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2010

Listening To Yourself

Author:

I called 2009 the year of listening. Many reputation monitoring products made their hay in 2009 including Radian6, TechRigy, Flitrbox, and others.  They all have listening in common.  Being able to hear what is being said about you and your brand online is an important part of your listening campaign.  Not only should you be listening to your customers, your potential customers, and even your competition, you need to listen to yourself.

Before you begin to think I am being a little schizophrenic in that statement, I am referring to larger organizations that a party of one.  If you are a single or soloprenuer, you obviously have a good handle on what you say about your own brand.  If you are a large organization are you listening to what is being said about your own community or employees?

Many employees are in the world of social media now and they are all part of the larger social networks. Facebook and Twitter, and blogs are being used by many of the people out there and this is all accessible by their friends, family and online acquaintances.  Those groups are are potential customers of your company and therefore you need to also monitor that reputation and be a part of those conversations.  I am not talking about stalking your employees. I am speaking about listening to how they talk about you and your brand online.  They need to be corrected when they make mistakes and they also need to be noticed when they are evangelizing your brand so you can thank them accordingly.  What better way to make them more of an evangelist than to thank them for helping you build a good reputation online?  I have often said that every employee must be a brand evangelist of the company they work for.  We are all social media managers of the company we work for.

I was inspired to write this post after reading a post by Melissa Galt. Melissa talks about 3 rules of social media and how knowing these can help you win the social media game.  Her point that caught my attention was:

#2 Monitor the conversation and correct misstatements.

You have a responsibility to maintain awareness of what is being said particularly by those who work for you and correct any misstatements that they make.

This is a great point that she made and different from what others are preaching about listening. I hear the social media pundits all talk about monitoring your brand from the outside but Melissa makes a great point about listening to yourself.

Photo Via AdamSelwood

Help Us Help A Friend of BlogWorld Expo

Author:

Tragedies occur every day and yesterday was no different except that one tragedy happened to a friend of ours. Tee Morris‘ wife passed away leaving Tee to be a single parent of a young daughter.

Tee was a speaker this year at BlogWorld & New Media Expo and was a great asset to our show. We would like top extend our condolences to Tee and his family for this loss. Tee is a great podcaster and is very knowledgeable in his field. He has written books on the subject and is a founder of Podiobooks.com.  Tee’s friends are setting up a short term fund (sign in below using ChipIn) and a long term fund for helping him through these difficult times.  His wife’s passing has left them with difficulties of paying bills and that is a stress that should not have to be endured on top of the already difficult loss.

Again, all of us here at BlogWorld & New Media Expo send our deepest sympathies to the family and hope that comfort can come from the community.

Shira Can Haz Blog World

Author:

I had a chance to meet Shira Lazar in Hawaii at the So Much More Hawaii Tour this year.  She is a rising star in the world of new media and I wish her the best.  This is a video interview she did with Ben Huh out in front of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Both Shira and Ben spoke at BlogWorld & New Media Expo in 2009 and I am happy that they did this great interview.

If You Are A Blogger I Am Watching You

Author:

I was looking over the list of the bloggers to watch that was put together over at Darren Rowse’s blog at Problogger by Jade Craven.  The list is put together as a resource for bloggers to watch that can help others become better bloggers.  The list is great and I know of most of the bloggers there and will bookmark the remaining people that I am not familiar with for reading more in 2010.  I would love to have each of these bloggers provide a guest post here at BlogWorld & New Media Expo’s blog and I hope I get to meet them at the show this October.  After all, we are here to provide the best of the best of information about blogging.  The invitation is open to all of them to give us a post and provide our readers with their wisdom.

I read a large number of blogs.  I have more than a 1000 unread feeds that I keep track of in Google Reader, BlogLines and other places like FriendFeed, Twitter and Facebook to name only a few.  I try to keep my finger on the pulse of what is going on in the blogosphere, but posts like these are great to keep me apprised of who is blogging and what they are writing about.  I think I have been a subscriber of Darren’s blog now since Problogger was just beginning.  I knew then he was a great blogger and one to watch.  I am keeping my eye out and ear to the ground.

What bloggers do you feel were left off the list that I need to watch?  Is your name on a list? Perhaps you could let me know what your blog URL is and I can read yours too!

The 140 Characters Conference "Call For Speakers"

Author:

Jeff Pulver wrote a blog post and sent out an email blast to all of the people interested in the 140 conference that will be taking place in NYC on April 20-21, 2010.  Jeff has done a great job of getting attendees to come out and hear from some of the best known people or in his case “characters” on Twitter.  The deadline for the call for speakers is January 22, 2010.  I am especially interested in how the nomination process works for him.  More of the information can be obtained from the email itself:

With today’s “Call for Speakers” I am looking for creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to come forward and pitch me something relevant they would like to present that has been effected by the emerging real-time, NOW Internet.

My hope is to attract not only established celebrities, members of the media and thought leaders who are now using twitter, but those who have become a celebrity, and a brand in their own right, through the creative and disruptive application that twitter continues to be.

