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Sunday, October 05, 2008

Some Hope for the Sartorially-Challenged
I take my personal appearance seriously. It's part of who I am and how people perceive me. I'm proud that someone like Dmitri Gunn has called me "the sharpest dressed man in social media today."

Even when I was working at an agency and when I was consulting with crayon - workplaces that were business casual - I took pride in what I wore and how I presented myself. It's part of my personal brand.

But looking sharp and business casual are not mutually exclusive. In this day of open collars, one fashion pet peeve (among many) is the total disregard for collar stays (or stiffeners). The result? You've seen it - collars on button-down shirts that curl up or seem to be flying away.

It's a minor detail, but it sends a message to those around you that perhaps you don't care about details. Or that you haven't entered the "grown-up" world of business attire yet.

The Solution
Luckily, I'm here with the answer to the problem you didn't know you had. Wurkin Stiffs has developed the magnetic collar stay that they call Power Stays. Place the Power Stays™ into your shirt’s collar stay pockets and place the super-strong magnets on the inside of the shirt… It’s that easy!

And just in case you thought that this post had nothing to do with social media (other than that lots of social media types work in casual environments), here's their YouTube video explaining it:



If you're accustomed to wearing your shirts without a tie, I highly recommend that you consider buying a set of these. Or make it a gift to a friend or family member this holiday season. They'll thank you.

Do you have any modern-day fashion tips or suggestions? I'm sure we'd all like to learn.

Photo credit: believer9

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Friday, March 28, 2008

How to Update & Automate Your Blogroll in 5 Easy Steps
I had noticed that my blogroll in my sidebar was horribly out of date. I've discovered many new voices over the last 6 months or so (the last time I think I updated it) and I wanted something to reflect my current reading - AND something that didn't require a manual update.

So I checked out my Google Reader and found that I could tag the blogs that I'd like to share and create a blogroll directly from my OPML file. This is in addition to the individual articles that I share through my reader. You'll find it over in the sidebar, as well as below.

Here's how I managed to update my blogroll in 5 easy steps:

  1. Log into Google Reader
  2. Select any blog you'd like to share and add a tag (I used "Blogs I Like")
  3. Then click on "Manage subscriptions" at the bottom of the page
  4. Select the blogs you'd like to include and tag them
  5. Under the Tags tab, click on "add a blogroll to your site"

From there, you can format it and do what you need to do using your blog's platform.

Happy reading!




Photo credit: drp via Flickr



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Friday, December 14, 2007

Another Productivity App
Are you using Jott yet? In my PodCamp Boston presentation, I reviewed a number of Web 2.0 applications that could actually make your life more productive (rather than less).

It's a simple voice-to-email system that allows you to be productive while you're mobile. It's probably just the thing for realtors, road warriors and robber barons alike. You call (866) JOTT-123 to leave a message for yourself, another individual or even a group and things start happening.

But where it really gets interesting is when you use Jott Links. Every time I turn around, I see that Jott has integrated itself with another cool application. For example:
  • Twitter - you can Jott a message that will appear in your Twitter stream.
  • Blogger, WordPress and Typepad - you can Jott directly to your blog
  • Zillow - for all of you realtors, you can look up Zestimates in the car
  • Google Calendar - make appointments on the go
  • Remember the Milk - add to your to do list while you're thinking of it
  • Xpenser - keep track of your expenses while you're out
The list goes on and on. It's really worth checking out and adding to your arsenal.

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Saturday, October 27, 2007

My PodCamp Boston 2 Presentation
This morning, I had the opportunity to give a presentation at PodCamp Boston 2. It was a full house, despite being the first session of the morning on a foggy, damp and grey morning in Boston.

Thank you to everyone who attended, asked questions - and most importantly, contributed to the conversation. I admitted that I clearly don't know everything about this field and that I rely on my communities to fill in my knowledge gaps. That's the beauty of the social media space.

My talk, Web 2.0 Tools You Can Use, focused on four web apps that can help you be more productive and get your life in order. I recommended four basic tools - certainly not a comprehensive list, but a basic set of productivity-enhancing apps that can help you keep sane amidst the clutter.

