Debbie's Insights on Social Media

Free download - USC Annenberg’s “Digital Future: Ten Years, Ten Trends”

Posted in the Category of Free Downloads

Yours for the asking. Click here to download the just-released USC (University of Southern California) Annenberg 105-page report on the digital future. Covers everything from *"What do you miss by not using the Internet" to "Which Web sites are reliable and which are not" to social effects of the Internet and, of course, the Internet at work. Lots of charts and percentages. Much of it just what you'd expect. Some of it rather surprising. 60 Yours for the asking. Click here to download the just-released USC (University of Southern California) Annenberg 105-page report on the digital future. Covers everything from *"What do you miss by not using the Internet" to "Which Web sites are reliable and which are not" to social effects of the Internet and, of course, the Internet at work. Lots of charts and percentages. Much of it just what you'd expect. Some of it rather surprising. 60 percent of electronic dropouts say "they miss nothing" about the Internet, according to the report. Most of those admit they'll eventually go back online. Media sites like NYTimes.com and government sites are most trusted. Web sites authored by individuals rank lowest in terms of credibility. Thanks to MarketingSherpa for a pointer to this nifty download.

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100% response rate in Chicago

Posted in the Category of In the News

chicago_round_smaller.JPG Forget declining open rates and click-throughs... when I invited Chicago subscribers to a WordBiz roundtable last week, 100% of those who RSVP'd showed up. We crammed into a meeting room provided by B2BWorks.net, a B2B marketing agency with offices in Chicago's cool River North neighborhood. We had a lively discussion about email marketing and blogs. Yes, declining open rates for email are a big problem. Along with a corresponding decrease chicago_round_smaller.JPG Forget declining open rates and click-throughs... when I invited Chicago subscribers to a WordBiz roundtable last week, 100% of those who RSVP'd showed up. We crammed into a meeting room provided by B2BWorks.net, a B2B marketing agency with offices in Chicago's cool River North neighborhood. We had a lively discussion about email marketing and blogs. Yes, declining open rates for email are a big problem. Along with a corresponding decrease in conversion rates. Re blogs, several attendees expressed concerns about the time it would take to write and maintain a blog. Another topic was RSS feeds: will they provide a new venue for advertisers to push their messages? Pictured from left to right are: Rickey Gold, Donna Beasley, Fred Faulkner, Debbie Weil, Frieda Curry, Philippe Matthews, Betsy Harman, Brent Brotine, Hilary Marsh and,…

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Blah, blah blah joke

Posted in the Category of In the News

Have you heard this one? Thanks to Sean Callahan writing for Crain's BtoB Online: "How do you say blah, blah, blah on the Internet? The punchline: blog, blog, blog." Good article about how blogs can help B2B publishers establish a brand. Have you heard this one? Thanks to Sean Callahan writing for Crain's BtoB Online: "How do you say blah, blah, blah on the Internet? The punchline: blog, blog, blog." Good article about how blogs can help B2B publishers establish a brand.

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E-newsletters vs. RSS… en francais

Posted in the Category of In the News

Paris-based Thomas Sauzedde writes (en francais) about the advantages & disadvantages of publishing e-newsletters vs. publishing via an RSS feed. As he puts it, "Qui va triompher?" (Which will prevail?) He sees a great future for RSS but says it will take a couple of years to be adopted. I agree. This isn't a new topic but it was fun to run across it in a non-U.S. blog. Read his post (assuming you can read in French). Includes useful links to Paris-based Thomas Sauzedde writes (en francais) about the advantages & disadvantages of publishing e-newsletters vs. publishing via an RSS feed. As he puts it, "Qui va triompher?" (Which will prevail?) He sees a great future for RSS but says it will take a couple of years to be adopted. I agree. This isn't a new topic but it was fun to run across it in a non-U.S. blog. Read his post (assuming you can read in French). Includes useful links to other sources as well as to FeedBurner's effort to provide stats on RSS subscribers. Yes, I know I need that little accent thingy under the "c" in francais. I can never remember how to do it.

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Advice for the bloglorn

Posted in the Category of Stuff

A fun (& useful) guest article in this week's issue of WordBiz Report: "3 tips to banish fear of blogging." It's penned by information technology consultant Lois C. Ambash, aka the Infomaven. Her advice? Don't be afraid of the technology. Just plunge in... A fun (& useful) guest article in this week's issue of WordBiz Report: "3 tips to banish fear of blogging." It's penned by information technology consultant Lois C. Ambash, aka the Infomaven. Her advice? Don't be afraid of the technology. Just plunge in...

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Blogging live for Nightly Business Report

Posted in the Category of Stuff

A cameraman & a producer came to my office today to film me "blogging" for a segment on the long-running public television show Nightly Business Report. Yup, I was just typing, moving the cursor around, hitting save & publish. But they seemed to find it awfully exciting. Then we sat down for an interview. I stressed that blogging can be an effective marketing strategy for both large corporations and small companies. It's both an instant A cameraman & a producer came to my office today to film me "blogging" for a segment on the long-running public television show Nightly Business Report. Yup, I was just typing, moving the cursor around, hitting save & publish. But they seemed to find it awfully exciting. Then we sat down for an interview. I stressed that blogging can be an effective marketing strategy for both large corporations and small companies. It's both an instant publishing tool AND a way to get closer to your customers by speaking to them in a human voice. I'll let you know what day the segment is going to run. It airs on (U.S.) public TV stations in the early evening.

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WordBiz Report

Debbie Weil's WordBiz Report

The Corporate Blogging Book

"Rock-solid advice and examples," says Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail. This comprehensive guide confronts the Big 3: fear, the time factor and what to write.
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