Order your copy of David Meerman Scott's terrific "New Rules of Marketing & PR"

One of the things I like most about David Meerman Scott's just-released book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, is the fresh, conversational voice it's written in. Yes, you can call it blog-like.

David is a friend and colleague so I'm lucky enough to be sitting here with my autographed copy in hand. He writes, wisely, in his introduction:

From the Introduction

"As the lines between marketing and PR on the Web have blurred so much as to be unrecognizable, the best media choice is often not as obvious as in the old days. But I had to organize the book somehow, and I chose to create chapters for the various online media, including blogs, podcasts, online forums, social networking, and so on.

But the truth is that all these tools and techniques intersect one another. Some things were difficult to place in a particular chapter, such as the discussion on RSS (Really Simple Syndication). I moved that section four times before settling on chapter 13."

And he continues...

"As I was writing, I was wishing I could link you (like in a blog) from one chapter to a part of another chapter. Alas, a printed book doesn't allow that, so instead I have included suggestions where you might skip ahead or go back for review on certain topics... You'll notice that I write in a familiar and casual tone, rather than the formal and stilted way of many business books, because I'm using my "blog voice" to share the new rules with you."

I suffered the same challenge in writing The Corporate Blogging Book (which David kindly mentions on page 202). It is indeed much easier to write "online" these days than to write a book so I like David's frank admission of how he handled it.

A super useful read

This is a super useful read for any business person wondering why the heck he or she needs to understand blogs or podcasting or social media press releases or viral marketing. The answer is tied up neatly in David's introduction. And then amply illustrated throughout with specific chapters on audio content, blogs, forums & wikis, going viral, etc.

There's a Foreword by uber-blogger Robert Scoble which is really more about Scoble (and what he did at Microsoft) than about David. But it's a good read too.

The book was officially published on June 4, 2007. Order your copy today on Amazon! It's ranked #112 in book sales as I write -- which is a fantastic achievement. Go David!

David's special offer - valid through Friday June 8th

Purchase your copy of New Rules of Marketing & PR on Amazon by Friday June 8, 2007 and David will send you a CD of his audio seminar on Online News Releases. Details here.

Visiting with Edelman's David Brain in London

It's always nice to have a "brain" when your name is Brain and I can truthfully report that David Brain, president and CEO of Edelman Europe, is scary smart. Had the pleasure of having tea with him yesterday afternoon in London.

After we chatted for an hour, he pulled out his cool new mini video camera (from Pure Digital, if you're interested) for a 60-second video interview. I'm more comfortable on a blog then in front of a camera so it was a bit painful, but here it is.

Useful Link

European bloggers find their voice (David quoted in Financial Times, Oct. 10, 2006)

Take Melcrum's Social Media Survey

My friends over at Melcrum Publishing are running a Social Media Usage survey. Click here to take it (it's quick).

You get a nifty free download at the end: Melcrum's Quick Start Guide to Social Media for Internal Communicators (a 23-page PDF).

The survey is aimed at large corporations and asks about your use (or intended use) of blogs, wikis, podcasts, social bookmarking tools, RSS, Second Life, online video, etc.

Social Media for Internal Communicators in London - March 22, 2007

I'm speaking at Melcrum's social media conference in London in a couple of weeks. Topic: What's Your Story? Getting the Tone and Content of Blogs Right. Attendees will get a copy of my Content Strategy Workbook -- one of the things that will be included in... (drum roll)... The Corporate Blogging Toolkit.

I'm developing it now. It's an extension of The Corporate Blogging Book, designed to be a practical blueprint and manual to launch a corporate or CEO blog.

Consider this a below-the-radar announcement. More TK.

60% say the ROI of corporate blogging does NOT need to be quantified and/or tied to the bottom line

Forrester's Charlene Li and several colleagues have published a new best practices study on The ROI of Blogging. It's fascinating reading for those of us who've been wrestling with the question of how you can quantify the impact of a corporate blog. I'll make a few comments about Forrester's new report in a moment.

Does corporate blogging need to be tied to the bottom line? "No..."

But first I want to tell you about a rather surprising response I'm getting to the "ROI of blogging" question in an informal survey I'm running. Thus far over 250 respondents have responded to the corporate blogging and social media survey I posted on Feb. 2, 2007. (Respondents range from Fortune 1000 to small business and one-person shops. Majority are small business.) The answer to the question "Does corporate blogging need to be tied to the bottom line" is a pretty clear "No."

Specifically, 60 percent say that the success of a corporate blog does *not* need to be measured in dollars. 25 percent say it does. And another 15 percent have interesting comments to make. A sampling follows:

Q: Does corporate blogging need to be tied to the bottom line?

A: from Senior Consultant at a Fortune 500 company: "No"

A: from Marketing Director of a small company (under 100 employees):

"No" would be an irresponsible answer; of course it has to be tied to
the bottom line, but it doesn't have to be measured like e-mail or a
coupon campaign. It's more like event sponsorship or PR."

A: from Communications Director of a small company (under 50 employees):

"Yes, but it is not a direct investment to return measure. It is more
about here is the investment we made to change our culture (or the
perception of our culture) and here is how the new culture has
benefited the bottom line."

The survey is still open. Click here to take it. The survey is now closed.

Oh, and what do I make of the survey results? Well, I guess it's pretty obvious: many marketers, execs and business owners aren't as concerned with calculating the ROI of blogging as they are with more practical challenges: how much time will it take? Who will write the blog? What should the topic be??

