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.

My gmail inbox is 96% full...

Like so many others, I've long struggled with an overflowing email inbox. And a love/hate relationship with email. I wrote a column for ClickZ on Email Addiction over six years ago. It got more response from readers (from all over the world) than anything else I wrote for them.

I missed VC and well-known blogger Fred Wilson's declaration of Email Bankruptcy on April 23, 2007. (VC Jeff Nolan filed for email bankruptcy the next day.) Mike Musgrove writes about Fred on the front page of today's Washington Post: E-Mail Reply to All: 'Leave Me Alone.'

Interestingly, Mike gets it wrong. Fred is twittering from his blog this Friday morning of Memorial Day Weekend. He twitters:

"on the east end of long island, perfect weather, doing email and blogging. got to get outside!"

- Fred Wilson, twittering on May 25, 2007

So what's a gal to do? Yesterday I found a link to LifeHacker's How to free up space in gmail. I may try that. On the other hand, I may go outside and enjoy this beautiful weekend. Waddya think??

Update on email bankruptcy in The Guardian

Fiona Walsh, online business editor of The Guardian asked me to write an article about "email bankruptcy." Here's how it ran: The secret of happiness: delete all (June 11, 2007)

P.S.

It took less than 30 minutes to get my Gmail inbox down to 81 percent full using LifeHacker's tip.

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.

Please subscribe to this blog via RSS

It's almost 2007. Ya gotta embrace RSS! Don't sweat the acronym (Really Simple Syndication). Don't sweat the explanation of how RSS works (via Seth Godin). Just do it!

This blog, BlogWrite For CEOs, now has 1,601 subscribers via FeedBurner. Please subscribe via RSS. (Follow easy instructions after you click through.) Think of it as a Web feed. No email involved. You'll get an alert via your RSS newsreader of choice (see below) every time there's a new entry.

If you're already subscribed via RSS and can leave a useful comment for those new to RSS below, please do so. Much appreciated.

RSS newsreaders that subscribers are using

The screenshot below shows what RSS newsreader subscribers are using. The majority (33 percent) are using Bloglines. Next is Rojo (31 percent). Then NewsGator Online (11 percent) and Netvibes (6 percent). Interestingly, Feedblitz (the "email version" of Feedburner) accounts for 11 percent. Note that these are all free.

Have you RSS'd yourself? A must-learn (easy) trick for 2007

This little trick goes on your "must do" list for 2007. It's so easy that my techie friends will laugh at my simple explanation, to follow.

Forget them. This blog is for the un-cool, the rest-of-us, the "real people (who) don't blog" as my husband called them in the opening line of The Corporate Blogging Book.

He's wrong of course. We do blog, many of us. We read blogs, almost all the rest of us. But that's the whole point of the book and of Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year - You!

Why you should RSS yourself

This is not an exercise in vanity, BTW. It's your no-cost, real-time way of monitoring the blogosphere and then engaging where appropriate or as time permits. I love leaving comments on a new blog where someone is kind enough to mention my book. The blogger is always astonished that I "discovered" his/her blog. But really, it's so easy...

How to RSS Yourself

There are two steps to RSS'ing yourself:

1. You create persistent keyword searches

2. You subscribe to those search results via RSS

The basic idea is that you use RSS (my RSS 101) to set up persistent keyword searches. You search on your name, your company name, product, brand, service, etc. And any keyword phrases related to your industry or your interests.

I have keyword searches set up on "debbie weil," "the corporate blogging book," "corporate blogging," "corporate blogging guidelines," "ceo bloggers," etc. You get the idea.

Then you have the results of those keyword searches delivered to you through your RSS newsreader. Technically, you "subscribe" to your keyword search results just as you would subscribe to a blog.

Set up persistent keyword searches using Google, Bloglines and Technorati

For starters, use Google news alerts (via Google News), Bloglines and Technorati to set up your searches.

For example, type your name "in quotes" into the Technorati search bar (as below). When the results come up, look for the little orange "Subscribe" icon on the right. Click (or right-click) the icon to copy the link. Then insert that link into your RSS reader of choice as a new "subscription."

I use Bloglines because it's Web-based and I find it simple to use. Some folks like Google's Reader. (Both are free.)

Below are what my keyword search results look like in my Bloglines account. The first screenshot shows you the RSS results for a Google news alert search on "debbie weil."

