Business Blogging Pros

Owning a Hammer vs Building a House

A few days ago, my friend Mark Roberts wrote a great blog post about smores (Social Media Whores). From his comments to me this morning it's obvious that he stirred up something.  It's a topic I feel strongly about so I want to elaborate:    

You may know how to use a hammer, level, and saw but that does not mean you know how to design and build a house.

Gary Vaynerchuk said the same thing using a different analogy at the AZ Entrepreneurship Conference last year:

The Telephone is not a Marketing Strategy.  It's a Tool.

When I started this business - way back before the term 'social media' became popular - a business owner could start a blog almost anywhere, write anything anytime to anyone and he would likely get noticed. Maybe even end up on the front page of the NY Times.  Businesses that blogged were that rare.

It's different today.  Technorati's 2008 State of the Blogosphere says that one million new blog posts are being created every day. "If you write it they will come" doesn't work any more.

As another friend and colleague Dave Cooke says, you must start with a strategy.  Who are your clients?  What does your perfect client look like?  What are the problems you solve for them?  What are their reasons for not buying from you now?  

For example, in my Twitter webinars we talk about using Twitter as a branding tool, but if you don't know what you want to be known for then you've got the cart before the horse.

There are a lot of consultants and 'experts' who only want to talk about the tools. Why? Because tools are cool.  Particularly bright shiny new tools.  Several months ago I mentioned to one of these smores that I was planning to offer webinars.  He immediately replied that I should use XXXXXX for that.  Why did he recommend XXXXXX? Because it was new and it was what he was currently fixated on.  A quick review of XXXXX revealed that it did not fit the needs of my business.  It wasn't even close.

Don't focus on the tools. Focus on the business.

Mark Roberts has some great recommendations for steering clear of smores.  I'll add my own:

Look for someone who starts with, "Tell me about your business".  Questions like "What's your target market?", "Who's your perfect client?" and "What problems do you solve for your clients" tend to indicate that you are taking so someone who understands business and marketing, not just the tools.

When you engage us to create a blog for you, we spend over half of the entire engagement focused on issues like these.  We help our clients answer these questions.  The results is not just a better social media strategy, but a better business strategy as well.

Why I Avoid Typepad's Advanced Templates

I just got off the phone with a woman who has a Typepad blog and needs a couple of things added to her sidebar.  What's the big deal, you ask?

The big deal is that whoever originally created her blog used Typepad's Advanced Templates.  There is nothing wrong with Typepad's advanced templates per se.  They work wonderfully.  They provide the designer with complete freedom to do anything.

The problem is that when you go to Advanced Templates you give up all control over your sidebar content. In this case, she wanted to add a 'Follow Me On Twitter' badge to the sidebar.  If you've switched your blog to advanced templates then you must modify the HTML in the actual sidebar template module - not something your average non-geeky business owner can do.

My business philosophy is to empower my clients, not hold them hostage.  I want my clients to be able to maintain as much of their own blog as possible.  While I offer to maintain clients' blog for a nominal monthly charge and make these kinds of changes for them, I don't want them to be forced into that.  

When my client wants something done that requires advanced templates I always tell them what the cost will be in terms of the flexibility they will be giving up.  Invariably they make the right choice.

Frankly, setting up a client's Typepad blog in Advanced Templates without a compelling reason is IMHO professional malpractice.  It is not operating with the best interest of your client in mind.

I Hate Hit-And-Runs

I'm not talking about automobile accidents.

I'm talking about the guy who shows up at your regular networking venue for the first time and you exchange business cards. You never see him again. Except suddenly you are receiving his newsletter.

When are these people going to learn the value of permission-based marketing?

It's MORE Than The PageRank, Stupid!

I just read this post on Ted Dziuba's blog entitled "Corporate Blogs, It's the PageRank, Stupid!"

My first clue was that Ted does not have comments enabled - trackbacks either. Perhaps he doesn't understand that a blog - corporate or otherwise - is about conversation, relationships, and learning from your market.

Dell Computer is the counter-example that immediately comes to mind, folowed by many others. Remember "Dell Hell"? Dell's stock price had tumbled. Del's igniting laptop made the New York Times. Del's support reputation was mud.

Dell started their blog - accepting comments and all. And Dell listened to those comments.

It Wasn't About PageRank, It Was About Conversaion!