More about Forrester study on ROI of Business Blogging

I've been as fascinated as anyone by the ROI of blogging question. I devote a chapter to it in my book where I call it ROB (Return on Blog).

I like Forrester's approach to quantifying the ROI. The model they've built is elegant, smart and tidy. Quantifying "risk" by 1) identifying uncertainty and 2) calculating probability (...that something will go terribly wrong; a PR disaster, etc.) is especially clever. 

I also like the way Forrester uses proxies to calculate some of the benefits. For example, a blog provides an on-demand focus group compared with the cost of running a traditional focus group once a month for a year (total cost: $180,000). See nifty diagram. That last number came out of the accompanying case study on GM's FastLane blog: Calculating the ROI of Blogging: A Case Study.

Trouble is, even Forrester admits that "calculating the ROI of blogging has limitations" and "the exact benefits of blogging are impossible to measure" (I'm quoting directly from the Jan. 24, 2007 Best Practices report.)

So where does that leave us?

Pretty much back where we started, wouldn't you say? Corporate blogging is valuable because:

- it creates a conversation with customers

- you can learn a lot from the conversation

- it can lead to mentions in mainstream press (so PR value)

- Word of mouth marketing

- it gives a company higher Google search results, etc.

What do you think?? Would leave to hear your thoughts on this. (Hint: use the Comments link below.)

Useful Links

New ROI of blogging report from Forrester (Charlene Li)

Corporate Blogging ROI - Now We're Talking (Mario Sundar on the MProfs blog; read the comments. Very interesting.)

Forrester creates a model to measure blogging ROI (Steve Rubel on Micro Persuasion)

Pete Blackshaw on CGM, the future of what's advertising & what's not, transparency, credibility... and more

Just got off a pre-recorded interview with Pete Blackshaw for my new Internet radio show on VoiceAmerica (TM) Business: The Corporate Blogging Show. This edition airs next Tuesday (Dec. 5, 2006) at 12 noon Pacific in the regular timeslot.

Pete is CMO of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a former brand manager for Procter & Gamble, and a genius when it comes to parsing the woolly world of consumer generated media (a phrase he coined).

Pete gave me one of my favorite quotes in The Corporate Blogging Book.

From page 95:

"Blogs are proof positive that there really is a digital trail to word-of-mouth marketing."
- Pete Blackshaw

I want to share a few highlights of our conversation before I, er, forget them. Pete is the fastest talking and probably the most articulate guest I've had so far. (What does this guy eat for breakfast? He is pumped!) I scribbled notes but still didn't get it all.

Be sure to tune in live Tuesday Dec. 5, 2006 at 12 noon Pacific to hear Pete Blackshaw on The Corporate Blogging Show.

Pete's observations:

The term blogging may disappear

A year from now we may not be using the term blogging (I agree). It may just be part of customer service, something we expect from a company.

Marketers have a responsibility to self-regulate

We, as marketers (i.e. professionals who do this for a living), need to take the lead in self-regulating how we handle transparency and credibility in the social media space. If it's advertising, it needs to be clear. If it's not, then say so (just as a print advertorial does).

What's advertising and what's not?

Pete gave as an example a video he saw recently on YouTube that was posted by the folks behind the movie "For Your Consideration." (I saw it over Thanksgiving weekend. It was great.)

Was it really a "most popular" video? (He noticed it at the top of YouTube's home page.) Or was it a paid-for placement? He also noticed a movie banner above the video. Watch the video and read Pete's blog entry.

Consumers *hate* to be tricked.

Connecting the dots between a brand and the blogosphere

Pete has been fascinated by one of the videos created for Dove's Real Beauty campaign. It shows a woman getting a high-voltage beauty makeover, set against a great sound track. She is totally transformed, unrecognizable at the end. The kicker: "No wonder our perception of beauty is so distorted."

The video was created by Unilever's ad agency; then uploaded to YouTube where it has gotten nearly a million views. It has also been posted to an astonishing number of women's blogs. (Yes it really makes a point most women can relate to.) The value to the Dove brand: incalculable.

Read Pete's ClickZ case study. He calls this passalong phenomenon "consumer-fortified" media. I.e. it's not consumer-generated per se (an agency created it). But bloggers spreading the video around have embedded it in a permanent digital trail that benefits the brand.

(Note: Unilever is a client of Nielsen BuzzMetrics.) 

Using his personal blog to make the point about why blogging matters

He finished our one-hour show by telling me how he uses his personal blog, Dos Bebes (about his now 15-month-old twins) to illustrate what makes the blogosphere tick: "the emotional gratification to be heard and to connect." It works for individuals; it works for companies who want consumers to pay attention to their brand.

Be sure to tune in on Tuesday, Dec. 5th 2006 at 12 noon Pacific to hear Pete Blackshaw live on The Corporate Blogging Show.

Hey, Big Blue can be funny: see 3 videos on YouTube

IBM's blogger-in-chief Christopher Barger shared these links with me. Here are three videos that IBM's blogging team has uploaded to YouTube. They feature the director of mainframe sales - a pretty funny guy; wonder if he's real or an actor?

Chris, can you comment??

The Art of the Sale - Lesson 1

The Art of the Sale - Lesson 2

The Art of the Sale - Lesson 3