1. Google News Alert on "debbie weil" viewed through Bloglines

2. Technorati results on "debbie weil" viewed through Bloglines

3. Bloglines search on "debbie weil" viewed through Bloglines

Why three separate searches? They deliver different results

If you're wondering why I use Google news alerts, Technorati and Bloglines to do the persistent searching, it's because they deliver different results: mentions on blogs, in news articles, in other languages, etc. RSS searching is still an imperfect science. But hey, it's free. And it's useful. No more excuses... go for it in 2007!

P.S. Another useful idea

Anil Dash, VP and Chief Evangelist for Six Apart does something clever. He uses the HTML results of a Google news search on his name in the media/press section of his bio.

Writes Anil Dash on his bio:

"You can see a list of recent press mentions and quotes on Google News, and most recent articles mentioning Six Apart are available on the Six Apart press page."

Useful Links

RSS 101 (my 5-step guide to get started)

RSS: Should You Bother? (great round-up of links and resources by Mark Goren)

Untangle the World Wide Web With RSS (Reuters - Dec. 29, 2006)

Blogging, Podcasting & RSS 101 (my round-up of links)

New York Times columnist David Pogue misses his calling as stand-up comedian

I haven't laughed so hard in ages. David Pogue, The New York Times popular personal technology columnist, gave the keynote at today's Bulldog Reporter's conference on advanced PR technologies in New York.

He strode in - tall, lean, clean-cut, dark suit, very corporate looking. Within two minutes he was hopping up and down at the lecturn and screeching, making fun of everything related to "social" media ("I hate buzz words," he said). Think Robin Williams (except tall and lean, etc.) and you've got the picture.

I suspect some of his jokes went right by the earnestly intent audience of PR professionals gathered at the Yale Club to learn the latest and greatest about corporate blogging, online video, wikis, SEO and online measurement. All of his slick-looking PowerPoint charts were fake (I rode down in the elevator with him and he confirmed this.)

One slide was labeled "Movie Tickets Sold" and underneath "in gazillions." Another purported to show the explosion in social media between now and 2009. "These things are new and there's going to be a lot more of them," he dead panned. The legend explaining the hockey stick curves included "splogs" (OK they do exist),"klogs" and "phlogs."

"I love making these charts with PowerPoint," he said. "It's so easy."

Some useful tidbits...

On Social Media

Blogs are self-expression via text; podcasts are self-expression via audio; V-logs are self-expression via video. "These tools are NOT equivalent," he said. "Social media as one entity doesn't exist. Some people don't want to appear in front of a camera. Anyone can write a blog. The ability to speak well for a podcast is less common." (I'm paraphrasing.)

On Web 2.0

His slide showed a giant ugly brown spider clinging to a web. "This Web 2.0 thing," he called it, "is where the audience provides the content."

The New York Times on blogging

"It's like an elephant trying to put on ballet slippers - very tentative, very conservative."

Social media ideas for PR practitioners

Off the top of his head, he said, some ideas for PR folks. Use blogs, podcasts, online video for: 

- behind the scenes glimpses of corporate life

- focus groups at Microsoft showing users trying to click and navigate confusing user interfaces

- design prototypes

- videos of employee's cubicles (all the stuff they hang up)

- customer submissions (videos, fan sites, etc.)

Useful Links

Pogue's blog

Pogue's videos for The New York Times (he makes them himself - no staff, no special equipment, no studio)- can't find the link.

I'll add more later...

A few tips from SNCR's Inaugural Research Symposium

Having questioned whether live blogging is a good thing or not... I'm here this morning at The Colonnade in Boston to bring you a few tips from the Society for New Communications Research Inaugural Research Symposium.

First, a word of thanks to SNCR executive director Jennifer McClure who has worked incredibly hard to produce this event. (Thanks Jen!) Second, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am an SNCR Fellow (oops, looks like I need to add my bio).

You won't find anything, er, snarky in what I write today, given that I'm not a totally impartial observer.

The New Influencers

Tech jurnalist and consultant Paul Gillin offers a few highlights from his new book: The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media (to be published in spring 2007).

Tidbits from Paul:

- Used to be that a happy customer tells 3 people about your company; an unhappy customer tells 10 people. Now, via blogs, an unhappy customer tells 10,000 people. He shows as an example the by now iconic video clip of customer Vincent Ferrari trying to cancel his AOL account. (Yes, the AOL customer service rep was ultimately fired.)

- "Marketing has become a spread-sheet driven discipline."  But that's not working anymore, says Gillin. He's referring, presumably, to impressions, click-throughs and other Web metrics that online marketers live and die by.

- Refers to P&G CEO A.G. Lafley's keynote speech to the ANA's annual conference and his key point: marketers are most likely to succeed when they let customers be in control.