Dell understood that. I understand that. Who says corporations can't have tribes? Who says that blogs are not effective tools for corporations to connect with their tribes?

If a consultant tells you that corporate blogs are only for Google Juice, fire that consultant.

Social Media is the New Sex

Yesterday while out for a walk I had a flashback: It was the early seventies and I was in college. I was hanging out in a popular drinking establishment across the street from the university. Across from me sat one of my few non-geek friends. As might be expected from a couple of testosterone-poisoned young males, the conversation eventually turned to the subject of sex. I still remember my friend sitting there - beer in hand - saying, “Hey man, sex is a great way to meet interesting people!”.

And because social media is also a great way to meet interesting people, at that moment it occurred to me that in some ways, social media is the new sex. By that, I mean that some of the same behaviors are present:

Mr Stud

You know the type: each encounter is just another notch on his belt. The only thing that is important is the number of women he’s had. Just keeping score. (I’ve met a few females with the same attitude.)

They’re in social media too. These are the ones who smugly talk about the number of LinkedIn connections or Twitter followers they have. Just keeping score. Life is a game to see how many followers they can add each day. These are the ones who collect everybody’s business card at networking events and then promptly go home and enter them into LinkedIn. These are the ones who will follow anyone on Twitter who can fog a mirror with the hope that some of them will follow back.

Ms Casual Sex

These are the ones who use sex to fill an empty space in their lives. It feels good. And for as long as it lasts they experience a taste of the intimacy and connectedness that is at the very core of a real relationship.

Yes, they’re in social media too. They are the ones who’ll do anything for an @reply. Give them an @reply or two and they don’t need meaningful conversation. In fact, try to engage in an actual deep conversation with one of these and they start backing away fast.

Real Relationships

At a recent Social Media Club meeting, my friend Brian Shaler made the comment that his main use of social media is to find and build great offline relationships. And that’s the crux of it.

It’s all about relationships.

Yes: use social media to build awareness of your brand. Yes: use social media to grow your business. But don’t stop there. Forge meaningful relationships. Use social media to nurture and maintain the meaningful relationships you already have. That’s when it starts to get rewarding.

Years ago I heard someone predict that the Internet would cause us to become much more impersonal and isolated. The opposite is true. Social media allows us to become more closely connected to our friends - if we work at it. And it makes it easy to make new friends without waking up in the morning needing a penicillin shot.

Hmmmmmm. Maybe there’s another blog post: What part of social media is like a social disease?

Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

Small Business Owners: Consider what you are facing. Not "the worst economy since the Great Depression." Not "the worst unemployment rate in 26 years."

You have before you an opportunity that may occur only once in your lifetime.

The playing field has suddenly been leveled. Money has been neutralized as a weapon. Last year the 800-pound gorilla in your market had a million-dollar advertising budget and three marketing people, and he beat you up mercilessly with them. He doesn't have them any more. Now it's just you against him. Mano a mano.

And he's coming to this battle at a disadvantage. He's still in the mindset of playing by the old rules. You have a new tool available to you: Social Media. It allows you to build your brand and spread your word globally for almost no money. Social media allows you to accomplish what big companies with millions of advertising dollars cannot do.

Yes, It takes time and energy to successfully leverage social media, but a ton of time and energy is a lot easier to come by than a ton of money.

The playing field has been leveled. Seize the advantage.

Google Reader is Broken

Google Reader and Google Blog Search appear to no longer be on speaking terms.

If I click on "Subscribe to a blog search feed for _______ in Google Reader" at the bottom of the Search Results page, it responds with "Google Blog Search: has no items."

Or if I right-click on the "RSS" link in the left sidebar of the Google Blog Search Results page, select 'Copy Link' from the menu and then attempt to add the feed to Google Reader manually, I get "No feed available for ________________"

It's pretty pathetic with Google Reader doesn't like the feed URLs provided by Google Blog Search.

Another Tuned-Out Company

I am a big fan of the folks at Pragmatic Marketing. They have a new book about to be published called Tuned In. They've had a blog up called Tuned In Blog for a while.

We all know examples of companies that are tuned in and companies that are tuned out. A few months ago I pointed out how tuned out Delta airlines is even though they have a pretty active blog.

