Miscellaneous Uses for a Blog

So, today is Blog Day. It’s basically a concentrated effort to introduce people to new blogs. In that spirit, here are 5 blogs of different topics that sit on my daily reading list.

1. Lifehacker – Yeah, I know everyone seems to link to this blog, but it’s definitely one of my favorites. Great advice on how to be more productive. Multiple posts a day and one I always make time for.

2. Web Strategy by Jeremiah – An awesome new media marketing and PR blog that looks into how companies can best utilize these tools in their business. Even if you aren’t into business and are simply a podcaster, he gives some great strategy advice about how to utilize the tools that are out there.

3. Cooking for Engineers – While certainly not updated as much as I would like, Cooking for Engineers is an awesome cooking blog. As the title describes, it’s “step by step recipes…” and advice “… for the analytically minded.” I’ve been subscribed to this one for years, and it’s still interesting (when it gets updated).

4. Christopher S. Penn – I’ve mentioned Chris before, but he always has unique insight on a variety of topics. Chris is definitely a visionary in the world of new media and marketing, and I’m happy to consider him a colleague.

5. Tony’s Kansas City – While I have problems with a lot of Tony’s opinions, Tony DOES have a unique perspective about Kansas City. He often highlights issues in Kansas City that takes the local traditional media outlets weeks to discover or cover. Weed through some of the rhetoric, and you really have a gem of a local blog.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Relationships are what drive new media. Relationships are trusted contacts of yours within the new media fabric. They are people whose opinion you trust or respect enough to give them your time in consuming their content, or engage in conversations they are involved in. If a trusted contact offers up specific links, stories, applications, or other content with you, you are much more likely to follow them verses a targeted advertisement or computer-generated link. Here-in lies the power of new media. The trust you have in your contacts.
As the new media fabric continues to grow, your sphere of influence is becoming more and more important. It’s time to think about where YOU fit within this word of mouth economy.

THE WORD OF MOUTH ECONOMY

One of the biggest buzz words in new media is viral marketing. Flash influence. Generating enormous mass consumption for a short period of time. Often, these viral events happen because something influences those that hold the biggest trust base in the new media fabric. While I’ve never been a big fan of flash marketing (as I believe it has little staying power in the grand scheme of things), it’s an important lesson of how important your placement is in the new media, word of mouth economy.

ARE YOU AN A-LISTer?

Okay, I’m not a big fan of the term as well. But I’m not simply talking about people like Robert Scoble, Jason Calacanis, Walt Mossberg, and the like. I’m asking about where you fit in your niche. Can you be considered as an expert or influencer in your area of expertise?

Here are some people that can be considered niche A-listers:

• CC Chapman – Podsafe Music, New Media
• Christopher Penn – Financial Aid
• Mingnon Fogarty – English and Grammar
• Todd Pearson – Mini Cooper cars
• Ed Roberts – Weather (I can wish)

With new media becoming that channel for personal recommendations, your value in the word of mouth economy is crucial to the future of your new media presence. Add services that look to utilize your influence in the new media fabric such as Mahalo, and the future is bright for those that can influence those at the top (if not be those at the top themselves).

One blog I’ve really gotten in to recently is Jeremiah Owyang’s “Web Strategy with Jeremiah.” Jeremiah has some awesome insight when it comes to business blogs and as he puts it, he “discusses how web tools can enable companies to interact with customers.” One post that I came upon recently was his thoughts on “How to be a corporate blog evangelist,” and is a MUST read for anyone exploring blogging as a business.

In part of the article, he explains the importance of getting involved in the blog community. While I certainly agree in the importance of being involved in the community to learn from the collective mindset, it got me thinking. When we talk about new media promotion, one of the most important things for growth is going outside of these communities. A great place to start is to find those internet social networks that are already engaged in the conversation and get involved. But is this still dramatically selling us short?

The reality of online social networking

Let’s face it, while the number of people truly engaging in some sort of online social network is increasing, it’s still far smaller than many would believe. If you ask most people, the only two-way communication you can have on the internet is email. Enter the world of spam, and the internet is back to simply browsing web pages or doing some online shopping. For the most part, one-way communication.

So how do we encourage others to look into the box from the outside? We need to start thinking as if the box doesn’t exist. Creating content is not solely writing a blog, doing a podcast, etc. It’s engaging in the conversation. We need to treat new media as both a channel on their TV AND a conversation around the dinner table. The concept of low-barrier of entry needs extend to both discovery of content AND participating in it.

So, how do we direct people to the open door in our new media homes? How do we encourage people to discover that THEY can be a part of the conversation?

I twittered this message yesterday morning…

“When life throws you a curve ball, it’s more difficult to determine if you should take a swing, or simply let the ball pass.”

If you read this blog last week, you know that I’ve been in a bit of a mental rut lately. The chaos of life seems to keep the stress level up, and motivations down. Well, shortly after writing that post, I had a huge curve ball thrown my way regarding my new media presence that only made things more chaotic.

The thing about watching a curveball head toward you is that it’s deceiving. What may look like an opportunity to hit one out of the park, can can force you to ground out, or worse, swing and miss. The same is true in the opposite end. You could decide to take a ball, when in reality you missed that opportunity for a home run. Sometimes that desire to hit the game-winner clouds your judgment.

I’m easily excited. I see opportunities to get involved, and am anxious to take a swing (especially if others are already involved). I suppose this is no surprise given the fact I started podcasting within 48 hours of hearing about it for the first time. With over 850 episodes of KCWeather under my belt to date, it’s safe to say that the decision has worked out great. Other times, my excitement has resulted in chaos.

So, how do you weed through the excitement cloud? How to do get a clear vision of that pitch headed your way? Leave a comment and give me some insight…

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I found this video thanks to Greg Verdino’s blog and wanted to share it with you. It’s called “The Truth in Ad Sales”. While some of it is certainly exaggerated, in talks I’ve had with people in the marketing and PR world lately, it holds a lot of truth.

In the past, this was very close to my view of PR and marketing. Dishonesty, spin, and ignorance. I don’t think I’m alone in that thought. We’ve grown to expect a certain level of spin in most of the things we see in the media. As a result, our BS radar is very sensitive. If we appear to spin a story a certain way, the red flag goes up and we not only loose engagement with those we try to reach, but we loose the trust of our customers. Honesty, integrity, results. Maybe these kinds of things have been missing from traditional media and marketing for far too long. No matter what you are promoting, be it your personal brand or your company, make sure that your PR or marketing decisions engage the proper people with honesty. If you use an outside company to do this (like in the video), ensure that THEY are engaged completely in the same thought. As backwards as it sounds, sometimes appearing HUMAN only increase the trust of your customers.