Debbie Weil is a corporate blogging and social media expert, online marketing consultant, speaker and author of The Corporate Blogging Book (Portfolio). She consults with large companies, CEOs and senior executives on how to create blogs that connect with customers and attract media attention.

The first is the just published Citizen Marketers by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell. It's a fast, engaging read and extremely well written. In a nutshell, they explain how ordinary citizens are creating media (blogs, podcasts, video, songs, photo) that rival multi-million dollar ad budgets in their ability to affect brands - both negatively and positively.

Two blog entries that explain Web 2.0 and social media

The second is a blog entry by Jeremiah Owyang: 10 Social Media Strategies for Fortune 1000 Corporations

Third is HP Eric Kintz's blog post: Web 2.0 Trends 

And of course The Corporate Blogging Book

… if you haven't gotten to it yet. Readers are calling it the best "How-to" on corporate or business blogging. 

If you've already created your avatar in Second Life and are regularly teleporting yourself from island to island, no need to read on. If you haven't, it's time to take your first step into this virtual reality environment. Yes, there's a business application. The equivalent of US $1 million changed hands inside Second Life during the past 24 hours. This was for the buying and selling of real estate, constructing buildings, for clothes, accessories and other stuff.

I recently spent several hours with a business colleague who kindly showed me around.

Shopping for a new dress

Kalisten VanDornan (aka Katin Imes) took me in hand for my second trip into Second Life. Quite the gentleman, he took me shopping to find some new clothes. The original outfit I created was just awful (jeans and an ugly top.) We teleported to Victoria City in Caledon and then to Information Island. He also invited me to join the Tesla Society (I accepted). Seems to be folks wandering about in 19th century attire.

Yes, I spent some money

About US $4 - to buy my red dress and bonnet. And no that doesn't look like me, above. But what the heck. (Apparently it's an advanced skill to make your avatar look like you.)

Still waddling instead of walking

I'm still waddling instead of walking, I can barely make it through doorways and up stairs. But sorta getting the hang of controlling my avatar.

I'm not hooked on Second Life yet

As to whether I'm hooked on spending time (as well as Linden Dollars) in Second Life, hmmm… not yet.

Oh and my name is MonaLisa Arcadia if you're looking for me in 2L. Next up, a visit to Crayonville to find Neville Hobson et al.

P.S. How to look at yourself head-on

There's  a trick to looking at yourself head-on, as in the snapshot of my avatar above. Normally you only see your backside, which I find a bit disconcerting.

On a Mac, you hit the Option button. It brings up a little "plus" sign on the back of your avatar's head. Then you use your mouse to "revolve" the space you're in around yourself.

Useful Links

Second Life blog

List of articles in real-life media about Second Life

RSS-ing yourself is not an exercise in vanity. It's your no-cost, real-time way of monitoring - and engaging with - the blogosphere. Set up keyword searches on your name, company, brand, product or service. The results you'll get via RSS may surprise you. Step two is to leave comments on a blog where someone mentions you. The blogger will be astonished that you've discovered his/her blog and taken the time to visit.

How to RSS Yourself

There are two steps to RSS'ing yourself:

1. You create persistent keyword searches

2. You subscribe to those search results via RSS

The basic idea is that you use RSS (RSS 101) to set up persistent keyword searches. You search on your name, your company name, product, brand, service, etc. And any keyword phrases related to your industry or your interests.

I have keyword searches set up on "debbie weil," "the corporate blogging book," "corporate blogging," "corporate blogging guidelines," "ceo bloggers," etc. You get the idea.

Then you have the results of those keyword searches delivered to you through your RSS newsreader. Technically, you "subscribe" to your keyword search results just as you would subscribe to a blog.

Set up persistent keyword searches using Google, Bloglines and Technorati

For starters, use Google news alerts (via Google News), Bloglines and Technorati to set up your searches.

For example, type your name "in quotes" into the Technorati search bar (as below). When the results come up, look for the little orange "Subscribe" icon on the right. Click (or right-click) the icon to copy the link. Then insert that link into your RSS reader of choice as a new "subscription."

I use Bloglines because it's Web-based and I find it simple to use. Some folks like Google's Reader. (Both are free.)

Below are what my keyword search results look like in my Bloglines account. The first screenshot shows you the RSS results for a Google news alert search on "debbie weil."

1. Google News Alert on "debbie weil" viewed through Bloglines

2. Technorati results on "debbie weil" viewed through Bloglines

3. Bloglines search on "debbie weil" viewed through Bloglines

Why three separate searches? They deliver different results

If you're wondering why I use Google news alerts, Technorati and Bloglines to do the persistent searching, it's because they deliver different results: mentions on blogs, in news articles, in other languages, etc. RSS searching is still an imperfect science. But hey, it's free. And it's useful. No more excuses… go for it in 2007!

P.S. Another useful idea

Anil Dash, VP and Chief Evangelist for Six Apart does something clever. Instead of trying to list every mention of his name in the press, he uses the results of a Google news search as a short-hand link to the most up-to-date list of articles mentioning or quoting him.

To do this, go to news.google.com. Type your name or company name (inside quotation marks) into the search bar. When the results page comes up, look in the browser window. That funny looking URL is the link to your Google news results.

Click the Google News link below and you'll see how Anil does it:

"You can see a list of recent press mentions and quotes on Google News, and most recent articles mentioning Six Apart are available on the Six Apart press page."

