CT Biz Blogs

Short notice alert: this conference is tomorrow!

One of the best times I had last year was at the 2006 Business Smart tools conference. I work with Valorie on a number of blogs, and helped her out a little bit at last year’s conference, by attempting some live blogging:

• Business Smart Tools Conference is on!
• David Pogue at Business Smart Tools Conference
• Mike Dunn on Podcasting
• Matt Kain on Search Engine Marketing
• David Parmet on Blogging
• Stamford CT will never be the same

This year, Valorie Luther of Creative Concepts, has taken the 2007 Business Smart Tools conference to a new level, and yet managed to reduced the registration fee. Unfortunately, I can’t make it this year, which is killing me. This is a great conference at a very affordable admission, and not to be missed, in my not-so-humble opinion. And what’s not to like in this agenda?

11:30-12:00	Doors Open, Light Lunch Served
12:00-12:15	Welcome
	Valorie Luther, Creative Concepts
12:15-12:45	Trends, Past and Future
	Patrick Quinn, PQ Media
12:45-1:30	New Media Business Basics
	Scott McRae, Creative Change Web Business StrategiesAlbert Maurggi, Provident Partners Blogging/PodcastingAndrew DiFiore, answerYES Interactive Advergaming and Viral Marketing Marshall Kirkpatrick, Splashcast Web Syndication David Vinjamuri, Thirdway/NYU Moderator
1:30-2:00	Corporate Video for a YouTube Era
	Rahul Sonnad, thePlatform Video LiquidityMatt DeLoca, the Feedroom Corporate VideoDavid Vinjamuri, Thirdway/NYU Moderator
2:00-2:15	Break
2:15-2:30	Business Smart Tools Angel Award
2:30-3:15	Second Life, a Virtual Existence for Business
	Greg Verdino, Digitas
3:15-5:00	The Real Story, Does New Media Work for Business
3:15-3:35 3:35-3:55 3:55-4:15 4:15-4:35 4:35-5:00	Ron Stevenson, General Electric Duane Schulz, Xerox Ben Edwards, Economist.com Chris Barger, General Motors Panel (Chris, Duane, Ben, Ron)
5:00	Closing Words
	Valorie Luther, Creative Concepts
5:00-6:00	Networking Cocktail Party

So check it out!

On my to-do list since March has been to write about the upcoming SOBCon , put on by Liz Strauss and Phil Gerbyshak

It’s going to be in Chicago, on May 11 - 12. I just realized that the block of rooms reserved for this will be released today, so you have to move fast if you want to be at the convention hotel.

Having met Liz and read her blogs for years, I know she is one blogger who really gets it about creating relationships. Here’s what’s on the agenda at SOBCon:

Together we will strategize, discuss, and learn how to

• respect that in business and blogging all things are based in connecting relationships
• treat our blogs like a business, or a business-like hobby
• define a vision for our blogs that inspires others to be part of it
• identify like-minded bloggers whose blogging goals match our own
• evaluate our work through the eyes of a first time reader
• use links, trackbacks, and comments to lead to increased participation, extended reach, and relationships that could develop into business ventures
• ensure that navigation, in presentation, and in all reader experiences, is intuitive, simple, and elegant
• know our brand values as readers define them and be able to articulate the unique and remarkable values we offer
• understand basic tools that are useful in adding video, podcasting, social media, and voice commenting
• reach out beyond the blogosphere to nonblogging readers to become a resources they rely on
• recognize the traits and characteristics of a successful and outstanding blog

Presenters with specialized experience, will get the conversation started, and together presenters and attendees will work interact to get you where you need to go - to take your blogging to the next level.

What’s not to like? I think the price is reasonable for two days of learning, networking, and sharing ideas.

I’d be there if I could, and I think anyone who can make it should go. Speaking as someone who comes to blogging because of fascination with its technical aspects, I could sure use the info being shared at the con. You can learn more about successful and outstanding blogging in two days in Chicago than what some bloggers are taking years to figure out, if they do at all.

Technorati : SOBCon07

I went down to Podcamp NYC 2007 yesterday, April 7, and had a great time.

Valorie Luther, from Creative Concepts, gave a talk on Corporate Blogging, and I helped out by creating the presentation slides, and offering some tech support. Follow the link to the post on her blog, if you want to see the slides.

The audience was great, and Valorie is a fantastic public speaker. Anil Dash, from Six Apart, was in the audience. We had a brief conversation with him afterward, and hope to talk more in the future. He’s one of the bloggers I was reading early on, when I first started investigating the whole blogging world.

We didn’t have time to stay at the conference, but did manage to catch Adam Varga’s presentation on Building Dialog With Your Audience (using voicemail, message boards, and wikis). He is one sharp guy and really understands about building community! I came away with some good ideas and a better understanding of the technologies and issues in community building.

I was particularly struck by his points on the cons of using Wikis as a way to build community. Wikis don’t allow for a conversation, for responding to points, and it’s hard to see where the action is. You don’t see right away what’s new, what’s busy, where the latest info is. Wikis, I believe, are more of a way for an already established community to build something together. I think Etienne Wenger (who’s written a lot about communities of practice) calls that “reification.” In my understanding, for communities, reification means a documentation of already established actions, for reference and further action.

Adam did a great job and I hope he puts his notes up on his site. I’d put up mine from his talk, but I’m trying to be less delusional about how much time I actually have for things like that.

Yippee, I’m back. Gotta work on that whole work-life balance thing.

In Connecticut (the CT in CTBizBlogs), and in other parts of the world, I gather, we have this habit of taking stock at year end, and making resolutions for the new year.

It’s been a crazy time for me the past few months. I started this blog when I was not busy and not doing much that was creative. I had lots of pent-up energy, and I love to write, so posting was a thrill.

