The controversial Sarah Lacy spoke at Gnomedex. Yours truly argued with Lacy and Robert Scoble about business blogging, in what became a very public discussion (see extensive CNET coverage, image from said article). The usual, beaten to death PR Sucks meme arose (snore), but our specific argument arose over the feasibility of Lacy’s claims that bloggers can really monetize their business.

I believe most content generators a) don’t create for business/marketing purposes and b) won’t ever be in a position to successfully become superstars to the extent that the content itself will create enough opportunities to be self supporting. The era of turning on a blog and it being “special” ended last year (per last week’s Content Creation post).

CNET got my point right on the nose:

Lacy, Charlene Li [who is absolutely brilliant], Scoble and others, were “people who already have influential positions… Why should the average Joe Metroblogger care,” Livingston asked.

Both Lacy and Li came out of positions where their professional day jobs — BusinessWeek and Forrester — afforded them a much quicker ride to success. In the case of Scoble, he had to scrap his way to the top, but still had some special sauce as one of the first major corporate bloggers vis a vis Microsoft.

To really make it without these advantages, you need an unusual combination of skills to rise to prominence. You must be a natural. Scrapping your way to success through content creation today requires these four elements:

Not as simple as the wave of a hand from a former BusinessWeek reporter who had a easier path to prominence. By the way, Lacy’s journalistic past was something she needed to remind Gnomedexers of more than a dozen times. Most Gnomedexers seemed to feel Lacy’s laurels had worn thin, as demonstrated by the worst speaker rating of the event.

Breaking It Down

(Robert Redford starred as the Natural in 1984)

This discussion, while interesting to Lacy et al, is not a new discussion, but relevant in that so many individuals and businesses are trying to create blogs for business purposes. Technically “blogging” is not the right term; it should be content creation. A blog is a publishing mechanism for a variety of content from the printed word and podcasts to photos and video. Anyway…

Can an individual — and to some extent a new business effort — successfully leverage content for leading edge value? Yes, in our own business consider Valeria Maltoni’s rise to prominence last year, and this year’s Jason Falls success story. A rise to the top for business purposes can be done. Business value usually comes in the form of intangibles like more web site transactions through integrated marketing calls to action, personal or corporate branding, speaking opps, networking contacts, etc.

But let’s examine content creators by type:

1) The Naturals - Folks who would blog if they were stuck in Alaska, alone with no hopes for any commerce.
2) Business people and entrepreneurs - From consultant to corporation, these folks are seeking to achieve financial reward.

The two are not exclusive. But most bloggers fall under the category of one, naturally creative. Doubt me? Check out DC Blogs, a list of thousands upon thousands of local bloggers who create for the sake fulfilling their inner Picasso. Most have no aspiration for monetization.

Also, consider how many people create content versus those that simply listen or comment. The actual blogger is a rare person, one in 20 to 25, depending on your source.

In the case, of business types who do blog, unless they are also naturally creative, they rarely post with the necessary frequency, long-term tenacity and substance to succeed. If an entrepreneur’s natural creativity cannot be brought to bear in this sense, it’s going to be very hard for them. A corporation can better weather this deficiency by deploying several voices guided by an editorial mission and calendar.

In addition to creative fire to achieve success, you must have something to say. You have to have subject matter expertise. Creativity and subject matter expertise do not mutually co-exist. Further, is there enough of both, to deliver targeted content excellence over a sustained Stakeholders must find the content relevant consistently or they will stop following a creator.

Last, but not least comes, community networking skills. This represents more than half of the battle. Content is not king of much>Unless you already have notoriety, generating a community network becomes an organic process. Developing enough Groundswell to successfully compel communities to generate word of mouth and propel content, requires strong networking skills - a skill set completely different from content creation.

Networking requires a sustained participatory commitment from the individual on top of content creation. Much of Now Is Gone focuses on participation within communities, and that’s because it is the community that drives adoption, not publishing or even subject matter expertise. Those are pre-requisites. Instead, the community adapts, and they only do so when they believe you are credible, and there is clear value for them.

Applied to the Gnomedex Conversation

The Lacys, Lis, and Scobles of the world have an unfair advantage compared to the average blogger. Their credibility with the community — in the form of BusinessWeek, Forrester and Microsoft — was already established. Their communities were much more willing to embrace them than the average unknown.

To their credit, Li and Scoble are clearly positioned for long term success. In addition to their notoriety, they network, create content, and deliver substance over time. I am far from ready to don Lacy a champion due to perceived weaknesses in her thought leadership and community skills. That being said, she is undoubtably a Natural. Journalists and authors have to be content creators in their heart. But how much longer will the BusinessWeek cache carry her?

