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 got a note last week that I just have to take the time to expose to the air… from my friend Gillian. Her words struck so personally I feel moved to blog them:

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I hope you don’t mind me reaching out to each of you on a rather personal note…As most of you know, I lost my father to pancreatic cancer 9 months ago today. Although pancreatic cancer is one of the major cancer killers, it still receives little to no government funding or support.

Some of you may have heard of Dr. Randy Pausch, a 47 year old Carnegie Mellon professor who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, whom through his “last lecture” has gotten lots of media attention (Prime Time, Good Morning America, and yes, even Oprah). Well, here is his recent powerful appeal to Congress - it would mean a lot to me if you would take a moment to listen to it.

If you are so moved, here are a few additional ways to help:

1. Write your local legislator
2. Donate to the cause (be sure to earmark your contribution for RESEARCH) - through my mother’s efforts to raise awareness we have raised almost 30K in research funds in my father’s name, James J. Kennedy
3. Continue to stay educated through http://www.pancan.org/ and http://www.lustgarten.org/

I appreciate your time with this and I can only hope that what we do today will make a difference.

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Apparently Gillian received a huge response to her note, and there were some further follow-on clarifications:

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I know there were some questions about donating to PanCan - it sounds like the only way to earmark the donation for research and/or make the donation in my father’s name (James J. Kennedy) is to either:

• call PanCan at 1-877-272-6226 and make the donation over the phone or
• mail in a check that has the information in the memo. The form for this and info about how to do it is here.

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Gillian and her mom are just trying to raise awareness. Apparently her mom is quite an expert on pancreatic cancer now. If anyone has questions, I’m happy to connect you with them.

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Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb on this one - but after a couple of months of using it, I’m hooked. And I can already see how it’ll be one of the top marketing tools I’m going to use moving forward:

Tool #5 - Twitter

I have known about Twitter since everyone was all atwitter (sorry, couldn’t resist) about it (way back in March or April of 2006) at one of the blogging conferences I was attending. It seems the social media geeks generally portend what the rest of us finally ‘get’ years later.

Why I’m enthusiastic about Twitter as a marketing/business tool?

1) I can get glimpses of the real lives of the people I’m following - which is important when you’re building virtual teams. And whether you’re a contractor working remotely, a geographically dispersed team working for the same company, or even a team with people on different floors, the more we stare into our little screens to get our work done, the more we need to find ways to get to know people from the little screen.

I know, for example, when someone is extremely busy - because their twitters go silent for awhile. Perhaps it’s time to check in with them?

2) I can pick up knowledge from others in a quick-hit fashion. I’ve learned a few gems in the short time I’ve been twittering, just by following other people’s tweets. And you can follow conference news from people who’re on site, twittering live - you get their impressions in the moment.  Blog posts follow, most people tweet their postings.

3) I’ve become more aware of my words. You can only use 140 characters to post in twitter… and that’s a great forcing mechanism to refine your writing.

The convention (for those of you who haven’t been there yet) is to acknowledge other’s tweets by saying something like @thiskat when I’m referring to something she has said.

So here’s a hint - don’t pick a long username like I did. @janetleejohnson is a ridiculous waste of 15! characters. Had I to do it all over again, I’d go under an assumed name like mktgmvn or smrtpdx or mrk8r… think in terms of license plate monikers, and you’re set.

Another hint - check out an URL shortner tool like twurl - which also allows you to track clicks…

Happy twittering…

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My friend Tobey sent over a link to a site from The Netherlands that has the best use of Flash I’ve ever seen. It’s a treat - turn on your sound and check it out here - the HEMA online winkelen.

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As I’ve mentioned before, I think Pete Blackshaw is great. I have from the moment I sat across the dinner table from him in Newark, NJ - at the end of a blogging and social media conference - and listened to him glow about his kids.

He’s smart, forward-thinking and his advice to businesses about consumer generated media (CGM) is extremely well-rooted in reality. So when he announced his 2008 forecast intentions on Facebook and asked for feedback from the CGM group, I’ve been looking forward to reading them.

They were published last week on ClickZ in the CMO section. As far as I’m concerned, anyone interested in “Web 2.0″ should read, learn and enjoy.

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