Media Slants

Check out Deborah Bransom's latest bloggings on the state of media. Very well written.

Also -- sorry about the mess on the pages from my top nav bar. Something to do with Dreamweaver ftp'ing to blogspot. I just need to work on it over the weekend.

finally adding some of the pages to my top nav bar. Bare with me while they get ready. Thanks.

New York Times article on Google's acquisition of Blogger. The more I think about it, the more I think ad relevancy has a lot to do with the acquisition. Think about Google's business model for Adwords. It's all relevancy based. Now with access to Blogspot, Google can target down to the micromarket. Of course the acquisition also has a lot to do with search ... and probably news.

New Advertising Blog - AdGrunts

at least it's new to me. More overall advertising than just online, and pretty cool. Found out there is also a Meet Up for Advertisers.

Blog Marketers Need to Get Weblogs

I said a few days ago rule numero uno for those looking to use blogs to promote their business is to "get blogging." According to some fellow bloggers, it looks like some are already starting out of the gates without a clue. Jupitermedia CEO, Alan Meckler has started a blog of his own.

But according to Doug Fox, "I think Meckler’s weblog misses the mark. His barrage of attacks against Fred Rosen, CEO of Key3Media, producer of Comdex, may get him some short-term publicity, but it does nothing for his contention that he grasps the premise behind weblogs. Yes, Meckler writes in the first person, but he doesn’t seem to have the slightest notion that blogging is, for the most part, a communal, shared experience."

Robert Scoble chimed in with similar comments: "I wouldn't brag about "getting weblogs" before your competitors have. You still haven't gotten the concept. You haven't linked to a single site that's not on Jupiter's domain yet. Weblogs are all about sharing, not about taking. So far Alan wants all the attention, but doesn't want to share with others. I'm unimpressed."

My own personal comments on Meckler .... looks like he pissed some people off. But I checked out his blog and it is written in a human voice -- it's not crafted in marketing-speak, which is important. Missing links is a big no-no. But hopefully he'll learn. He won't get any incoming traffic he doesn't share -- he'll be an island, as opposed to part of a community -- so evolution might have it's way with him.

The overall message is, beware marketers looking to jump on the bandwagon. You're marketing efforts will self-deconstruct if you don't get it!

Jim Lehrer News Hour Interviews Us at Meet Up

I attended my first Blog Meet-Up event last night in the Washington, DC area and the Jim Lehrer News Hour was there to interview the 4 of us that managed to show up. The interview and round table discussion was very interesting and I think the segment should show much insight into blogging when it airs (Iraq is taking precedence over blogging, I don't get that ;-)). I was a little under the weather, but I think I did okay for my first TV interview!

It's always interesting meeting bloggers face to face -- I think you really get to see the real person behind the words. It was also interesting to talk to people who blog about different subjects other than what I typically follow. It's very easy to get stuck in the circle of blogs you read without exploring outwards.

Here are the three others that were there: John Irons blogs about Economics and is an Economics professor at Amherst College.

James Robertson created a blog for his technology company Cincom Small Talk -- James was the first person who explained the RSS completely to me -- I think I finally get it!

Thomas Bascom is an entreprenuer who has created something called VBlog which helps people with common interests find common websites.

ClickZ B-Blog Conference

Kathleen Goodwin is chairing a 2-day blog conference in Boston sometime in June. I'm sure details will follow. My rule number one to "b-bloggers": Get blogging. Submerge your self in blogging. Before you start one for your business, start one of your own. Become a part of blogging circles that blog about what you're passionate about, become a part of blogging circles in topics your customers are passionate about. If your business starts blogging without a clue, your business will be ridiculed by other bloggers and your brand will suffer.

Bio is up! (at least the short version) plus a picture of my ugly mug. I should clarify, I am still working at TMP (very happily I might add - and this isn't just CYA). I want to explore helping businesses with peer-to-peer marketing which is something TMP doesn't do. If you're looking for the more established online marketing practices, TMP can certainly help out for things like search engine optimization, online media, creative site development, internet yellow pages and online recruitment solutions (TMP owns Monster). If you're going this route, let me know and I'll help connect you with the right person.

Now I just need to work on all those other pages on my top nav bar!

Google Buys Pyra

Wow! I heard it first on Marketing Fix. Google buys Pyra, creators of Blogger.com!

More good stuff here:
Ev Williams (founder of Blogger)
Tony Pierce
Meg Hourihan (co-founder of Blogger)
Boing Boing
Henry Copeland
David Weinberger
Rick Bruner
Nick Denton
Deborah Branscum

As I'm starting to shape my next moves, I'm wondering what peer-to-peer marketing really is. Is it marketing? Advertising? Communications? Public Relations? I guess that's what this blog is all about. Re-shaping these tactics so they fit the current paradigm.

Working on my bio ... actually have about 7 different versions now. One of the problems I've had is I don't like talking about myself, which can make it hard to promote yourself. And whenever I do, I think I sound a litte narcistic (And since I'm reading Fountainhead I've got all sorts of thoughts on ego running through my head -- but that's besides the point.) Then there's the question of first person or third? So I checked out how some others have done there's. I like Jason Kottke's -- reverse chronological order (he uses first person). It's very natural and unforced.