And the Web is cluttered. Some basic facts:
  • Facebook gets over 54 billion page views a month
  • Facebook accounts for 1% of all Web traffic
  • 25% of people's free time is spent online
  • Technorati tracks 70 million blogs
  • Not to mention that every day, I have to check email, Twitter, Skype, and a boatload of RSS feeds
The question is, how productive can you possibly be amidst all of this? There has to be a way.


My suggestions:
And crayon's latest client, the groundbreaking video chat client, ooVoo - which you can see at the end of the deck, embedded above and hosted on SlideShare.

And then I opened it up to the audience. Some of their suggestions included:
If you'd like a comprehensive list of the tools that I track, you can see it at: http://del.icio.us/socialmediamarketing/tools

Special thanks to Mark Blevis for taking notes during the session and forwarding on the audience suggestions.

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Friday, October 05, 2007

Beta = Exclusive? Not Necessarily
As new sites and applications appear on a near-daily basis (think I'm kidding? Put TechCrunch in your RSS feed and see how many posts a day they crank out), you'll inevitably get shut out of sites with beta invites.

And with only so many friends in the social media space, what's a desperate beta tester to do? Until now, it was beg, plead and work your social networks. But there's a site that's got an answer.

Over at InviteShare, you can do just that - share your beta invitations with others, or ask for beta invitations from them. For example, when you sign up for GrandCentral, you get 10 beta invites. Maybe you've only given invitations to 4 people in your network - you can let people at InviteShare know that you have 6 invitations left. Similarly, you can put in requests for those hard-to-find beta site invitations, like Yahoo Mash, the aforementioned GrandCentral, Pownce, etc.

Now, don't expect the ultra-exclusive sites like aSmallWorld or Diamond Lounge to have any invitations there. Some social networks are too good for that.

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Friday, August 24, 2007

Web Two-Point Whoa!
Is it just me or are there like a billion Web 2.0 sites out there that flash by me via email, RSS feeds, newsletters, web sites, etc.? It's hard to keep track of all of them.

I could go to my del.icio.us page, but that's limited only to what I've been scanning & bookmarking. What I like about it is that I can throw in a likely tag and be given a range of sites that are foggy in my memory, so I can narrow the search.

But now it looks like there's a site out there that can do that, but on a much larger scale. With over 5,000 Web applications in their database, the folks at Simple Spark provide a place to share and search for cool stuff online. And to prove that they're providing a useful service, they've given us this handy video:



Via Karl Long.

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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Yet Another Practical Use for Twitter
If you're not at least aware of Twitter by now, you should be. It seems like most of the social media sphere has jumped on board. With plug-ins for Facebook and badges for Blogger, MySpace and Typepad, Twitter is making itself ubiquitous.

For those who are aware but not active practitioners of the art of the tweet, there seems to be a high level of skepticism regarding this social application. But as the application becomes more widespread, there are increasingly more ways to use it.

Case in point: Twitter is now integrated with the task management system Remember the Milk. You can now add rtm as a friend and soon be sending yourself to-do items or managing your task list, no matter where you are.

Not that the world necessarily needs another electronic to-do list organizer. The reason this attracts my attention is because the RTM folks have integrated a number of Google APIs into their site, so you can get RTM in your Google Calendar, Google Maps and as an iGoogle gadget.

With the user-friendly services like Grand Central and FeedBurner under their belt, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Google grabs RTM next. It seems that my list of useful social media tools keeps growing.

How about you? Do you have some useful tools or applications that you can't live without? Drop a note in a comment and let me know.

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

Leading the Social Media Stampede
I recently wrote about Titleist and their customizable golf balls as a type of user-generated content (alright, it's not like making a YouTube video). Now that I think about it, there's nothing stopping anyone from filming what they do with golf balls....

In my post, I mentioned Moo as a company that knows how to give customers a range of options and to customize to their hearts' content. The story continues today, with firsthand experience of how much Moo really understands the social media space.

For those of you who don't know Moo, they create mini business cards that you can customize with your own images. Here's where it gets interesting. Sold in packs of 100, you can get 100 different images, a single image across all cards, or any assortment in between. When you hand cards out to friends & colleagues, you can encourage them to "collect all 100!"

I've listed Moo on my sidebar as a recommended tool/service since they launched. I've done so because I've used their services many times and because I've been impressed with their product and especially their customer service. Many businesses, whether in the social media space or not, can learn from them.

