You may have noticed that I’m on a bit of a soapbox about blogging.  I think that businesses are getting caught up with all the different types of social media and are forgetting how useful and important blogging is.  In my monthly post over at Practical eCommerce, I talk more about the importance of blogging for online businesses, but the reasons also apply for any type of business.

Blogging does take a bit of patience and time. Ideally, blogs should be updated on a regular basis, and it may take a bit of time for the blog to gain traction. But, the return on the blogging investment is quite high in terms of content, SEO, and, most importantly, trust and reputation. – Blogging Builds Trust, Demonstrates Expertise – Sarah Worsham – Practical eCommerce

If you’re still on the fence about blogging for your business, I hope you’ll head over to Practical eCommerce for the full post.

Already blogging? How’s it working for you?

Other posts I’ve written at Practical eCommerce:

• Ping.fm Makes Social Media Strategy Easy
• Social Media: Create a Strategy for Your Online Store
• Selling (And Socializing) On Facebook
• Twitter Can Help Your Online Business
• Using Flickr to Socialize Your Products

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• Wal-Mart Embraces Twitter, but Not Brevity [MediaMemo] (All Things Digital)
• ReadWriteWeb Interview With Tim Berners-Lee, Part 2: Search Engines, User Interfaces for Data, Wolfram Alpha, And More… (ReadWriteWeb)
• Bing More Popular Than Twitter, CNN, and Digg (Silicon Alley Insider)
• Why Google’s iPhone Ads Are Bad News For Advertisers, And How To Opt Out (Silicon Alley Insider)
• Nielsen: Global Ad Spend Down 7% in Q109 (Marketing Charts)
• CoTweet Now in Public Beta; Get the Same Twitter CRM Tools as Big Brands (Mashable)

• Five steps to help create your universal lead definition (B2B Lead Generation Blog)
• How I Tweet- A FAQ (Chris Brogan)
• Keep Your Media Making Alive During Vacations (Chris Brogan)
• Mobile Marketing Association Releases New Version of US Consumer Best Practices for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Services (Ad Operations Online)
• Forget social media, SEO and PPC is where the money’s at (Econsultancy Blog)
• Google Chrome OS: bloggers versus techies (Econsultancy Blog)
• Why Chrome OS Now? Because Microsoft Office In The Cloud Comes Monday. (TechCrunch)
• Google’s AdSense For iPhone Trips Up Advertisers (Silicon Alley Insider)
• Should a Social Media Editor Use Social Media? (Mashable)
• Mollom Blocks Its 100 Millionth Spam Message (TechCrunch)
• Posterous Now Syncs Posts With Facebook Pages (All Facebook)

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Last night, Chris Brogan asked whether Social Media can be taught based on a post by Adam Cohen, which got me thinking.  My initial reaction is yes, of course, people are fairly intelligent (for the most part) and they know how to have conversations in person, so having conversations with social media shouldn’t be too much of a jump.  Using social media to have conversations just requires understanding the technologies and the techniques needed to keep track of what’s being said.

Some social media is more intuitive than others.  I think a lot of people understand blogging and judging by the increase in usage of Facebook, that’s probably fairly easy for people to understand as well.  Twitter is a bit more difficult – mostly because it can be used in so many different ways.  I think Adam is correct in that there isn’t a set formula for teaching people how to use social media – mostly because what social media to use varies so much based on end goals, industries and familiarity.

I do think that there are some social media basics that are fairly easy to teach in courses and workshops.  Introducing blogging, Facebook, and Twitter can be standardized in a way that shows people exactly what they need to do to use each and have conversations.  Social media that’s more specific to an industry may be more difficult to understand or teach, but with the understanding of how to use the basics, some people could probably figure it out with a bit of help.

The problem with teaching many people how to use something new is that they’re set in their ways.  If you’ve been in the business world for a long time and are used to doing things a certain way (that’s always worked before), it’s difficult to motivate yourself to learn something new.  A lot of people just don’t like to work any harder than they have to, and learning something new can involve thinking and hard work.

So, is it possible to teach people how to use social media?  Yes, definitely.  Can you standardize a course that works for every type of social media in every type of situation and industry? Of course not.  But the basics definitely can be taught, and with the basics people would have a better chance of being able to grasp more specific uses of social media for their organization.

What do you think?  Can social media be taught?