Those of us who have had to earn or are trying to develop business success through content creation know the road is not easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it. Much like publishing a book (according to Li there are only 50,000 published authors in the United States), for “the unfamous” the dream requires an incredible amount of perseverance and dedication. Trust me, I know. Because I’ve walked this talk from ground zero.

Some of you may have been following the PR Week Blog Competition. In a nasty twist of fate, the Buzz Bin got pitted against friend and PR Prodigy Todd Defren and his PR Squared blog.

Well, I can tell you we are not too thrilled at this pairing! Upon reflection, we decided to pull a classic Washingtonian PR move and endorse Todd to win the PR Week Blog Competition. Here’s why:

And by the way, you can do more than just vote. You can support Todd with your own “In Todd We Trust” apparel! Visit the Todd store here!

Original Todd Image by David Alston. If someone actually buys something, we’ll give him all of the profits.

August. It’s upon us (image by jurvetson)… The dead of summer, often known as the “Dog Days.”

Business slows down. Campaigns are put on hold. The world seems to take a deep breath, resting before the mad rush of business from Labor Day through Thanksgiving.

August can deliver more than that.

The word august finds its roots in the word augustus (you know, that emperor that followed Julius?), a word that means sacred or grand. In that vein, august means venerable or eminent.

Similarly, companies and bloggers that choose to ignore the smaller audiences during the August vacation period, and decide to proactively market have an opportunity to generate unusual traction. They can become august in their positioning by exploiting an unusual lack of marketplace noise.

Last summer many bloggers took a break. Other newer, hungrier bloggers like Valeria Maltoni and myself kept blogging through it. While traffic remained flat in August, if you consider the amount of people on vacation, it was actually increasing… And RSS subscribership proved it.

In other facets of marketing, similar results can be achieved. Influencer relations campaigns can leverage the relative lack of stories. In some cases, the stories may not reach full impact until September by the time the media finishes coverage. I’ve had several campaigns that were waged in August with outstanding coverage results in September.

Slow is a mindset, and while there may be vacations, there are also opportunities. So what’s it going to be: August or august?

Where do the children go,
Between the bright night and darkest day?
Where do the children go?
And who’s that deadly piper who leads them away?

- Where Do the Children Go, The Hooters

Some of you may have seen CommonSense PR Eric Eggertson’s post this Saturday. He has decided to go on hiatus from CommonSense PR. This continues a trend where many established business bloggers stop for a while (Leo Bottary is back!), for good, or migrate to Twitter or another social network.

Eric states:

I’m tired. I want to not have a public opinion about everything I see. And if you aren’t absolutely driven to blog, you shouldn’t be doing it.

You have to respect Eric’s desire to move on. After years and months of blogging, isn’t burn-out inevitable? There comes a time when new media and paths must be explored in a person’s journey. Which brings up an interesting issue for corporate blogs: Artistic creativity or business? Can content be created on demand, or is great professional blogging a result of creative fire?

Business is business, so in many cases good blogging is a marketing function, an editorial production. We have found that editorial schedules and missions work well to drive content. Multiple authors allay the taxing nature of blogging time and creativity resources. In one case, our client StackSafe’s blog was cited by Forrester Research as part of an integrated marketing mix that offered compelling content to the IT mix.

For me, blogging and content creation lies in what seems to be an unrelenting fount of creativity. As soon as I push the publish button, a sense of relief occurs, but within hours the next post(s) starts brewing in my head. Further, even when I am stymied, I can still write on demand, a result of being the fifth journalist, and third published author in my family. I have always been possessed by the writing bug, and suspect I always will be (below image by desiitaly).

But there have been times where I burned out on the marketing, social media and PR schtick. This caused me to abandon my second social media blog, Now Is Gone (in support of the book) in favor of personal “fun” blogging. It also caused me to explore video, a media form I enjoy because of it’s extremely daunting canvas.

Yet I forged through burn-out on the Buzz Bin. Because it’s business, and there’s always some new idea or take on developments to offer insights to the marketplace. We publish on the Buzz Bin religiously because we see the blog as a core business offering, essential to the firm’s well-being. This will only continue as we integrate with Social Media Group.

It bears to mind an old Frederick Douglass quote (paraphrased): “Good writers write when they want to. Great writers write when they have to.”

When it’s a business — as opposed to an individual’s blog — you write. Artists be damned. And if a writer burns out, then it’s time to replace them with a new cog in the wheel. Well engineered business blogs should survive the comings and goings of personalities. Thus is the nature of business blogging.