I have another example of a tuned-out company: Williams-Sonoma. A couple of weeks ago, I blogged on my foodie blog about a bad experience I had at the Williams-Sonoma store. Since then no less that five other people from around the country have left comments about their similar experiences.

A truly tuned-in company would be monitoring the blogosphere and almost immediately be alerted to any mention of it's name, url, etc. This capability is not just for the big boys. Anyone can set up the same thing for free using a few search engines, Google Alerts, and RSS. A truly tuned-in company would have tried to contact me to ameliorate the problem, particularly since it appears their customer-service problem is widespread.

DId I hear from Williams-Sonoma? Nope. Tuned Out.

Let me emphasize this: This is how little companies can eat a big company's lunch.

It costs nothing to set up a good reputation monitor except a little time. It takes only a few minutes per week to use it. When you find someone who has said nice things about you, thank them. When you find someone who has had a bad experience, here is your chance to fix it - and even turn the situation around - before any real damage is done. With a little effort, you can even turn that disgruntled customer into a raving enthusiastic fan.

Listening to your Customers

Remember the Chrysler TC? It was supposed to be Chrysler's image-building flagship. Lee Iococca had it built in Milan, Italy and tried to convince us it was a Maserati. Savvy American consumers were not fooled: Underneath the Italian leather and nice wheels it was just the same old K-car - a Chrysler LeBaron with a thirty-thousand dollar price tag.

So it is with a lot of businesses these days. Only instead of some fancy Italian leather or expensive wheels, they put up a blog. By doing so, and spouting a few social media buzzwords, they presume that their reputations will be transformed and the pubic will suddenly see them as honest, open, responsive, and customer-focused companies.

It doesn't work that way. The blogosphere - and people in general - are smarter than that. It doesn't take very many interactions to discover that under all that fancy social media upholstery, it's still the same old company that thinks things would run much smoother if its pesky customers would simply shut up and go away.

My favorite word associated with blogging is 'conversation'. My second favorite word is 'disruption'. That's because for many companies, truly listening to their customers - and then taking action based upon what they hear - is too much of a disruption. It’s easier to keep doing things the way they’ve always done them and ignore the complaints, input - and sometime insults - being hurled over the wall.

Delta Airlines is a perfect example. In a recent blog post, David Meerman Scott wrote about his experience with Delta. They not only ruined his family's vacation, Delta's automated email system then proceeded to make matters worse.

Now you would think that a company of Delta's size that was truly customer-focused would have mechanisms in place to monitor the web to detect anytime its company name is mentioned. I do it. I teach every one of my clients to do it. Heck, some of them even pay me to do it for them. We understand that if you reach out to that unhappy client quickly, you can not only avoid the problem 'going supernova' as Robert Scoble puts it, you can actually turn that unhappy customer into an enthusiastic fan.

Did anyone at Delta reach out to David? Nope. And the number of comments to David's blog post continues to grow with other people adding their own personal horror stories about Delta. (I refrained from adding the story of my own 'adventure' with Delta last fall.) Is it a surprise then that when you type "Delta Airlines" into Google, one of the entries on the first page of results is "DeltaReallySucks.com".

Now it so happens that Delta has recently started a blog. There is a lot of content related to improving Delta’s website and check-in kiosks and such. And the Delta employee bloggers charged with dealing with those topics seem genuinely interested in making them better. In the airline business however, websites and kiosks are just the leather upholstery. When it comes to really listening where it counts - getting passengers and their luggage to their destinations on time - Delta’s blog is no more responsive than its gate agents. Here is a comment on the Delta blog from an unhappy customer:

"In summary, here you have someone who has been loyal to [Delta] for years and years and is being pushed away by what I believe is nothing more than squeezing every penny of profit out of every seat-mile dollar. There is a limit to what you can take for profit, without biting the hand that feeds. In this case, I have been bitten one too many times."

The Delta blogger’s response was:

While I appreciate the direct feedback, I am not in a position to resolve specific customer issues."

Some companies do get it. Hugh MacLeod, a fellow blog strategy consultant recently retained by Microsoft, recently wrote:

"From some of the recent talks I've had with Microsoft, I'm starting to see more and more people internally beginning to believe a simple truth: That if Microsoft wishes to change the world, then changing themselves is also, most definitely, a big part of the equation."