I’m looking for first-hand accounts of how twitter is being used and the impact it is happening in the industry sectors this event is focusing on. My goal is to bring together a curated group of characters to both lead and contribute to the discussions. And this event isn’t just about twitter. Open for discussion are all platforms and applications which are effecting and contributing to the real-time internet experience.

I believe that 140 of the right characters can impact 140,000 online participants at the event. I saw this happen in 2009 at the New York, LA, London and Tel Aviv events, plus multiple #140Conf MeetUps held across the U.S.

I believe that the knowledge shared and learned at this event will help bring more people into the twitter ecosystem. The take aways from this event will provide the attending delegates knowledge, perspectives and insights to the next wave of effects twitter will have on business.

So please, think about what YOU could contribute to the dialog, and who you may know who would be interested in being part of this event.

#140conf is the twitter hashtag for the conference. I would appreciate your help in once again spreading awareness of the April conference to the people who you are connected with on your social networks.

What I hope to bring together is a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and together explore the future of where things are going and how to best prepare the community at large to get there.

If you are interested in speaking at: 140 Characters Conference, and or would like to suggest a speaker, please tweet your nomination to #140conf. I will be checking the twitter stream on an almost real-time basis for nominations. You can also contact me by sending email to: jeff@pulver.com. The deadline for speaking proposals is: Friday, January 22nd but the first to be nominated will be the first considered.

I am also looking for sponsors and for exhibitors to be part of our twitter showcase. My goal is to have a special section of the event just for applications, and a maybe this time a Best Of #140conf Award for killer apps. For more information about sponsoring and exhibiting, please contact me by sending email to: jeff@pulver.com

A new approach to the pricing of the #140conf events was announced last week. Click here to learn more about this.

For more information about upcoming #140conf events, please visit: http://140conf.com.

I will reach out and see if Jeff will give us an interview here of the process and other questions that will give more details of the conference.  Jeff if you are listening or reading here, how about a sneak peek under the hood of the 140 conference?

The 140 Characters Conference “Call For Speakers”

Author:

Jeff Pulver wrote a blog post and sent out an email blast to all of the people interested in the 140 conference that will be taking place in NYC on April 20-21, 2010.  Jeff has done a great job of getting attendees to come out and hear from some of the best known people or in his case “characters” on Twitter.  The deadline for the call for speakers is January 22, 2010.  I am especially interested in how the nomination process works for him.  More of the information can be obtained from the email itself:

With today’s “Call for Speakers” I am looking for creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to come forward and pitch me something relevant they would like to present that has been effected by the emerging real-time, NOW Internet.

My hope is to attract not only established celebrities, members of the media and thought leaders who are now using twitter, but those who have become a celebrity, and a brand in their own right, through the creative and disruptive application that twitter continues to be.

I’m looking for first-hand accounts of how twitter is being used and the impact it is happening in the industry sectors this event is focusing on. My goal is to bring together a curated group of characters to both lead and contribute to the discussions. And this event isn’t just about twitter. Open for discussion are all platforms and applications which are effecting and contributing to the real-time internet experience.

I believe that 140 of the right characters can impact 140,000 online participants at the event. I saw this happen in 2009 at the New York, LA, London and Tel Aviv events, plus multiple #140Conf MeetUps held across the U.S.

I believe that the knowledge shared and learned at this event will help bring more people into the twitter ecosystem. The take aways from this event will provide the attending delegates knowledge, perspectives and insights to the next wave of effects twitter will have on business.

So please, think about what YOU could contribute to the dialog, and who you may know who would be interested in being part of this event.

#140conf is the twitter hashtag for the conference. I would appreciate your help in once again spreading awareness of the April conference to the people who you are connected with on your social networks.

What I hope to bring together is a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and together explore the future of where things are going and how to best prepare the community at large to get there.

If you are interested in speaking at: 140 Characters Conference, and or would like to suggest a speaker, please tweet your nomination to #140conf. I will be checking the twitter stream on an almost real-time basis for nominations. You can also contact me by sending email to: jeff@pulver.com. The deadline for speaking proposals is: Friday, January 22nd but the first to be nominated will be the first considered.

I am also looking for sponsors and for exhibitors to be part of our twitter showcase. My goal is to have a special section of the event just for applications, and a maybe this time a Best Of #140conf Award for killer apps. For more information about sponsoring and exhibiting, please contact me by sending email to: jeff@pulver.com

A new approach to the pricing of the #140conf events was announced last week. Click here to learn more about this.

For more information about upcoming #140conf events, please visit: http://140conf.com.

I will reach out and see if Jeff will give us an interview here of the process and other questions that will give more details of the conference.  Jeff if you are listening or reading here, how about a sneak peek under the hood of the 140 conference?

Why Pepsi Is Good For Bloggers

Author:

This is certainly not a “Pepsi is better than Coke” or now begins the cola wars , I am referring to the world of monetizing.  Recently ABC reported, Pepsi announced that it would discontinue spending money on advertising on Super Bowl Sunday.  I have for years thought that the price of advertising on that day is way over priced, unless of course I was the guy getting the commission for that sale.  Millions of dollars being spent to have a slot of 30 seconds for the world to see you and your brand is a big gamble.  I suppose if your 30 seconds was the best or in some cases the worst you would extend your brand to many eyeballs all watching.  This is beginning to change and apparently Pepsi is leading the charge.

