Ampers & Dot

Today I’m going to cover two topics: the place of sponsored blog posts in social media and pretty kickass widescreen computer monitors. Spoiler alert: these two topics are actually directly related… although I’m hoping you saw that coming.

Well I want to start with a full transparency disclaimer: this post idea comes courtesy of the great people at LG, who have donated me two brand new W2353V SMART series computer monitors - one to review (*UPDATE - see my “Freebies” disclaimer at the bottom of this post*) and one to give away to one of my lucky readers. (Side note: how cool is that?) That’s right, keep reading to the end, there’s a chance for you to win one of these (Sierra Nevada not included)!

So before I get to the review, let’s talk about sponsored conversations. This is an area I know pretty well, mainly through my day job researching the subject (link for Forrester clients only, but for a free recap, check out my colleague Sean Corcoran’s blog post covering the topic here). So when this opportunity came up, I thought it would be a good chance to evaluate the concept of sponsored conversations from a more hands-on perspective.

The idea behind sponsored conversations is that the company gives a blogger something for free and in return the blogger writes up a review, igniting earned social media for the product. It’s cheap for the company (inventory cost in relation to media buys) and is incredibly well targeted - I was approached because I write about technology products, therefore my readers (you!) expect to come here to read about technology products. Chances are that if you’re a reader then you trust my opinion - and if I say good things about this product, then it’s good press - and either way I have an extra to give away to readers (which might help boost my readership/engagement) and then it’s good for everyone.

As Sean points out in the report (and blog post linked above) sponsored conversations work, but their success is contingent on two main contingents:

1) Sponsorship transparency

2) Blogger authenticity

So I think I’ve covered #1 pretty well so far. So now I’ll cover #2: I promise that the following review is 100% my opinion and in no way (or as much as I can control) related to the fact that I got the product for free. But having said that - I cannot guarantee that my review won’t be influenced by my main basis of computer-monitor-comparison, a 17″ dell from five years ago…

I think I was due for an upgrade...

Let’s dive into the review of the LG W2353 Smart Series

First impression: wow.

Second impression: seriously, wow.

The W53 (as I’ll call it from now on for brevity and convenience) is beautiful, both in its external looks and its screen clarity. It has a sleek glassy finish that I’ve come to expect from LG. Let’s put it this way, I’m married to an interior designer- and she approved of its looks matching up to our decor- believe me, that’s an accomplishment. The 23″ screen is pretty thin and super wide - with a maximum resolution of an HD 1920 by 1080 (which makes my old Dell monitor look as embarrassingly outdated as a CRT and Google look like it has an eating disorder).

Now I don’t want to bore you with specs (for that, check out this page), but the cooler aspects of the W53 sit beyond the numbers. The “Smart” features in the “Smart” series are a fairly nifty proximity sensing technology around the buttons - so when you wave your hand near the bottom panel, which contains hidden buttons, they light up (I’ll come back to this “feature” in a minute) - and an auto brightness feature that automatically adjusts the screen’s lighting to the surroundings, in an attempt to reduce eye-strain (which me and my rapidly aging eyes seriously need).

It also has this “Smart” feature, which allows you to set a timer to remind you to take a break… and to be honest, I just don’t really get that part. Seems a little hokey to me. I mean, I get that I shouldn’t spend hours on end staring at a computer screen, but the three problems with this are a) it’s 2009, we all sit in front of computers all day, b) if you need a timer to tell you to stop working, you problem having bigger issues to deal with, and c) if you want to afford cool electronics like this, you’d probably be better off not taking breaks as often as your monitor tells you…

Anyway, what can’t really be put into words is the ridiculous clarity of the full HD screen. I’ll put it this way: hooking up the W53 to my cable box via HDMI input makes my LCD TV self conscious (or, to project less, it makes me feel self-conscious about my LCD TV…). 1920 by 1080 resolution is an amazing sight and after a few straight days working of my 9″ netbook, I must say that it’s borderline ridiculous. Truly crisp, clear, and impressively fun to use.

I only see two downsides to the W53: first, the stand has limited adjustment options and is also a little weak - it feels a little flimsy and makes me nervous as the its only function is to support the fancy monitor - it’s like putting a new BMW on bicycle wheels. The second downside, as hinted at earlier, are the buttons - or should I say “lack of” buttons.