They get it
It's encouraging when a company aligns itself with other social networking sites. In Moo's case, you can see it's committed to the space because it allows you to import images from Flickr, Bebo, Fotolog, Second Life and Habbo.

And to demonstrate that they understand the power of social media, they've gone one step further: they've integrated a feed/crawler onto their home page called "MOO in the Wild: What you say about us." There you'll see excerpts from blogs around the world that mention Moo. I found out accidentally after I started seeing a jump in traffic following my Titleist post.

Ease of use
It's standard fare - drag & drop, zoom & crop. Import or upload your photos, input your text, place your order. That's it.

Exceptional customer service
Receive an order of cards that isn't quite right? Smudged ink, blurred image, bent cards - it doesn't matter. Moo takes them back and makes right. They gave me a credit for my initial order and allowed me to place my order again, free of charge.

I would definitely recommend Moo to anyone who asks. The cards are unique in size and feel and they're just cool. Not to mention Moo is at the heart of the social media movement. I can Moo. Can you?


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Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Have You Updated Your Pitch Lately?
When you look at the social media space and the way that agencies are choosing to get in the game (or not!), it's clear that PR is way ahead of their brethren in advertising. There's no surprise there: advertising is more of a design-based practice, while PR is more about content and communicating directly with those who can help tell your story. Social media and PR are made for each other.

But social media doesn't come naturally to everyone. Bloggers are (sometimes) being lumped in with journalists as simply another mouthpiece. Bloggers are a different breed and they need to be thought of differently. Bloggers can be influencers who have committed audiences - and this is the important part - who trust the bloggers and believe what they read on blogs. But in some cases, agencies don't understand the nuances between pitching a journalist and pitching a blogger.


Chip Griffin at CustomScoop has written a white paper called The 7 Deadly Sins of Pitching Bloggers (pdf). You should look at the file for the full scoop, but the main takeaways are:
  1. Failing to be transparent - Wal-Mart learned this the hard way
  2. Appearing to bribe - Microsoft and their laptops-for-bloggers campaign comes to mind here
  3. Lacking your own blog - blogging is as blogging does. You need to connect with the people in their world
  4. Making a bad pitch - personalize your pitch, understand the space, don't overpromote
  5. Being scripted - be natural and conversational in your approach
  6. Forgetting everything is "on the record"
  7. Making claims that can be easily disproved - especially in this digital era, where every tidbit of information is available on the Web.
The bottom line is: it's all about common sense: be authentic, know your audience, engage them they way they prefer to be engaged.

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Friday, March 23, 2007

Evidence that Podcasting is Being Accepted
Like you needed to be convinced? PodcastingNews reports that Edison Media Research is about to release a report on statistics related to podcast audience numbers, and it's good news. There's still a way to go, but it's reassuring to see the trends at play. Here are some quick takeaways:

  • There is an 18% increase in audience growth over the last year: from 11% in 2006 to 13% in 2007
  • Awareness of podcasting grew from 22% to 37% - that's 70% growth!
  • But there is still difficulty with the term "podcasting," much like the term "blogging" before it
Some demographics:
  • The audience is a fairly even split: 49% female, 51% male
  • All ages, with - get this - more listeners in the 55+ range than the 18-24 range
  • Well-to-do. Podcast users are twice as likely to have incomes over 100K and nearly twice as likely to have incomes between 75K and 100K
  • Podcast users are twice as likely to have clicked on a banner ad
Check out the release by PodcastingNews - it's got a much more in-depth analysis and summary than I'll provide here.

Props to CC Chapman for the Twittered link.

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Sunday, March 18, 2007

The Wall Street Journal is All A-Twitter
It seems that Twitter has really gone mainstream. The March 16 issue of the Wall Street Journal contained an article about Twitter. One of the Twitterers interviewed had the same response that I did when I first heard about it: "I didn't get it at first." But once you try it, it's Twitdicting.

But more than being simply a waste of time, there are some business applications here. At a party tonight (ironically with a 1920s/30s theme), I introduced Twitter to a couple of people. One could immediately see a use with his geographically-dispersed sales team. Unlikely to check email often, the team is all about their mobile phones, and Twitter is perfectly suited to that channel.

Steve Rubel tweets that many good business ideas will emerge via Twitter. Certainly. Beyond ideas, what about actual business uses of Twitter? Web Worker Daily has 8 ways Twitter is useful professional. Personally, I'm using it to do some networking for a social media job search.