More later... maybe. I'm gonna just listen for a while.

Useful Links

AOL said, 'If you leave me, I'll do something crazy' - Randall Stross's Digital Domain column in The New York Times (requires subscription).

Backbone Media and Northeastern University's Blogging Success Study (published Nov. 2, 2006)

We're at the inflection point for corporate blogging

As I noodle around with a number of presentations** I've got coming up (I've finally figured out Keynote for the Mac), I want to take a stand.

It's the end of marketing, advertising and corporate communications "as usual"

It's not enough to say that blogging is important or that social media tools are going mainstream.

Here's my little manifesto

I'm still noodling with it. Feel free to jump in and add something, help me clarify my thoughts or tell me to stuff it:

The Inflection Point of Corporate Blogging

- Blogs and other social media tools are here to stay

- Blogs are just next-generation Web sites

- Social media tools (RSS, blogs, podcasts, video, wikis, etc.) can be used by any company, large or small, B2C or B2B

- They symbolize community, conversation, mutual respect between users and an ethos of sharing

- These tools are more powerful at informing/influencing/persuading than traditional forms of marketing, advertising and corporate communications

- They help you get found online

- If you can't be found, you don't exist

Conclusion: This isn't optional

You gotta start using blogs, podcasts, online video (social media) today!

Defining an inflection point

Google's acquisition of YouTube yesterday for $1.65 billion is extremely significant. (Watch the CNN video with the announcement.)

Yes, it's a lot of money. Yes it's eerily like the dot com boom days when companies with no revenue were perceived to be hugely valuable.

But I see it as more than that. It's a tipping point (thanks to Malcolm Gladwell). Or an inflection point.

Intel's Andy Grove popularized "inflection point" as a business term. It's really a mathematical expression meaning a point on a curve at which the tangent crosses the curve itself. I don't pretend to understand calculus so don't ask me to explain.

Translated into business, it means something new is happening and there's no going back. No more "business as usual."

Read Andy's explanation here. It's an excerpt from his 1996 book, Only the Paranoid Survive:

"Strategic inflection points can be caused by technological change but they are more than technological change... They are full-scale changes in the way business is conducted, so that simply adopting new technology or fighting the competition as you used to may be insufficient. They build up force so insidiously that you may have a hard time even putting a finger on what has changed, yet you know that something has. Let's not mince words: A strategic inflection point can be deadly when unattended to." - Andy Grove, founder of Intel

** I'm speaking at a bunch of different venues over the next two weeks - both here in the U.S. and also in London (Oct. 18th and Oct. 25th) and at a private event in Paris! (Que j'adore Paris!)

Download a transcript of The Corporate Blogging Book Teleconference

Yesterday's teleconference for The Corporate Blogging Book was a lot of fun. There were nine participants, each of whom purchased five copies of my new book from 800-CEO-Read.

One caller, Cathy Chatfield-Taylor, was energetic enough to take really good notes. Inspired by her efforts, I added a few things (and corrected a few things). Then the 10 of us agreed to offer anyone who's interested the summary transcript as a PDF download.

Here are some of the questions we addressed. They were submitted by participants, an interesting mix of consultants, corporate marketers and non-profit advocacy professionals.

Questions (see PDF for answers)

- What blog platform to use?

- How do you transition a blog from being a content management system to a more engaging interactive communications format?

- What do you do if you've published an ill-conceived post? How do you take it back??

- How do you handle comments? Moderate? Not allow?

- How do you build readership?

- How do you help non-writers blog?

- How can a non-profit raise money with a blog?

- What should an executive think / do / feel after finishing the book?

- What’s not in the book?

Download a PDF transcript of The Corporate Blogging Book Teleconference.

Thanks to Conference Calls Unlimited for sponsoring the teleconference.

Good advice: blog to be found by real people who don't have a clue what RSS is

Jakob Nielsen nails it in his most recent AlertBox column: Use Old Words When Writing for Findability.

While it may be tempting for some of us to opine about Web 2.0 - i.e. the next generation Web, defined in part by user-created content such as YouTube videos, MySpace and Facebook - don't!

If your goal is to be found online by adults (call them customers and prospects if you want to sound really old-school) who don't live and breathe the latest techie terms, then for heaven's sake don't fill your blog entries with terms like RSS and tagging. Most folks don't have a clue.

 

Check out this illustration from eMarketer for an article titled Really Seldom Syndication. eMarketer notes that "merely 2% of US employees subscribe to RSS feeds and only 9% know what such feeds are."