The buttons aren’t really there, they’re built into the flat panel on the button. The proximity light-up thing is great, just really gadgetastically cool and fun to show off, but problematically underneath the cool lighting part, there just aren’t buttons behind the light. This makes navigating the panel’s menus very difficult. But if you wanted to hear me bitch about buttons, you could read one of my other dozens of posts on the subject. This isn’t a big deal as I don’t foresee a need to actually use these buttons, I just personally find it annoying.

All in all I can honestly say this is the best monitor I’ve ever used. Do I have a huge basis for comparison? No. But that doesn’t change how cool this monitor is.

So that’s my honest and open product review for LG’s W53. Was I fair?

CONTEST!
Now let’s move on to the part you’re likely waiting for: the contest to win a 23″ LG Smart Series Monitor of your own!

I’m going to send the extra monitor LG gave me to the reader who sends in the best story for why you need the upgrade. Sure, I complained about my five year old 17″ Dell monitor, but I bet there are readers out there far more deserving with far worse monitors. So write me an email (my contact info is appropriately placed on my Contact Page) with your story - and I’ll send the most deserving reader a brand new one. I’ll write up a short post announcing the winner early next week.

Here are the restrictions: 1) All submissions must be in by Wednesday, July 29th and 2) this contest is only available to readers over 18 in the continental 48 states - I’m paying the shipping to get this out and just can’t swing sending a 15lb package over seas.

So let’s use the comments for this: what do you think of sponsored conversations? How did I handle it?

*UPDATE: after further consideration, and discussion with others about accepting freebies, I won’t be keeping the review monitor. As part of my day job of thinking impartially while comparing vendors and analyzing companies in the technology and marketing sectors, accepting anything of this scale from a company could potentially come of as trying to bias me. So my new policy, which I’ll update on my “About” page, is that I do not keep any items and will give-away any review items companies send me. Yeah, this isn’t awesome for me, but it keeps me honest and lets me do my job better - plus, it’s awesome for you because it means more give-aways on this blog! I’ll write more about this on my follow up post. Thanks!

If you follow me on Twitter then you know how much I despise Boston’s public transportation system (the MBTA, or “T” as it is disaffectionately known). My commute is just ONE stop on the Red Line (arguably the least crappy service line) and when it is double digit weather out or nicer, I will gladly walk two miles instead of waiting for a train (usually takes longer to take the train anyway) - which unfortunately means that this last few weeks of single-digit hell force me to deal with the T.

This week has been especially painful: waited 25 minutes on Monday morning, no trains Tuesday evening (had to walk in the frigid snow), waited 30 minutes Wednesday morning, train died on the tracks for 10 minutes on Thursday… and this goes on and on. Apparently the MBTA is completely incapable of working properly in the cold… when people need it the most.

Well while waiting YET AGAIN this morning I thought about how great it would be to know what was going on - why are there no trains and how long might it take for one to come? The MBTA offers email and text alerts, but those a) don’t always work and b) sometimes I’m not taking the T… so  I don’t always want emails/texts. So I need another way. Normally what I end up doing is pulling out my phone and jumping on to Summize to search Twitter for keywords relating to my commuting struggles.

By searching through Tweets I can normally find someone talking about some sort of fail with the T - it’s a real-time, real life, and unregulated way to get the updates I need. To save myself time, I even made a few shortcuts on my phone for local searches for my keywords (Twitter search for “xxxx Line” near:02110 within:15mi).

And here are my bookmarks for your use - named for each line (mbtaall = “MBTA”):

http://tinyurl.com/mbtared

http://tinyurl.com/mbtagreen

http://tinyurl.com/mbtaorange

http://tinyurl.com/mbtablue

http://tinyurl.com/mbtasilver

http://tinyurl.com/mbtaall

Now keep in mind that your milage may vary. For example there hasn’t been a whole lot of Tweeting coming out of the Silver or Blue lines… and your bound to get a few false-positives, but the Green and Red have enough volume to get a good sense of why the T has failed.

If you take the MBTA (and I’m sorry if you do) then make your day a little easier by bookmarking the relevant links on your device. It might not make the trains show up any faster - but at least you’ll know your not alone while you wait. Also, if you want more direct alerts - like the TAlerts, but through Twitter - check out the T-Tweet Page that transfors the alerts into tweets.

