Marketing Beyond
The Blog Buzz
September 8, 2005
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Our Game Plan
 What is a blog? blog
 Marketing Applications
 RSS
 Monitoring the
Blogosphere
 Journalists & Blogs
 Challenges website
 How to Begin
 Key Take Aways
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

After All Is Said And Done…It’s Still Marketing
“People can say I’m a classical violinist if they
want to, but I’ve always viewed myself as a
musician who plays music and not just a
certain part of it.”
Kennedy, Classic Violinist
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

What is a blog?
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

What is a blog?
A weblog is kind of a continual tour, with a
human guide who you get to know.
There are many guides to choose from,
each develops an audience, and there's
also camaraderie and politics between
the people who run weblogs, they point
to each other, in all kinds of structures,
graphs, loops, etc.
Heard it from: Dave Winer
http://newhome.weblogs.com/historyOfWeblogs
->[Courtesy Link]
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

The Essence of Blogging
People Talking To People
1.
2. People Listening To People
3. People Interacting With People
Within the environment of a website
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Blog Activities
Author Blogs
• Information
• Entertain
• Community
• Ego
Promote via Read Blogs
Blogs • Inform
• Ads • Entertain
• Bloggers Blogger Reader • Community
•Comment
• Trackback
• Request
• Journalists sources Monitor Blogs
• Company buzz
• Customer sat issues
• Trends
• Influencers
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Building Corner Store Relationships
People like to do business with people they like.
“People-based relationships and performance will continue to be
the most important formula for success.” Lorraine Tribe, Quest Personnel
Markets are Conversations
Cluetrain Manifesto
Markets Are People
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Anatomy of a Blog
Blog Title
Title Tag
Post Delivery Options
Value-add
Video
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Anatomy of a Blog
Post
BlogRoll
Archive Category
Unique URL Links From Other Blogs
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Anatomy of a Blog
Original
Post
Trackback
On Blog
Comment
on Blog
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Blog Posting Interface
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How Does A Blog Differ …
A Website - even the best websites are
usually static information that is difficult to
update and with no ability to generate p2p
(person-to-person interaction)
conversations.
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

How Does a Blog Differ from …
A Chat Room: A blog maintains a conversation history,
unlike most chat rooms.
A Listserv: A blog does not require email distribution,
unlike most listserves.
A Bulletin Board: A blog is easy to read, unlike most
bulletin boards.
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Blog Best Practices
1. Title and title tag
 Descriptive
 Optimized for organic search
2. Posts in reversed
chronological order
3. Blog writing style -
conversational
4. About Me page – credibility
5. Social networking/community
building
 Comments
 Trackbacks
 Linking strategy
6. Blogroll
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Blog Best Practices
7. Blog Mantra
Honest | Passion | Transparency | Authentic
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Growth of the Blogosphere
PubSub
Total sources
15,690,065 <9/4/05>
12,886,771 <7/13/05<
Active sources
9,909,665 <9/4/05>
7,634,306 <7/13/05>
1,905 <8/12/05>
1,857 <7/13/05>
new items per minute (average
over the past two hours)
*9-4 Labor Day Weekend
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Major Corporations
Are Already Blogging
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Marketing Applications
“The 4 P’s of Blogging”
Point | Passion | Personality | Perseverance
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Crisis Management
Winber Medical Center: Stopping rumors
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Customer Relationships
Non profit - community of bloggers B2C - customer bloggers
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Search Engine Optimization
If there is a silver bullet …
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Building Community & Influencers
74 people say happy birthday Business bloggers help cause
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Informal Marketing Research
Intuit Quick Books
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Thought Leadership
Research - multiple author Consulting –multiple author
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Recruitment Strategy
American University –
Perspective Students Page
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Displaying Information
Photo Blog Blog As A Portal
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Non Corporate Blogs
Network of Blogs Sponsored Blog
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Short-term Campaigns
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Business & Marketing Blogs:
Can A Small Business Own A Niche?
Company: Quality Service Marketing
Industry: Services Marketing/Consulting
Goals: Website presence,
position Sybil Stershic as a
thought leader, interest publisher
Sybil’s Lessons Learned
 Outline topics
 Write ahead
 Read blogs
 Market within your network
 Jump in and go!
<http://qualityservicemarketing.blogs.com/quality_service_marketing/>
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Business & Marketing Blogs:
Can a manufacturing company leverage
the goodwill of an internal celebrity?
Company Indium
Industry: Manufacturing
Goal: Reinforce industry
thought leadership,
customer loyalty
*Build on following of company
& industry leader
<http://www.indium.com/drlasky/>
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Business & Marketing Blogs:
Would Growth Cause Loss of Customer Relationships?
Company: Stonyfield Farms
Industry: Consumer Dairy
Goal: Personalize relationship with
customers, differentiate the brand
<http://www.stonyfield.com>
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

