Age of Conversation podcast with David Brazeal is up

Thanks muchly to David Brazeal for allowing me to be the latest Age of Conversation co-author to be featured on his ongoing podcast series. David and I talked about my chapter in the Age of Conversation, 'Breaking Marketing Barriers from the Top of a Harley'(page 19). We talk about how Harley-Davidson embraces their community of customers by joining them, how blogging and social media can change the culture of a company, and the 'rocket science' behind the growth of The Viral Garden.

As always, David did an excellent job, as he has with the other co-authors in his series, and I want to thank him again for going out of his way to help promote The Age of Conversation. Of course I sound like a complete goober, but hey, that's how I roll. You can listen for yourself here.

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing, David Brazeal, Age of Conversation

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Viral Community News

1 - An oldie but a goodie from Brian Clark, as he tells us how to grow our number of blog subscribers. Clark's Copyblogger went from 0 to 6,000 subscribers in 10 months, and now has over 20,000. So Brian knows what works!

2 - Paul calls Zuckerberg's response to the Beacon flack. Paul says it's a great example of a Web 2.0 CEO understanding his customers, CK adds in the comments that it's just PR spin. I'll add more about this next week.

3 - Lewis announces that his blog is re-launching with a new focus.

4 - Laurel has an interesting post on companies that approach bloggers/social-media experts under the guise of talking to them about potential work, when they really just want to assemble all their great ideas and implement them themselves. Gavin adds his take as well.

5 - Dawud posts about Drew's New Blogger Toolbox, which is a GREAT list of resources for those jumping into the blogging waters for the first time.

6 - Gavin and Chris tell the tale of Mr. Splashy Pants, who reminds us that standing out and being unique still works.

7 - Be sure to congratulate Becky, who is celebrating her first blogging anniversary!

8 - Finally, Jen has a good reminder for retailers that you might think you are protecting your privacy, but you could be squashing your evangelists.

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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First look: Wal-Mart's Checkout Blog

Wal-Mart's Checkout Blog, the retailing behemoth's latest foray into social media, went 'live' last night. I think this blog is a great example of a company that's trying, kicking and screaming, to successfully utilize social media. At the same time, it's obvious that the company is still having growing pains in this realm that they should have shirked at least a year ago.

The blog still has that new media smell, so it's not fair to do a full-blown Company Blog Checkup on it yet. That will come later, but for now, here's my first impressions:

1 - Love love LOVE the fact that the sidebar has a very clear picture of all the bloggers, and their names. It also tells what area they cover, and has a link to their bio. This is excellent, and also a telltale sign that Wal-Mart has either done their homework with this latest effort, or they hired someone to do it for them.

2 - There are several posts already up (Looks like they 'loaded' several posts before going live, a good thing), but only a few comments. This strikes me as odd, since everything Wal-Mart does immediately attracts attention. My guess is that either the blog has received several comments that haven't been approved yet, or the company is being very picky about what they let through. If it's the latter, Wal-Mart had best be careful as the company has always struggled with actually letting customers have a voice in their previous social media initiatives.

3 - The blogroll is pretty good, leaning heavy on movie/entertainment/video game sites/blogs, but there's nothing wrong with that. Plenty of time to flesh it out more later.

4 - But while the blogroll is low on self-promotion, the posts are sometimes little more than a reprinting of the weekly circular. Check out this post, which does nothing more than list all the new December movie releases that the store will carry. I'm sure this could have simply been added to an existing post, like this one that helps explain the difference between Blue-Ray and HD-DVD.


It's still very early, and while this blog has some issues, this seems to be a much stronger effort than Wal-Mart's previous blogging attempts. But the real litmus test will come when we see how much time and energy the bloggers spend on engaging, building, and growing the blog's community. If used wisely and correctly, this blog could be an amazingly powerful tool to help change not only the public's perception of the retailer, but the company itself.

Thanks to Matt for reminding me about this, after I found Shel's post.

UPDATE: Edelman's Marshall Manson adds in the comments "On your question about comments, to date, we have published every single comment that's been submitted. The number has obviously been small, but that's no surprise as there really hasn't been much of anything done to attract any readers. Yesterday's "go live" moment was really just a soft launch.

Going forward, there's a strong commitment to not being stingy with comment moderation. The comment policy only asks that folks avoid profanity and stay, at least generally, on topic."


Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing, Walmart

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Major corporations create Blog Council dedicated to corporate blogging's 'best practices'

Dell's John Pope just gave me a heads-up about the creation of the "Blog Council Organization", a body that features 12 major brands, committed to promoting 'best practices' in corporate blogging. Founding members will be representatives from the following companies: AccuQuote, Cisco Systems, The Coca-Cola Company, Dell, Gemstar-TV Guide, General Motors, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Nokia, SAP, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, and Wells Fargo.

The Blog Council's CEO is Andy Sernovitz, and he adds:

"Major corporations use blogs differently while abiding by the same rules and etiquette," said Blog Council CEO Andy Sernovitz. "Individual and small-business bloggers don't face the same issues. For example, we still need to deliver a responsible and effective corporate message, but we need to do it in the complicated environment of the blogosphere. We have to speak for a corporation, but never sound 'corporate.' And we have to learn to do it live, and in real-time."

The council states its mission as:

The Blog Council's mission is to help corporate blogging efforts become more successful.

Up to now, there hasn't been a community solely dedicated to serving the needs of corporate blogging. The Blog Council is here to help create:

1. Best Practices: Promoting corporate blogging excellence through best practices, standards, and training.
2. Community: Providing networking and partnering opportunities for leaders of the corporate blogging movement.
3. ROI: Developing metrics programs that help deliver measurable ROI from blog activities.
4. Advocacy: Blog Council has a united voice to provide the corporate perspective in the blogosphere.

Of course I think this is a great move, and am pleased to see so many major corporations stepping up to the plate to be founding members. If the council can deliver on its promises, this will be an invaluable resource for any company that is considering blogging, and will lead much credibility to corporate blogging as a marketing communications tool.

John added that the official announcement of this group will be tomorrow morning, so I thank him for letting us know about it in advance!

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing, Blog Council

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The Dark Knight's massive online viral campaign just went offline

The line between reality and fiction continues to blur around Gotham City.

I blogged about the viral campaign for next summer's movie The Dark Knight back in the summer, but it's safe to say that business has picked up since then. For the longest time, the campaign was mostly online, with a series of 'dummy' websites popping up that all had some hidden clue/link that led to another secret screen/site and so it went.

Quite frankly, it was too much for me to keep up with, and the folks at First Showing had the same problem. Shame on us cause it looks like the fanboys that stuck with the campaign just got a helluva payoff!

A couple of days ago this carnival 'ring the bell' game appeared here. What you do, somehow, is ring the bell and win a teddy bear which has an address on it. The players then go to that address and tell them their name is Robin Banks (ie, robbin' banks).

Turns out that every location was a bakery (yes a real bakery), and waiting for the FIRST person to give their name as Robin Banks, was a real cake. The cake had a phone number written in icing with the command to 'Call me now!'

Now let's see...we're playing along like a criminal, robbin' banks, now we have a cake. Say, wonder if there's something IN the cake? Hot dammit there is! Seems that each cake had inside a bag marked 'Evidence, Gotham City Police Department'. Inside the bag was a cellphone, a charger, Joker playing card, and a note which read:

Wow. You really took the cake! Now put the icing on it. Call [number] immediately from this phone and this phone only. Do not give this phone number to anyone else.

Let's hope your fellow goons come through as well as you. Once all the layers are in place, you'll all get your just desserts. I'm a man of my word.

When the players call the number, a woman from Rent-a-Clown says she knows who they are, and thanks them for calling, and hangs up. Then they receive the following text message:

Good work, clown! Keep this phone charged and with you at all times. Don't call me. I will call you … eventually.

Yowza! Seems that the Joker has more goodies for his new army, as if you clicked on the top of the bell at the carnival game, you were taken to another page where if you click on a Joker playing card, you are rewarded with info on how to get a free pass to an IMAX showing of I Am Legend. The showing will also feature the first 7-minutes of The Dark Knight. And yes, all the free passes are long gone!

I absolutely love this campaign because it is a classic example of reaching out to your evangelists and empowering them to promote you. Do you think you could pay the people that got a phone from 'The Joker' to shutup about it? Be serious! These people are going to go out of their way to tell anyone they can about the phone, the cake, and how 'The Joker' recruited them to be a part of his army.

And the campaign itself is so cool that bloggers are going to talk about it, as will MSM sites. Again, this is a great example of knowing your customers, and appealing to them on their terms.

