Insightful articles, opinion and commentary about mobile and web.

By Simon van Wyk

They’re unpredictable, opinionated, and, particularly in Australia, they’re doing it part-time. So why should companies care about engaging with bloggers?

Jason Preston, a US-based social media strategist, writes that more companies these days are turning from blogs to focus on social networking sites. “If you can generate good word of mouth and drive sales from efforts in sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or MySpace, why bother to court the hard-to-reach and often hard-to-impress blogerati?

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HotHouse founder Simon van Wyk talks to Scott Rhodie, digital PR and social media expert and head of HotHouse’s new social media agency, House Party. Scott discusses the importance of blogger engagement and issues around measuring the success of social media campaigns.

Listen to the podcast below.

 

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Treat your marketing like a garden and you’ll survive the economic downturn.

Have you seen the classic film Being There? The main character Chauncey (played by Peter Sellers) is a mentally-challenged gardener who through a few twists of fate ends up being a respected political adviser and commentator (I can heartily recommend you getting it out on DVD – a funny film with pointed social commentary that still stings today).

Anyway, when he’s asked his opinion on world events, Chauncey starts talking about the only thing he knows – gardening – and he slowly and deliberately describes the process of planting seeds, watering them, pulling out weeds, pruning, and harvesting. Everyone who listens to him puts their own spin on what he ‘really’ means, and he quickly becomes an internationally respected political guru.

Chris Abraham, interviewed for our recent HotHouse podcast, says Chauncey Gardner’s gardening analogy is particularly apt for online social media marketing today.

Abraham, online PR specialist and president and COO of online consultants Abraham Harrison, based in Washington and Berlin, argues that despite the right-now, viral nature of the Internet, building a company’s brand through social media takes time.

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HotHouse content director Ray Welling talks to Chris Abraham, president and COO of online consultants Abraham Harrison, based in Washington and Berlin. Chris is a leading expert in online public relations with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet reputation management.  An international pioneer in online social networks and publishing, he works as an Internet analyst, web strategy consultant and advisor to firms across the globe. He specializes in web 2.0 technologies, such as online collaboration, blogging, and consumer generated media.

Chris talks about the ins and outs of social media marketing, which he calls “online conversation marketing”, and why good gardeners make good social media marketers. Listen to the podcast below.

 

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It’s a common refrain from nearly everyone I speak to in business: If I can collect so much data via my website, how come I can’t see the ROI on my digital investment? The fact is, you can – it’s just not as straightforward as we’d all like.

Forrester Research has been doing a lot of work in this area. Forrester analyst Charlene Li, co-author of the book Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies, has produced a couple of reports showing how companies can apply a three step process to measure return on investment (ROI) for their corporate blog. She writes:

“What’s the best way to measure the effectiveness of a blog? It starts with the goal of the blog. I strongly suggest that companies start with the goal, develop metrics that measure the attainment of that goal, and find ways to assign value to those metrics.

“Just as there isn’t a standard ROI for a Web site, there’s no standard for a blog. It depends on what the goal of the blog is and also how much investment the company (and the blogger) puts into it.”
To answer the argument that companies should set up a corporate blog just because they know it is the best way to start conversations with customers, Li says, “At the core of my bleeding heart pumps the soul of a pragmatist. Sure, I buy into all of the positive, feel good reasons to have a blog. But when your manager asks why the company has a blog versus spending more time and resources on XYZ initiatives, it sure would be helpful to be able to show a spreadsheet of those blogging benefits in dollars and cents.”

An example of the three step process (reproduced from her blog) is below:

For more on measuring return on digital investment and the three other hottest digital media topics today, download the podcast of my interview with Personal Life Media founder Susan Bratton.

The experts agree: Listening to your customers and engaging them on their level is essential if you want to succeed in today’s marketplace.

On the Internet, anyone can become a media mogul. Unlike traditional media, the set-up costs are practically zero. Of course, gaining an audience is another matter entirely. You need to have something worthwhile to say, say it in an interesting and articulate way and know how to gain attention.

As a result, hardly any new media publishers are making serious money. The exceptions, such as The Huffington Post in the US and Crikey in Australia, have been started by refugees from traditional media. The splintering of audiences caused by the Internet makes it difficult to consolidate eyeballs, and therefore revenue.

However, this media fragmentation has led to the rise of thousands of niche publishers who bring their own personal brand of information to their specific audience.

When it comes to chronicling the development of the Internet, one of the most widely-connected independent publishers is Susan Bratton, whose Personal Life Media ‘empire’ features the weekly podcast “DishyMix: Juicy Interviews with Famous Internet and Media People”.

Susan was a founding member and vice-chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau and launched online advertising products for companies such as AOL and Excite before starting Personal Life Media. As a result, she has met many of the big thinkers in online marketing and advertising, and she has combined her address book with her engaging interview style to produce content-rich interviews with scores of Internet entrepreneurs, CEOs and executives. DishyMix provides a great helicopter view of new media, where it’s come from, and importantly, where it’s heading.

Though the interviews cover a broad spectrum of new media, most coalesce around four interconnecting themes. Here’s a summary of the latest thinking around those themes, as espoused by DishyMix guests:

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