a reminder

Veronica is finding her voice and reminding me to use mine.

best practice for blog commenting protocol

Joey DeVilla at Global Nerdy posted this blog commenting protocol from the United States Air Force yesterday. (It came to me via Dave Armano on Twitter.)

It's a super simple way to communicate the information that I have been sharing with clients via "commenting protocols," which are tailored guidelines for who, when, where, why and how to respond to brand mentions online.

These documents are generally a few pages long and I've never been confident that they really get shared and absorbed throughout the client's company or group in a way that I would like them to. If the client still wants the detail that comes in the commenting protocol, we can provide that to them, but this style of document makes sense for them to have to share internally to really get people on board. It's easy to understand and easy to share and can still be tailored to the client's specific situation/brand message.

something original to say?

(I am such a lazy blogger now that I am posting email message responses.)

@hmmiller sent an email to @raypage, @dmiller1973 and myself about this post from Jeremy Fuksa asking, "Are blogs still relevant?"

My response?

I have practically completely stopped blogging as a result of my twittering and the fact that I am, in general, busy as sh*t.

I like to think that blogging has jumped the shark because it makes me feel better for being such a loser.

And, well, Dave Armano (@armano) made the comment that “blogging is so 2005,” so I feel somewhat justified in that thought. (Actually, he said "blowing," but talk to his therapist about that.)

(I think all of those of us who have been blogging for a while now — four years for me — are a little freaked out about the possibility that we have put so much into might actually be a little lame now.)

BUT, with all that said, Kevin’s right that there’s just no replacement for writing original, thoughtful pieces on your own site (a tweet from @kevinrose was what prompted Jeremy to write his post).

Maybe this jumping the shark will separate the men from the boys (I love using misogynistic metaphors) and leave behind just those folks who actually have something original — and thoughtful — to say.

I want to be one of those folks.

del.icio.us tags: blogs

eMarketer released a collection of research earlier last month about blogger demographics:

• According to BIGResearch, the average age of bloggers is 37.6.
• However, according to Deloitte, younger bloggers are more likely to maintain their blogs — or read others — on a weekly basis.
• The majority of bloggers are white, but the numbers are in line with the U.S. Census Bureau's demographic breakdown of the United States.

Piers Fawkes at PSFK generously shares a list of "boomer blogs" his team pulled together for a client. (Thanks, Piers.) I had heard of Time Goes By via the ladies at BlogHer. I'd be interested to know what qualified a blog to be added to the list (so, I asked.)

del.icio.us tags: moms

Revolution Health, which The Washington Post reported will be doing an additional round of lay offs this week, released momScore last month in connection with Mother's Day. The tool "evaluate(s) maternal and early childhood health across the country." Proud to say my home state of Connecticut ranks #2, second only to Vermont. My adopted hometown of DC ranks #20. The lowest scoring states are all in the Southern half of the country, with Mississippi coming in at the bottom.

Max Gladwell, who posts at Sustainablog as well as his own site, refers to moms are the most "formidable" of the "demographic groups gaining power through the social web." This post lists 16 "blogs and tools that are part of the nexus of social media, green living and motherhood." Max started following me on Twitter (I'm not worthy!) and I'll be returning the favor and subscribing to the RSS feed on his site so I can hear more.

del.icio.us tags: brands

Noah Brier has launched brand tags, collecting tags to assess people's perceptions of a wide number of brands -- from Burt's Bees to Jamba Juice. You can request that additional brands be added, so if you're looking for a little insight on a client brand — or your own, you might be in luck. Noah might want to adjust the size of the tags (I'm guessing he had no idea how popular this would be) because "smoothie" and "beard" are going to grow bigger than the browser.

Dave Alston from Radian6 guest posts on the Online Marketing Blog with a list of the Top 10 Reasons for Monitoring Brands in Social Media. As a fan of Radian6 who is trying to bring the tool to more of our clients, I appreciate Alston's comment, "Choosing not to listen doesn't make those conversations go away."

Southwest has expanded upon its successful blog, Nuts about Southwest. The site now incorporates their Flickr group, video blog, aggregated news, polls (lame) and the brand's social network profiles, including Twitter.

cold sore and all

Anyone who comes by here regularly will be aware of my inordinate love for Jason Bateman. And, in my best, "No really, I'm old school," protest, let me remind you that I loved the man (boy) since circa Silver Spoons, so back your I'm so hip Arrested Development should have been picked up by another network a** up.

Anyway, I love him more than I did five minutes ago because I just saw this clip of Jason as I have never seen him before from Smokin' Aces. He's looking pretty nasty -- cold sore and all -- but he's brilliant in the scene and absolutely hysterical (watch Ben Affleck at about 1:30 turn away to try to stifle his laughter).