We'll probably see more selectivity and thinning of friends on Twitter as people begin to get tired of hearing what someone is planning for dinner or when they're picking up the kids from little league practice. Twitter has its use for the social set, but those who are using Twitter as part of their business - like the Twitter feed set up by Bryan Person - will quickly fine-tune it to their liking.

Props to Dave Armano for the Twitter link to the WSJ article.

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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Getting Personal with the SMNR
Over the last year, the blogosphere has been abuzz with the evolution of the Social Media News Release first introduced by SHIFT Communications. There have been improvements and suggestions along the way, and I've seen a number of clients express interest in moving to this model of press release.

I just found a great little widget, courtesy of eHub, that allows marketers to bump up the SMNR another notch. Along with the excellent multimedia links available in the SMNR - audio, video, graphics - for those of you who would prefer to engage in phone conversations rather than email exchanges with your audience, Gizmo Call is your solution.

You just download a quick piece of code and in 20 seconds, you're ready to rock. If you put your phone number into the code, you can plant some HTML in your press release so that with a single click, editors can be on the phone with you. Of course, they'll need a headset to do so from their computers.

Sounds pretty cool. I'll let you decide how it works - here's the link: Call Me for FREE


Of course, the site does have a legal disclaimer, including:
* Call length limited to up to 10 minutes per day to most landlines & select mobile phones around the world. Additional restrictions may apply.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Newsletters: What's a Small Business To Do?
We have a number of larger clients who have pretty successful newsletter programs - either in-house or through our agency. They have a significant amount of resources to throw at the project on a monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly basis. But what is a small business owner to do when they want to keep customers and prospects up to date, but don't have the big budget or sophisticated email systems?

Personally, as business manager for a literary publication with a subscriber base of approximately 1,000, I have experienced this dilemma. I grew my email database to nearly 700 names and every quarter, I blasted out a PDF of a 4-page newsletter. It was time-consuming, cumbersome, and it froze up my email system. Then I had to manually deal with opt-outs, bounces and the like. I got so fed up, I started a blog - which can be thought of as a type of newsletter, just one with two-way conversation that's updated much more frequently.

Well, I'm happy to say I've just discovered Letterpop, which makes newsletter creation a snap. I haven't tried it out yet, so I can't comment on all of the features, but from what I understand, it takes the hassle out of design and directly handles all email issues, including opt-out language that will allow your customers to easily unsubscribe if they wish. This really bears some deeper exploration.

We're still on the cutting edge of RSS - despite the integration into the latest browsers, it still hasn't caught on. There's promise there, though. In the meantime, FeedBlitz or other email-based notification programs serve the very same purpose as an e-newsletter program, and give credence to some claims that email is on the rise as a marketing tool in 2007.

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Friday, December 01, 2006

Friday Fun Video
It's been a while since I've gotten around to posting. My apologies. Things have been busy around the agency, which is a good thing.

The pace of social media continues to blast ahead, with much attention being given to so-called "widgets." I use some in my personal blog, but haven't contracted widgetosis here.

With every Web 2.0 wannabe developing the next free gadget/widget/tool/site, I'm beginning to think that we're in a technology overload as we try to deal with information overload. There are so many options to choose from, simply because the economics are such that developers are able to create them.

Which brings me to my point: just because we can create something with lots of bells and whistles, doesn't mean that we should. Innovative marketing tools and programs should be administered for a reason, not simply because they're the latest thing. Case in point:


Via: VideoSift

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Friday, November 10, 2006

Video Web Conferencing Got You Down?
Yeah, me too.

We recently participated in a pitch in which one of the participants was participating via conference call. The PPT file was a large one, and it contained embedded video which was too large to stream over the Web. We couldn't easily change the files to run on a Windows laptop and WebEx, and because of glitches with between WebEx and the Mac OS, we couldn't simply run our standard Web conferencing solution. And since this was a pitch, we wanted to make sure that we controlled the presentation at our own pace, so we didn't want to send the presentation on CD ahead of time.

While we were thinking through various solutions (one was to run the PPT without the videos, then cut to the Web, where we could view them on YouTube - this was quickly discarded, as is presupposed connectivity, required smaller (or lower quality) videos, and meant that our files would be in the public domain) I said "We need a solution that allows us to stream videos over the Web as part of a conferencing package. The technology just isn't there yet."