This is just another example of how Twitter works as a communication platform - connecting people and solving problems. My guess is that this type of functional use is going to drive more Twitter adoption from companies, organizations, and end-users. Twitter is about the gather information from the current moment, faster than any news source can report it - and with five million plus people all talking at once, your bound to find something useful in the global conversation.

It’s been a busy week of Boston area networking events: on Tuesday night Mashable, the social media focused uberblog, hosted its summer tour stop at the Roxy for around 400 local marketers, techies, social medialites, PR people, and more, and on Wednesday night BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) held its annual Harbor Cruise, attended by just under 500 local marketers and ad vendors.

By all accounts, both events were a great time filled with very bright people, good conversation, more-than-ample “refreshments”, and an overall awesome networking experience.  What I found most surprising was the different crowds at each event.

Somehow, I assumed that there would be a large overlap in attendance.  Mashable readers are by and large, interested in social media.  Interactive marketers are interested, I hope, in marketing.  Interactive marketing and social media go hand in hand.  Right?  Well apparently “interactive marketing” is a broader term than I initially expected which made the Interactive Media cruise somewhat strange.

For starters, I was pretty surprised to not run into a single person on the BIMA cruise from the Mashable event, but further, not run into a single person that I know from the social media scene of Boston.  I mean sure, it was a big boat with almost 500 people, but I at least expected a few familiar faces.

So, while on the boat I did what any good social media junky would do at a networking event: I searched Twitter.  As it turns out, I was only person tweeting from the boat.

Even the next day, I scanned Twitter to follow up.  Just me.  And @SteveBags, who brought me to the event in the first place and watched me Tweet all night… so that doesn’t really count.  The Mashable event by comparison, had dozens of tweets an hour, including conversations from attendees and new connections that happened in real time.  That sounds pretty interactive to me.  To fully illustrate this point, check out a Twitter search comparison: BIMA, Summermash Boston (and yes, BIMA is a much easier term to hit, “summermash boston” is one of hundreds of terms I could have used…).

Not surprisingly, the discussion topics at each event supported my confusion.  The interactive media cruise played host to thousands of conversations about PPC advertising, Search Engine Marketing, and CPMs for banner ads.  Are any of those things really “Interactive”?  I argue no, but had a literal boatload of people arguing against me.  Apparently all “Interactive” means is “internet”.  This is wrong.

In my mind “interactive marketing” requires some sort of “interactivity” to deserve that name.  “Internet marketing” is one thing, but to me “interactive” is social media.

To follow up on this, yesterday I looked online to see what follow up coverage each event received.  Mashable’s party: hundreds of blog posts, flickr galleries (see embarrassing pictures here) , Facebook pages and discussions, tweets, FriendFeed discussions, YouTube videos, etc.  BIMA’s cruise: NOTHING.  Come on, Boston Interactive Media Association, where is the interactive media!?

So here’s my signoff for the day: for the boatload of interactive marketers talking about to promote brands online, you wouldn’t think that the #1 search result for “bima + cruise” would get this result…

What do you think?  Is it just a vague umbrella term, or do marketers need to reevaluate how they are going to reach customers in the quickly evolving web? (Whoa, that was a much, much deeper question than this post deserved… but oh well.)

During this week’s Internet Marketing Meetup, which I’ve plugged twice already and am starting to get embarrassed about, we had a great debate about the value of corporate blogging in relation to the time, effort, and overall risks involved (my overall argument is that the risks are just excuses for companies who aren’t ready to commit yet…).  Basically the question was about return on investment.

Although I think it’s pretty safe to say that anyone showing up to a “Best Practices for Corporate Blogging” talk was already pretty convinced of blogging’s inherent values for businesses, there are still many, many questions about the overall ROI in light of the investment to corporate blogging.

About halfway through the discussion @SteveBags, a new media marketer in Boston, asked a question about the ROI for businesses engaging through Twitter.  My initial response (which was I’ll soon argue was wrong) was that Corporate Twitter has a similar investment of time and effort to do correctly and has similar risks associated.

