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STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT BLOGS ? DO YOU REALLY NEED ONE?By BL Ochman Talk of blogs is everywhere. Corporations, authors, and experts of every stripe are finding that blogs can be valuable marketing and PR tools. But blogs aren't for everyone. So before you join the blogosphere, consider both the advantages and the caveats. The major advantage of blogs is that they are interactive and require no knowledge of coding by the content creators. The major disadvantage is that maintaining a successful blog requires skillful research, professional writing skills and a huge commitment of time and effort. There simply is no such thing as a perfect marketing tool, or an effortless way to build traffic to any site, including blogs. The 2004 Presidential race inaugurated the blog into the realm of serious marketing tool. From in-house communication, file sharing, and sheer speed of creation to interactivity with an audience, blogs are the cheapest, most effective content management tool yet created. There are more advantages than disadvantages to blogging, but the disadvantages will definitely cause your blog's failure and could even put you in the midst of controversy or see you mocked by other bloggers. Blogging caveats: ï Maintaining a blog is hard work. Researching and writing is a complex and extremely time-consuming task. A blog that isn't kept up to date quickly loses its luster and its audience. ï Blog software is cheap and easily configured. However, you need to have a designer customize the appearance and navigation of your blog and set up templates to make using it easy for you. ï It takes time, effort, and skillful promotion to build an audience for a blog. Just like a newsletter, report, Website or e-book, driving traffic to a blog requires marketing. ï You have to register your blog in blog search engines, and use subtle PR to push traffic to your blog. Blogs are no more of a "build it and they will come" medium than Web sites. Beyond time and consistently good content, you need to think about sending out press releases and media alerts about your blog's scoops. (And of course you need to have scoops to do that.) ï A blog that isn't well-written and frequently updated will simply be ignored. ï A blog that is an obvious attempt at self promotion may be mocked by other bloggers. You could be a laughing stock of the blogosphere.. - The Dr. Pepper Raging Cow blog has become a classic example of what not to do. To launch a new milk flavored drink called "Raging Cow," Dr. Pepper/Seven Up's PR firm launched a blog called "Pasteurize This," following the adventures of a fictitious cow. The PR firm, Richards Interactive, offered money and gifts to a half-dozen influential 18 to 24 year-old bloggers if they'd push the drink in their blogs. Instead, the bloggers wrote about what they viewed as a scam and pretty soon many bloggers were ridiculing Dr Pepper and calling for a product boycott. Good news about blogs If you know how to search engine optimize content, you can take advantage of the good placement being afforded to blogs by Google, Yahoo and others. I can write about a topic on Monday and see it in the top 10 ranking on that subject a couple of days later. ï A blog can be seamlessly integrated into your site's e-commerce. That means you can sell products and services by pointing blog visitors to your site's sales sections. I sell a huge number of my special reports as a result of my blog. ï Blog software is so user friendly that it frees you from the tyranny of the IT department. Even a technical clunkhead like me can post content, images, photos, articles and more to the Internet instantly. In fact, my newsletter and several pages of whatsnextonline.com are produced with Moveable Type templates that are integrated into my Dreamweaver site. ï If you're willing to be controversial, you can build up a substantial audience for your blog in a short time. ï Journalists troll blogs for source material because bloggers often break stories before traditional media. Posts in your blog can lead to coverage in mainstream, traditional media. ï Blogs can bring in business. Blogs bring you closer to prospects and customers alike, who gets to know you through your writing and is therefore one step closer to doing business with you. I have gotten major accounts as a result of my blog. They know I am reliable, dedicated and a facile writer when they read my posts. ï Blogs are great for Intranets that allow sharing of information within a company. ï Blogs are a perfect way to organize large amounts of information because posts are automatically archived and searchable. Despite the challenges, I highly recommend that you consider a blog as a way of establishing your identity and reputation on the Internet. Scores of companies from giants like Microsoft to associations, authors and consultants are bypassing newspapers, magazines, billboards and other traditional media to take their message directly to their publics through blogs. Issue 105