Note: Kami Huyse stuck this idea of creative force vs. business in my head a couple weeks ago. She should get some credit for the idea.

It’s not much, but it wasn’t meant to be. BlogPotomac profits totaled $491 and change. And as promised we donated them to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Here’s a little schtick from EFF on their mission:

EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people’s radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

BlogPotomac was meant to be a not for profit event, and as such charge only the cost of the event. Any ancillary monies have been donated on behalf of the attendees. Again, thank you to everyone who made BlogPotomac a success.  We look forward to June 12, 2009!

Yes, that sound yesterday was the acquisition of Livingston Communications. We’re growing rapidly on the better to best continuum. On behalf of the team, thanks to all who celebrated with us after yesterday’s announcement. We are lucky to run with so many fantastic people.

Better is in the eye of the beholder. On one hand, our new, combined team will see improved processes, standards and best practices.

Growth leads to improved resources, too. All of which will trickle over to outstanding client service, social media strategy, and PR. That’s good for business. [Image credit: Clear Growth by catchesthelight]

Even better: enhanced capabilities will position us to serve up more widely known, Grade A social media strategy for social good. A few agencies serve this space already, but none that I know of are wholly dedicated to digital deeds for the social sector.

Terrific work is underway combating illiteracy (First Book), championing people with disabilities (Ideal-Way), and straight on ’til morning. Communities are surging, too (as tricky as they can be). Via NetSquared, the recent launch of CARE Connections, an online community dedicated to global poverty work and women’s empowerment, is one example.

We’ve worked on a number socially focused initiatives, including Goodwill and SpeakeasyDC, not to mention our previous experiences. I am personally thrilled at the prospect of working with more of these groups as we join forces with Social Media Group.

If you know of a spot on case study related to “social media for social good,” please blog and tweet it. Share it, too - leave a comment here with an overview, email me with the details, tell others in our marcom community. More than that, how would you improve what’s already happening?

Advisory: Spam is not dead. It’s evolving like a super strain of influenza, thriving just fine in the social media ecosystem. Larissa covered mobile spam in April, FriendFeeders were perplexed by a recent onset, and I’m about to have a fit with all the Twitter spam (”Twam“) that’s springing up.

Splog Hell

When it comes to counterfeit content, the true bain of PR’s existence is still the spam blog, or splog. A third of all blogs are splogs, according to Matt Mullenweg, founder of Wordpress. This toxic sludge of continues to drift past Technorati, Blog Pulse, and Google blogs. PR pros must make the call: Spam or not spam.

Clients/coworkers are fooled every single day, and it’s up to you to save them from false hits and spare them the embarrassment. Having a strong radar will protect the integrity of earned media mentions (blogs coverage is earned media!) and protect the integrity of your work family at large.

I thought we were past this, too. But recently a couple clients - different accounts - excitedly sent me links to spam blogs thinking they scored a great hit. In one case, someone wanted to comment in response.

All that to say, the spam smackdown ends up providing decent job security. In order to educate others, you have to educate yourself. Let’s review the process:

What is this crap?

Spam blogs are fake blogs that exist only for the sake of getting revenue from Google ads. They do this by sucking content from other people’s blogs, and tricking Google into thinking they’re real blogs. (Don’t ask me why Google hasn’t figured out how to squash this issue.)

Sploggers are also gifted at leaving comments on blogs - particularly defunct blogs and older posts. Comment filters have helped ameliorate this issue.

Red flags:

These black holes get more clever every day and are therefore increasingly tricky to identify. Even so, here are some tell tale signs of a spam blog:

1. No author or “about” info

2. No comments

3. Bad writing

4. A bunch of ads all over the place

5. Poor, cookie-cutter design – after a while you can tell them apart just visually. (Quoting a friend: “It’s like porn - you know it when you see it.”)

Specimens:

• This is a spam blog. The content categories are nonsensical, the archives are whack, and sentences drop off (see at the bottom there? “Brand Pile Courtesy of” and it cuts off. No human blogger is that sloppy). Oh, and, there’s no title on this blog.
• This is a post on a spam blog. Note the particularly awful header and really lame intro to the post: “It took great skill and will power to complete this article on fire and safety. We also request you to use your skill and will power to understand this matter.” Seriously?

When in doubt: check the blog at SplogSpot. And if you identify a new spam blog, add it to the list.

Please friends, beware the splogerrific spamerino. Don’t be fooled and accidentally send a spam blog to a client. And if a client sends one to you, help them understand the issue. Of course, if you’ve got a funny (or nerve-wracking) incident to share, the floor is yours.