(photo by atomicjeep @ Flickr CC)

Technorati tags: social media, social media usability, social networking, marketing, strategy, business

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• Twittorati Will Show You How Awesomely Fascinating Bloggers’ Lives Are (Or Not) (TechCrunch)
• Google Ad Planner Gets a New Interface (Ad Operations Online)
• Top 10 Marketing-Related Business Websites – June 2009 (Marketing Charts)
• Perform Better With AdSense: The Ultimate Round-Up (Smashing Magazine)
• Merchandising Usability: Better Ways to Display Product Recommendations (Get Elastic eCommerce Blog)
• YouTube Wins A Small Victory In Copyright Case (Silicon Alley Insider)

• Why Automated Blogging Tools Should Be Avoided (ProBlogger)
• 18 Questions to Assess Readiness of Content SEO (Online Marketing Blog)
• Chrome OS, Huh? Will It Be Based on a Google Analytics Kernel? [Digital Daily] (All Things Digital)
• What The Hashtag: Your Guide To Enigmatic Twitter Hashtags (TechCrunch)
• Millennials Fuel 19% Jump in Loyalty-Program Participation (Marketing Charts)
• The biggest secret of social media is free (Search Engine Guide)
• Corporate Blogs CAN be Good (Chris Brogan)
• Newspapers on Twitter – how the Guardian, FT and Times are winning (Online Journalism Blog)
• Online Publishers Association New Ad Units Go Live (Ad Operations Online)
• Push Gmail Comes To The iPhone — Through An App (If It’s Accepted) (TechCrunch)
• Spinning the web or the role of digital influencers (Putting people first)
• Hey, Online Display Ads Don’t Suck After All! (Silicon Alley Insider)
• Facebook Users Are Getting Older. Much Older. (Mashable)
• Mozilla Aims To Centralize All Open Web Tools In One Directory (TechCrunch)
• How to Find Profitable Affiliate Products to Promote (ProBlogger)
• Firefox stability to get a boost with multiprocess browsing (Ars Technica)
• What Click-Through Rate Can You Expect From Twitter? (Mashable)
• Open Source is Infiltrating the Enterprise (O’Reilly Radar)

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Seth Godin’s blog is a regular read for me.  I don’t always find use for everything he says, but I think he has a lot of great ideas and certainly can stir up some new ways to think.  So picking up Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable (Amazon link) wasn’t a stretch.  I had heard a lot of good things about it, so I figured it would be a good read while I was up north at the cabin relaxing.

Overall the subject of the book is extremely important to companies that want to continue to compete in the changing marketplace.  The first few chapters are great explanations of why being a purple cow is important and how marketing has changed, and Seth offers some good examples of companies which have made a business of being remarkable.  There is one very important point Seth makes, that I think is important for all companies:  marketing, strategy and design departments can no longer work independently if remarkable products are going to be properly created and launched.

Purple Cow was a quick and easy read.  Seth Godin has structured the book like a blog – short text excerpts divided by catching titles.  There are some great tidbits of information that are set off with bullets – which can stimulate some great trains of thought.  The case studies are short and to the point, many of which are followed up with some points to ponder. However, there are a few where I wanted a bit more information about what the company did to become remarkable.  There are also several places where a company or product is mentioned as remarkable, but I had never heard of it, which is fine, but I would have liked a bit of an explanation of what they did.  (While I could search for it, I feel like I paid some money for the book, so it would be nice to get the information all in one place).  There is a Purple Cow website which includes a few bonus chapters and additional information.

Purple Cow was a good book for up north.  It would be a good book for the beach.  Most of the information is now widely accepted (the book was originally published in 2002), but still not widely implemented.  The current recession would make a good opportunity to transform a business.  I don’t think Purple Cow would necessarily be useful to Marketers who are in-the-know with current trends online and in social media, but it could spark some great brainstorming.  Purple Cow definitely would be a good book for any higher level management that’s looking for a way to use the recession as an agent of change for their company and for any marketers and product designers just getting into online strategies.

Have you read Purple Cow?  What did you think?