After thinking about this a lot, I really don’t think I was right.  Actually, I think Twitter can be done successfully, with less of a time commitment, slightly less effort, and ultimate it’s a relatively risk free campaign.  Engaging with consumers through Twitter has been incredibly successful for companies like the online shoe store Zappos (@zappos and also has an entire microsite dedicated to Twitter), and actually quite well done for not-always-popular Comcast (@comcastcares).  Jump here to read more about the success of Comcast through Twitter… it’s surprisingly impressive.

To find more companies on Twitter, check out this directory.

And what about companies that have really messed up with Twitter?  … Well, I guess there’s always DirectTV’s example, but ultimately, what’s the worst that can happen on Twitter?  You don’t like a company’s account- so you just don’t follow them.  You never see a tweet again.  Done.  Easy.  Many companies have failed at new media attempts and in turn received more negative publicity than imaginable.

Running a huge online campaign that fails can be costly on the reputation and the budget, but Twitter takes fewer resources and can have outstanding results.  Quick, but very, very important interjection: Half assing any social media campaign is going to fail.  Successfully engaging on Twitter takes time and effort- and I am by no means condoning a half attempted twitter account.  And most importantly, ANY social media actions without strategy are doomed to fail.  Strategy first, actions second.

But the way I see it, Twitter is more about communication than any other new media form right now.  It picks up the conversation where blogging leaves off.  It allows for the true two way chat that companies are looking for.  So why not try it?

If justifying the ROI is what matters at the end of the day- then why not start thinking about a corporate Twitter strategy?  I think in the end you’ll see much more R with far less I.

So tonight’s Interactive Marketing Meetup was a great success.  Aside from battling for attention with a few of Central Square’s finest (who push around shopping carts all day…), I think the talk went well and we were able to cover a lot of fun corporate blogging tips.

Of course with as much as we covered, and as much as I rambled, we only got to about half of the planned talk.  So to make it fair for everyone, I’ve attached below (tried to embed with Zoho, but it stripped my links!) both presentations for everyone’s enjoyment.

Part One: Best Practices for Launching a Corporate Blog (the presentation we actually covered)
Part Two: Best Practices for Running a Corporate Blog (the one we didn’t get to)

Download and enjoy.  And email me, comment below, or Tweet me (@znh) with questions.  Let me know what you thought of the talk!

It was great to meet everyone!  Hope to talk to a lot of you again soon.

If you’re around the Cambridge area tonight and looking for something fun and hip to do, then make sure to check out The Dark Knight playing at every theater in town.  BUT- if that’s sold out (which it likely is) and you still have no plans, then stop by Andala at Central Square for a talk on “Best Practices for Corporate Blogging“.

The session will go through a general overview of how any company can adopt a corporate blogging strategy, the advantages to running a corporate blog, as well as some really nitty gritty tips and tricks to make a blogging initiative successful and fun.  The talk will be geared towards any level of experience, with any sized company, and any budget level for interactive marketing (something for everyone!). It doesn’t matter if you are thinking about starting a company blog, already have a company blog, or don’t even know what “blog” or “company” are, this will still be a fun and useful discussion.

Plus, I’ve heard this guest speaker is pretty awesome…

The basic agenda for the talk is:

• Introduction to corporate blogging
• Advantages of corporate blogging and why you should be doing it too
• Case studies: what works and what doesn’t
• The cyclical steps to successful blogging and practical tips to making it work
• Action points for every level of corporate blogger
• Q&A

Sounds great, right?  Well it is!  So if you’re interested then head over to the Internet Marketing Meetup page to register.  And later I’ll likely post some slides up here to share more fun from the talk.

Hope to see you there!

As noted in my previous post (which upset far fewer people than I expected) I’ve been out of town for the past week.  Well, to no surprise I return to the office with a heavily bloated inbox containing hundreds of messages and missed conversations from the previous week.  Yippee!

The strangest part about diving back into email was to see the number of replies and discussions all at once.  To have hundreds of messages all about five or six different topics is actually pretty crazy.  During the week when emails come through, it’s easy to respond, save, or delete, and that seems like it takes no time at all.  But when batch processing hundreds of emails from the previous week, it seems a lot more cumbersome and overwhelmingly daunting. So what is the actual cost?