Another company who gets it is Dell. It all started with that famous 'Dell Hell' post on Jeff Jarvis' blog. Dell initially ignored Jeff. The comments started pouring in. Dell suffered an enormous financial disaster. Then Dell started to blog. I remember reading Dell's blog in those early days and you could almost smell the tar and feathers. Much to Dell's credit, they left all the negative stuff up there. Better yet, they listened. And responded. In contrast to Delta's response to an unhappy customer, here is the Dell blogger's response to a recent unhappy customer:

"I'm sorry for the frustration we have caused. I do care and can say there are lots of people working here who feel the same way. I've asked someone from our Customer Service to contact you so that we can work through this situation."

All of us business owners need to heed this lesson. When you start blogging, don't just put fancy Italian leather in the same old car. Be willing to air your dirty laundry. If you've discovered that some aspect of your product or service doesn't perform very well, admit it. Then talk about how you are going to fix it. Then fix it.

If a customer uses your blog to lodge a complaint, don't metaphorically hide in your office. In fact, pray that someone brings you a legitimate complaint. First of all, that means your blog is working and your clients see you as open, honest, and willing to listen. Once that happens you will uncover problems in your business that you never realized you had. And you can fix them. And your customers will love you for it.

Blogging is disruptive. Have the cojones to use that disruption to make your company better. Your customers deserve it. Your Employees deserve it. You deserve it. Be a Dell, not a Delta.

Mass Advertising is Dead

Mass Media and Mass Advertising are dead. I've been saying that for a long time, and here is more proof:

NBC refunds advertisers as ratings plunge

We are so over-saturated with advertising messages that we have become immune. My brand new digital video recorder has a button that allows me to skip ahead by 30 seconds. Why would I possibly want to skip ahead 30 seconds, Hmm?

Add to that the fact that the quality of content has deteriorated while at the same time the viewer's choices have exploded, and you have a train wreck in the making.

Owners of small business know deep down in their guts that the only way to cut through and reach their present and future customers is to:

• Connect with their audience in a very personal and engaging way, and


• Provide as much information as possible about their products or services, do so in an interesting, informative, and engaging way that is not blatant advertising, and deliver it in a manner that is not viewed as an interruption or 'push'.

Finding Time to Blog, Part 2

Yesterday I published Part 1 of this article, which you can find here.

How do you find the time to blog?

A legeitimate question asked by a Rotarian. Part 1 of my two part answer was:

The sad reality is that the average business person won't find time to do even that much. And that's why the average business owner will remain average.

You are probably not average, however. If you were, you wouldn't be reading this. Exceptional busines owners recognize worthwhile activities and find a way to accomplish them.

Blogging can be as easy as writing an email.

Writing an article on your blog is just as simple and easy as writing an email. If you have time to write one extra email each week, then you have time to write a blog post. Don't get all hung up on the words. Just say it. An article on your blog doesn't have to be a novel. In fact blog posts just a few sentences long are great. The give your loyal readers something to do while their report prints out on the office printer or the copying machine is doing its thing. Short is good.

Divide up the work

Your readers love to read the behind-the scenes stuff. You may be the only one in your business that understands the whole thing but I'll bet you've got several people around you that each understand a part of it. Get them to write about it once a month. Then once or twice a month you can write an article providing the high-level picture. Once a month is doable, right?

Delegate

The really time-consuming part is the driftnet fishing, meaning monitoring the blogosphere. You need to be doing it for three reasons:

1. Monitoring what is said out there about you, your company, your products or service.
2. Keeping up with your industry and finding opportunities to engage others in online conversations.
3. Looking for ideas for new blog posts.

Once the driftnet is set up, you can have almost anyone in your company monitoring it for you.

Outsource

I am a Blog Strategy Consultant and part of what I do is to come up with strategies for helping you deal with the load. Among the services we offer is performing some (or in some cases) all of this work for you.

Blogging should be an integral part of your marketing strategy and it's becoming a more important component every day. Start, even if you have to start small.

Finding Time to Blog

I was speaking about blogging to the Scottsdale Airpark Rotary Club today and someone asked, "How does one find time to do this?". It's a fair question. There is an old saying:

To grow your business, you have to work ON your business not IN your business

In general, the average business person does not spend enough time working on things that will build their reputation, exposure and image. They don't spend enough time reaching out and staying connected to their most loyal customers and building relationships with new ones. And this is irrespective of whether or not these activities are done via blogging.