But the question I have is, we've still got seven months till the movie debuts, so what's next?!?


Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing, The Dark Knight, Why So Serious?

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10 Surefire Ways to Get Past Writer's Block

1 - Read other blogs. This is my favorite way to nix blockage. Even if this doesn't work, you can always find some interesting posts on other blogs to comment on, so you're still building community! You can find the ones I read regularly on the sidebar.

2 - Discover new blogs. Or the 'going down the rabbit hole' method. Pick a blog that you read regularly. Now look at the blogroll, and click on a blog you have never heard of. Odds are, it's going to cover a completely different subject matter than your own blog. Do this a few times and you'll be amazed at the range of topics that you'll uncover other bloggers yammerin' about!

3 - Check your archives. Remember that great post you wrote last year about '10 Trends to Watch for in Social Media in 2007'? Maybe it's time for an update! Also pay close attention to the comments that your readers left, maybe someone made a great point that you overlooked?

4 - Write your headline first. Want to write an amazing blog post? Then write that amazing headline first, then you've forced yourself to deliver the goods ;) It's also a great creativity exercise as you have to find a way to make your writing match the promise your headline is making.(For example, pick a headline such as 'The one trend in social media that every marketer must understand', and then force yourself to give the answer in your post) Copyblogger has more info on this.

5 - Share your knowledge. What's working for you? Have you found a way to get 10+ comments from every post? Is your traffic up for 6 straight months? Do you know how to tweak your blog template so that it's perfect? Then share the love man! We are all learning together, and after all, it's the share economy!

6 - Ask for help. The other side of sharing knowledge, is asking for help. Feel free to lean on your readers to help you out of a tight spot, as they will be happy to help, and again, it's a great community-building tool!

7 - Check your other social sites. I do this regularly as there's so many great options. Facebook groups are always discussing interesting topics and usually the people involved are friends that I haven't met yet. LinkedIn's Q&A section also has some great discussions, and the thing I like about LinkedIn is that it's also usually a different audience, in that many of the members there aren't blogging or engaging in social media, so they have a slightly different perspective. Another option is to check out Twitter, as the discussions are completely different, and my friends are constantly posting links to new posts/articles.

8 - Get some sun, ya freak! Sometimes you simply have to push away from the computer. But even then you can find inspiration. Ann has admitted to doing this before, but how many of you have been doing something and thought 'wow that's cool, I am going to have to blog about this!' So why not carry a pen and pad with you on your trips or just your run to the grocery store?

9 - Save a post for a rainy day. Just as we all get writer's block occasionally, we also go through spurts where we can churn out more posts that we know what do to with. When excessive inspiration strikes, why not save one or more of those gems as a draft for the next time writer's block strikes?

10 - Make a Top 10 list! Guy Kawasaki is famous for his numbered lists. We love these because the info is 'easily digestible' and the nuggets that we can use are right there. And you can also tie it into the 'write your headline first' exercise from Step #4 above. Originally I was going to make this post cover just 6 steps, but I changed it to 10 in the title. And I'm glad I did, because it forced me to think about the methods I use to thwart writer's block, and I think the 4 steps I added were probably better than my original 6!

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 85

Here's the standings for Week 85:

1 - Seth's Blog - 8,673 (-217)(LW - 1)
2 - Duct Tape Marketing - 2,039 (-219)(LW - 2)
3 - Search Engine Guide - 1,638 (+16)(LW - 3)
4 - Daily Fix - 1,056 (-20)(LW - 4)
5 - Logic + Emotion - 1,014 (-13)(LW - 5)
6 - Diva Marketing - 977 (-5)(LW - 6)
7 - What's Next - 907 (-11)(LW - 7)
8 - The Engaging Brand - 733 (+7)(LW - 8)
9 - Influential Marketing - 719 (-4)(LW - 10)
10 - Brand Autopsy - 708 (-13)(LW - 9)
11 - Drew's Marketing Minute - 669 (-6)(LW - 11)
12 - Church of the Customer - 661 (+2)(LW - 12)
13 - Converstations - 592(-25)(LW - 13)
14 - Jaffe Juice - 593 (-6)(LW - 14)
15 - Conversation Agent - 583 (+3)(LW - 15)
16 - Marketing Roadmaps - 544 (+11)(LW - 16)
17 - Marketing Headhunter - 521 (No Change)(LW - 17)
18 - The Viral Garden - 494 (-21)(LW - 18)
19 - Branding and Marketing - 459 (-4)(LW - 19)
20 - Customers Rock! - 423 (-5)(LW - 20)
20 - CK's Blog - 423 (No Change)(LW - 21)
22 - Servant of Chaos - 413 (-3)(LW - 22)
22 - Experience Curve - 413 (+4)(LW - 23)
24 - Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog - 384 (-6)(LW - 24)
25 - Chaos Scenario - 354 (-3)(LW - 25)