Useful Links

RSS 101 (my 5-step guide to get started)

RSS: Should You Bother? (great round-up by Mark Goren)

Untangle the World Wide Web With RSS (Reuters - Dec. 29, 2006)

Blogging, Podcasting & RSS 101 (my round-up of links)

E-newsletters are still a great tool for communicating with your customers. But you gotta know how to do it right. You might want to check out my E-newsletter Starter Kit if you plan to take a thinking break over the next few weeks. (Bill Gates disappears annually for his Think Week.) Grab a fresh pad of paper and stack up a pile of reading as you consider new strategies and tactics for 2007. Put an e-newsletter - or a blog-a-zine (combination e-newsletter and blog) on your list.

Have you elfed yourself? Here's how I made a total elf of myself. Happy Holidays to all!

How & why to add video to your blog

Get step-by-step instructions in the current issue of WordBiz Report. Your blog will soon be sooo 2006 if it's not multimedia. Continue reading…

Need a keynote, workshop or Webinar on corporate blogging and social media?

I'm giving presentations from Florida to Brussels that demystify the blogosphere for business folk. And update what's in my book. To wit, the new corporate blogosphere is multi-media and very global.

Think Fortune 500 CEO blogger Jonathan Schwartz's blog, translated into 10 languages. Think IBM's spoof videos on YouTube.

Call me direct at +1 202.364.5705 Eastern or email me at wordbiz(at)gmail.com to learn more about how I can work with you. You can also use the contact link at the top of the page. My upcoming schedule.

Tune in to The Corporate Blogging Show

The Corporate Blogging Show is now airing weekly on VoiceAmerica (TM) Business (Internet radio). Tune in live on Tuesdays at 12 noon Pacific. You can download the shows as a podcast. 

New! The Corporate Blogging Book will be published in Chinese

Thanks to Raven Lu Li, who lives in China and works for Accenture China, for translating Chapter 1 of my book into Chinese. Download Chapter 1 in Chinese. My publisher, Penguin Portfolio, has now sold the the mainland China rights to a Chinese publisher. Look for TCBB in Chinese in 2007!

Live interview on Britain's Sky News

I was interviewed about corporate blogging in Sky News' London studio. Quite an experience as I'm kinda new at live TV. More…

Readers are saying… The Corporate Blogging Book is "a great read"

Nielsen BuzzMetrics' Pete Blackshaw gives The Corporate Blogging Book a thumbs up in a thoughtful review on ClickZ. More reviews and news here. Order your copy on Amazon or find it at Barnes & Noble, Borders and other bookstores.

Do you need a CEO Blogging Coach?

Bill Gates does. Get the scoop…

This is completely silly but I did it just for you, dear reader. Have you elfed yourself? Here's how I made a total elf of myself, courtesy of Office Max. This is a perfect example of effective viral marketing. It's pointless; it's fun; you can't wait to share it. And it creates a good feeling about Office Max. Run your cursor over the discrete Office Max logo in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Clever, huh?!

P.S. Yes the dancing elf is retro

My son just looked at this and was totally unimpressed. Not that funny and very retro, he said. (We saw this kind of thing on the Web two or three years ago.) Then again, I'm his mother. You decide…

2007 will be the year of the multimedia blogosphere. If you don't have video, podcasts, photos, screenshots and other visuals on your blog, well then you're soooo 2006. Not to worry. Adding a YouTube video to your blog is as easy as copy and paste. Here's how you do it. But first, why? There's something immediate, authentic and engaging about a video that even a well-written blog post can't emulate.

Companies as various as IBM and Six Apart (makers of Movable Type and TypePad) are creating and posting videos to YouTube. Take a look:

• Six Apart's holiday video Yes it's funny.

• IBM's Art of the Mainframe spoof This is Part I of a three-part series. Watch them all! Hard to believe that Big Blue is willing to make fun of themselves. And yes the videos really were created by a guerrilla marketing team at IBM.

Step One

But let's take this one step at a time. If you haven't created and uploaded your own video to YouTube yet, not to worry. Start by visiting YouTube and typing in keywords related to what you're interested in. One of my current clients, MACPA, found a humorous public service announcement about financial literacy. It's called Feed the Pig. You can also see it embedded on CPA Success, MACPA's new blog.

Step Two

Look for the little window on the YouTube page labeled "Embed." Here's what it looks like below. Notice that there's also a window with the direct URL for the video. That's *not* what you want. The URL is what you use when you want to direct someone to the specific video on the YouTube page.

Grab the line of code in the Embed window (do a "select all" and then "copy). It starts with <object width="425" height= … 

Step Three

Now paste it into your blog in the HTML or code view (i.e. not the WYSIWG view that you normally use when typing a new blog entry). Here's what it will look like on a TypePad blog:

Step Four

Click publish to make your blog entry live on the Web. Below is what you'll see on the public face of your blog. Click the arrow icon and the video plays. It's magic! Read Pete Blackshaw's ClickZ column about this viral video created by Unilever / Dove as part of their Real Beauty campaign.

Have fun experimenting and let me know below if you have any more simple tips for creating or posting online video.

Tele-interview with executive women's coach Jean Stafford. This should be fun. I worked with Jean as a coach about five years ago.

DATE: Friday Dec. 15th, 2006

TIME: 12 noon - 1 PM Eastern

More info and register.

Author workshop at WOMMA's 2006 Summit in Washington DC.

DATE: Wednesday 13 December 2006

TIME:  12 noon - 2 PM Eastern

Fun to present to a thoughtful audience at WOMMA's mega summit here in my home town of Washington DC. Thanks to conference blogger Josh Hallett for the photo and the write-up on the WOMMA conference blog. Also see his write up of Anil Dash and Pinny Gniwisch's session on corporate blogging and how to use it for WOMM (word of mouth marketing). One of Pinny's company blogs, JustAskLeslie.com, was featured in today's Wall Street Journal in an article titled Blogs for Shoppers.

Teleseminar with Communitelligence.

DATE: Tuesday Dec. 12th, 2006

TIME: 12 noon - 1:15 PM Eastern