Category Archives: Blogging

Brian Williams’ blog

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NBC news anchor Brian Williams has been blogging (The Daily Nightly) for a few months and seems to be doing a pretty good job of it. He’s careful not to “traffic in gossip or observations that might breach his journalistic objectivity” and tends to focus more on the deliberations among his colleagues at NBC Nightly News.

This is just the kind of peek behind the scenes I think would be good for our news networks but I don’t see it happening anytime soon (see previous post). Most reporters do not feel they need to explain or justify their reports or stories and the last thing they want to do is interact with their readers/listeners. Is Brian Williams less of a journalist now that he’s contributing to a blog? More on this at NYTIMES.com (you might need a password).

Bloggers wanted

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USATODAY.com: Retailers are creating blogs to promote brand awareness and sales. A recent study by online market research firm ComScore Networks found that shoppers who visit blogs spend about 6% more than the average online shopper. “The people who spend time on our blog are the people who are … the very top customers that we have,” says a former CEO of fashion catalog Spiegel.

I’m of the opinion that EVERY company should be blogging. No one is interested in your static, boring “About Us” website. And, frankly, I’ve got a few of those up myself. If you’re gonna be online, talk to your customers. Listen to them. Blog.

But I have a hunch it’s going to be harder to find people to feed the blog beast than than we realize. It almost certainly won’t be the guy that writes your bullshit company news releases. I used to write radio commercials and I’m pretty sure that in no way prepares someone to blog. And a lot of news writers are terrible at the blog format. So I’m wondering, why is it so hard for some folks to write a decent blog post? I think it probably has something to do with honesty. Specifically, that “voice” thing.

Blogging is kind of like writing a letter to a friend…but letting the entire world read over your should. And if you’re faking it, people somehow know it. In much the same way the “America’s Funniest Home Videos” producers know when they’re watching a true candid moment or something staged.

I had lunch with Chuck this week. He’s been blogging for less than six months but picked it up quickly. We talked about where you would look to find people to hire to blog for a business or organzation. The first thing that popped into my head was, I would never hire someone to blog professionally if they were not already blogging. Frankly, there would be no way to know if they could do it…unless they WERE doing it.

I’m not sure I could get a job as a blogger. But the real acid test would be right here at smays.com. If you’re reading this, you probably know everything you need to know about me. No personality profile. No writing tests. You could probably skip the interview. If you couldn’t hire me based on what I’ve posted here, you wouldn’t want me. Blogging is about honesty and transparency and hanging it out there. Could someone scam me with a bogus blog? Could they fake it? Maybe for a few posts… but it would be hard work to keep up that kind of charade for weeks or months.

If I had to go looking for a new job tomorrow, I would not bother updating a resume. I’d just send them here. They could read for 3 minutes or three hours and know everything they need to know about me.

Does your web site suck?

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“Agency websites suck, launch a weblog” is the subject of a post at AdRants.com. Replace “agency” with “your company” and see if it still makes sense.

“Right now, agencies might be saying, “What do we need a weblog for? We already have a web site.” Great. Take an honest look at it. Is it much more than a creative showcases (if that) and management bios? Aside from a few short paragraphs on your so-called “proprietary process” is there any value there for the reader? Are you offering anything that gives insight into the way your agency thinks and what your opinion is on the current state of advertising? If so, great. Most likely. though it is not.”

A good example of the difference between a “typical” web site and a blog? AgriMarketing.com and AgWired.com. I think the company I work for could be using blogs more effectively. But “brochure” web sites are safe and blogs are risky. And if they’re not risky, they’re useless and ineffective.

Link clean-up complete. Sort of.

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I just finished checking every post from February, 2002…through July, 2005. My goal was to find and fix any broken link to an earlier post or website I controlled. I found and fixed –or just deleted– a handful of links to other websites but there are just too many to repair them all.

One of the (many) features I like about Typepad is TypeLists. No more tweaking html (Blogger). I brought back my Favorite Posts list, and added one I labeled Great Lines. This goes back to one of the reasons I started blogging. I’d read or see a great line from a book or movie and forget it 10 minutes later. I started writing them down here. My list is far from complete but I’ll find them all eventually.

Typepad also offers the option of assigning each post to a category. I might try to go back and assign some posts to categories but that will have to wait for another day. But it’s a great feature I’ll use going forward.