A reminder that the Top 25 Marketing Blogs are ranked according to the number of sites/blogs linking to each, according to Technorati. The number you see after the blog name is how many sites/blogs Technorati claims have linked to the blog in the last 6 months. After that number is a positive or negative number, and this represents how many links the blog gained or lost from last week's Top 25. The final stat tells you what position the blog held in the Top 25 Last Week (LW). If you see this; (LW - UR), it means the blog wasn't ranked last week.

Another down week for the Top 25, with only 6 blogs moving upward. Karl posted yesterday that Technorati has decided to recommit to focusing on bloggers, so it will be interesting to see if any changes are afoot. Marketing Headhunter still hasn't been updated, so they've failed the first test.

No new blogs, with The Lonely Marketer and The Origin of Brands again just missing the countdown.




Next update is next Wednesday.

Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Top 25 Marketing Blogs

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Social Media set to go corporate in 2008

CRM Buyer has an interesting article about how many companies are going to set aside monies in its budget for social media in 2008, for the first time. Jeremiah explains that "For the first time, you will start to see budgets set aside for social media strategies and processes," he said.

Another prominent blogger, Deborah Schultz adds: "I'm actually thinking of calling myself a 'digital anthropologist,' but there's more money in being a 'social media strategist,'" she said. "It's absolutely a good time to be doing this, because how companies need to relate to the customer is completely changing."

So if this comes to pass, it means that a lot of companies are going to be spending a lot of money on social media next year. Good for social media consultants such as myself, because many of these companies will have no idea where to get started.

Here's my best advice for these companies, and it's free: Start monitoring what is already out there about your company. I wrote a couple of months ago how you can launch a blogger-outreach program for free in one day. The point is, you have to understand what the community is saying before you can engage them. And it's not reserved to blogs, you should also know what is being said on Facebook, if there are videos from evangelists (or detractors) on YouTube, etc.

Social media is about facilitating the creation and exchanging of content. The content can be blogs, podcasts, wikis, videos, etc. And for a company, your level of engagement with the people that are creating and distributing this content will determine your social media success.

The conversation continues, with or without you. What is your best advice for a company that wants to start investing money into social media? Where should they start?


Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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Have you gotten a pitch like this?

Last week I got an email pitch from Kimberly Palmer about a blog post she had written:

I recently found your blog after looking for other blogs that cover marketing, especially marketing to women. (I often write on that topic for my blog, Alpha Consumer, www.usnews.com/alpha). I thought perhaps your blog readers would be interested in this post on how companies are trying to get customers (especially their female ones) to share their stories more. I hope we can be in touch in the future!

Now obviously, this was just an email 'blast', and doesn't refer to me or any of the bloggers by name (a BIG no-no). But I wanted to mention this pitch because Kimberly's blog is on the US News and World Report website. This is the first time I can remember a blogger from a MSM site (that I hadn't previously spoken with) emailing me asking me to check out their blog post. I emailed Kimberly and she told me that this wasn't something that she was 'asked' to do, just that she occasionally scans the blogosphere to find relevant blogs that she thinks might be interested in her blog posts.

If you're interested, here is Kimberly's post.

What I am interested in knowing is, have any of you been blindly pitched by a MSM site? While the pitch itself needs work, I applaud Kimberly for taking the time and making the effort to reach out to bloggers. Hopefully it's the start of a trend among MSM sites.

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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Viral Community News

1 - CB has a great post at Daily Fix on speaking tips. Very timely as we're about to get into a flurry of Spring conferences. The post has also led to good discussions at Becky's blog as well.

2 - Chris has a great post on how everyone needs to consider their social media strategy.

3 - Suzanne has her own roundup of interesting posts with several familiar bloggers included!

4 - Evan Carmichael has released his list of the Top 50 Marketing Blogs to Watch in 2008. The Viral Community is well represented on this list!