RSS – Real Simple Syndication
A little peep, signal or peep that
comes from a blog or site telling
your computer that it has been up
dated. Seth Godin
Continuous search
 XML format
 Pull strategy – customer is in control
 Allows consumption of huge amounts
of information
 No spam or opt in/ opt out issues
 5% of internet users use RSS feeds
“Information overload and user need for control will
drive consumer RSS adoption” - Charlene Li, Forrester Research
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

GM FastLane Blog
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Aggregator/News reader
Header/Post Reviews
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My Yahoo
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RSS – Real Simple Syndication
RSS Website Uses
 Media releases
 New product
updates
 Newsletters
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Monitoring Blogs
Influencer Relationship Management
The most priceless commodity
in times of crisis is trustworthy information.
Forbes
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Monitoring Blogs
Influencer Relationship Management
Where would you prefer a controversial
conversation about your brand occurs?
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Monitoring Blogs
Influencer Relationship Management
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Journalists Tapping Blogs
11th Annual Euro RSCG Magnet Survey of the Media, done
in partnership with Columbia University
 51% of journalists use blogs regularly
 28% rely on blogs for day-to-day reporting
 Blogs used for:
 reporting
 research
 story ideas
 finding sources
 uncovering breaking news
Source: http://www.magnet.com/index.php?s=_thought
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Blog Marketing Challenges
 Time & Resources
 Blog strategy
 Corporate guidelines
 Corporate liability
 Negative comments
 Comment spam
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On The Horizon
Blog Ads
In Feeds On Blogs
Podcasting & Vblogging
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Blog Ready?
First Question: Will the company culture support a
blog strategy?
Second Question: Will blogs help solve or support a
business challenge or marketing strategy?
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Blog Implementation
Model
Developed by Pheedo.com
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Ready Set Go … Blog!
Whisper Strategy
 Subscribe to a news reader
 Read and subscribe to blogs
 Monitor the blogosphere
 Join the conversation
>Free blog software for PR pros complements of Robert
French, professor Auburn University
http://www.prblogs.org/
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Tracking Metrics
 Blog Specific
*May be measured by unique or total posts
 Search rankings
 Visitor hits
 Page views
 Trackbacks
 In bound links
 Comments
 Conversions
 Newsletters subscriptions
 Sales
 Leads
 White paper/other down loads
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

Tracking Metrics
 Buzz
 Podcasts, vlogs and other interview
 Blog mentions, comments, links, trackbacks
 Media mentions/quotes
 Intangibles
 Customers’ emotional involvement with the bran
 Increase in brand loyalty
 Provide customers with the opportunity to talk with people
within a company and ensure that customers are heard,
responded to and respected by those people who are assuming
the role of the public “voice” of their company
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

10 Key Take Aways
1. People talking to people – no corporate talk
2. Easy to maintain, update & publish website
3. Blog elements encourage real-time interaction,
creates and maintains relationships
4. Focused on a topic, industry, niche or
personality
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

10 Key Take Aways
5. Establishes the author as a subject matter expert
6. Provides readers with renewing sources of credible,
trustworthy information, insights and commentary
7. Blog writing is different from other customer
communication forms – relevant, informal
conversation
8. RSS allows content to be pulled by readers
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

10 Key Take Aways
9. Blogs must be integrated into your marketing strategy
to be effective: goals, objectives
10. Blogs promotion includes traditional/internet and
blog-specific (social networking: linking, comments,
trackbacks; organic search optimization)
Bonus: If you do nothing else –
 read blogs & monitor the blogosphere!
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

What Are Blogs?
1. People Talking To People
2. People Listening To People
3. People Interacting With People
… and much more!
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005

//Blogs//:
Toby Bloomberg
Bloomberg Marketing
tobyb1@gmail.com
www.divamarketingblog.com
Marketing & Blog Strategies For Business
© Bloomberg Marketing 2005