blog_promotion Archives - Page 93 of 101

Great Find: One Click Clipart and Photo Searcher

March 5, 2006 by Liz

Thinking-Intensive Image Searches

When I’m looking for a specific image to illustrate a post, going to the usual sources can be a time consuming adventure that leads down a long path to nowhere. Maybe all that I want is an idea–an image of someone falling behind. Unfortunately most photo and image sources are organized with more literal tags. So I’m forced to think of what sort of images might portray the figurative thought that I’m going for.

This morning I’m using a tool that gets past that problem. You’ll see it in use in the article I’m writing about thinking outside the box. Thought you might like to use it as well. So I’m taking a break to post this first.

WebPlaces.com

Great Find: WebPlaces.com ClipartSearcher
Type of site: Specialized One click searcher for images
Permalink: http://www.webplaces.com/search/
Audience: Anyone looking for images to illustrate content.
Content: The screenshot/link is self-explanatory. Do be aware that not all images are free use. So be sure to check copyright, as any responsible publisher would. If searching for free use images, start with .gov and then go to the original page and look for copyright, permission, or privacy statements.

This is a great tool for quickly finding what’s available on the Internet, providing images for your readers that aren’t overused. Fresh images creatively chosen draw readers into your posts and make your message stronger so that readers understand it easier and stay to read longer. It’s one more way that images are subtle, but powerful blog promotion.

Try a test. Post with images and without. See which draw more readers and then let me know.

ME “Liz” Strauss

Thanks to Week 19 SOBs

March 4, 2006 by Liz

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this badge’s validity, send him or her directly to me. This award comes with a full “Liz said so” guarantee. It is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame. Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Who’s Reading Your Comments?

March 3, 2006 by Liz

Who’s Listening?

Washingtonpost.com Blog Buzz Article screenshot

You’re looking for a new TV. . . . You’re not certain whether you want Hi-Def or plasma screen. You decide to research it online. You find a few blogs and forums. You start reading, asking questions, making comments about the TV that you have now.

You’re a saavy Internet user. You know that not all you read will be true–that some folks will be talking without knowing anything, and some will be there to just sell you. You also know that what you say will stay where you wrote it long after you leave it behind.

But did you know that sophisticated software could be picking up your comments, evaluating them, and sending that information back to the manufacturer? Blogging, list serve, and forum comments have become a predictor of consumer trends.

The comments are particularly valuable for measuring customer sentiment because they’re gut-level and spontaneous. “Internet word of mouth is extremely important,” said Steve Rubel, a marketing expert and senior vice president at Edelman public relations. “You see what the most vocal consumers have to say about you and about your competitors — and they’re saying it without necessarily knowing you’re watching them.” –from Washingtonpost.com Blog Buzz Helps Companies Catch Trends in the Making, March 3, 2006

It was inevitable.

Nielsen Ratings? No Nielsen BuzzMetrics

In a merger that took place last week, BuzzMetrics joined with Intelliseek to form Nielsen BuzzMetrics. The new enterprise uses trawling software to collect, sort, and evaluate consumer comments to a level of sophistication that allows an overall rank of positive or negative, with details that to the other way. An example of that might be

I’m totally sold on the new plasma screen by Company K, but I worry about their customer service.

Neilsen BuzzMetrics captures hundreds of thousands of comments daily. They are literally tracking word of mouth–well, word of keyword as mouth proxy. The data is sorted, compiled to meet specific job parameters, and trends are plotted for client companies.

What Does This Mean?

As with any new technology, it’s only as smart as the people who use it. As with any data tool, the art is in how you choose to sort and interpret it.

This new process could mean that consumer companies will start doing things that need to get done, because consumer issues will come to light.
It could mean companies will hear faster and move faster when they have a customer base that is unhappy with them.
It could mean that customer service would happen and companies will be more profitable–the economy could improve for everyone.

Companies could let the software make decision for them.
We could end up with even more “sit-com,” one-size-fits-all consumer solutions than we have already.