The clip comes via Intense Guys, "great movie moments, one clip at a time," and one of new favorite blogs.

del.icio.us tag: environment

Patagonia has launched The Footprint Chronicles, which allows customers "to track the impact of a specific Patagonia product from design to delivery." Currently, the site only provides information on 5 items from the brand's vast inventory of products, but the willingness of the company to be transparent -- to talk not only about "the good," but "the bad" is impressive. The site also links to Patagonia's blog, The Cleanest Line, where they are responding to comments about the new site and asking for additional feedback. Great stuff. Gore Tex hats off to Patagonia.

Fast Company has an article about the site, containing a quote from Andrea Asch, manager of natural resouces use at Ben & Jerry's saying that Patagonia has set a new bar among firms with "progressive sustainability agendas."

del.icio.us tags: research

There's been a huge jump in the use of social networks among the affluent: from 27 percent of affluent Internet users to 60 percent between January 2007 and January 2008 (via eMarketer, from The Luxury Institute).

40 percent of women Internet users are moms with kids under the age of 18 at home. Two-thirds of Internet users who are moms of young children use the Internet to research purchasing decisions (via eMarketer).

A survey of journalists conducted by Editor & Publisher found that 73 percent use blogs for their research, most often to "measure sentiment." On the flip side, 86 percent of bloggers say they are being contacted by PR folks (that number has GOT to be inflated). 24 percent of these bloggers say this outreach from PR folks never results in a post and 49 percent say this outreach results in a post 25 percent of less of the time. What are the percentages like for mainstream media pitches?

you, sir, make me feel blue

I decided a number of years ago that I didn't like movies with brown palettes, which is why I don't like Lord of the Rings . . .

. . . and the thought of paying money and sitting through a movie like 300 causes me to break out in hives.



Blues and greens, ahhh . . . Badlands has lots of blues as a result of the amazing vistas and the lushness of the green of the early forest scenes -- despite what the movie poster might lead you to believe.

Very satisfying.

And, although I discovered after a poor purchase decision at J Crew that yellow has no place in my personal wardrobe, I'm open to the idea of a yellow movie as well. Maybe it's just primary colors?

Darjeeling Limited is a yellow movie that I have not see yet.

This post has no purpose at all beyond serving as a preface to me telling you -- now listen up -- that wear palettes is a one of the most satisfying blogs I have been checking these days. It makes me want to carry a Pantone GoeGuide in my pocket and approach strangers on the street to tell them what colors I see when I look at them.


Update: Wes Anderson's fondness for yellow expands beyond Darjeeling to his first (we always remember our first): the brilliant Bottle Rocket.


I'm too lazy to do the research to see if this trend follows through on his other films. Thanks to the kids at This Recording for making this post almost as long as one of their brilliant diatribes. (They and Dave Armano are my current blog crushes -- even if Dave does think he's losing his mojo.)

del.icio.us tags 03.19.08

Blogs
Regina Schrambling writes, at The Los Angeles Times about the growing number of professional chefs who are blogging to build their personal brand, demonstrate (through traffic) their popularity to potential restaurant investors and sell product. I'm not thrilled with the folks who let their publicists write their blog posts -- you're missing the point, as far as I'm concerned -- but I love that Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin in New York makes the connection between the zines "he grew up reading in the age of underground punk rock" and his blog, Notes from the Kitchen.

CSR
Allison Mooney at PSFK writes about P&G and Unilever's dueling efforts to demonstrate who's more bad a** on the environmental front as they try to create loyal customers out of young consumers, who are increasingly demanding ethical behavior from the companies to whom they give their money. Sure, as Allison and others have pointed out, contradictions abound but I'm with her when she says, if "eco-minded consumers -- and the earth -- end up benefiting," who gives a toss?


One More Reason to Love Charlie Rose
I disagree with Sandra G, the first to comment on this TechCrunch post about Charlie Rose's commitment to his MacBook Air; Charlie is one of the sexiest men on television. There's a group of us who probably have had fantasies about sitting across from him at his big round table, lamenting the fact that he's so close, yet oh so far away (purrrrr). But a man who sacrifices his visage for his laptop? I'm with you, Charlie. If the house was on fire, my iBook would be the first thing I grabbed.

Search
Overture helps you to pick search terms for a keyword marketing campaign. Brian was the one that told me about it a while back, but I just got around to adding it to del.icio.us. Nothing like getting a peak into the mind of your customer.

sick crush on gonzo

I have made my yearly pilgrimage to Columbia, Missouri for the True False Film Festival.