(Image credit: cursedthing)

With the July 4th holiday upon us, it’s clear that we’re all set to see a significant dip in traffic over the next couple of months. Bloggers and industries (even sports!) go on vacation, news tends to slow down, and overall people are spending less time on the Internet and more time outside (as they should be).

(Picture Credit: Michele Killman)

There are a number of things that you can do to beat the slump, but the most important recommendation I have is: stick with it, no matter how you do it. Some options:

Utilize Micro-blogging: Twitter continues to grow up. Geoff and I were talking the other day about how many views Parasocial received via blog and via Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, etc. Hits were overwhelmingly in favor of social networks. It makes sense - people are more likely to click through to links from their trusted networks, rather than through a blog. Not only that, but it takes a few minutes to browse a Twitter feed or FriendFeed, it takes much more time to go through an RSS reader or blogroll.

Keep it Short and Sweet: Start a meme. Participate in a meme. These are fun and easy posts that get people involved, don’t take a lot of brain power, and create lots and lots of link love. Keep up with links posts (if that’s your kind of thing) and provide short posts with commentary on what other people are writing about. Anything to keep your mind, blog, and readers going.

Be Discreet: If you don’t normally blog every day and you haven’t blogged in a few days or a week, don’t apologize for it. It simply draws attention (through RSS feeds and site visits) to the fact that you haven’t been blogging. Many people may not have noticed. However, if you are a daily blogger or blog professionally, it’s good to give people a heads up if you plan to take a mini-break. Again, take advantage of micro-blogging tools to keep in touch.

Choose to Go Dark: People will respect that. Everyone needs time away from the Internet, and what better way to spend your summer hours than enjoying long sun-filled days with loved ones? Get out and do something!

Build Up Readers and Content: Since so many bloggers do take off during the summer, use the downtime to boost your own blog. You’re guaranteed to pick up a few new readers that way. Come up with some great thought leadership pieces that can be carried over to the fall.

Just to keep things fun (and follow my own advice), I’m starting a meme.

(Photo credit: Flickr)

SUMMER MEME

4 things you like about summer

1. Longer days = more sun!
2. Rooftop dining, especially through the sunset
3. Laying out at the beach/pool and tanning
4. Driving with the top down (metaphorically speaking)

4 of your favorite vacation destinations

1. Midwest - warm days and cool mountain air at night
2. Caribbean - because it’s always a good time to go
3. California - Northern
4. Maine - love to visit my friend in Kennebunk

4 of your favorite summer foods

1. Berries
2. Corn on the cob
3. Slurpees/frozen lemonade
4. Anything that I grill outside!

4 concerts not to miss

1. Rascal Flatts
2. Any music festival - Virgin Festival, Lollapalooza, etc.
3. Old school bands - sometimes perform at local fairs, events, etc. Think 70’s, 80’s, and early 90’s bands
4. Musicals - I saw West Side Story at Wolf Trap last year, great for outdoors!

4 things to avoid during the summer

1. Sunburns
2. Bug bites
3. Brain freezes
4. Spending too much time inside with the A/C!

Tagging:

• Sarah Wurrey
• Andre Blackman
• Rachelle Lacroix
• Maddie Grant
• Leslie Bradshaw
• Shannon Whitley
• Brad Levinson
• Nicole Brazell
• Karen Snyder
• Cece Salomon-Lee

The twin global crises - fuel and food. Its evident that the closer to home we ‘harvest,’ the less fuel is needed to feed us. Side effects of local consumption include feeling better about eating fresh food and contributing to a local economy.

Local is the new black. So, for your educational pleasure, here’s a roundup of local food resources on the Web (and off), from one student to many:

Online - get first hand accounts, and a lot of tips

• Blogs of note - all make the case for sustainable, local consumption, and offer tips for urban and rural dwellers: Eat Local Challenge blog, Local Food Blog, Slow Food USA Blog, Eat.Drink.Better.
• Sustainable Table offers an impressive Eat Well Guide. Enter your zipcode and find local farmers markets (there are 60 within 20 miles of D.C.), co-ops, restaurants, CSAs, a seasonal food guide and more.
• Local community sites and recipes: A quick search will connect you with resources designated for your geographic area. No one-size-fits all formula for local eating, of course. (Still, it would be nice if Whole Foods partnered with Sustainable Table or Slow Food to created ‘the USA Guide for seasonal foods and recipes by region.’ This doesn’t cut it.)