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GUEST ARTICLE: TELLTALE SIGNS OF HYPEBy Marcia Yudkin On a copywriting board I frequent, someone expressed bafflement that several respected marketers criticized the tone of a page he wrote. "Why did they apologize to their subscribers while linking to my pitch? This approach sells," he said. Hype was the problem. If you use the following tactics, many educated shoppers cringe and go elsewhere: ï Overblown claims. "If You Can Write Your Name, You Can Write a Book in 30 Days - Guaranteed!" ï Overexcited tone. Lots of exclamation points, phrases in bold capital letters with underlining and a drumbeat of emphasis. "Programmers poured out their TOP-SECRET strategies that you, too, can use to earn a GATES-LIKE FORTUNE in the software business!!" "Take out your credit card and order RIGHT NOW!" ï Unsupported and extreme superlatives. "The most important new product launch, ever." ï Adjectives and adverbs you would not encounter from Exxon or IBM. "Mind-blowing" "Exclusive" "Huge" "Incredible" "Wildly" "Literally" (necessary to distinguish truth from hoopla). ï Exaggerations. "They've made millions under the radar." (When most haven't made that sum and the "secrecy" is just not having been asked.) ï Sounds impressive but untrue. Calling someone a best selling author who has not appeared on a recognized best seller list. ï Lack of qualifiers. Statements that should include a bit of backpedaling but don't. It's really not "all," "only," "never," "sure-fire" or "will." Marketers who favor a style full of hype argue that the numbers prove these techniques succeed, whatever the audience. When they tone down the pitch, sales drop. When they toss decorum to the winds and reinsert that hammering excitement and the fervid embellishments, sales return to previous levels. Case closed, they say. Assuming their numbers are valid, this argument does have a point, but one of limited relevance to many situations. Hype may sell, but it may also undercut other business goals, in these ways: ï Reputation. In whose eyes do you want credibility? Use this tone and you can expect snickering rather than respect from established journalists, academics, Fortune 500 companies, most people with postgraduate degrees and colleagues who use any of those groups as their benchmark of respectability. ï Partnerships and opportunities. If you're aiming at joint ventures with banks, universities, community organizations, trade associations and the like, hype counts very heavily against you. You may also endanger your chances of getting a contract from a major publisher if that's among your goals. ï Staying out of legal trouble. Some of the techniques listed above either flirt with deception or cross the line to lies. The other day I read through a Federal Trade Commission judgment against an Internet marketer for deceptive marketing and believe me, this is wrath you do not want to bring down upon yourself! Make sure you have a nitpicky lawyer to vet your copy if you favor a hyped style. Please note that it's possible to use a hard-hitting, dramatic direct marketing style with descriptive bullet points, calls to action and so on in connection with entirely truthful and completely respectable copy. Hype does sell. But that's far from settling the issue of whether or not you should use it. Marcia Yudkin (marcia@yudkin.com) is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity, Persuading on Paper, Web Site Marketing Makeover and other books on business communication. She trains people with good writing skills to earn a significant income as copywriters/marke.ing consultants and performs web site makeovers for companies that want to sell without hype
IN WHAT'S NEXT BLOGMy blog, What's Next Blog covers Internet strategy, marketing, public relations, politics with news and commentary. Here are some of the topics I've featured in the past few days: List of Corporate CEOs Who Blog
Blogger Ranks Thin at Republican Convention Couch Potato Videos Give Way to Dance Dance Revolution and Missed Blog Opportunities DDR enthusiast Raphael Pungin blogs about DDR. But Sony and a company named Powergrid are missing great blog opportunities. Paris Hilton Calls For End to Swift Boat Flap Nike Makes Tennis Boot Sneakers for Serena Williams New Yorkers Give Republican Convention a Bronx Cheer Robosapien: Cool Robot, Dreadful Web Site That Needs a Blog
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