Some of the best parts of the trip so far have been the March into March parade through downtown Columbia; and

David's happiness about the gift he has given his home town (my words, not his).

But I also loved the girls of Girls Rock! who managed to make me laugh and cry and inspire me to 1) do things I am bad at more often (W?), 2) download some Bikini Kill, 3) ask, "Yes, how do you tune a taco?

I also rather enjoyed developing a sick crush on Hunter S. Thompson after watching Gonzo (seriously, the man was hot);

and wishing that he was here today and had covered John Edwards like he covered George McGovern.

Next on my list of books to read: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72

If these photos were MP3s, this post would be one of the less impressive posts on This Recording.

kenneth cole is awear

Kenneth Cole, long time AIDS activist and corporate social responsibility pioneer, is launching his Awearness blog tomorrow, with the promise that he'll be posting once a week and bringing along some of his fabulous famous friends to post as well. I saw Cole speak when I was in grad school and he was touting his book, Footnotes: What You Stand For is More Important than What You Stand In and, based on that lecture, I am interested in hearing what he has to say. I'm hoping that the smart, biting humor from his ads translates and he avoids the death knell of the corporate legal department. But someone tell his web guy to add an RSS feed, or he's going to lose me. I don't go to blogs, they come to me, and I'm in fine company on that front.

Also on the CSR front but, alas, a few weeks late, The Economist asks, "Is the CSR craze a good thing for business and for society as a whole?" and comes to the conclusion that there's nothing wrong with the private sector trying to "do good." Nevertheless, the primary responsibility of a company is to make money and we shouldn't get so excited about CSR that we allow our government to forget that it is ultimately their responsibility to do good for its citizens.

Update: Awearness added an RSS feed.

del.icio.us tags 01.13.08

According to Omnicom's Brodeur, more than 75 percent of American journalists look to blogs for story ideas, to get a new angle on an existing story or to gain a better understanding of a story's context. Just under 70 percent read blogs on a regular basis, with more than 20 percent spending more than an hour each day doing so. Nearly 28 percent have their own blogs.

Micah Sifry is not impressed with the Clinton's campaign boast of a 1 million person mailing list because "the conversation is all one way." In a nod to the Obama campaign, Sifry thinks it is more powerful for a campaign to develop a network that will reach out to their own contacts -- moving away from an "impersonal mass email" to a "personal appeal from a friend."

del.icio.us tags 12.23.07

The British Royal Family has launched their own YouTube channel. Tune in on Christmas Day for the Queen's annual Christmas broadcast. In the meantime, the thrilling (and three part) A Day in the Life of the Prince of Wales is riveting.

The League of Conservation Voters thinks that the Sunday morning news show hosts are neglecting the climate change issue when interviewing the presidential candidates. Head over to What Are They Waiting For? if you think 3 of 2275 questions just isn't enough. Sign the petition. Tell a friend about the site. Get more information. Donate. Keep the media accountable.


Finally, the Pew Internet and American Life Project released their latest report on teens and their use of social media. Lots of good data (as always), but few surprises. The number of teens who are online and creating content is on the rise. Social network use is on the rise, as is blogging, with the latter particularly on the rise among teens from lower income and single parent families. Teens are posting more photos and video than adult internet users. And, whatever you may think, teens who are heavy Internet users are also active offline. And those who are most plugged in are the most communicative and social of all.

del.icio.us tags 12.16.07

An old friend returns. Change.org tells you how to do it right. Greenpeace doesn't play games. Community is not one size fits all. Links abound for web designers. Japanese bloggers get covered in the Post. International Facebook users get covered by PBS, which also gives the 101 on hyper local blogs. And Steve Case gives away his money to determine how to get other people to do the same.

Digital Advocacy

Houtlust is back -- in the form of Osocio. All the best in advocacy campaigns from around the world. Inevitable jealousy for not having been the team that created the campaign is a side effect. Check out this great anti-drunk driving campaign. No subtle messages here, folks.

As the online community manager, Heather Mansfield at Change.org updates her Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations on a monthly basis to ensure that users are getting the most out of the site.

Greenpeace, fresh off their triumph against Apple, turns its attention toward gaming consoles with Clash of the Consoles. Not as rad as Green My Apple (swoon), but they're using a similar strategy: ask fans to take pride in the objects of their affection and get them on your side. In other words, don't alienate those that you need most.

The Case Foundation is supporting efforts to determine how technology can best be used for philanthropy.

