Category Archives: Blogging

Communicate. Sell. Blog.

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I was talking with one of our advertising clients today and we got off on to the subject of how a blog could help him tell his story. He works for a state agency so it is unlikely he’ll get permission to blog because government department heads didn’t get where they are by trying risky new stuff. But the client said that when he brought up the subject of blogging with some of the foot soldiers, their eyes lit up. They got a little pumped at the prospect (or as pumped as government workers are allowed to get).

About six months ago I posted on how I might use blogs and podcasts if I were still doing affiliate relations for our networks. Today’s conversation started me thinking about this again.

If I were a sales rep of any kind, I’d have a blog. I’d post about things of interest and use to my prospects. My blog would be how my clients (current and prospective) know me. If I could make it relevant enough, useful enough… my clients would come to me (or my blog). I wouldn’t have to constantly be begging for appointments. They’d call me up to do a lunch and talk about some idea I posted about.

Blogosphere bullshit, you say? Perhaps. My co-worker David has been posting on a new Learfield blog that illustrates this idea. His posts are informed. Passionate. They deliver value.

Selling has always been about communicating. Wanna communicate in the 21st century? Better learn to blog.

Blogging the NFL Draft

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The NFL Draft is under way and that’s a big deal in Green Bay, Wisconsin (home of the Packers). And all other NFL cities, for that matter. Bill Scott is the sports director for the Wisconsin Radio Network (one of Learfield’s state radio networks) and has been covering the the draft for 16 years. This year he’s blogging it.

In previous years we’ve put a live audio feed up on our satellite channel so Bill could do reports. And we’ve streamed the audio on WRN.com. But the physical setting and the timing just didn’t lend itself to this kind of coverage. Now Bill has his laptop and wifi so he’s blogging. I assume other media are doing the same.

I’ve posted on this subject countless times but still find myself a little amazed that blogging might be the best way to cover and event like this. Would live audio/video be better? Well, it would be good. But if you missed it, you missed it. The blog posts will be up there until we pull it down.

This is a first for Bill so it’ll be interesting to get his thoughts on this. Watch this space.

Programmer responds to Lee Abrams blog post

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Randy Raley calls bullshit on Lee Abram’s recent blog post (XM Sound). As a long-time jock (I still love that term) and programmer, Randy was “there” when Mr. Abrams was making his radio bones and offers a local radio perspective. In a perfect blogging world, Mr. Abrams’ blog would have his comments open and Randy could have added his. Then, Mr. Abrams could have responded. Then you have a conversation.

XM’s Abrams is blogging

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XM Radio “Chief Creative Officer” Lee Abrams is blogging. Today’s post reads like it might have also been an all-staff memo (and not necessarily today’s memo) but, hey, he’s hanging it out there and I hope he keeps it up. Would be fun to get even a tiny peek behind the scenes at XM. Couple of nuggets jumped out at me:

I can’t think of ONE FM station that would be worth taping and playing to the XM Staff. There are some OK ones, but most really are doing nothing especially interesting, compelling or new.

Local radio is dead. It’s irrelevant. For us we should be ALL OVER THE NATIONAL thing. Big ‘n bad ass. Local radio is a quaint relic. BUT—We are NOT taking advantage of this if we aren’t Talking to America.

It’ll be interesting to see if Mr. Abrams groks the “conversation” part of blogging (Turn those comments ON, Lee). He strikes me a a passionate, opinionated guy. Can he listen as well as he writes? We’ll see.

How can I blog you today?

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Sounds like my pal Chuck has figured out how to make blogging pay. He has event blogging down cold and I keep thinking I’ll read about more and more people doing this. For now, Chuck is focusing on agrimarketing events but there’s no reason someone couldn’t do this for any event (assuming you have a clue and a willingness to work 18 hour days). Could you get $5k for one of these gigs? And maybe work up to two a month? Shoot, that’s almost a business.