Kevin Kelly: We Are the Web

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Kevin Kelly has written a wonderful article for WIRED.com about the Web that perfectly sums up what I’ve been feeling but didn’t know how to say. I encourage you to read the complete article, but here are a few grafs that jumped out at me:

The scope of the Web today is hard to fathom. The total number of Web pages, including those that are dynamically created upon request and document files available through links, exceeds 600 billion. That’s 100 pages per person alive.

No Web phenomenon is more confounding than blogging. Everything media experts knew about audiences – and they knew a lot – confirmed the focus group belief that audiences would never get off their butts and start making their own entertainment. Everyone knew writing and reading were dead; music was too much trouble to make when you could sit back and listen; video production was simply out of reach of amateurs. Blogs and other participant media would never happen, or if they happened they would not draw an audience, or if they drew an audience they would not matter. What a shock, then, to witness the near-instantaneous rise of 50 million blogs, with a new one appearing every two seconds. There – another new blog! One more person doing what AOL and ABC – and almost everyone else – expected only AOL and ABC to be doing. These user-created channels make no sense economically. Where are the time, energy, and resources coming from? The audience.

The Web continues to evolve from a world ruled by mass media and mass audiences to one ruled by messy media and messy participation. How far can this frenzy of creativity go? Encouraged by Web-enabled sales, 175,000 books were published and more than 30,000 music albums were released in the US last year. At the same time, 14 million blogs launched worldwide. All these numbers are escalating. A simple extrapolation suggests that in the near future, everyone alive will (on average) write a song, author a book, make a video, craft a weblog, and code a program. This idea is less outrageous than the notion 150 years ago that someday everyone would write a letter or take a photograph.

There is only one time in the history of each planet when its inhabitants first wire up its innumerable parts to make one large Machine. Later that Machine may run faster, but there is only one time when it is born. You and I are alive at this moment.

AgWired.com

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I’ve been a blog bore for a few years and helped 10 or 12 friends get started blogging. Some were/are very good at it but none have run with the ball like Chuck Zimmerman at AgWired.com. I used to work with Chuck and his wife Cindy until they left and started their own consulting business a while back. Anyone interested in agriculture marketing should (does?) make AgWired.com their first stop. He’s making Old Media publications like AgriMarketing look… old. If you want to see how to do this blog thing right, click over to AgWired.com. From this point on, Chuck gives me tips on blogging.

Banned for life

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Before finally moving smays.com to Typepad, I signed up for hosting with a compnay called AQ Host. Good, affordable service, but not right for me. I’d signed up for 90 days, I think. I emailed them and explained that I wouldn’t be using them after all and asked if I could get a credit for the unused portion of my first 90 days. I made it clear that if this wasn’t an option, I understood. They emailed back and said they would refund my money and –according to their terms of service– I can never use their service again. Ever. Wouldn’t this have been a better reply:

Thanks for taking a look at AQ Host. Sorry it doesn’t meet your current needs. Due to the costs associated with setting up your account, we are unable to refund your money but have cancelled your account with us. Should you need hosting services in the future, we hope you’ll consider AQ Host.

Blog make-over

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Welcome to the new and improved smays.com. Okay, it’s new. I’m pooped and I didn’t do a damned thing. Many thanks to The Amazing Andy for getting all hot and sweaty under the blog hood. Which is where most of the “improved” stuff shows up.

We’re pretty sure everything (1,300+ posts) made the move but there’s sure to be a few busted links and such. When you find one, please let me know (steve mays at hotmail.com) and be sure to tell me where to find the link (url or date or something). Now some of you are saying to yourself, “Well, yeah!” And some of you are saying, “That’s a good idea.” I’m sure I’ll find and fix ’em all in time.

If you have ever linked to one of my posts, well, it’s probably toast. Sorry about that. Once I figure out how, I’ll add a Google search and you can probably find the post again if you really think it’s worth the effort.

The masthead image is something I first saw on Dave Winer’s blog and loved immediately. I’ll change it from time to time and use only shot’s I’ve taken and mean something to me.

The Office Cam will be dark for a while until I figure out how to post the images here. What else? Oh, Comments. I haven’t turned them on yet and I’m not sure I will. Let me think about it. For now, just email me if you have something to say. I might post it and I might not.