Word of Mouth

Ben McConnell at Church of the Customer breaks down what "community" means, suggesting that size and the level of devotion of the community members are the defining factors. As a Maker's Mark Ambassador, I am happy to inform you that I agree with his assessment that it is indeed a cult.

Around the World (and in the Neighborhood) in Social Media

Bloggers in Japan do it more often, quicker, on the run, under the covers and they do it politely. Blaine Harden at The Washington Post lets us know that not everyone has Technorati ranking envy and is trying to strengthen their personal brand.

Mark Glaser at PBS' Media Shift looks at how Facebook users from around the world are using the social network -- and why -- and talks about, while the site may have universal appeal, there is no question that it is American through and through. (Poke.)

Mark also provides an extensive overview of hyper-local news sites: defining what they are, demonstrating different ways they gather their news and talking about the different business models that these sites are following. Plus, best of all, he provides lots and lots of examples. Thanks, Mark.

Web Design

I tagged this -- 455 Helpful Links for Web Designers -- as a "tool," which it is, for someone. I sent it to Samantha, but I just realized her blog -- Bad Ass Ideas -- is listed as a resource, so I'm guessing she knows about it already. Who's stalking who now?

del.icio.us tags 12.02.07

Lots of good advice that you probably won't follow. A little bit of geek porn in the form of campaign promises. An experiment that needs some attention. Stories that need to be told. Great pictures, great video, great shopping and a bag that I want to buy.

Search - Aaron and Giovanna Wall published "The Blogger's Guide to Search Engine Optimization." Great stuff. I'm not doing any of it. I don't do most things that I should do. It's a problem.

Viral Video - Kevin Nalts shares his "Ten Lessons for Marketers Using Viral Videos." The list essentially hammers home the point that it's basically a crap shoot when you are trying to figure out what is going to capture consumers' attention and, even then, you still may not manage to actually turn those eyeballs into sales.

Photos - Square America is a collection of vintage snapshots, all of which tell a great story, even if you need to fill in the blanks. The photos remind me of a the "American Snapshot" show I saw recently at the National Gallery. Great stuff. Don't use the photos without an attribute. Give this guy credit (I think his name is Martin Johnson) for what he has put together.

I took this picture outside the Gallery when I went to see the American Snapshot show.

But I like this picture that I took at the National Archives better.

More Photos - Polanoid is working on building the largest collection of Polaroid photos on the planet. Send your pictures!

Storytelling - Polanoid and Square America are telling stories about everyday people, as is StoryCorps. I recently heard the nonprofit's founder, Dave Isay, on NPR talking about the publication of the StoryCorps book with a couple of the project's participants and cried like a baby. I'm a sucker for listening to people tell their stories, both because of the artistry of a good tale and the empowerment of believing that your story is worth being told. Don't tell anyone, but I think a few of you might be getting the StoryCorps book for Hanukkah or Christmas.

Content - WGBH (Boston's public television station and home of Sesame Street) has opened its vaults, providing users with "online access to unique and historically important content," through Open Vault. I wish the search tool was a little more revealing as far as what was possible. It is a great site when you know what you are looking for, but sometimes it's just fun to browse, and it's not friendly to browsers.

The Media - Beat Blogging is an experiment. Thirteen news organizations, along with NewAssignment.net, are trying to understand how journalists can better use social networks to improve beat reporting. There have been no posts since November 20, so the first lesson they should learn is that consistent content is the way to maintain people's attention and engage them in your efforts. Hello, are you out there?

Politics - Barack Obama's campaign has released their "technology and innovation plan." Jon Stokes at Ars Technica doesn't think the document is close to perfect, but he's still pleased that Obama's campaign appears to be paying attention to what the technology geeks are saying, and that's a huge step forward from conversation about clogged tubes and "the Google."

Shopping - If you don't hear from me for a while, I'm probably sitting in my own filth in my apartment, buying things from Supermarket, where they sell fabulous stuff (clothes, bags, household stuff, and paper products) brought to you straight from the designer. Add the site to my list of reasons why the Internet is a fabulous thing.

More Shopping - I want a Carga bag.

del.icio.us tags 10.27.07

Politics

Mashable pulled together 30+ resources (online) for U.S. Politics after getting the suggestion to do so from one of their readers. It's not exhaustive, but there are a few good things in there.

Marketing

BL Ochman at Marketing Profs gives a fellow PR hack a pat on the back for their blogger outreach effort. It's not tough, folks. She liked the pitch because 1) the writer reads her blog, he follows her on Twitter, he made reference to a post she had written on bad blogger outreach, he gave her information in an easy to understand way (bullet points, plenty of white space, "organized and brief," giving her the content in the email versus making her look for it), he was funny, he was timely and he told her she could cut and paste his email into a blog post.