But now I’m on a project (non-blogging) where I’m writing every day, until my fingers and brain are tired. I found that it definitely impacted my desire to sit at the computer and write some more. This blogging thing can be work, and it can be tough at times. But it’s always worth it, when I put the time in.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve found that getting to the keyboard is tough. But once I get there, I have fun!

And as for resolutions for the new year, I’ve never kept one in my life, so I won’t even kid myself.

But one thing I do know — this year will be a year of choices, challenges, and changes. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Here’s wishing you all the best year ever.

Here’s to 2007.

Read the Time article
Get your own seal

Well, it’s about time!

Every person who’s ever had a blog or uploaded a video or left a comment can proudly claim this honor.

Now that Time recognizes us, will it be the “tipping point” that brings blogging and social media to the awareness of the masses?

If so, we’d better be prepared. That means it’s time for small businesses to check out blogging, del.icio.us, YouTube, and all the ways people are contributing to the distributed conversation online. It’s better to be slightly ahead of the curve than behind it.

I do find it ironic, however, that the Time articles are mostly about video. That’s what’s really grabbed people’s attention.

I have mixed feelings about video.

Yes, when it’s done well, it’s great. But for things like search engine optimization, not so great. All the content is locked up in a video file. Search engines can’t parse that yet, so it doesn’t help with keywords.

And bandwidth is still an issue for a lot of people.

My advice for small businesses who want to do audio or video podcasts is to put as much of the content as possible in show notes. That way you’ll reach the most people, and the search engines, too.

(And for an example of viral media, check out how clever Alister Cameron created this seal and got some links!)

The Bigelow Tea company has entered the blogosphere.

I’m very excited about this. I’ve been working behind the scenes for Valorie Luther at Creative Concepts, doing the technical stuff and housekeeping duties that come with getting a blog up and running. So naturally we’re using WordPress.

Two of the folks at R.C. Bigelow are blogging, Cindi Bigelow, a Co-President of the company, and Bob, the VP of Sales & Marketing. Also writing is my pal Liz Strauss. She’s a community-builder par excellence.

Of course, Bigelow already has a community of loyal customers and employees, and a terrific web site. When I went for a visit to their headquarters in Fairfield, CT, I got a good feeling — this company is a joy to work with. (Plus they gave me samples of new products!)

I particularly want to see how their customers visit the blog — we’re using Feedburner for RSS, and FeedBlitz for email subscriptions. I like the explanation page Feedburner puts up if you click on the RSS link on Bigelow’s blog, and what could be easier than FeedBlitz’s email subscription form? I bet most of Bigelow’s fans aren’t very active in the blogosphere — yet. I think the subscription options will help ease them into it. But there are also plenty of bloggers who are tea-drinkers, so I’m hoping a few of you folks will drop by, check it out, and give me your honest feedback.

So, I predict interesting things from the Bigelow blog, and I’m looking forward to working on it.

Oh, and the tea is delicious, too. I love the Green Tea with Pomegranate!

I hope. It’s been a hectic few weeks. Victim of too much of a good thing (work, in this case). But I haven’t abandoned this blog, just neglected it.

But I’ll be back!

If you’re looking for more information on why your business should have a blog, if you want to understand how to do it better, or if you just want to learn how other companies are blogging, this online study is for you.

The Blogging Success Study was conducted by Northwestern University and Backbone Media, and it has a ton of good information and food for thought.

If nothing else, read the executive summary:

After careful review, the research team identified five factors for success. The majority of the twenty participant bloggers pointed to these factors as important to the success of their blog. We focus in on these factors in Section Three.

The five factors identified by the participants were:

1. Culture
2. Transparency
3. Time
4. Dialogue
5. Entertaining Writing Style and Personalization

A company should carefully consider all of these factors before making a decision to blog…

Heck, even reading the table of contents will give you some ideas! And there’s a glossary, explaining terms such as trackback and RSS feed, two of the trickiest concepts in the blogosphere.

An informal term for describing the whole community of bloggers on the web, the term is also used to define a particular community such as the PR community of bloggers or PR Blogosphere.

If you don’t like to read online, download and print out the PDF.

Do you think I’m crazy for mentioning a study co-written by a company also in the blog consulting business? Hey, if it helps you learn about blogging, then it’s a good thing.

That’s just the kind of gal I am.

While attendng a women’s lecture luncheon yesterday, I mentioned “weblogs” to a few people in the pre-lecture chatting time. At functions where I think there are less internet-savvy folks, I use “blogs” and “weblogs” interchangeably. I usually get “What are weblogs/blogs?” and I go into my elevator speech about blogs. It’s scary how much I can blather about them if given half a chance, although I try to start with just a quick sentence or two.

Well yesterday I got the usual “What are weblogs?” But in both cases, the person went on to ask, “Is that like a blog?”

Woo-hoo!

Twice people said that they’d heard about blogs, although both weren’t 100% sure of what they were. One woman had looked at a few, and read the blog of a sales coach who had recently added a blog to her site.

The other, a woman maybe in her late 20’s, early 30’s started telling me about this band she was following, and how a blog sounded sort of like what the band had.

I asked if the site was on MySpace.

She said she knew about MySpace, but the band’s site wasn’t there, and that the conversation on the site was called a “vine.”

I’ve never heard of that term before. I’m going to email her and ask her for more information. The lecture was starting so I didn’t have a change to continue the conversation.

I’m encouraged that the term is slowly filtering through to more people (Realtors and mortgage lenders, in this case). And it reminds me that people care less about what things are called and more about what they can do for them — help them communicate with a band and fellow fans, or read articles by a sales coach.