5 - One of the things I love about Ben and Jackie is that they do a great job of giving their blog readers a sense of input into creation of the blog's content. Notice this post that Ben left about ways you can tell that your marketing budget is too big. He invites readers to leave their tips, and adds several of them to his list, with a link to the commenter's blog/site. If any of you bloggers are scratching your head about ways to grow your readership/links, it's as easy as this. Just let your readers know that you value and appreciate their input.

6 - Great advice from Connie on how to get started blogging. I think we sometimes make the mistake of assuming that everyone knows this, but Connie gives a great primer for anyone that still hasn't taken the plunge and wants to know how.

7 - Toby reminds companies that just because you call your new campaign 'social media', doesn't mean there's necessarily anything 'social' about it (And notice how even MSM thinks it's a 'social media' campaign). Thankfully, she also gives Pepperidge Farms a list of social media elements they could add to the campaign. Course, one has to wonder if they actually monitor the blogosphere to see the post.


Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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Thanks Seth!

Christy from Penguin Books emailed me the other day to let me know that I was 'thanked' by Seth in his new book, Meatball Sundae. Christy was kind enough to send me a copy, and being mentioned in the book is really cool, especially considering that Seth for some reason put me in the same company with some of my favorite marketing and business bloggers. People like Jaffe, Ben and Jackie, Hugh, John Moore, Steve Hall, Kathy Sierra and Guy Kawasaki.

Wow. Heady stuff for a guy on dial-up. I've just skimmed the book so far, but it looks pretty interesting and I'm sure I'll be referencing its lessons here in the future. The book doesn't go on sale till the end of December, but you can pre-order it from Amazon here, and they currently have a discount if you get Meatball Sundae and Jaffe's Join the Conversation together.


Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing, Seth Godin

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A good example of advertising enhancing a blog

I've discussed blog monetization and advertising here before, and I think it's difficult to find a good balance between providing income for the blogger, and also giving value to the reader. But I think Chris at Movie Marketing Madness has found a way to put advertising on his blog that isn't really obtrusive, and would probably provide value to his intended audience.

I took the screenshot above this morning, but notice that the two ads you immediately see are the banner across the top, and the one at the top of the sidebar. Both are movie-related and offer readers the chance to get showtimes and order tickets. One thing I do wish is that the ad for Hitman would allow you to play the trailer right on MMM if you want to, without being taken to the movie's website.

But if you're a regular reader of MMM, ads featuring information about new releases is closer to relevant content than it is intrusive advertising. Which is pretty tough to do on a blog, and this is a great example of a setup that seems to be working for both the blogger and their audience.

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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The Age of Conversation is moving to Amazon

The Age of Conversation (If you are new to this project, click here for the background), a groundbreaking collaboration between over 100 bloggers from around the world, is going big time. Starting this Friday, The Age of Conversation will move from being sold on Lulu, to being available at Amazon.

To date, the book has already exceeded its initial goal of raising $10,000 for Variety, the Children's Charity. But Drew and Gavin want to move the book to Amazon in an effort to reach a much larger customer base, and raise even more money for Variety.

The move will mean some big changes for the price structure. First, the hardback edition will be canceled. The paperback edition will have its price increased from $16.95 to $30.00 to cover Amazon's fees. The e-book edition will still be available at Lulu.com for the same price (Drew?).

Now if you want to grab your copy before the move, you can still go to Lulu.com either today or tomorrow at this link and buy the hardcover or paperback at the regular prices. Contact Drew if you are interested in buying either the hardback or paperback versions in BULK after the switch to Amazon.

Here's the list of AoC contributors:

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Luc Debaisieux
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Robert Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
G. Kofi Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
C.B. Whittemore
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing, Age of Conversation

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The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 84

Here's the standings for Week 84:

1 - Seth's Blog - 8,890 (-6)(LW - 1)
2 - Duct Tape Marketing - 2,258 (No Change)(LW - 2)
3 - Search Engine Guide - 1,622 (+31)(LW - 3)
4 - Daily Fix - 1,076 (-13)(LW - 4)
5 - Logic + Emotion - 1,027 (-12)(LW - 5)
6 - Diva Marketing - 982 (-4)(LW - 6)
7 - What's Next - 918 (-30)(LW - 7)
8 - The Engaging Brand - 726 (+1)(LW - 8)
9 - Brand Autopsy - 721 (-2)(LW - 9)
10 - Influential Marketing - 723 (+5)(LW - 10)
11 - Drew's Marketing Minute - 675 (-5)(LW - 11)
12 - Church of the Customer - 659 (+4)(LW - 12)
13 - Converstations - 617(-32)(LW - 13)
14 - Jaffe Juice - 599 (+14)(LW - 14)
15 - Conversation Agent - 580 (+4)(LW - 15)
16 - Marketing Roadmaps - 533 (-1)(LW - 16)
17 - Marketing Headhunter - 521 (No Change)(LW - 17)
18 - The Viral Garden - 515 (-4)(LW - 18)
19 - Branding and Marketing - 463 (-14)(LW - 19)
20 - Customers Rock! - 428 (-5)(LW - 20)
21 - CK's Blog - 423 (-7)(LW - 21)
22 - Servant of Chaos - 416 (-11)(LW - 22)
23 - Experience Curve - 409 (+7)(LW - 23)
24 - Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog - 390 (+5)(LW - 24)
25 - Chaos Scenario - 357 (+3)(LW - 25)

A reminder that the Top 25 Marketing Blogs are ranked according to the number of sites/blogs linking to each, according to Technorati. The number you see after the blog name is how many sites/blogs Technorati claims have linked to the blog in the last 6 months. After that number is a positive or negative number, and this represents how many links the blog gained or lost from last week's Top 25. The final stat tells you what position the blog held in the Top 25 Last Week (LW). If you see this; (LW - UR), it means the blog wasn't ranked last week.

This week is almost a re-run from last week. Nine blogs were up this week as last, and again Search Engine Guide was the big mover. But for the most part, the blogs that were down only lost a handful of links.

No new blogs, with The Lonely Marketer and The Origin of Brands again just missing the countdown.




Next update is next Wednesday.

Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Top 25 Marketing Blogs

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What he said...

"Yes, losing control of your brand means taking risks—but I'm not advocating risk for the sake of a quick hit. I am advocating that we furnish the consuming public with brand experiences that are interesting to them—ones that permit them to get involved with the brand instead of just watching a pitch; ones that invite and trust them to deliver the branding message to others. When it's done correctly, losing control is really only a transfer of control, right into the hands of those whose trust you're trying to get in the first place." - Sam Ewen writing for BrandWeek.

Have to turn my nose up at the term 'consuming public', but still...

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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Dunlop offers evangelists free tires, and a free tattoo

The automotive 'specialty' industry has been booming in recent years, and its Super Bowl is the yearly SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) trade show that was held earlier this month in Las Vegas. Dunlop Tires came up with a pretty interesting marketing idea to create buzz with industry members at the event, by offering anyone a free set of Dunlop tires, if they would agree to get a free tattoo promoting Dunlop.

Dunlop also had celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D on hand, and those that agreed could either get a tattoo of the Dunlop logo, or Dunlop's tire tread. Winding Road adds that one guy was willing to get the tattoo just because it was free, and was amazed that he was also getting a set of tires to boot! The promotion was said to be the talk of the show, with Dunlop filling all its available slots with its tattoo artists within minutes.

Debra at Search Engine Guide calls this 'brilliantly smart', and I agree. First, it's a natural conversation starter. Anyone that sees someone wearing a tattoo with a Dunlop logo is going to want to ask them WHY they have a logo on their arm? Then they explain that they got a free set of tires in the deal, which of course leads to a discussion of how the tires themselves are performing.

But even more so than that, doing this promotion at SEMA, and having it be wildly popular, really makes an impression on suppliers and other industry members at the event. Everyone got to see first hand how many people are excited about the Dunlop brand.

And it's easy to say that anyone that gets a tattoo of a logo for a set of tires is crazy, but you have to remember that a customer evangelist IS crazy about their favorite brands! And Dunlop also knows their customers, and know that the people that want to buy high-performance tires, are also the people that are more likely to want tattoos. So Dunlop did what a company should do in reaching out to their evangelists, they made it easier for them to engage in actions that they were already performing.

Now if I can just find a way to let someone at Ferrari know that my left arm is more than ready for a Testarossa tat, if they are ready to give me the keys!

Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 83

Here's the standings for Week 83:

1 - Seth's Blog - 8,896 (-52)(LW - 1)
2 - Duct Tape Marketing - 2,258 (No Change)(LW - 2)
3 - Search Engine Guide - 1,591 (+98)(LW - 3)
4 - Daily Fix - 1,089 (+17)(LW - 4)
5 - Logic + Emotion - 1,039 (-7)(LW - 5)
6 - Diva Marketing - 986 (-6)(LW - 6)
7 - What's Next - 948 (-7)(LW - 7)
8 - The Engaging Brand - 725 (-14)(LW - 8)
9 - Brand Autopsy - 723 (-7)(LW - 9)
10 - Influential Marketing - 718 (-1)(LW - 10)
11 - Drew's Marketing Minute - 680 (-12)(LW - 11)
12 - Church of the Customer - 655 (+4)(LW - 12)
13 - Converstations - 649(+2)(LW - 13)
14 - Jaffe Juice - 585 (-7)(LW - 14)
15 - Conversation Agent - 576 (+1)(LW - 15)
16 - Marketing Roadmaps - 534 (+1)(LW - 16)
17 - Marketing Headhunter - 521 (No Change)(LW - 18)
18 - The Viral Garden - 519 (-12)(LW - 17)
19 - Branding and Marketing - 477 (-16)(LW - 19)
20 - Customers Rock! - 433 (-9)(LW - 20)
21 - CK's Blog - 430 (-6)(LW - 21)
22 - Servant of Chaos - 427 (+1)(LW - 22)
23 - Experience Curve - 402 (-2)(LW - 23)
24 - Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog - 385 (+5)(LW - 24)
25 - Chaos Scenario - 354 (+2)(LW - 25)

A reminder that the Top 25 Marketing Blogs are ranked according to the number of sites/blogs linking to each, according to Technorati. The number you see after the blog name is how many sites/blogs Technorati claims have linked to the blog in the last 6 months. After that number is a positive or negative number, and this represents how many links the blog gained or lost from last week's Top 25. The final stat tells you what position the blog held in the Top 25 Last Week (LW). If you see this; (LW - UR), it means the blog wasn't ranked last week.

Yet another blah week for the Top 25 as only 9 blogs were up. But Search Engine Guide is absolutely on fire, gaining another 98 links this week. John you better start looking over your shoulder! BTW this blog dropped a link in the time it took me to do the list. Yikes!

No new blogs, with The Lonely Marketer and The Origin of Brands again just missing the countdown.




Next update is next Wednesday.

Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Top 25 Marketing Blogs

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Want to have a successful blog? Then create value for your readers.

My recent post on measuring social media effectiveness led to some amazing comments, including this one from Chris Brogan:

Instead, I have one thing that gives me a sense of value or lack of value: comments.

When I met Liz Strauss, she introduced herself, and told me next that her blog had over 39,000 comments (it's coming up on 60K now). What a STAT! I thought, "engagement measured by comments." Now that's a neat measurement.

But just to throw this into a full-on "blog post in your comments," what if we look at this:

Who cares how many people come? The real stat is "who takes the action you want them to take?"

That, dear friend, is my measurement holy grail.

Ya see, this is the thing that troubles me a bit about the discussions of how we can help businesses 'measure the effectiveness' of blogging and other forms of social media. When we do so, we tend to look at say blogging as a tool to grow business. We look at how we can measure if blogging is contributing to a business' bottom line. We look at how blogging can directly benefit a company.

But look at what Chris focuses on, comments. Why? My guess is because Chris knows that if his readers comment, it's a sign that he's creating content that they find value in. So why can't businesses and marketers have the same goal? Why shouldn't the top measure of the effectiveness of a company's blogging effort be the amount of value created for the blog's readers?

Because the great thing about blogging is that blogging makes things happen indirectly. I think Hugh MacLeod said that first, but it's the truth.

If you are a company, think of what you might want to accomplish from your blogging. Maybe you want to boost your website's Google PageRank? Maybe you want to boost online awareness in order to boost sales? Maybe you want to boost your company's reputation in your industry?

These are all direct benefits that a company might want to gain from blogging. But these benefits only arise if you FIRST create value for your readers. So if the key to getting what YOU want is to first give your readers what THEY want, why not focus on giving your readers value first?

Let's simplify things and say your goal for your blog is to have it raise your online awareness among customers. The path to arrive at that destination might look something like this:

Create valuable content on blog--->Visitors comment on and link to posts--->More visitors discover blog, readership grows and community is created--->Online reputation grows as blog readers blog about company and value its blog is creating

Your company reaching its blogging goals are dependent on you first creating value for your blog's readers.