Books

Our local DC PBS station, WETA, has launched a new book blog, Author Author, featuring author interviews and book reviews.

Search

LivePlasma aims to help you to identify new music and movies based on your current interests. Of course, Amazon has been doing this for years, but not with pretty graphics. My favorite movie of all time is Badlands by Terrance Malick, which, according to LivePlasma, means I should also like movies by Sofia and Francis Ford Coppola (I do), Francois Ozon (sure), Robert Altman (hell yeah), Antonioni (for the most part), Renoir (okay), Polanski (yep), Welles (uh huh), Ford (I'm not making the connection -- stunning landscapes?), Fellini (sure), Visconti (I don't believe I have had the pleasure), Sydney Pollack (ehhh) and Yasujiro Ozu (not familiar).

The one that started it all -- Badlands.

Digital Influence

For all of us who are desperate to point out that social media actually has a purpose beyond keeping geeks busy and indoors, there are quite a few folks posting in the past couple of days about the role that it has played in the fires in Southern California -- like this post from Fast Company, which cites the value of Twitter and Google Maps for residents in communicating information about the location of the fires and resources for evacuees.

Health

HealthSquare.com is HealthCentral.com's "prescription drug destination." They are targeting consumers, but are health care providers reading? Pharmas will inevitably want to know. If the advertising folks can prove they are, they'll be in good shape. And provide information for the 50+ set on your advertising page. This is one industry where growing old makes you more attractive to marketers (comes via 901am).

Social Networks

Friendster apparently still has lots of friends in Asia and, while they are a smaller group, social network users in Latin America stay on longer (there's a bad t-shirt in there somewhere). Research from ComScore says that social networking is already twice as big outside of the U.S. and growing fast (posted to Mashable).

del.icio.us tags 10.21.07

While on the road in the country, Debbie Weil has pulled together her list of the "Best Links to Learn about Blogging, Social Media, Web 2.0 and Technology in China."

I don't have a Moleskine because I don't quite buy the pretentious "cooler than thou" aspect of owning one. I have an aversion to the idea of belonging to any club whose members demonstrate their uniqueness by owning/doing/wearing the same thing. (It's like punk in the early 90's.) But I should own a Moleskine because I'm a notebook fetishist and because I have fallen prey to more than my share of, "I will buy this thing because it is cool -- at least that's what they told me." The folks at The Moleskine Project don't share my hang ups and are asking folks to send in their best Moleskine doodles.

my favorite so far from The Moleskine Project -- from lapin at les calapins de lapin

Bob Garfield is using his anger toward Comcast -- and their less than stellar customer service -- for good through ComcastMustDie.com, providing the cable company's clients with the opportunity to air their grievances via the blog's comments and calling on the company to, in response, reach out to these customers and resolve their issues. So far, everyone's playing their part.

Doonesbury's Garry Trudeau has been collecting content from members of the military deployed in Iraq in Afghanistan via The Sandbox (housed on Slate.com) and has now published a book of some of the best stuff.

According to The New York Times, young people in Poland are attempting to turn the political tide in the country by using social media to engage their peers and turn out the vote, comparing efforts like the "I Choose" campaign to similar efforts -- like Rock the Vote -- in the U.S. Update: Looks like the kids have had an impact. Overall voter turnout in the election was higher than it has been in nearly 20 years and the Civic Platform party -- which had more support among young voters than the party currently in power (Law and Justice) -- came out ahead in this weekend's parliamentary elections.

The folks at TechPresident launched 10 Questions last week in partnership with The New York Times and MSNBC. At this stage, they are gathering questions from voters, with the aim of identifying the top 10, which will then be shared with the candidates, who will be expected to respond via video. Two thoughts -- will the site be dominated by liberals and progressives? And, by this stage in the game, how much do the candidates regret ever having said this election is about conversation?

Mashable has a new list of 20+ "sporting" social networks, whether it's fishing, biking, golf or NASCAR. Presuming of course, you want to spend any time with these people.

del.icio.us tags 09.23.07

Good news for the pharmas - Burst Media says 25 percent of folks are actually clicking on their ads (via MarketingVox).

Wired's Geekipedia lets you know everything you need to know at your next geek cocktail party. Now even I can attempt to talk about Ajax like a pro . . .

TeeBeeDee is another social network for boomers (actually, folks over 40). Did anyone tell them that Eons isn't doing so well?

I'm with B.L. Ochman, "The world doesn't need one more plain vanilla corporate blog. Blog readers are there by choice. You can't force anyone to read a blog. What you can do is make the blog totally fucking amazing."