything

Within a month of my first post:

Results? Oh, yes…

More than 200 pieces of press

Lesson 1: Reality bites

“The Marqui white paper PDF is badly created….”

Lesson 2: Blog, vs. paying others…

Lesson 3: Priceless relationships

Lesson 4: dark & light sides

Lesson 4: dark & light sides

So… WTF?

Change is inevitable…

Search: $8.50

Yellow pages: $20

Online banner ads: $50

Email: $60

Direct mail: $70

Indirect sales: $5000

Direct sales: $22,000

The Cost of Customers is FallingCost of customers is falling

Source: Dr. Paul Kedrosky

1980: $183,000/Gb

1985: $71,000

1990: $9,000

1995: $880

2000: $14.29

2007: $0.25

Infrastructure Cost is FallingCost of infrastructure is falling

Source: Dr. Paul Kedrosky

Marketing 2.0: how do you win?

1. Improve your “find-ability” online

B. L. O. G…THE OLD JOKE: BLOG MEANS BETTER LISTING ON GOOGLE

Getting into the magic “F”

Google (all search engine) spiders love:

1) Relevant keywords• Blogs should be optimized for search

2) Fresh content• Good blogs are updated daily

• (Do as I say, not as I do…)

3) Lots of links• The key to blogging and SEM

Marketing 2.0: how do you win?

2. Leverage WOM

A new world of brand challenges

Consumers are less brand-loyal

Individuals are less trusting

• The Internet is the only form of media in which trust is rising

Consumers are more independent –less reliant on “experts”

• 67% consumers rely on WOM vs. other marketing methods to make purchasing decisions

WOM, FOAF community, connections

Source: Forrester Research

Marketing 2.0: how do you win?

3. Create transparency

Collaboration fuels change

Conversations

you’re having

Conversations about you

The membrane

Your Market

Concept: Hugh MacLeod, gapingvoid.com

You

Marketing 2.0: how do you win?

4. It’s not going away

Historic changes are afoot

Internet

● Moving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

Consumers

● Surf 1990’s Search 2000’s Subscribe 2007

Companies

● Moving from monologues to dialogues

"Dotcom was about 'taking'. Web 2.0 is about 'giving'." - Hugh McLeod, www.gapingvoid.com

57 Million and doubling74.8

Source: David Sifry’s Quarterly State of the Blogosphere Report

34.5

The “Year of…”

2004

● The Year of the Political Blog

2005

● The Year of the Media Blog

2006 2007 (??)

● The Year of the Business Blog (??)

• As of 10/08/06 only 40 (8%) of the Fortune 500 were blogging… Source: Fortune 500 Blog Wiki - SocialText

Okay, okay! Give me the practical stuff

Rules of the blogosphere

Rule #1: The blogosphere is self-cleansing

Witness: Edelman and WalMart’s fall – October 2006…

● Lacked transparency

● Lasted two days

● Completely trashed in the blogosphere

Kathy Sierra’s death threats – spring 2007…

● More than 1100 comments in first day

● Reverberated through old and new media

● Kathy and Chris Locke appeared togetheron CNN within a week

● The peak was well gone

Rule #2: Your word is your brand

● Truth: Hard to find in a flood of content

● Reality: What/who is real? What/who is virtual?

● The blogosphere is your living room – your town

● You decide what’s appropriate

What your lawyers will say

eDiscovery is all that

● eMail, blog posts and even IM get reviewed

● Your electronic privacy policy needs updating

• To cover blogs and IM

● Blogs must be monitored regularly

• Every day, every eight hours or so

BLOG… BLOG BUT KNOW THE RISKS

What your lawyers will say

Here are the major risks

1. Harassment issues

2. Confidential information

3. Privacy issues

4. Disparagement issues

BLOG…

Rule #3: Preserve your brand

Road(s) to blogosphere success

THERE IS NO WRONG WAY

Step 1: Track the buzz in your industry

Posit 1: Not all blogs are equal...