Apparently checking email costs $650 billion. The constant interruptions of non-mission-critical messages interrupt the day enough to lose massive amounts of productivity.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think there is incredible strength in the productivity of email, it’s just not always used correctly.  Confirming and scheduling meetings works very well with Outlook’s meeting request scheduler.  But discussing a recent news story or a “clean out the fridge” message and CCing hundreds of people on every reply?  Maybe there’s another place for this.

Quick step back: office-wide discussion is incredibly important and helps bring an enterprise closer together to build teamwork, comradery, and so on, and important company/office news needs to be spread around so that all employees are on the same page.  But is email the proper venue to do this?  I agree with the guys at Mzinga, in that the better way to communicate within a company is through online communities.

The functionality of email is no longer what it used to be.  Which is likely why Read Write Web claims that Email is in Danger.  Ultimately I don’t think email will ever really be replaced, the same way we still have snail mail for many things (although yes, that’s slowing too), we will have a need for email for a long, long time.

But anyway, this is basically just a 6am rant about how I’m nervously avoiding having to deal with my inbox mess.  But the biggest trick I know, that was illustrated here: close email when attempting to do something else.  I checked my email this morning, saw the endeavor ahead, closed it and started doing something else.  The only way I know how to combat the productivity suck of email, is to avoid it.

How do you fight email?  If you have an idea then comment below or message @znh on Twitter.  Just don’t email me about it.

Quick intro then we’ll dive right in to bashing one of the most popular blogging platforms in the world: Blogger (aka Blogspot (the platform is called Blogger, the free blogs are hosted at ***.blogspot.com) hence the confusion).  Blogger was created by Google and this leads to two obvious conclusions: 1) it is free to use 2) it lacks features.

Its inherent freeness keeps it popular and widely used, but ultimately Blogger should be a way to learn the ropes, not climb them.  Over the last few years I’ve helped build dozens of blogs, both personal and corporate.  Although I do my best to steer clear from using Blogger, it happens.  Often.  And I’ll find myself stuck with limitations and pushing through work arounds

So please keep in mind that if you currently use Blogger for your blog, I mean no disrespect and it says nothing negative about your blog.  Because maybe some of these things aren’t important to you, but they are dramatically important to me, and that’s why I (disclosure) use WordPress.

10 Shortcomings of Blogger Blogs:

1. Page support. Ever tried to create an “About Me” page?  Or a “Contact”? Or any of the pages that should be completely standard in blogs?  Apparently Blogger doesn’t see these things as necessary. This is by far the dumbest oversight for the platform.  There are ways to do it, but why should you have to trick your platform into letting you do something so standard?
2. “Read More” option. Yes, I’m well aware there’s a work around (that requires writing a brief code snippet on each post… not good for the basic users), but why should we have to work around?  Why can’t it just work?
3. Easier image alt-texting. The only way to play nice with the search engines is to go into HTML mode and manually type in ALT tags? Really?
4. More advanced template customization. There is a relatively small template development community for blogger, mainly because the options are so limited.  But one template page containing all the blog’s code?  Annoying.  Give me external CSS please.
5. Simpler template customization. Yeah, I know. But the limited widget options aren’t bad, but if Blogger really is the platform for the masses then it should have many, many more options and a public repository of widgets.
6. HTML stripping. Ever tried pasting text into a Blogger post and have it come out with some of the funkiest characters ever?  This is less Blogger’s fault than it is Microsoft’s but it’s still really damn annoying and is the only blog platform I’ve used that still has problems with this.
7. Improved permission support. Many blogs have multiple authors contributing content.  Blogger has two sets of permissions: Admin or Not Admin.  For a company blog you need an admin and you need permissions and authorities and notifications and more to set up a work flow.  Blogger doesn’t have any of this.
8. Scheduled posts. I’ve gotta be wrong about this one.  At least I hope I’m wrong.  But Blogger doesn’t allow you to schedule posts for the future.  This just makes no sense to me.  (Oh, but it is in “beta” apparently).
9. Categories and Tags. Each serve a very important but separate purpose.  Blogger gives you the option of Tags or nothing.  Not much of a choice.
10. SEO support. WordPress has dozens of plugins made specifically for search engine improvements.  Metatagging, better sitemap building, titling, keywords, everything.  Blogger does not.  It actually makes these things either difficult or impossible.  Maybe Blogger knows how bad some of its blogs are and doesn’t want to subject them to the public…

Look, in the end successful blogging is about good content.  No amount of flashy design or advanced site functionality will pull in readers if your content is lacking. Conversely, there are a lot of very popular blogs published through Blogger, all because they have great content.  The blogging platform is ultimately irrelevant - this post is really just about making that platform work for you.