[LATER]
Okay, I've tried some out and I think the progression is pretty good ... although some of this might be better off on a "Solutions" page. (sidebar: I've always found it difficult freewriting with a computer. I find it much easier to freewrite, brainstorm and complete initial drafts on paper. You can scribble, make notes, change things around, draw arrows, explore multiple ideas more effectively. However, I think I just found a method that's working for me via the computer screen. First, I like Notepad, not Word. Somehow the text seems so much less finalized than in Word -- plus you don't have to worry about auto-correctors, grammar and spelling checkers, formatting and fonts. A lot of times when I'm writing I'll have an overall idea but a certain word or phrase is just a place holder for something better. So what I do is put a "=" before and after the word as a note to find something more powerful. If I think of something I'm writing, I'll put it after the last "=" and then add another "=" for the next word. For example Dennis Miller is =funny=witty=satirical=smart=. I have some examples in the bio entries below). Here are some first stabs:

Hi, I 'm Scott Knowles.

I breathe, eat, sleep, speak, see, sweat, smoke, sigh, fly, drive, ride, drink, think, hear --- understand --- EXLCAIM the future of --

online advertising

online marketing

online media.

My goal is to make the future now.


--------------------


Hi, I’m Scott Knowles. I’ve been helping grow the Web since Al Gore invented it.

---------------------

Hi I’m Scott Knowles. I’ve been submerged in online marketing, advertising and media since Al Gore invented it.--- since studying it’s =uses=power= in 1994 at Ithaca College and =making it happen= at TMP Worldwide for the last 5 and a half years. Now, I’m on a new journey. I am a consultant helping businesses =engage with, understand and utilize= their customers for high impact peer-to-peer marketing.

-----------------------

Hi, I’m Scott Knowles. I subscribe to the belief that successful online marketing and advertising is about

knowing your customers

understanding your customers

listening to your customers

talking with your customers

engaging with your customers


-----------------------

CRM isn’t a mathematical equation. It is a qualitative understanding, knowing, listening, talking and engaging with your customers. CRM is a human equation.

The 10 Commandments of Online Media

Jimmy Gutterman's (a la Industry Standard) 10 Commandments of Online Media (thanks John Engler):

1. Thou shalt not rely on press releases.
2. Thou shalt check facts.
3. Thou shalt seek out new stories not being covered elsewhere.
4. Thou shalt speak frequently to a wide variety of informed sources who aren't the usual suspects.
5. Thou shalt search out and quote people who don't have a financial interest in the story.
6. Thou shalt write brief, informative, provocative leads.
7. Thou shalt provide context, both qualitatively and quantitatively.
8. Thou shalt not commit cliches or lazy writing.
9. Thou shalt not forget who thine audience is.
10. Thou shalt make thine own decision about what the most important part of the story is, not simply agree with conventional wisdom.

Connected and Not Equal

Eric Norlin is blogging up a storm. One item worth pointing out is his praise of Clay Shirky's piece implying blogs are not egalitarian. Eric agrees: "I'm not sure why the uproar about this one -- cuz it dares assert that maybe blogs aren't so egalitarian?? of course they're not. they can't be. they're part of a network - networks, by their vary nature, develop "super-nodes" that conform to power law distributions."

more here and here. i've got some reading to do.... and I think I really like what Henry Copeland has to say (interesting take).

Ithaca College: ... I wrote up a pretty cool entry dedicated to you guys and then it was errased (ergh!). I haven't gotten the chance to crank it out again. Hopefully soon.

In short, blogs are cool and you'll learn tons of practical information and connect with many interesting people. And if you start one of your own, you'll be able to talk about what you're passionate about, whether it's politics, advertising, fish or phish.

I've listed my favorite blogs on the left. In the mean time, I'd be curious as to some of your experiences with blogs .... what do you think? Waste of time, or pretty cool? Shoot me an email: scottwknowles@excite.com.

Iraq

I'm going to hit the war blogging bandwagon here for a second. Admittedly, I've been a little wishy washy on what to do about Iraq. I do think we are totally justified in going to war with them ... they've been playing games with our inspectors, cheating the system and the agreement that was set forth at the end of Gulf War I. I think we should have gone in 5 years ago. However, with the shadow of September 11th hanging over our nation, my hesitation in supporting the war was, shouldn't we be focusing our efforts on the war on terrorism? I've made the determination that I think Iraq is worth our efforts. Even if we cannot prove ties to al Queda, I'm a believer in if al Queda does get a hold of Saddam's weaponry -- and it sounds like they may have already -- there will be no warning shot. Iraq is porous, if not in collusion. We cannot afford that risk. Terrorism aside, I also think we can handle two fronts -- Terrorism and Iraq.

So France, Belgium and Germany, what gives? I understand dissent. I have no problem with that. I think it is vital to world balance. But not supporting NATO backing if Turkey was attacked by Iraq is selfish, stubborn and destructive. This would be the first time in NATO's history that it would not support one of its members if it were attacked. Regardless of what the United States is doing, there is no justification of not supporting Turkey if it were attacked.

Great coverage at the NY Times and I'm sure other blogs -- though I haven't been following this in the blogosphere.
back to our regularly scheduled programing....

Oscar nominations are out. I've only seen a couple of the nominated movies: Gangs and Chicago ... also Road to Perdition. Still on my list are About Schmidt, Adaptation, Two Towers, The Hours. I think the big one I'm rooting for this year is Daniel Day-Lewis for best actor. I was pretty amazing. I can't say I have a favorite for Best Motion Picture ... and I'm a little surprised Two Towers made it .... although I haven't seen it yet to judge.