Blogging and E-retailing

Blogging and E-retailing Debbie Weil Author of The Corporate Blogging Book Oct. 20, 2008

Retail blogs (and Twitter)

Good writing

Defining community

The importance of walking the talk

Let’s talk about… Hey, ask questions!

Does your brand need a blog?

Fear Why aren’t more CEOs and companies blogging?

of being criticized

of losing control

“ We shop, therefore we blog” Example on page 66 in my book

800-CEO-Read blog Another example on page 66 in my book

Zappos.com blogs

Zappos on Twitter

Zappos CEO on Twitter He has15,081 followers and he’s following 17,573 Twitterers

Why do these e-retail blogs work?

You want to be #1 in the online conversation about your brand

What else?

“It’s the content (and the writing), stupid” 1. Simplicity 2. Unexpectedness 3. Concreteness 4. Credibility 5. Emotion 6. Story - from Made to Stick

Good blogging is good writing and good writing is storytelling… Read Andrew Sullivan’s essay, “Why I Blog” in Nov. 2008 issue of The Atlantic Monthly http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/andrew-sullivan-why-i-blog

To blog successfully, take off your marketing or PR hat and adopt a new mindset… Deliver value without selling

Let’s define community From Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes**: “A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.” ** Highly recommended

Blogs are one piece of the social media puzzle How do you use these tools to create community?

Get to know the tools. You’ll be ahead of the game.

- One in 5 U.S. adults has no landline - 49% of young adults (18 – 29) are cell phone only users Harris Poll April 4, 2008 Mobile

Parting Thoughts

This is a revolution

Walking the Talk How many of you have your own blogs? How many of you are Twittering?