Blogging Advice

When you blog, it’s always good to offer a unique voice and an opinion. Sure many professional journalists do not like the fact that the majority of bloggers rarely rely on fact-checking and merely offer opinion pieces, but not all bloggers strive to offer the same type of content a journalist does. I think this is why so many people enjoy blogs, because of their down to earth nature.

However, if you are going to state facts then you might as well make sure they are correct. For example:

Ever since Google bought Blogger, however, Evan Williams has remained at its head. That means he’s the company’s man on blogging, and he’s the company’s man on blogging-related technologies like RSS.

I have written before that he needs to move on, and Google needs to bring in someone with a Clue, and with the executive chops to get something done.

I’m asking again. I’m asking this of Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and anyone at the Googleplex who might listen. Why are your competitors racing ahead while you supposedly have the best piece on the board?

— Dana Blankenhorn

This would make a great opinion piece if it wasn’t for the fact that Evan left Google last October Corante’s a big name that relies heavily on their high quality content. They better make sure in the future that their “more experienced” bloggers understand that you can’t always offer your opinion without knowing the facts.

Sometimes you come across an article on the Web and you figure it was written just to upset some people so that they would write about it. In these cases sometimes it is best to just move on and never think about the article again. However, there are times where a person says the stupidest things in the world that go against everything you are preaching to your clients and you have no choice but to do a write-up.

First let’s get one thing straight. This site that you are reading right now is a blog. Now that we have that out of the way it’s time to open the can of (insert your favorite saying here) on Mr. Clint Dixon (first time I had to use the new ‘nofollow’ link attribute). For this entry’s sake, let’s assume that his article is what he really believes and that this isn’t some joke.

[Read more…] about Scrivens vs. Dixon, Opinion vs. Fact

We’re beside ourselves with excitement that General Motors, one of the largest automakers on the planet, has a weblog that is personal, entertaining, insightful, and written by the Vice Chairman.

Check out the GM FastLane Blog and get a taste at what GM has in store for the Saturn brand, their interiors, and the new G6. From The Car Blog.

We fixed Trackback on posts, so everything should be working like a charm now. You can find the Trackback URL and pings just above the comment section on individual entries.

Personal computers + personal publishing = …

There are many companies in this wonderful world of ours who have delivered products and services into the hands of common, everyday people. Some of these people appreciate those products and services.

So what do you get when you put all that in together? Fan’s who post all sorts of things about the product or service sites. Case in point, one great ad for the iPod Mini by George Masters.

Related cases in point, the recent Kottke/Sony issue and aeons-ago Netflix opportunity fumble.

There was a time when conventional wisdom taught us that there is no such thing as bad press. Think that is still the case? I am not really sure there is such a thing as conventional wisdom (or common sense for that matter, but that’s another post for another time). So, given the plethora of “don’t use our stuff or even talk about our company” activity of late thanks to all those uppity bloggers, should Apple go after Mr. Masters?

No, of course not. All Apple has going for them is viral marketing. With 5-ish% of the market, what else are you going to do? It’s too bad that a company’s reaction to fans with production/publishing ability is based on whether they need the publicity. Or at least think they need it. If you put it in terms of, “Would you like people talking about your company,” most companies are going to say yes.

A company should use its fan base. Are there blogs about your company out there? Congrats. Now go build a relationship with those bloggers. Are there blogs out there being critical of your business practices? Congrats. Now go build a relationship with those bloggers.

Blogs by fans may be outside the control of a company (until they decide to squash them via lawsuit), but they don’t have to be outside a company’s ability to positively influence. If your company is not going to have its own blog with which to interact with customers, make sure you are combing the web for the sites that will allow you to do just that. Most of the blogs have comments enabled; start commenting.

And a side note to Apple… When the iPod Mini first came out, I was pretty upset at the price. Specifically the price-to-gigabyte ratio. To me, there was no way in heck or hell that I would ever buy an iPod Mini. That is until I saw Mr. Masters’ ad. As I was watching it I found myself thinking, “Well… maybe…” And who doesn’t want their potential customers at the “wellmaybe” stage? I am such a pushover.

When Jason Kottke posted audio of Ken Jennings losing on Jeopardy, it instantly became (in)famous in the blogosphere. Unfortunately, Sony’s legal team took notice of the audio as well, and socked Jason with a Cease and Desist letter to take it down. He complied with their demands, however I’m pretty sure that they’re not going to let Jason go so easily.

He wrote today on his weblog how his legal troubles with Sony don’t appear to be over. He also discussed how situations like this make him question keeping his weblog around, for what happens if he does get sued for multi-millions? Jason’s just an individual blogger and can’t afford the legal troubles huge corporations can handle.

This is extremely unfortunate, because the blogosphere is around in order to call out the Media’s bullshit and draw attention to news stories that might have fallen through the cracks. Jason was just providing his readers with a tidbit of information about one of the stories of the moment, and in no way was making a profit from posting that audio file on his weblog. It didn’t take away from any of Sony’s money, and in fact, probably made even more people watch that showing of Jeopardy which increased Sony’s bottom line.

Bloggers need to be able to express themselves, or else weblogs will become another moderated media outlet just like everything else.

Allen Weiner, a Gartner Inc. analyst, discusses how weblogs are beneficial for companies:

“There’s a huge benefit in blogging for companies implementing IT projects. It’s going to be a growing trend over the next couple of years.”

After Google bought Blogger earlier this year, the G-company decided to start using weblogs internally to keep track of projects, code snippets, ideas, and other artifacts that might normally be overlooked. They have a proprietary version of the Blogger backend powering firewall-protected Google employee and workgroup blogs (check out a screenshot), and the idea is really catching on inside the company. Jesse Goldman, the Blogger product manager, had this to say:

“It really helps grow the intranet and the internal base of documents.”

[Read more…] about Google Uses Weblogs