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

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.

Liz Strauss, over at Successful Blog, is a super-connector. If you’re unfamiliar with the book Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, the connector is the person who knows everyone and loves to connect people to other people. That’s Liz. She’s also become a good friend over the past year, even surviving being my roommate at BlogHer.

She started writing on Successful Blog a year ago today, and she’s got open comments day going on her blog today. Check it out, bring a link, and see how a master creates buzz and a community.

Congratulations, Liz!

Technorati : Successful Blog

Well, two of my favorite blogs were mentioned in USA Today. They have a nice article called Blogs put businesses on Web search map, with many quotes from Small Business Blog of the Day’s Brian Brown, and one of the blogs they feature is J.D. Iles’s Signs Never Sleep, the blog for the Lincoln Sign Company, in New Hampshire.

Sign-maker Joseph Iles, 37, has been blogging for two years at his Lincoln Sign Co. in Lincoln, N.H. And he’s already seen a payoff. Iles attributes $33,000 in sales last year, or about 10% of total revenue, to customers he found through his Signs Never Sleep blog.

“If you can send an e-mail, you can do a blog,” he says. “It’s simple.”

Congratulations, guys!

In the article, Brian gives examples of 4 business blogs, and the reasons why they’re good blogs, and why blogs are good for business.

And when you read the article, don’t forget to follow the links to see the blog examples, and to read the other articles. There’s a great link to a brief how-to on blogging, and a link to USA Today’s Small business blog, Small Business Connection blog, written by Jim Hopkins. It’s full of good posts, including this one on what Suzanne Hetts, co-owner of Animal Behavior Associates in Littleton, Colo is saying about her planned move into blogging.

After days of anticipating and planning to attend, I decided at the last minute not to go to Podcamp Boston. Now I regret that, because it looks to have been one hell of a conference. Rats.

But Podcamp Boston lives on, online. The hard-working folks have been busy uploading podcasts and updating their site.

There’s lots of great audio here, folks, including talk about podcasting equipment, with David Berlind of CNET, and a session with Kevin Marks of Technorati called Bootleg webcasting to instant videoblog - How to bring remote people into live events, and blog the video afterwards.

And I just have to share with you about how cool Bloglines is. I use Bloglines for all my RSS feeds (subscriptions). And when there’s a post with an audio file, they include a little audio player, right in the feed post! This is great for when you just want to check out the audio without downloading a huge file. It’s just gotten that much easier to keep up.

Technorati : PodCamp Boston