In truth, blogging can consume huge amounts of time, or almost no time at all (If you have time to write one extra email each week then you have time to write a blog post each week). And - crass commercial plug - we are in the business of making blogging as easy for you as possible. Even one blog post helps.

Consider time spent blogging as an investment: If you put a lot in quickly, then it pays off quicky. If you invest more slowly and in smaller amounts, it still pays off: it just takes longer and the payoff isn't as big.

The sad reality is that the average business person won't find time to do even that much. And that's why the average business owner will remain average.

Part 2 of this article can be found here.

Crass Commercial Plug

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Unsolicited Newsletters

I've lost track of the number of times I've woken up the morning after a networking event to find half a dozen new unsolicited newsletters in my inbox. Handing someone my business card does not - in my mind - constitute my permission to add me to their newsletter mailing list.

I publish a newsletter - and I have vowed that starting next month I'll publish it on a regular schedule. I may even ask you if I can put you on the mailing list. I won't do so just because we met once at a networking event.

Seth Goden talks about Permission Marketing: Getting your permission to martket to you. I am a firm believer in that.

Blogs are permission marketing. You are reading my blog or it's RSS feed because you want to, not because I've decided it is time to remind you that I exist. Furthermore, you are reading my blog at a time and place that is convienient for you.

While I view email as an interruption, I realize that you may not. Some people like email a lot, and for those people, I've made it easy to subscribe to this blog via emal.

I've also noticed that there is almost no overlap between my blog's RSS readership and my newsletter readership, so I am reluctant to drop the newsletter at this point.

So I'm keeping my newsletter for the time being, but I won't subscribe you to it without your permission.

Customer Feedback, Conversations, and the Porous Membrane

Dave Cooke has a terrific post on his blog about getting feedback from your customers. Dave said:

Why don't people talk to their customers more about their general businesses issues, best-in-class service offerings, and things that they wish they were getting from their suppliers that they are not?

Dave, you've just described one of the most useful aspects of blogging. A blog can provide all that and more. In ClueTrain we learned that Markets are Conversations.

Hugh MacLeod has explained it as well as anyone I know. To paraphrase: Everything inside the outer circle 'Y' is your market. Area 'B' is the external conversation going on in the world about you and your products/services.

The smaller, inner circle 'X' representes your company. Area 'A' is the internal conversation going on within your company about your products/services.

More often that not, the internal conversation and the external conversation bear little resemblance to each other. For example, you think your product is wonderful; The rest of the world thinks it has a fatal flaw. That circle 'X' acts as a membrane keeping the two conversations separate.

You gotta blow holes in that membrane. In Hugh-speak, you must make that membrane porous. If the world thinks your product has a fatal flaw you need to know it. To hide your head in the sand is suicide. Quite frankly, if you are avoiding this conversation because you are afraid of what you might hear then you are committing professional malpractice. Your customers deserve better, your employees deserve better, and you deserve better.

Nothing blows holes in that membrane better than blogging.

Did that last survey reveal a problem? Get on your blog and admit it! Talk about the problem and what you are going to do about it. WIthin reason, air the dirty laundry. You'll be surprised at the benefits. Once you open up about your fallabilities, your loyal customers will confide in you and you will learn all sorts of things you dind't know before.

Not only that, if people are thinking bad things about your company or product, then they are probably saying those same things on a blog somewhere. Set up some search-driven RSS feeds (your 'Driftnet') and find out what other people are saying.

This isn't rocket science. It's easy. It's inexpensive. Yes, it takes a little time, but not much. and it's worth it.

Advertising Doesn't Work Either

There's an interesting conversation going on in the blogosphere. The most prominent is Guy Kawasaki's The Top Ten Reasons Why PR Doesn't Work post.

Mike Manuel at Media Guerilla has this to say:

"Personally, I have no retort, no counterpoints, no defense, and no qualm, just a suggestion really for those that believe this: go try advertising."

Advertising doesn't work either, and I can prove it: Do you subscribe to the daily newspaper? if so, with out looking tell me what was the advertiser in the full-page ad on page 3 (probably the most expensive real-estate in the entire paper).

We are already so over-saturating with mass advertising messages that we have become immune to them.