Janet Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I tell people who write blogs (business blogs too) that the blog is your living room. In visiting old acquaintances in the blogosphere, I ran across Susan Getgood’s Marketing Roadmaps blog again.

Susan and I were are both speakers at early Blog Business Summit events, and I’ve been remiss about staying in touch with those from the earlier days… but I digress.

I was thrilled to find one of the best examples of blog etiquette posted in her /about section:

“Marketing Roadmaps Code of Ethics:
Marketing Roadmaps is my opinion, based on my experience. Your mileage may vary. I will be respectful of my readers’ views, and expect the same courtesy.

1. When I have an opinion, I will be completely clear about it. You won’t have to guess.
2. I won’t delete posts unless the content proves to be completely off base, in which case I will leave a placeholder that explains what happened so search engines won’t perpetuate any mistakes I have made. Typically I will annotate the original post with new material rather than delete the post.
3. I will not blog information learned offline or in private conversations unless I am absolutely certain that it is public information or I have obtained permission from the person who shared the information. When in doubt I will err on the side of caution.
4. I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic. Ditto trackbacks.
5. I will link and trackback to other blogs appropriately, and always endeavor to add to the conversation.
6. I will say thank you, replying to emails and comments promptly and pleasantly, even when I disagree with you.
7. I will be honest about my clients and relationships so my readers will understand my loyalties.”

I don’t think you can do any better than that as an example of excellent blog ethics.

Good on you, Susan.

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I’ve been doing a bit of networking lately, and have received some fascinating feedback as a result:

“I occasionally read your blog to catch up, and rarely understand a word you say; but you sound very, very smart.”

<ouch>

“I’ve seen your blog, and it’s quite a collection of ‘bright and shiny things’ you talk about.”

<guilty as charged>

“I went through your paper, and it’s very, very technical. Who’s your audience?”

<great question!>

These comments have given me pause, and they couldn’t have come at a better time, as I am personally trying to define my own use of social media tools in my business, in order to better clarify their uses for others.

In an effort to do so in public, here’s a stake in the ground:

RSS: Every time I get a new client, I set up a new RSS feed in my Attensa RSS reader to gather news and information about them. (I posted screen shots on SlideShare, in case you like pictures to walk you through how it works.) I also subscribe to a few blogs that I find interesting - and read them within Attensa because it’s more convenient to have one place to go to read and comment on them all.

RSS is like the nervous system of social media - it grabs news from the entire universe and routes it to the brain.

RSS readers are the brains of social media - we train them to understand what we pay attention to, and the smart readers anticipate how to prioritize the information to feed our attention properly.

Blog: I use my blog to personally comment upon things that move me. Whether it be a new tool, a personal experience, or software to help marketers. I agree with Ken, though, that it seems a collection of bright and shiny objects. I’m okay with that, although I think it might be time to mix it up a little more. The danger in blogging is that I seem to be obsessed with, and harp on similar themes; so my posts might become boring for those who subscribe or visit often. But this is my space, so I get to be the medium of “me.”

Blogs are the hearts of social media to me - if I care enough to write about something at length, I’ll blog it. My readers know how I feel about pretty much everything I choose to share. For businesses, blogs can create a glimpse inside your organization and get right to the people who make it work, connecting with their obsessions, thoughts and (yes, even) emotions.

Twitter and other “micro-blogging” tools: I use Twitter to connect with what people are thinking/doing “in the moment.” It fits my “bright and shiny object” proclivity to a tee. Through it, I can check out breaking news, get to know people I work with in a much more casual, personal way, and share thoughts/jump into conversations and engage quickly and directly - right now.

Twitter is like the eyes and ears (maybe all the senses) of social media to me. Blink, turn your head, sneeze and you’ve missed something. But it adds color, depth, taste, and texture to the people, problems and knowledge of those I follow. I tell people in business that teams who are working together should follow each other on Twitter. Especially virtual or geographically diverse teams… they’ll learn more from each other, be more accessible, and get more done with each other as a result.

I ‘d love to hear what others think… as I’ve found this week, it’s most enlightening and helpful to get feedback. It helps focus my thoughts and further define my messages and how I relate them to others.

Which is the true beauty of social media and marketing to me.

