Why should someone do business with your company? What's your 30-second "tell and sell"? That's what author and communications consultant Sam Horn calls it and what she'll explain, step-by-step, in her presentation at the Inc. 5000 conference: POP!: Create the Perfect Pitch, Title and Tagline for Anything. I spoke with Sam recently to get a preview of her session. What are some of the steps, I asked, to create that perfect elevator pitch. Her answers were intriguing - and practical. "POP! (the title of her book) stands for Purposeful, Original and Pithy," she told me. What you're looking…

Gartner annually releases a Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies. Take the hype cycle construct with a grain of salt, if you will. But I love the chart (click on Continue below). The 2008 hype cycle report illustrates that corporate blogging is now on the upward slope of "enlightenment" heading towards mainstream adoption. Note that microblogging (meaning Twitter and the new Yammer, for companies) is headed for the Peak of Inflated Expectations.

For many companies and executives, the hardest thing to swallow about blogging or any form of social media is the unpredictability. The fear is that you might be opening a pandora's box. What will spur negative feedback? What will spark a controversy? Prompt a lawsuit? What if... you get no response at all?

Experimenting with blogs and wikis and online communities often means stepping outside your comfort zone. Luckily, there are more and more examples (here are 35) we can point to as proof that major brands know how to play in this space.

The ROI…

Here's yet another reason to get into the corporate blogging game in 2008...

According to a survey by communications firm Brodeur (announced at the CES in Las Vegas last month), journalists are heavy users of the blogosphere for research and quick reporting. [Download PDF of the survey.]

" ...New media (social media and blogs) is having an impact on many different aspects of reporting, particularly the speed and availability of news," according to the Brodeur press release.

I've been working with Sarah Lewis of Blogging Expertise for about two years. She did the custom design for this blog and also designed my main site at debbieweil.com. But until today, when I bumped into Sarah in the hall at BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas, we'd never met face-to-face. Only in Vegas, as they say...

Listen below as I ask Sarah what's new in blog design.