If you’re new to blogging and not yet ready to take off the training wheels, start up in Blogger.  It’s free, simple, and basic enough to not screw up.  But once you’ve grown tired of its limits, read this guide, and take your blog to a new level.

What else do you wish were included in Blogger?

Lastly, I’m on vacation the rest of the week, but will be back in town for PodCamp Boston - hope to see many of you there!

Yesterday Jeff Pulver wrote a pretty great post titled PR 203: How to Pitch a Blogger (or at least How to Pitch Jeff Pulver in 2008). If you work in PR, Marketing, Social Media, or just want an interesting read then definitely check it out. Besides, Jeff’s one smart and powerful guy, so you should probably be reading his blog all the time anyway.

Jeff’s post plays into the 2008 trend of anti-PR/blogger relations stories; most notable is the recent squabble between Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani and pretty much every PR company out there. Catch up on the whole story through Defren’s post that justifiably defends the PR industry. Basically it has become “cool” to bash the PR industry (see the Bad Pitch Blog for more).

First off: lazy work is lazy work. If you suck at your job and you blind send hundreds of emails to hundreds of bloggers saying “please write about my company” then you’re going to get what’s coming to you (seriously, read the Bad Pitch Blog… it’s embarrassing). BUT - that is no reason to get down on the industry.

The problem is that the concept of “Blogger Relations” is relatively new and evolving as quickly as bloggers themselves. Bloggers aren’t just that kid in his mom’s basement talking about WoW, or that teenage girl talking about puppy dogs, the captain of the football team, Hanah Montana, or … what do girls like these days… Morgan Freeman. Bloggers have become some of the most influential writers in the world. The line between mainstream media and bloggers has been completely blurred.

So back to Pulver’s point: it’s not something you can batch process. Pitching all bloggers the same is like pitching every magazine the same. Personalize your process and you’ll be much, much more successful.

And now onto the joke in all this: how to pitch Zach. Oh, and I get pitched occasionally and so far have had a few good pitches and a few ok pitches, but nothing bad. So if you’ve pitched me in the past- good work! You haven’t sucked, but you have potentially screwed up one of the bullets below. Secondly: I’m no Gina Trapani, nor do I get remotely the volume of email she gets. I’m not even close to being internet famous, or hell, internet popular. For the time being, I can handle lots of pitches.

So here are a few tips to pitching Zach, a small-time blogger:

• Like everyone else has said: read my blog first. I talk about startups, gadgets, web apps, and Bostony things. If you fall in one of those categories, I’ll be much more receptive, plus- I love those things and will get excited to read more
• Put at least a tiny effort into personalizing the email. My name is all over this blog and it’s all pretty informal. Writing to “dear sir” is just going to confuse me and make me think you are selling V1AGRA PILL5S!!! or other spamminess
• Be responsive. I have no problem responding to pitch emails asking follow up questions so if I respond, get back to me. Seriously, why would you pitch me otherwise? Also, I’m friendly in emails and often use too many exclamation marks, so at least it’ll be fun to correspond
• I promise that if I DON’T like your product, then I’ll contact you before I write anything for a chance to engage. That’s how I keep my integrity. And besides, I really only make fun of the iPhone and AOL (so if you are either of them, you probably shouldn’t pitch me)
• Sending me beta invites and/or free stuff will make me happy and much more eager to write about you
• I also like beer, popcorn, and video games

This is my point in all of it: I think a few of the mainstream bloggers have given blogger relations a bad name. I’m flattered when someone pitches me. This is where the difference is for me: I actually get excited when a pitch email lands in my inbox asking if I’ll review something. I think it’s cool! And so do a lot of individual bloggers.

So if you’re in PR and tasked with pitching bloggers, don’t be deterred by Trapani’s actions. Take it as a cautionary tale, don’t be lazy, send me free stuff, and don’t be afraid to reach out to the little-guys.