That was then (a month ago). This is now (don't you love the speed of innovation in Web 2.0?). TechCrunch featured 1videoConference: Free Open Source Web Conferencing.


While it's still in alpha mode (that's right, hasn't even gotten to beta yet), all eyes are going to be on this one. With a little code you put on your Web site, it allows users to participate in video, voice and text chat and screen sharing Web conferencing. It's the future of video conferencing.

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Monday, October 02, 2006

What's a Social Media Debate Between Friends?
My colleague Douglas Reynolds of Douglas Reynolds | Experience (nice new banner, branding and favicon on the site, Doug!) recently noted that this whole Web 2.0 thing "sounds like the portal strategy of years ago," as well as "the familiar frenzy of money eager to be relieved of its value," and "a lot of questioning of the business model for social media sites."

To which I would reply: "Yes and no."

While there is a sort of frenzy out there, the money being thrown around is nowhere near the astronomical an irrational figures of seven years ago. I would argue that the market has learned from its mistake, and if anything, venture capitalists are even more conservative with their investments as a result.

The difference between Irrationality 1.0 and Irrational 2.0:
  • The Intenet is much more wide-spread and universal in use and therefore the new media have a broader reach
  • Technology is such that many individuals and companieare developing applications, solutions, and business models
  • Operating margins for a single-person shop doing a blog or some unique application code are almost neglible
  • Any small investment in such entities will not sink the market overall
That being said, I would agree with Doug with the fact that there is a frenzy going on. Sites like Micro Persuasion, TechCrunch, and eHub are dedicated to enlightening readers on the coolest 2.0 applications on a daily basis.

It's what we do with these offerings that makes all the difference. A cool tool is useless until someone figures out a way to monetize it. It's one thing to show such a site to friends and family - but have you figured out how to present it to a client in a profitable way?

Footnote (added 10/2/06, 10:35 a.m.): BtoB Magazine has a post called When will the social media bubble burst? Answer: never.
The social media bubble isn't going to burst any more than the e-mail or instant messaging bubbles burst. In fact, there is no bubble. Bubbles need an air supply in the form of venture capital and inflated expectations from investors. They also need a payoff. Almost none of that exists in this market.

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Sunday, October 01, 2006

Giving Second Life a Second Chance
I first took a look at Second Life about four months ago, when I created an identity and promptly didn't do anything with it. Frankly, the concept of creating a persona in a "meta" universe just didn't do it for me - it was too similar to Dungeons & Dragons.

Lately, I've been hearing about Second Life at every turn: advertisers such as Toyota, Sun Microsystems and Wells Fargo are turning up there; Leo Burnett just added a presence, evidently to link their creatives and to better understand the space.

What's all this about, then? Real entities setting up shop in a virtual world? I suppose it's the next logical step from MySpace, in which it's a two-dimensional world. Second Life, in short, could be considered a mashup of MySpace and SimCity. Take the social networking aspect of the former and combine it with the ability to create something physical in the latter, and you've got the setting for unlimited advertising.

The Economist does the subject a bit of justice with Living a second life.

I think it's a little early to expect masses of people to create critical mass on Second Life, especially with so many other forms of social media that are easier to understand and implement. I can see the future potential of a BtoC advertising presence. At this point it's tough to see a strong BtoB application. One might be a life sciences company setting up a virtual call-in site or center of excellence for customers to interact with their experts for advice.

But mainstream this is not. Let's face it: some individuals are still striving to get a first life.

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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

My Agency Can MOO, Can You?
I work at a full-service agency that still has quite a bit of business in the print space. Which is why I was delighted to read this Techcrunch post.

A company called MOO announced that they can "Flickrize" business cards - that is, turn your Flickr photos into thick, glossy, mini-size business cards. This is a really smart move - Flickr has a wide following (demonstrated by the 1.2 million photos that were tagged in the 24 hours following the announcement of geotagging) and there's actually a revenue model behind this service.

For a small agency or the solo practitioner without a big budget for new business pitches, this could be a unique leave-behind. Simply upload your creative to your Flickr account and use teh MOO interface. For 20 bucks, you can supply your audience with 100 cards of interesting, relevant and customized information in an easy-to-pass-along format.