What I See

If you think about it, this is hi-tech version of a poll or a focus group and as such, it carries the same values and pitfalls. I can’t help but think about a court transcript that might read like this:

Policeman: May I have permission to search your car?
Driver: Oh yeah, that’s what I want.

Without context, it’s not certain whether the driver’s answer is a “Yes, please do.” or a “Not on your life.”

The leaders who know what to take and what to leave from a Nielsen BuzzMetrics report will make great gains. Those who blindly follow the numbers will be as lost as they were before.

The good news for small business is that trend, if it becomes the norm, provides one more temptation for big companies to be looking in the wrong direction–to be getting overly-involved with discussing the data rather than taking what they need and moving on.

While big companies are playing with this new toy that brings everything down to numbers. Small enterprises can channel their energy into building brands based on innovating and strong relationships with real people–their customers.

Business is relationships not numbers. No matter how you compile, sort, and plot it. If you don’t understand the people who are talking, it’s awfully hard to tell which words are important and which words don’t mean a thing.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: Top 10 Successful Blogging Tips

March 2, 2006 by Liz

Robin Good Logo

I was going through my stats and had some time one afternoon this week. So when a social bookmarking referral came by, I naturally checked it out. I like to see where things stand with each of them and there are so many now its hard to keep track. I went to the search function and typed in Successful Blog. It’s always interesting to see what I get back.

One of the results was Robin Good’s How To Write A Successful Blog: Top Ten Tips.

To be frank, I thought it was about time I learned how–no, no not really. But I did think it would be a fine addition to the Successful-Blog Survival Kit.
Great Find: The Robin Good’s How to Write A Successful Blog: Top Ten Tips by Sharon Housley
Type of Blog: Blogging Basics
URL: Robin Good’s How To Write A Successful Blog: Top Ten Tips.

Target Audience:Bloggers who are just starting out
Content: Sharon Housley who manages of marketing for FeedForAll wrote this article. She offers ten points and notes on each one. The points are basics of blog building technique and tactics. I’ve add my own points at the end of her list.

If you find this list useful, you also should know this about content.

Write content of the highest quality
Work to keep your writing voice consistent and friendly.
Post at predictable times so readers can look forward to something new.
Write about topics that you find relevant, that is, worth reading and talking about. In other words, write about things that are your passion.
Respond to your comments, your readers are the only ones who count.
Visit other sites and comment there, so that people see you as a reader too.

Hope this helps get you started!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blogs: The New Black in Corporate Communication

March 1, 2006 by Liz

PART 2 IN A SERIES

. . . Has the blogging sensation passed corporations by?

Not by a long shot. Instead of public blogs, think about blog technology. That’s the focus for many leading companies around the world. From McDonald’s (MCD ) to Cannondale Bicycle, corporations are using the software to revamp internal communications, reach out to suppliers, and remake corporate Intranets. Often the site doesn’t look much different from what it’s replacing. Sometimes there’s nothing particularly bloggy about the results.

But these corporate initiatives are interactive and cheap to deploy — making them an attractive form of communication. “Blogs are a way to bring our knowledge together,” says Dave Weick, chief information officer at McDonald’s. –Stephen Baker, Business Week Online, The Inside Story on Company Blogs

Who Said Blogging Has to Be Public? We might not find many Fortune 500 blogs on the Internet. That doesn’t mean that Fortune 500 companies don’t have them. It means that we’re not invited to their private party. Corporations are taking advantage of blogging technology inside their firewalls.

Move Over Website, Bye-Bye Intranet

Blog technology is slowly overtaking the traditional website and Intranet structure at some corporations. Why is that?

Blogs are low in cost to set up and less expensive to maintain.
Blogs require less technical expertise.
Blogs offer a sophisticated content management system that’s meant to be updated daily. They invite communication.
Blogs are interactive. They allow relationships to form between people.
Folks can blog from their desk, their home, the local coffeeshop, even their telephone.

Like employees from another era, websites and Intranets constantly need to be brought up to speed. Blogs have the right skillset for today’s knowledge-based enterprise–they’re innovative, fast, accessible, and made for constant changing . . . and they can be as beautiful as any website. What’s not to like? I’d hire one.