So it turns out the internet wasn’t just a fad and might be sticking around for a bit. And in a related twist of events, social media sort of took over the web in the last year or so. Basically what I’m saying is that now’s as good a time as any to dive in and make a piece of it for yourself.

Here’s the inspiration for today’s post: the number of times I’ve heard people, in every industry and every sized company, say that “oh, well a blog’s not for me”. Well you’re wrong. It is. No matter who you are, what your company does, how big or small it is, consumer product or not: just do it.

Individuals
Personal branding. Heard of it? Go ask Dan Schawbel the personal branding expert- he’ll teach you. Another way to put it, so that everyone can be interested, not just the web junkies: when you first meet someone and get their card, or just a name, what’s the first thing you do when you get near a computer? Google them. Wait, you don’t? That’s just me? Yikes, I sound creepy now.

But if you are like me, and a large majority of people, then chances are you have Googled someone. And you’ve probably Googled yourself too. So what comes up?

Before I started this blog and other many other web creations of lesser-value, there was information about a few races I had run in years back and my (get ready for the embarrassment) Vermont state high school chess ranking (2nd, btw - but it’s a really small state…). This isn’t anything I’m ashamed of (sort of), but it’s not the full explanation of me. When someone looks for me now- they find what I want them to find.

I control the message. The results for Zach Hofer-Shall are what I’ve made them to be.

By writing your own content and branding it with your name, you can control the message too. By blogging regularly with content you know- you can align yourself with the text you want and take advantage of Google and make it work for you. Then in the future when employers, colleagues, friends, that girl you met that one time at a bar, will find the information about you that they should.

Small Company/Startup
This is the one I work with the most and is the easiest argument to win. If you are a new or small company there is one fundamental marketing truth: people don’t know you yet. And more importantly, they aren’t going on Google searching for your company name. If you’re Kleenex, or Amazon, then good- you’re probably going to do fine online.

But if you are “Roger’s Online Flowerporium” and you want people to find you online- you’d better face the fact that no one is searching for “Roger” or “Flowerporium” when looking for flowers online. They’re looking for flowers. So blog up the market and align your brand with your products

By blogging regularly with content about your industry you align your company with your market and products and even though you aren’t going to see massive returns from Google organically, the odds are better if you actually write that content.

Plus, small companies have the benefit of the reputation of being… well, small companies. You’ll be able to connect to customers better and build a small, but real community of consumers. And it’s better to have a small group of consumers who love the brand, than hundreds that don’t really care (that’s another debate for another time).

Medium/Larger Company
You’ve got a presence, probably an online marketing strategy (you have a company website, right? Ok, now keep going with that idea…), but now what? How do you standout from your competition? And how do you connect with your consumers? Blog! (I bet you saw that one coming.)

Setting up a blog for an established business gains the benefits of the social web as well as can be. Consumers are beginning to expect companies to have voices and human connections- they have questions- they want answers. You can give this to them and set your company apart from the market by blogging to give your company a personality. And by listening to them you can gain more market research than any surveys or blind studies ever could. You customers are there talking- why not communicate with them.

You already have a community in the real world, but unless you have a blog you are missing the opportunity to engage the community where they spend their time: online. And what I touched on earlier, the human element, is arguably the most important. It’s strange how quickly it’s happened, but I now completely expect every corporate website to have a blog, and if I don’t see one I assume the company “doesn’t get it”. How strange is that?

I mean, I realize I’m fairly jaded, being a social media consultant. But not having a company blog today is like not having a website in the 90s (I’m pretty sure I stole that line from one of the dozen books I’ve read on this exact subject).

Basically, blogging has become a completely acceptable means of corporate and personal communication. It’s no longer just that weird kid in his mom’s basement blogging about World of Warcraft and his feelings, it’s now normal for everyone at every level to be blogging.

That’s it. Stop reading this now and go blog. If you need help, email me.

I’m off for a few days for the hot-dog-eating, beer-drinking, fire-works-watching holiday, not blogging. Helping me fill the little hole left without my posts- go blog.

Today’s word count: eight bazillion. Number of times “blog” is mentioned: six hundred and thirty four.