Why is this good for bloggers?  Brands like Pepsi and others are going online for their eyeballs.  I am not going to get into the debate in this post about why eyeballs are not the metric I think is for our future, but suffice it to say, eyeballs don’t buy.  Pepsi is also doing something that I believe is a masterful move into also contributing to charity while changing their advertising strategy. Forrester has a great post on its blog discussing the issues of the Pepsi move and its impact on the world of marketing.

Bloggers had a very difficult time selling their content to brands in the beginning. It always went back to eyeballs (perhaps this is the time for that debate). Bloggers that had millions of page views a month, a feat derived only by the top of the top of bloggers, made very little on their content as compared to their traditional media counterparts.  That in itself is supposition with the fact that bloggers were never considered in the same breath as traditional media.  As we all know, this is changing now.  Bloggers are seen as influencers and as people that can vault a brand into rock star fame.  Look at Ford for your example.

We are seeing other areas that are getting the dollars like Facebook for example.  The ABC example of Toys “R” Us building a Facebook page and seeing growth of between 40,000 and 95,000 fans per day after its late November launch is an example of what is catching the attention of those writing checks for marketing campaigns.  Their will be a race to see who can get your attention where you are, and Facebook is getting the attention of every household in America.

As traditional brands such as Pepsi and Ford and others begin to move their war chests of advertising dollars to other areas of the media, meaning bloggers and social networks, we all will have a better chance at a piece of the pie.  Rather than putting millions of dollars into a 30 second spot, brands may even give millions of bloggers that share.  This is only going to mean $2.00 perhaps but it is a huge increase over the .02 I made from Google Adsense last year.  My percentage of increase looks good on a corporate report!

Mashable Gets A Face Lift

Author:

Today as I was going through some Twitter links that I open in tabs on Firefox, I came across a post that someone had sent me written on Mashable.  I immediately saw a difference in the way the blog looked and read and the overall scheme.  I thought I was reading it through a weird reader or something.  I normally read Mashable with Google Reader in my own time, and normally never actually make it to the site for a look at the real deal.  I immediately asked my Twitter community if I was on a fear and loathing type trip and Jennifer Van Grove and Shannon Paul were quick to end my anxiety.  In fact, it was revealed today Mashable’s new look. I wish I had taken a screen shot of it at the time I saw it because it was clean and devoid of advertising if I remember correctly and it looked very cool.  No I am not saying it doesn’t look cool now it was just clean sans ads.

We are implementing some early stages here of a new look and feel and we will be unfolding those shortly.  I am not sure of the application or whether there will be any significant changes other than certainly our UI and the simplicity of the blog to gear up for our new push for content.  Good job on the changes over at Mashable guys, I am jealous of the coolness factor!

UPDATE:  I knew I was going to forget something important, like the name of the company that did their redesign.  Here is their announcement.  Great job by the people over at nclud.

Should You Give it All Up to Blog for Someone Else?

Author:

As a professional blogger, I enjoy the best of both worlds. I do some blogging and social media work for a few outside clients, but the bulk of my income comes from owning my own blog network.

When I first began building my blog, it was a frustrating upward climb. The traffic came slowly and there was no revenue. Almost five years later and I’m so proud of what it’s become. The thing is, I couldn’t have done it if I didn’t cut down on the blogging for other people. Granted, that’s not a solution for everyone. As noted above, I still have some clients. However, after several years of blogging I realized I wasn’t going to make a name for myself if I was spending all of my time blogging for someone else.

My options were:

  • To hire people to handle all aspects of blogging and running my network while I worked for someone else.  I tried that, but the numbers tanked. You can hire the best people in the business, but it’s a challenge finding bloggers who share your passion and commitment to your own blog. For most of them, it’s a job. Nothing more, nothing less.
  • To give it up and blog for someone else. I’m not sure I understand why anyone would want to totally give up her own community to grow someone else’s. I understand doing both (mine and my clients’), but I don’t know about giving up my dream in favor of another brand. Giving up my blog to prop up another blogger would have been a big mistake and I’m glad I didn’t go that route.
  • To devote more hours to building up my own stuff: Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. I realize now that I did  the best thing I could have done – which was start my own blog all those years ago. It was hard work getting here but it allowed content to become indexed in the search engines and for my name and my blog network’s name to become a community, a brand and a chief source of income.

What’s my point?

That you absolutely can build up a profitable blog while you’re working for someone else. A year ago, my employer wanted me to give up my blog network to focus solely on his brand, and I’m so glad I didn’t. I never let what I do infringe on company time, but I didn’t give up up my dream in favor of someone else’s. Sure. I had to work a lot of late nights and early mornings but it was well worth it in the long run.

Just because your blog doesn’t hit right away, doesn’t mean it won’t at all. Give it some time. It could become the next big thing.

Deb Ng is a professional blogger and founder of the Freelance Writing Jobs network. Feel free to follow her on Twitter @debng.

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