If your company wants to be successful in its blogging efforts, approach the process as successful bloggers like Chris do. They strive to DIRECTLY create value for their readers, knowing that they will benefit INDIRECTLY. That's the power of being second.




Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing, Blogging

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AdAge hoodwinks bloggers with Power 150?

When it was announced last summer that Ad Age was taking over Todd Andrik's Power 150 ranking of top Ad/PR/Marketing blogs, many in the blogosphere were thrilled with the possibilities. I wrote about it at Daily Fix and thought it was a great idea because:

Ad Age would now have a vested interest in promoting Ad/PR/Marketing bloggers. The publication could now use these bloggers as sources for articles, or even interview some of them. For example, if Ad Age quoted Armano, they could say 'Critical Mass' David Armano, whose Logic+Emotion blog is currently #20 in the Ad Age Power 150, says...' A win-win for everyone, as Ad Age can create better content, and the bloggers have an incentive in promoting the content that Ad Age does create. Sourcing the bloggers also gives more weight to the Power 150 itself.

But now 4 months later, the only thing that I can see that Ad Age has done to leverage the Power 150, is to create a nifty 'badge' that any member of the Power 150 can add to their blog. And yes, this badge links back to Ad Age's site.

The top article on the site right now is one on how Word of Mouth Marketing is booming. Where are the supporting quotes from bloggers? What about getting insight from Andy Sernovitz, who blogs and literally wrote the book on word of mouth marketing? How about a quote or two from Jackie Huba or Ben McConnell, who coined the term 'Customer Evangelism'?

So for all the talk about how Ad Age was embracing 'new media and its potential', it seems that in this case, it is little more than linkbait. I hope I'm wrong, because the Power 150 could create so much more value for both Ad Age, and the bloggers they claim to be embracing.


Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing

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The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 82

Here's the standings for Week 82:

1 - Seth's Blog - 8,948 (-39)(LW - 1)
2 - Duct Tape Marketing - 2,258 (-6)(LW - 2)
3 - Search Engine Guide - 1,493 (+66)(LW - 3)
4 - Daily Fix - 1,072 (-16)(LW - 4)
5 - Logic + Emotion - 1,046 (-35)(LW - 5)
6 - Diva Marketing - 992 (+1)(LW - 6)
7 - What's Next - 955 (-10)(LW - 7)
8 - The Engaging Brand - 739 (-20)(LW - 8)
9 - Brand Autopsy - 730 (+21)(LW - 10)
10 - Influential Marketing - 719 (-3)(LW - 9)
11 - Drew's Marketing Minute - 692 (-12)(LW - 11)
12 - Church of the Customer - 651 (No Change)(LW - 13)
13 - Converstations - 647(-22)(LW - 12)
14 - Jaffe Juice - 592 (+8)(LW - 14)
15 - Conversation Agent - 575 (+8)(LW - 15)
16 - Marketing Roadmaps - 533 (No Change)(LW - 17)
17 - The Viral Garden - 531 (-7)(LW - 16)
18 - Marketing Headhunter - 521 (No Change)(LW - 19)
19 - Branding and Marketing - 493 (-33)(LW - 18)
20 - Customers Rock! - 442 (-9)(LW - 20)
21 - CK's Blog - 436 (No Change)(LW - 22)
22 - Servant of Chaos - 426 (-13)(LW - 21)
23 - Experience Curve - 404 (+2)(LW - 23)
24 - Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog - 380 (No Change)(LW - 24)
25 - Chaos Scenario - 352 (+4)(LW - 25)

A reminder that the Top 25 Marketing Blogs are ranked according to the number of sites/blogs linking to each, according to Technorati. The number you see after the blog name is how many sites/blogs Technorati claims have linked to the blog in the last 6 months. After that number is a positive or negative number, and this represents how many links the blog gained or lost from last week's Top 25. The final stat tells you what position the blog held in the Top 25 Last Week (LW). If you see this; (LW - UR), it means the blog wasn't ranked last week.

Another blah week for the Top 25 as only 7 blogs were up. And the hamster might have fallen back off the wheel at Technorati, as 4 blogs had no change. Poor Marketing Headhunter still hasn't had its link count updated since 1962. Search Engine Guide stood out again posting the biggest move of the week, up 66 links.

No new blogs, with The Lonely Marketer and The Origin of Brands again just missing the countdown.




Next update is next Wednesday.

Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Top 25 Marketing Blogs

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