This afternoon I ran across a website about a guy named Tom who did not have any furniture. He ordered FedEx boxes (for free) and built FedEx furniture for his apartment. My first reaction was to wonder when FedEx would shut Tom down. Then I thought that they might embrace this ‘mis-use’ of FedEx boxes. I contacted Jesse W. Bunn in the FedEx PR department and asked for a comment and at the same time suggested a positive response instead of a typical corporate response. In your own business it makes sense to see how you can turn lemons into lemonaid.
I was listening to NPR yesterday and heard an interview with Steve Rubel and as a frequent visitor to his blog, Micro Persuasion, I recalled a post about a UPS executive who indicated that they would not be blogging anytime soon. He suggested that FedEx should start blogging immediately to gain a competitive advantage. Tom’s FedEx Furntiure topic might be a great place to start. I suggest a vlog to start - perhaps a Quicktime movie interviewing Tom and his apartment. “No one is building furniture with DHL or UPS boxes…”
What if you could sit in and be the silent fly on the wall as you listen attentively to your customers or your competitor’s customers as they discuss their various wants and needs? This is the job of your PR agency or Weblog Consultantcy.
Google Suggest is here. Basically, you will need to try it out to understand, but Google matches and shows up the number of results available for possible works. Very fast. Chris Justus has written more about the the client side javascript.
[via ITtoolbox]
Does RSS advertising work? Check out a case study by the Marketing Sherpa.
While warning of the dangers of becoming “repetitive, trivial or tedious” Valencia Sailing describes blogs as “an innovative and very direct way of communication”. They point to examples by an Italian America’s Cup sailing team and the BMWOracle racing team’s site.
The corporate blogger needs to be ever mindful that their entries are not perceived to be “clog”. Take a look at another entry by a skeptic of corporate blogging: BogeyLounge’s Blog or Clog.
You may have caught’s Brian’s post regarding the new “souped up” version of Technorati. I have always assumed that Google would buy Technorati, and today I got a hint that I might be on to something.
Almost a year ago I starting using a service from Google called Google Alerts (Beta). Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. The service is STILL in Beta as I get alerts on news items from 2002 sometimes. Today I got something very interesting and very different - a link to a Technorati Tag relevant to my alert. Previously I created RSS feeds to my Newsreader from Technorati Tags that interested me, but now I have another option - Tags to Email. Not sure how valuable the email is as it does not really tell me if there a new items tagged since my last query as my RSS feed does… But it is interesting they are including it now.
The beta version of the updated Technorati service looks very promising. (Technorati is one of the top tools you should be using to track mentions of your company, products and people in the blogosphere. As of today, they claim to track 11.3 million sites and over 1 billion links.) In addition to faster performance, the new version aggregates related Flickr and Buzznet posts right alongside current blog mentions. Very Web 2.0.
The Dallas Morning News reported today that EDS has launched a corporate blog www.eds.com/blogs.
According to the story the site’s authors are EDS Fellows, the company’s top experts in industry and technology. Fellow Jeff Wacker is leading the effort. A core group of six or seven fellows will be posting on the site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
TopazPartners blogged on another blog by Dana Blankenhorn regarding rules for corporate blogging. He agreed with Dana on everything but one point:
“1) Have an outsider do it. An insider has better things to do and they’re too close to the story.”
Topaz suggests that it is important to have an insider write to get the depth necessary to create interest. We recommend both. Clearly it difficult for an outsider to completely understand the various issues that would create valuable and interesting entries. If you can afford a managed blogging service you can have the best of both worlds - the day to day entries/content that readers demand and periodic, but indepth, entries from company insiders. So we agree with Topaz and Dana…
…that many blog readers are skeptical or even concerned about the “businessification of blogs”? Read Max at Eleven to understand one such point of view.
Several of us are headed to Las Vegas in July to play in the WSOP (World Series of Poker) Main Event, but in the meantime there are more than 30 other events at the WSOP. Phil Gordon took a DAT recorder to WSOP and started recording his play at the table, observations of the event and interviews with players and celebrities. I took the podcast feed to my iPod and have listened each day in the car. It is very interesting.
Now for most of you it might be a little boring to hear about poker, but consider doing something similar for your marketing or sales staff the next time you are at a trade show or conference. You can make your team members who could not make it feel like part of the team. Also, consider Podcasting your next sales kick off - prospect and customers might get a kick out of some of the features. Just a thought.
Podcast: 1. Your next sales meeting (for those who could not make it, or those hard-chargers who love to hear you talk). 2. Your next sales presentation (for prospects who won’t meet with you). 3. Your next production marketing meeting (to give the sales people an inside look at what is going on). 4. Your next fight with your wife (just kidding).
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