Along with another technology that I'll blog about tomorrow, this is a simple, yet powerful way to build awareness of your company's brand after you've left the building.

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Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Trail Blazers
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. Am I blushing yet?

Todd Defren of PR Squared fame picked up on my mention of Trailfire and went one step further: he created an awesome trail on the Social Media Press Release. Prepare to be enlightened about the SMPR.

If you had any doubts about the power or functionality of Trailfire, this should set your mind at ease. This is an incredibly powerful tool with some rich B2B potential.

Now, rather than relying on a paragraph full of links that readers might click indiscriminantly (if at all), you can bring prospects, clients, employees, readers, etc. on a guided tour through sites of interest while telling them a story about why each page is important.

Being able to lead your audience in a stepwise fashion while creating context around each page is a huge deal. The ability of Trailfire to personalize this experience, as if the trail owner is communicating directly with the reader, cannot be overstated.

The only improvement I would like to see is some degree of feedback aside from the mail icon in each trail mark. If a reader could IM the author or comment on a trail mark, this could lead to more converations rather than commentary.

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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The Long Trail
Trailfire is a Web app that allows you to create context around your Web experience, and then share it with anyone.

Subtitled "Rewire the Web with your point of view," Trailfire allows you to mark pages with annotations that can be either plain text or HTML (including dropped in widgets like those from YouTube or Google). The next time you mark a page with the same trail name, the pages are linked together in a trail.

Its creators claim that there are "far-reaching implications towards creating a user generated meta-web, a Social Web." According to the site:

Trailfire is a hosted service that enables anyone to comment on any web page. Place a 'trail mark' on a page with your comments or notes. A trail mark can contain text, images, videos and other media types. When you give several marks the same 'trail name' you are forming your own navigation path on the web. We call this a 'Trail'.

Anyone with a compatible browser can follow a trail. To make a trail, you will need a plugin to your browser. Learn more.

Making trails is easy. Trails can be used for hundreds of reasons, ranging from serious research to serious fun. Use trails to organize and annotate web pages or to communicate your point of view. Share your trails by sending them via email, posting them on your blog or by publishing them on Trailfire.com. Learn more.

Trailfire runs a blog called Occam's Machete ("Given two equally predictive theories, hack the stupid one to a pulp.") on which they've posted some early applications of the technology. Here's a screenshot of a trail at work:



There are some interesting BtoB implications here, as this seems to be a much more user-friendly and on-the-go version of Squidoo, Seth Godin's brainchild that encourages a network of various experts to post their "lenses" on topics.

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Monday, September 11, 2006

BtoB Uses of Social Bookmarking
Today's Wall Street Journal has an excellent section on Technology Innovation. Included in the section is Information Found - And Shared, [registration may be required] about social bookmarking for corporate uses, such as information sharing in project management. It's cited as "a fairly quick way to get a widely distributed client team to be familiar with the company and the industry."


Shel Holz mentions that Niall Cook's startup, Cogenz, aims to bring social bookmarking to the enterprise level and is currently seeking beta testers for industry segments. According to Holz, "Cogenz will offer a secure hosted site for use strictly within a single organization, bringing the benefits of social bookmarking to intranets and other internal networks."

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Sunday, September 10, 2006

Physician, Heal Thyself
MarketingHeadhunter.com extols the advice of Dr. Gary Witt's landmark publication 101 Ways to Improve your Business Web Site.

Calling it "one of the best free resources out there," they cite the sections into which the paper is divided: Navigation, Look, Image, and Content. But I have to wonder: have they paid a visit to Dr. Witt's home page?

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Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The Blitz is On
I just finished participating in a hosted conference call with Phil Hollows, CEO of FeedBlitz. I've been using FeedBlitz on my blogs since April 2006 and have had remarkable success.

FeedBlitz is an email-based system that notifies subscribers that your blog has been updated. Blogging makes it easy to build a dynamic presence on the Web and email is a natural way to get the word out. Not everyone knows or wants to know RSS - figuring it out, downloading/choosing a reader and setting it up and be time consuming and complicated. But people understand newsletters and email.