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But that’s why NY Times’ David Pogue is a writer, and I’m a blogger… his post yesterday on Web 2.0 and why businesses should embrace Web 2.0 concepts is perfectly written and sound. Check it out.

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Last November I switched from PC to Mac - because of my iPhone. At the time, my PC was acting up, and I had been futzing with trying to connect my Blackberry to my Outlook (without IT help) calendar for months. I love my Mac, and the seamless integration with my iPhone. But now that iPhone has a hope to connect to the Blackberry enterprise server, I have to say I’d advocate for the iPhone as the tool I’d choose to call essential.

Tool #4: The smartest PDA - iPhone

Before I got one, I wondered what all the fuss was about. But once I started using it, I immediately got it. Elegant usability.

Seriously, the UI was so beautifully developed, every single tool was intuitive, and once I tried the controls - setting times for appointments, for example - I wondered why everyone’s phone didn’t work that way?

How is it a great marketing tool? I have the intelligence of the web, the immediacy of text, the connectedness of email, the logistic satisfaction of context-sensitive maps and the joy of a camera built right into my phone.

I will never be lost again, I can Google answers to any questions, respond to email, and snap photos to share with others (and send them right to recipients from the camera application).

It was worth the money AND worth the $200 cancellation fee I had to pay. (That’s another story altogether…)

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In an effort to show, rather than tell, I’m putting forth my personal Top 10 Marketing Tools in a series. I asked the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network’s marketing committee to send me a list of their top 10 tools, and will be posting about them over on the OEN Blog.

(It’s spring break, so I haven’t seen any of them yet… So here’s my second in the series, to inspire action when they return:)

Tool #2: A Smart Search Engine

I have to admit, I’ve used Google for traditional searces for years. But when I went out on my own, I discovered that a roving worklife meant I was never sure I would be at the same computer all day. I’ve long been a fan of SaaS technology (software as a service - where you go online and login to manage information) and iGoogle, the personal Google service, has saved my bacon many times.

They’ll tell you - when you type in “what is igoogle” to your google tool bar in your browser - which is fantastic in and of itself - that:

Google offers the ability to create a personalized iGoogle page that gives you at-a-glance access to key information from Google and across the web.

• Your latest Gmail messages
• Headlines from Google News and other top news sources
• Weather forecasts, stock quotes, and movie showtimes
• Bookmarks for quick access to your favorite sites from any computer
• Your own section with content you find from across the web

I don’t use it as a personal “portal” to all things online. I use it because:

• It gives me access to Google Docs and Spreadsheets, where I can set up living documents to capture and share notes, track action items and collaborate in meetings with clients. No matter where we are, we’re quite literally all on the same page.
• I used to be on a Dell with Outlook and a Blackberry, and could never get my calendar to synch with my PDA. (A great lead-in to Chapter 3) I kept my calendar online in Google’s calendar application, and while I wasn’t able to view my calendar (again, I’m not technical or patient enough to set it up correctly) from my blackberry, I could get to it from any computer connected to the internet. (A great selling point for SaaS) And, it would send alerts to my blackberry, which helped me get to meetings on time.

Beyond iGoogle (back to just plain Google for a bit), I use Google as a spelling tool and a dictionary. It goes like this:

You can’t get a fast read on whether you’re spelling a word correctly or not than to type it into your Google toolbar - take one of most commonly misspelled words - accomodate. If you’re unsure, in a flash you’ll know,

“Did you mean: accommodate?”

(While you’re at it, check out the results around the spelling correction in Google - you might see some smart search engine marketers trying to capture common misspellings for their clients.)

I use Google to quickly find sources for quotations - who knew John Heywood wrote: “Many hands make light work…” You can also find complete song lyrics in the same way.

But there are cooler things :

• like putting your UPS tracking number into Google to find out where your package is
• putting your flight number into Google to find out where the plane is…
• figuring out who called you by knowing where the 541 area code comes from… instantly
• …and don’t even get me started on Google maps - it’s the greatest thing for those of us who used to have to rely on CitySearch to find restaurant phone numbers… thank goodness for Google.

…those are the quick timesavers that make Google one of the Top 10 Marketing Tools I use.

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