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Had to get out of my own way

April 6, 2007

A few days before this blog received its 1000th comment, Gavin Heaton’s Servant of Chaos celebrated the same milestone. Just like I invited David Reich to be my guest blogger to commemorate the occasion, Gavin asked the same of me.

Wow…what a daunting task. It’s a very cool thing, don’t get me wrong. But it’s also nerve wracking. If you bomb on your own blog, that’s one thing. But to bomb on someone else’s? Yuck.

Check out my post on Gavin’s site. If you don’t read Gavin’s blog, you need to start.

Check out David’s post here on The Marketing Minute. And check out David’s blog, My 2 Cents. It is always worth the read.

Bloggers sharing for profit — the next wave?

April 6, 2007

After only two months of blogging, one of the best things I’ve noticed is how sharing and supportive most bloggers are. They’re eager to help others get noticed and read through tipping, links and kind references. There seems to be very little ego in the marketing blogosphere.

So it doesn’t surprise me that Drew, on getting his 1,000th comment at Drew’s Marketing Minute, would invite the author of that comment to write a guest post. What a wonderful and generous way to mark a milestone. And how fortunate for me that the 1,000th comment happened to be mine.

Drew’s invitation is typical of the sharing mindset that is pervasive throughout the marketing blogosphere. I think it’s a major reason so many of us become active bloggers.

But what do you do when someone asks you to share information when it’s for their commercial gain?

As blogs are becoming recognized by marketers as an important form of social media that can influence and motivate, public relations and advertising agencies are starting to pitch bloggers, in hopes of gaining write-ups about their clients’ products and services. Since blogs are such personal forms of mass communications, marketers realize they can be powerful persuaders.

In the past several days, I received my first two pitches from PR people. Each represents a different end of the spectrum of professionalism.

My first pitch came from Harley Jebens at Click Here, a Dallas interactive marketing agency where our blogging friend Cam Beck works. Harley’s email to me was simple, straightforward and professional – he identified himself and his agency and said he was attaching information on a campaign my readers might find of interest. No hype – no obnoxious push. A news release and website were attached, if I wanted more info, along with a promise to answer any questions if I gave him a call or email.

Although I have no interest in talking about The MySpace page for the Travelocity Roaming Gnome it was a professional pitch and my compliments to Harley for a good try.

The second pitch came from a book publisher’s PR department. It was an email full of hyperbole about a book unrelated to anything I write about. In the email, the publicist tells me (not asks) that it’s something my readers will want to know about. How could she know that if, obviously, she hadn’t done her homework by looking at my blog. It wasn’t even addressed to me by name; it said Dear Blogger. The pitch told me where to buy the book. (You want me to write about your product and you won’t send or offer to send me a review copy? Thanks a lot.)

In the 30 years I’ve been doing public relations at agencies large and small, including my own firm for the past 15, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. The second pitch method does not work. It wouldn’t work if I were pitching a writer at a newspaper or magazine, and it won’t work to get into a blog.

I approached several bloggers on a client’s behalf for the first time back in January. After researching to find blogs on parenting, I viewed as many as I could, to get an idea of what they write about. I emailed the authors, with an approach similar to what Harley did when he pitched me – honest, transparent, not pushy.

The response was encouraging. Most responded by asking questions and/or asking to talk with my client before they told their readers about the product. Some took me up on my offer to send a product sample. One blogger asked me to have my client post a comment on her blog, talking about the product. A few didn’t respond and probably chose not to talk about the item. Overall, the client got some positive reviews and spirited discussion of the product’s merits in comments.

Key is that the approach was done gently and professionally, with full disclosure and no deception or trickery. No attempt to sneak onto a blog by posting a "sell" as a comment, as I saw tried just this week on two blogs. (One of the bloggers was annoyed and quickly deleted the comment. Lucky for the offending PR person that he didn’t choose instead to blast the product being pitched.)

You may have already been pitched by a PR person. If not, I bet you will in the coming year as the PR profession discovers the blogosphere. How bloggers are treated by marketers and their public relations representatives seeking to use their channels of communication will make a difference, since, ultimately, the decision will be yours as to what you care to share with your readers.

How would you prefer to be pitched?

~ David Reich, My 2 Cents

Eye tracking study yields surprising results for bloggers

April 4, 2007

The Poynter Institute wanted to take a scientific look at how people read news and if there was a difference when the news was presented in an online, tabloid or broadsheet format.

It’s the largest study they’ve ever done and is the first time they’ve compared both print and online media.

The Institute just released the results of their EyeTrack07 study.