● A-List bloggers

● Journalist bloggers

● Corporate bloggers

● Executive/employee bloggers

● Community bloggers

● Customer bloggers

● Niche/vertical bloggers

Posit 2: Define your sphere

Posit 3: Track your sphere

Posit 4: Manage your issues

Things you need to know before you go

● Issues travel quickly in the blogosphere

● Awareness and preparation are key

● Build relationships before you need them

● Target and prioritize “inflection points”

● Recognize worldwide nature/access

Posit 5: Use RSS to keep up?

Posit 6: Track tone and manner

PR 2.0 Source: Attensa, Anvil Media, O’Johnson Partners

Step 2: Be a community builder

Posit 1: Join the conversation

Posit 2: Build relationships before you need ‘em

Posit 3: Tag your posts

Posit 4: Respect your readers

Rules of the road

How to avoid becoming blog road kill

Rules of engagement

● Develop thick skin

● Be absolutely honest

● Have a point of view

● Do your research

● Engage your detractors

● Drive to closure

Best practices

● Get the support of your CEO –others at the highest level

● Assign roles, responsibilities and processes up front

● Implement a crisis communications plan... just in case

● Establish a clear theme/focus

How to get into trouble

● Lie, post inaccurate or poorly researched information

● Fake your way into the party

● Ignore valuable feedback in comments

● Bad-mouth competitors

● Neglect your blog – you should post 2-3 times / week at least

How to get into more trouble

● Chronic “re-blogging”

● Leak sensitive information

● Stray too far from your brand

● Tie a corporate blog to only one person

How to make a blog captivating

● Honest, authentic voice

● Strong point of view for your blog’s mission

● Passion for your topic

● Use words like captivating in your title!

Blog etiquette

What I’ve learned to be the truth

● Five second rule

● Give credit where credit is due

● Acknowledge and/or thank other bloggers for linking to your blog (or commenting on it)

● Don’t turn comments or posts into blatant sales pitches

● Avoid editing or deleting comments

• Unless they’re spam

• Unless they’re offensive

Rule 1: Five second rule

Rule 2: Proper attribution is a must

“The proper (and considerate) protocol is to write some brief commentary, perhaps quote small sections of these writings -and without exception link back to the original sources.

If you can be the one to introduce interesting new sources to the feed readers of the world, and drive traffic in their direction, everyone wins.”

Source: ‘Publish and Prosper, Steve Broback and DL Byron

Rule 3: Comment & trackback!

The real (well, almost) currency of the blogosphere…

Rule 4: Know your readers

WILL THEY PUT UP WITH BLATANT SALES PITCHES?

Rule 5: SEO and blogs go together

You can optimize your posts – carefully

● Inbound and outbound links

● Fresh content with relevant keywords

● Google juice

● Augment your Search Engine Marketing

Rule 6: Content is king

With RSS, we’ve come full circle

● White background, black text, blue links…

Who’s the best blogger?

Your readers will tell you – if you listen

● Someone who writes great email

● They’re not afraid to have a point of view

● SME – subject matter expert – especially if you have a technical audience… bloggers have to have ‘street cred’

● Is real, or is cited responsibly

• Character blogs are summarily rejected by over-30 crowd

• Younger audiences are trained to be more media savvy

How often do I blog?

● Two to three times a week is serious – fewer posts, you’re not

● Google spiders index more the more often you write

● Short posts are what the pros make – but be authentic to your style

● Consistency and interesting content are key

Free! is a very good price

Start where you intend to stay…

● www.blog.marqui.com vs. www.marqui.com/blog

SELECTING YOUR BLOG SOFTWARE – A CAUTIONARY TALE

Tools: Pinging services

Extend your reach simply and easily…

Blog resources

You’ve got some friends in the blogosphere….

● www.janetleejohnson.com (marketing, blogs, communications)

● www.blogbusinesssummit.com (all business blogs, all the time)

● www.eff.org/bloggers (if you’re a blogger, great legal resource)

● www.michaelocc.com (pr pro writes about blogs, social media, pr)

● www.gapingvoid.com (for a laugh every single time you go)

Thank you!

Janet Johnson

www.janetleejohnson.com