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable (Amazon link)

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• AOL Instant Messenger Begins Life As A Twitter, Facebook App (Silicon Alley Insider)
• You Put Your Aardvark In My Twitter (Bonus: Interview With Founders) (TechCrunch)
• Google Apps Leaves Beta, Gunning for the Enterprise (ReadWriteWeb)
• 34 marketing tips and ideas (Jim’s Marketing Blog)
• Can Sears Help OpenID Go Mainstream? (TechCrunch)
• Ban Blogs From Linking To Newspapers, Says Judge (Silicon Alley Insider)

• A Growing Acceptance of Social Networking in the Workplace (ReadWriteWeb)
• HOW TO: Get Retweeted on Twitter (Mashable)
• Interview with the director of UX of the New York Times (Putting People First)
• Half of Twitter Has Never Tweeted (Marketing Charts)
• Now You Can Use Dynamic Subject Lines for Your Feedburner Emails (Daily Blog Tips)
• Make sure you create interesting headlines! (Insights Group)
• Twine Tries To Manage The Stream With New Coverflow-Like Design (TechCrunch)
• Behavioral advertisers discover the self-regulation gospel (Ars Technica)
• Online Ad Spending Overseas to Hit $25 Billion by 2013 (Advertising Age)
• Twitter Followers For Sale (Silicon Alley Insider)
• Google’s App Engine Is Sputtering (GigaOM)
• Smart Meters That Can Tweet, From a Utility That “Gets” Broadband (GigaOM)
• FriendFeed Adds Real-Time Search Results (Mashable)
• Streamline Photo Sharing on Multiple Social Networks (Web Worker Daily)
• DOJ Confirms Antitrust Investigation Into Google Book Settlement [Digital Daily] (All Things Digital)

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What does your paper business card look like? It probably has your name, your company logo, some contact information and maybe a quick tagline summarizing what your company does.  People can find all the information they need to contact you just by glancing at your card.

Business cards are still pretty important for face-to-face networking.  People are usually horrible about remembering names or company names and a small paper card lets them connect the conversation they had with the person they spoke to. (And gives them a point of contact if they want to continue the conversation).

Business websites are your online business card, yet so many businesses neglect to have the same important information in a quick & easy to understand as a paper business card provides. Most business websites are just a boring brochure of some marketing-blabber about what the company does  (that usually isn’t clear to anyone other than the author of the marketing-blabber), but don’t provide any real information to the visitor.

The nice thing about a website, as opposed to a small business card, is that you have the opportunity to offer so much more information.  But this can also be a crunch – businesses get caught up in the technology and create flashy websites, but forget about the basics.  It’s ok to offer lots of information to visitors – matter of fact, it’s a great way to get people to come back to your website over and over, but remember to keep the basics in mind: contact information, benefits to the customer, what it is you do – all visible and understandable in 5-10 seconds.

Take a look at your website.  Can you get the same type of information that’s on your business card?  Does your business website offer valuable information to your customers?  Is what you do clear in terms of benefits and value to the customers?

Make your business website a valuable business tool.

Technorati tags: design, usability, content, marketing, strategy, business

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• One More Thing: The New Facebook iPhone App Will Allow Video Uploads (TechCrunch)
• The Value of Twitter Followers: Quality Over Quantity (Web Worker Daily)
• AT&T Saw 65,000 Texts Per Second Following Michael Jackson’s Death (Leaked Memo) (Silicon Alley Insider)
• CHART OF THE DAY: Search Ads Aren’t As “Helpful” As Google Suggests (Silicon Alley Insider)
• Michael Jackson Death Completely Overwhelms Media (Marketing Charts)
• Twitter Makes Hashtags More #Useful (TechCrunch)

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Are you a black sheep or a white sheep?

People like to be sheep – it’s easy and it doesn’t involve thinking.  People like to assume that someone else has already figured out the best way to do something.  But, if we take a few minutes to stop and think about what we’re doing, instead of just going with the flow, we may find a better, more efficient solution. – Be a Black Sheep – Sarah Worsham – Insights Group

Posting over at Insights Group, I talk about how most people just go with the flow, but you can stand out by doing something a bit different.

(photo by pasotraspaso @ Flickr CC)

• Mind Those Tweets: The Media Are Watching (Internet Evolution)
• Improve Your Search Rankings with Internal SEO (Daily Blog Tips)
• Meebo Ramps Up Ads with New Partner Network (The Social Times)
• Twitter’s New Followers Page: A Baby Step (FAS Talk)
• Writing a blog worth caring about (Josh Klein Web Strategy)
• Twitter Grows “Uncomfortable” With The Use Of The Word Tweet In Applications (Updated) (TechCrunch)

• Best Practices For Effective Design Of “About me”-Pages (Smashing Magazine)
• Why the Adwords Top Spot Should be Your Bottom Priority (Web Analytics World)
• As Brands Continue to ‘Pollinate’ the Social Web, Expect Corporate Websites to Aggregate (Web Strategy by Jeremiah)
• A Checklist to Choose Which Internet Marketing Channel is Right for Your Business (SEOmoz)

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