Here are some findings that will not be a surprise:

People are drawn to alternative story forms like Q&A’s, timelines, sidebars and lists
Photos get a lot of attention in print
Real photos got more attention than staged or studio photographs

Here’s the surprise:

The largest percentage of story text read was in the online format.

77% online
62% in broadsheet
57% in tabloid

And…nearly two-thirds of online readers, once they selected an item to read, read ALL of the text.

Interestingly, the study was partially funded by mainstream print newspapers. You can download a teaser of the research results. They’ll also be selling the full results in mid-April.

MySpace becomes first primary of the presidental election

April 4, 2007

MySpace announced that it will hold a "presidential primary" on Jan. 1-2 next year, before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

The virtual election will be open to all members of MySpace in the United States.

In March, MySpace launched the Impact Channel, a site designed to connect politicians, non profits and civic organizations with users worldwide.

The channel currently houses pages for 12 major-party presidential candidates. In May, My Space will launch a series of monthly straw polls to gauge where candidates stand.

What do you think? Will this get teenagers and twenty-somethings interested in the election? Will their primary results impact the election?

How do you envision candidates reacting to this news?

Is it Greek to you?

April 3, 2007

Often times, when you receive concepts from an agency, you’ll see a headline and visual. And in the place of the body copy — you’ll see what we refer to as Greek or Lorem Ipsum.

Typically, it will look a little something like:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Lorem Ipsum is basically dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry that has been adopted by agencies as a basic placeholder. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.

It has survived not only five centuries, but also evolved into all realms of electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It’s based on the theory that readers will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English.

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the source.

However, you can – thanks to the web, have you very own Lorem Ipsum generated.

Just a little fun fact for the day!

:60 ticks marketing tip: Sad stats about employees

April 2, 2007

Grab it fast…it’s gone in about a minute. A :60 ticks marketing tip is 150 words or less…so read it in a minute and implement it in the next!

65 percent of employees say they receive no job recognition.

And 88 percent of workers say they have ideas to improve their work, yet only 15 percent offer those ideas.

Source: WorkForce Week

That’s it….what can you change in your workplace to make sure you beat these stat?

Blogtipping — April 2007

April 1, 2007

I am joining with my fellow bloggers in celebrating some new blogs that I discovered this past month.

As is the blogtipping tradition, (created by Easton Ellsworth) I’ll offer a few reasons why I like the blog and one suggestion for improvement.

Today is opening day of baseball season, so it seems only fitting to tip my hat at some baseball bloggers.

This month’s nods go to….

Baseball Musings is David Pinto’s very knowledgeable and detailed look at Major League baseball.

Things I love:

The depth of information.

That you don’t stop at just giving us the facts, you also give us your insight.

You delve into subjects that are not strictly baseball but touch the game.

Suggestion:

It would be nice if your main column with content was larger in proportion to the links and ads columns.

The Baseball Zealot is just that. Tom brings us all things baseball. MLB and college to boot.

Things I love:

The diversity of your posts.

It’s not just a game to you. I love that you love the game.

Your natural, engaging style of writing.

Suggestion:

Either it’s my eyes (and age) or your font is tiny. Can you bump it up for us 40+ readers?

I’m not going to do a baseball themed blog tipping without sharing a Dodger focused blog. Andrew brings us True Blue LA and writes about all things Dodgers.

Things I love:

It’s about the Dodgers. Enough said.

Great, conversational style.

You interject a lot of personality into your posts.

Suggestion:

Any thought to adding some visuals to your posts?

There you have it discerning readers…until next month’s blogtipping adventure!

Is branding only an external activity?

April 1, 2007

The answer is no.

In fact…as a business owner or leader, you should be branding your organization to your employees every day. There is no audience more important to your brand’s success.

But all too often, its internal communication budgets that get cut. Or leadership consistently says one thing and then does another — losing credibility and trust.

If you want to learn how to lead an employee-centric company, you only need to go to one blog to learn the ropes. Anna Farmery of The Engaging Brand focuses on how to inspire your employees to help you deliver the brand promise to your clients. Her posts on leadership, retaining employees and her podcast series are packed with gems you can put to immediate use.

Last week, I had the incredible good fortune to speak to Anna on the phone. We talked about how the relationship between the employer and the employee is experiencing a power shift, just like the one we’re seeing between customers and companies. We also talked about recruiting, generational differences and a whole lot more.

Anna captured our conversation and I’m very proud to be the voice of Show #73 of the Engaging Brand podcast series — Secrets of a Great Employer.

Go over and take a listen. And while you are there — bask in the smarts of Anna Farmery.

What Would Mickey Mouse Twitter?