Offline - get out your glasses

• Recommended Reading: Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Consider the loss of food culture in America. We can get anything we want, any time from any where. This book helps restores our roots. Kingsolver’s website features stories of people trying to “do it locally,” and resources for the average eater. (Image credit: animalvegetablemiracle.com)
• Next on my personal list: The Omnivore’s Dilemma (already on the nightstand) and Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front.
• Go see Wall-E. Pixar’s new kiddie call to arms (“save earth” meets “fat is bad”) practically guarantees that kids are now going to pester their parents about the quantity and types of food being consumed at the table (or on the sofa).

In person - get out your cane

• Local Farmers Markets – my Sunday mornings this Spring and Summer have been given over to the local market in Dupont Circle. Freshness abounds. I stick to produce (and the Maryland crab cakes), but pastries, dairy and meat products are all available. And everything is so pretty. Find your market. (Image credit: melissamccart.)
• Restaurants: Check out that Eat Well Guide listed above to discover eateries-near-you that serve local products.

Don’t Forget to Give it Away: We can do our part by changing personal habits and looking out for our neighbors.

• Locally: America’s Second Harvest can help you find your local food bank. Slow Food is rallying donations to Midwest farmers who lost their livelihood to the floods.
• Globally: Foot riots are battering disparate nations across Africa and Southeast Asia, and the price of rice has skyrocketed globally. A mother in Haiti has to pay $1.35 for a can of rice (up from 40 cents), when her family only makes $2/day. GlobalGiving can take your dollars to Haiti.

Do you pay more to eat locally? Maybe up front, on a monetary basis. But the long run, you’re getting - and giving - exactly what you pay for.

When a pendulum swings too far in one direction, force of gravity pulls it back in the opposite direction. This motion creates an equilibrium, a balance that eventually settles in the middle. It seems that social media continues to grow red hot, and blogs are a continuing focus of influentials for readers and marketers alike. But how much longer can this pendulum swing in one direction (image by Brandi666)?

It’s inevitable that the social media craze will subside with a refocus on integration and balanced use of tactics across diverse media. We’ve been blogging about this for more than a year, ever since our first run in with the Amandae.

Five Reasons to Duck

If the pendulum is swinging too far into the social media court right now, then gravity will pull marketing back to equilibrium. Here are the things that have caused me to take notice:

1) Too many communicators have the shiny object syndrome, yet don’t have domain expertise. That means we’re seeing a lot of bad social media this year. In turn, you can expect corresponding failures and a reaction against social media.

2) With the boom has come increased attention, and more more, we are seeing cocky bloggers who have taken their readership and power too seriously. Worse are the ones who are followed closely like a news source, but obviously shoot their mouths off without fact checking or really understanding their subject matter.

Great blogging always had its heart in passion and domain expertise. When neither are present — instead replaced with bad information and ego-ridden acts — people will eventually catch on and stop believing. For example, remember how big Steve Rubel used to be? Once a top Technorati 100 regular, he has dropped out of the top 1000 blogs.

3) A decadent subculture: I’ve been on the speaking circuit, have attended the events, and seen the great comradery, and in some cases, decadence that has arisen. From people trying to “date” rock star, favorite female or male bloggers or putting them on pedestals to the blatant stalking by people like Brian Conolly/Amanda Chapel and the Kathy Sierra nightmare, we’ve given birth to a parasocial culture (more on this next week). How long until parasocial behavior begins hurting the social media culture with scandal and the like (image by alpineinc)?

4) Along the lines of three, with our subculture has arisen gossip and unprofessional fascination a la Valleywag. Vicious false attacks are the norm here. Smells like post-prime Rome to me. I mean we’re talking geeks here. Are we really this important? Please.

5) The AP content issue reminded me of the media titans who continue to watch their mindshare slip away. They will fight this change, and do anything they can to protect their revenue, including limiting access to information unless you are a paid member. It’s been a losing battle so far, but sooner or later professionally developed content will see an uptick in demand. Why? See reason one. If traditional media continues to protect their value and refuse to compromise, they will benefit.

Social media will not go away. Believe me, I am not calling for a collapse. In fact, I’ve staked this company’s future on the ongoing need for social PR. Yet perhaps an over reliance on bloggers as experts will pass, or a shake out of the fake social media consultants will come. Perhaps we’ll start respecting our professional media sources a little more.

The pendulum will swing back. A more measured, integrated and intelligent approach to conversational media will take place. When? There are a lot of factors in play starting with the economy. In addition, if Obama wins, you can anticipate widespread adoption of social media by the government. So don’t expect the pendulum to swing this summer or fall, but more likely in 2009.