A 2.0 Event That Actually Happened!

So for the last 3 weeks I have been working on making Mike Boss’ WordPress blog site ready for NECC in San Antonio. 

There were 3 things we wanted the site to provide:
1.  A holding place for our Caricature portraits -via Flickr
2.  A brief Utterz (audio & picture) of the interview Mike had just completed w/one of four major education publications
3. A mp3 Podcast from the above mentioned interview (btw: love Twitter, but look out! Here comes Utterz!)

For those that know me (and my skill set) know that I am not a programmer by ANY stretch of the word.  But what I do know is the message that we need to project and that there are certain apps that talk to other apps & I know that those apps can help us make a great first (public) blog!  I don’t want to be one of those “failed” blogs that Jeremiah has talked about recently!  I don’t FAIL well.
It took some time to research the best options, routes of delivery, a lot of testing and a few rounds of training…but we did it!
Wendy polished it off beautifully with her HTML knowledge & as we were heading out to Taco Friday today (on a Thursday) we said the look of the site reflected Mike’s laid back personality!  Couldn’t ask for a better representation!

So big thank you’s to:
Angela Lewton for giving us the green light to do something way outside the box of “normal”…
Wendy Fox for the beautiful skin
Mike Troverfor trusting me on putting the caricatures on Flickr that would be displayed on a site that would generate “repeat customers”
and MIKE BOSSfor your beautiful vision of what New Media means to you & expressing it so eloquently next to me: the over excited, “over-enthusiastic”, 2.0 passionate gal!

Have a GREAT 4th of July & stay tuned for our next baby step! 
-jen

How to Blog w/o being “pitchy”

I say this all the time…”you need to blog, but DON’T be pitchy!” 

Blogging w/o selling…you want to sell, you have to sell, you NEED to sell…but you need to blog & communicate in this New Media/2.0 format…but how?  How do I sell w/o pitching?

Leave it to Seth Godin to say it so simply:
ENGAGE, CONTRIBUTE, QUESTION, PAY ATTENTION, READ, INTERACT.
This will have an end result of sales and not put you in the category of a door to door salesman.

-jen

IN vs. AT Marketing

Michael Brito wrote a great post that talks about On LIne marketing changing a bit…

IN vs. AT Marketing

IN marketing is participating in conversations that costs a company time which will have long tail results.  Consumers will believe someone (a friend, collegue, a fellow community memeber) more than an ad…if feels more real, more trustworthy, more of a value to use someone/something that is recommended.

AT marketing is still trying to interrupt the consumer through banner ads, buying ad words etc.  I will go to AT marketing if I hear from a “friend” that there is good & valuable information at that particular online location. 

Your thoughts on IN vs AT Marketing?

ROI of Blogging

We (that would be the New Media/2.0 geeks) have a way to express the importance of Blogging, but here are some concrete thoughts from Chris Garrett on the ROI of Blogging & how to get there.

Attraction, Stickiness & Conversion.

In my eyes, these could be the “new 4 P’s” of marketing.

Enjoy!
-jen

Corporate Blogging Rules

This is such a great topic right now w/in the circles of companies engaging in social media.
For us, blogging will be part of our Lithium site & it will, for now, be by invite only.

But what are the rules?  Are there rules?  Who writes the rules?

I have listened to quite a few experts in the realm of social communities and when it comes down to rules of bloggging (not the philosopy of what the end user wants to read) this is what it comes down to.
Let’s be professional adults and don’t say stupid stuff.  :)  You are representing MPC & should act it whether you are sitting at your desk or blogging about it.

1.  Don’t blog about something you are privy to (upcoming products, organizaional structure changes - good or bad)
2.  Don’t talk about other companies unless you have permission to do so & when/if you do, those facts are correct.
3.  Be courtious & Professional:   if you wouldn’t say it to their face, don’t say it at all.
4.  If you think you will get fired for saying it, you probably will.

Our lawyer is actually writing something up stating these items (luckily not in Jen speak ) which will give our bloggers the freedom to write in their own voice, but also make sure that everyone knows the rules.

Now what about personal blogs?  General rule of thumb: if you think you might get in trouble saying it at a party or to ONE friend because it might get back to the person who hands you a check 2x/month, then don’t say it!  Be smart about the power of the web and of course:: be kind.