The major benefit of FeedBlitz is that it's easy to understand - it's an email-based blog update tool. On these pages, I've mentioned that the Achilles heel of "new marketing" is RSS. It's just not that easy to use. Feedburner has made it easier with their interface by instituting SmartFeed (go ahead, try subscribing to my RSS feed with the big orange button and see what happens). Now try it with FeedBlitz.

But the bottom line is that email is ubiquitous and universal. It's how you reach customers. And offering them a daily (or however frequently you update your blog) newsletter is extremely valuable. In fact, blog subscriptions grow 20% more with an email notification option over an RSS feed alone.

In just over a year of operation, FeedBlitz already has over 70,000 publications (blogs, news feeds, Web sites, etc.) on its roster, with a collective 800,000 readers. And FeedBlitz is known for its tremendous customer service; Hollows said that as first-time CEO, his first hire was a customer service veteran.

Here's a preview of some of the improvements on the burner at FeedBlitz:
  • Will make the site/tool easier to use
  • Will work cooperatively with other vendors and blog-based professions (such as allowing your feed to work with ad networks of your blog)
  • Will continually add services to premium users and will filter down to free users
  • Will gear service toward larger businesses in addition to small businesses that FeedBlitz serves today
  • FeedBlitz "2.0" ready toward the end of September 2006
During Q&A time, I asked Hollows "if I decide to leave FeedBlitz, who owns the email addresses, me or FeedBlitz?" To his credit, Hollows said that your subscribers are yours. You can download their information at any time and can manage them online at all times. And if you walk away, they're yours to keep. The reason: FeedBlitz believes that open data and open standards will result in building better service.

Here's a Web 2.0 company worth keeping your eye on.

Bonus: Check out an interview with Phil Hollows at Online Marketing.

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Posted by Scott Monty at 10:41 PM
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Monday, August 28, 2006

RSS Feed Button Tool
One of the most prevalent tools at the disposal of marketers today is also one of the most poorly understood. The RS in RSS supposedly stands for "really simple" but in reality, it's anything but simple. RSS can greatly improve the return traffic on your site, but can be a little daunting to implement and to use.


That innocuous little orange button seems inviting enough. But in most cases, clicking on it will yield a rather unintelligible result like this:


Most people will look at this, scratch their heads and say, "Huh?" The more experienced RSS users will recognize that you have to copy the URL and paste it into your preferred feedreader. If the feed's owner is using Feedburner - a user-friendly feed creation site that gives you real-world options on how to follow an RSS feed.

In the absence of a Feedburner feed, here's a quick tool to assist you or your clients in selecting the most appropriate RSS feed.


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Posted by Scott Monty at 9:53 AM
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About Scott

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The best way to describe Scott is "Renaissance Man." Friends and colleagues that know Scott from one facet of his life are very frequently surprised to learn of his interests and talents in other areas.

Scott is a marketing and communications professional focused on the digital industry — specifically on social media. His career spans a number of industries such as healthcare, pharma, biotech, travel, automotive, tech, and communications, and includes a wide range of clients, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

Currently on the staff of corporate communications in Ford Motor Company, Scott heads up the social media function and holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. He is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company, from blogger relations to marketing support, customer service to internal communications and more, as social media is being integrated into many facets of Ford business.


Prior to joining Ford, Scott served as Consigliere for crayon and spent a number of years with PJA Advertising + Marketing, a boutique BtoB agency specializing in health sciences & high tech.

In addition to his consulting and agency background, Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog, a literary undertaking. Scott has been featured in numerous news and business publications, on a variety of podcasts, and on national television. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events.

Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management. He lives in the greater Detroit area with his wife and two young sons, golfs all too infrequently, and has a hidden talent for voice over work.

Oh, and one last little-known fact: Scott coined the term "tweetup."

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Scott speaks on social media at events, seminars and conferences around the world. His topic generally focuses on corporate use of social media, becoming an online spokesperson, and specifically on the progress that Ford has made in the recent past. If you're interested in booking Scott to speak at your event, please send an email to speaking [AT] scottmonty [DOT] com. Scott's bio and headshot can be found in the "About Scott" tab above.






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Who is Scott Monty?

Hi, I'm Scott. I'm the head of social media for Ford Motor Company. This is my personal blog, where I share my perspectives on social media - the convergence of marketing, advertising and PR on the Web - for marketers, agencies, the enterprise and the individual. This blog contains my personal views.

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