Communication in Every Direction

Ever heard the saying, We’re all 100% responsible for communication? Blog software is being used to make 100% communication happen in almost every direction.

Blogs are carrying on conversations between management and employees that allow them to get to know each other as people.
Blogs are providing safe storage and collection of team project information, so that the entire team can literally be “on the same page.”
Blogs are connecting vendors with buyers, replacing fax machines, messy email inboxes. and lost correspondence.
Blogs are establishing and maintaining unprecedented information flow between field reps and home office folks, drawing companies together.
Blogs are ensuring everyone in a group has access to the same information at the same time in the same way from almost any point on the planet.

Choose your options. You can have any color as long as it’s blog technology.

Why Do We Need to Know This?

Rare is the person who doesn’t already do business with, work for, or buy from a company who is already using blogs in these ways. It’s reasonable to think that a Fortune 500 company that has made any step toward putting a public blog online has experimented with internal blogging. Think–McDonalds.

The Internet website and company Intranet are quickly becoming just so . . . old hat.

If we want to be invited to the party, we need to dress the part, know the culture, and speak the language. We need to be prepared as vendors, consultants, customers, and employees. We need to factor in this data when we think about where we fit. How does this change the way I interact with companies? How might this information affect my brand, my business, or my life in general?

For this black tie party, blogging technology is definitely the new black.

The world is getting smaller. I’m starting to think there really is only one party.

If I’ve got this wrong, please set me straight. I’ll listen. I’m the nice one.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blogs Aren’t Mini-Websites. They’re Powerful Tools.

February 28, 2006 by Liz

PART 1 IN A SERIES

Personal Computers as Tools

In Companies
When personal computers first became standardized and affordable, and software for using them was readily available, it wasn’t that long before they were sitting in every office. The ability to push rote tasks down to the lowest level has always been a strength of an effective business. Taking advantage of computers to do that–calculate spreadsheets, retype and revise documents, generate mailing lists–was an immediate no brainer for business folks focused on productivity. It wasn’t long before Information Management and IT became terms, then whole departments.

Personal computers changed how we work. They changed how we organized information, how we stored it, and share it, and even how we thought about it. Businesses–some more quickly than others–recognized that the computer was a tool of great value.

In American K-12 Schools
Schools, on the other hand, didn’t see the computer as a tool. They saw it as a subject, a class called Computer. Its highest honor was the day it replaced the class in touch typing. Even now in some prestigious New England high schools, the college prep strand kids still only officially see computers in the mandatory class called, “Computer Applications.”

It’s worth saying again. Schools don’t see computers as tools–like pencils and paper and textbooks or desks. Granted this a is gross generalization, but as an entity, Amercian K-12 schools can’t see past the contraption to take full advantage of its uses. The problem is not one of resources; it’s one of not enough folks feeling the need for them.

Blogs as Tools

Now companies and the mass media are acting like schools did. They see the physical blog and not the uses for it. They stop at the idea of what they think a blog is. Just as the school who sees computers as another subject, companies often see the contraption–blogs as another form of website, possibly as a way to do viral marketing.

We’re all missing that blogs are technology too.

The beauty of blogs is they are a flexible tool. The technology allows them to be that website and so much more–intranet, team project site, email replacement, advertising platform, billboard, company picnic, conduit to ideas, real connection to customers.

What Every Company and School Should Know

What most non-bloggers should know is that the number of both public and private blogs will continue to grow. They will outnumber websites based solely the fact that the expertise required to run a blog makes it inevitable. Small businesses start blogs because they already know that blogs are more flexible–can do more things, more easily, more quickly, and for much lower start up costs.

We owe it to our readers and our customers to to let them know that a blog isn’t just a poor person’s website.

If you want to add value to a business relationship, share that information with someone who needs it.

Let’s talk about how many ways blogs can be used. What do you see when you look at your blog as a tool?

–ME “Liz” Strauss