March 31, 2007

There’s a new meme in town and it’s hysterical. It started with Kevin Dugan’s What Would Jesus Twitter that I shared with you yesterday. Since then, people have added Sherlock Holmes, Abe Lincoln, and Lee Hopkins.

And it’s just begun. So here’s my addition to the game.

What would Mickey Twitter?

10. I don’t want to seem ungrateful but I think Walt’s a little obsessed with me.

9. Sometimes, Minnie’s voice just grates on my nerves.

8. @Mighty Mouse – so you really think I could learn how to fly?

7. Driving Donald to his anger management class.

6. Thank God Lily talked Walt out of naming me Mortimer. Can you imagine the crap I would have taken?

5. My fantasy? Sneaking into Small World and smashing those freakin’ singing bobbleheads.

4. L: The happiest place on earth

3. Just once I’d like to be seen as a “bad boy.”

2. @Cinderella – how you doin’?

1. If one more snot nosed little kid bangs his head into my crotch…

I’m not going to tag anyone specific, but come on…join in the fun!

Who said talking back was bad?

March 31, 2007

Yesterday was a momentous day at Drew’s Marketing Minute. The milestone I have been waiting to celebrate.

1,000 comments.

One thing I learned very quickly as I entered the world of blogging is that there are A LOT of numbers.

My blog will be 7 months old tomorrow. This is my 246th post. At this moment, I have 590 blogs linking to me. Technorati says I’m #4,137. Mack’s Top 25 Marketing Blogs says I’m #7. My blogroll is about to get much bigger.

All of that matters.

But not as much as the comments. The comments are the interaction. The comments are the conversation. The comments are why I blog.

David Reich of my 2 cents posted the magic 1,000th comment on the But what if the blogger is lying post. I’ve invited David (a la Paul’s invite to Tim Jackson on his 1,000th comment) to write a guest post. I can’t wait to see what he has to say. I couldn’t ask for a more articulate, insightful blogger to invite in.

Thanks to each and every one of you who have shared a thought, an idea, a question or a link. You add the flavor and spice to this place. I am grateful to each of you. And I hope our conversations have just begun.

Aaron M. Potts, Adam Steen, Adriana, Al, Alex Bellinger, Alvin Borromeo, Amy, Andrew Clark, Andy Beard, Andy Brudtkuhl, Andy Drish, Ann Handley, ann michael, Anne Simons, Becky, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Becky-Joe, Bob Glaza, Bob LeDrew, Brett, Brett Rogers, Brian Clark, C. B. Whittemore, Cam Beck, Carolyn Manning, Char, Charles Brown, Chris Brown, Chris Cree, chris gribble, Chris Kieff, CK, Claire Celsi, Claire Walter, Connie, Copywriting Services, Cory Garrison, Craig Harper, Dan, David Armano, David Koopmans, David Reich, Dawud Miracle, Delaney Kirk, Derek Tutschulte, Designer Mike, DotMySpot, Doug Karr, Douglas Mitchell, Easton Ellsworth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Saunders, Erin Blaskie, Fran, Gavin Heaton, Hannah, Irene, Jaap Steinvoorte, Jack Hayhow, Janet Green, Jeff Morris, Jennifer Espeland, Jessica Colleen, Jim Kukral, Joan Schramm, John, Kammie K., Katie Konrath, Kevin Hillstrom, Kim Klaver, Kirsten Harrell,, Leesa Barnes, Lewis Green, Lisa, Liz Strauss, Lord Matt, Mack Collier, Madena M Burman</a >, Marie , Mario Sundar , Mario Vellandi , Mark Goren , Mark True , Mary Schmidt , Matt Dickman , Matt Hamilton , Michael Libbie , Michael Wagner , Mike , , mitch matthews , Nancy , Nick Rice , Patrick , Patrick Schaber , Paul McEnany , Phil Gerbyshak , Ray Edwards , Roberta Rosenberg , Robyn McMaster , Roger von Oech , Rosa Say , Rush Nigut , Ryan Healy , Sam Beckwith , Sandy Renshaw , Sean Carter , Sham , Sharon Sarmiento , Sherry Borzo , Simon , Stephanie Weaver , Stephen Denny , Steve Farber , Steve Harper , Steve Miller , Steve Sisler , Steve Woodruff , Susan F. Heywood , Susan Weiner , Sustainable is Good , Terry Starbucker , Tom Guarriello , Tom Vander Well , Tony D. Clark , V. Michael Santoro , Valeria Maltoni

(If I missed you, I’m very sorry. And, I could only list those who left a URL with their comment)

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