Debbie's Insights on Social Media

Blogs? Most people don’t have a bloody clue

Posted in the Category of In the News and New New Things and Podcasting

Just when I'm despairing that everyone and their dog will know everything about blogs, RSS, podcasting, wikis, vodcasting, VOIP and  IPTV,*  (ha! did I get you on that one??) in a year, along comes an informative article from The Register in the UK. And I quote:

Blogging = dogging, reckon London cabbies

There is some very refreshing news today for those who live outside the rarified atmosphere of the internet world, and indeed for many of us

Just when I'm despairing that everyone and their dog will know everything about blogs, RSS, podcasting, wikis, vodcasting, VOIP and  IPTV,*  (ha! did I get you on that one??) in a year, along comes an informative article from The Register in the UK. And I quote:

Blogging = dogging, reckon London cabbies

There is some very refreshing news today for those who live outside the rarified atmosphere of the internet world, and indeed for many of us struggling for breath within it - most people don't have a bloody clue what net buzzwords mean but can evidently function perfectly well in society despite this handicap.

Indeed, a survey of taxi drivers, pub landlords and hairdressers... by ad outfit DDB London showed that 90 per cent... have not the foggiest idea what a podcast is, and an impressive 70 per cent live in blissful ignorance of blogging.

Better still, many…

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So what’s different about my blogging book?

Posted in the Category of The Corporate Blogging Book

Dana VanDen Heuvel of Pheedo recently asked me what's different about The Corporate Blogging Book. (He and I are appearing on a DMA panel in Atlanta on Oct. 18th.) Hmmm... a couple of things. First, it's a practical, clear-eyed look at what companies can do with blogs. My audience is larger companies with a corporate mind-set. They move a bit slower and more cautiously than many technology companies. And there are millions of 'em out Dana VanDen Heuvel of Pheedo recently asked me what's different about The Corporate Blogging Book. (He and I are appearing on a DMA panel in Atlanta on Oct. 18th.) Hmmm... a couple of things. First, it's a practical, clear-eyed look at what companies can do with blogs. My audience is larger companies with a corporate mind-set. They move a bit slower and more cautiously than many technology companies. And there are millions of 'em out there. Second, I'm writing it with one foot in and the other foot out of the blogosphere. While I consider myself pretty much an "insider" when it comes to the blogosphere, I'm writing for those who aren't insiders and who may be skeptical. [Cf: Blogs? Most people don't have a bloody clue] The goal of the book is to de-mystify this blogging thing for corporate-minded folks who aren't already on the…

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The skinny on Intel CEO Paul Otellini’s blog

Posted in the Category of CEO Bloggers and Fortune 500 Blogs and Stuff

Paul_otellini_1Well, I wish it were the really inside skinny, but it's all I've been able to uncover. (See bottom for One juicy bit...). Intel CEO Paul Otellini has written an internal blog since December 2004. His blog had a brief moment of fame in the blogosphere when an excerpt was leaked in  the San Jose Mercury News in February 2005 shortly after the launch. [16-page PDF of the excerpt here.]

Most notable in the copy-pasted excerpt was this early entry by

Paul_otellini_1Well, I wish it were the really inside skinny, but it's all I've been able to uncover. (See bottom for One juicy bit...). Intel CEO Paul Otellini has written an internal blog since December 2004. His blog had a brief moment of fame in the blogosphere when an excerpt was leaked in  the San Jose Mercury News in February 2005 shortly after the launch. [16-page PDF of the excerpt here.]

Most notable in the copy-pasted excerpt was this early entry by Paul:

While this is intended as an internal blog, I recognize that it will become public-welcome to the Internet! As a result, please recognize that I may be a bit limited in my comments and responses to protect Intel, and that we may exercise some editorial…

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The blogger / journalist hall of mirrors

Posted in the Category of In the News and Stuff

I was a journalist, reporter and editor, for a decade plus (for The Atlanta Constitution, Roll Call and other publications). Yeah, there was life pre-Web. Now I'm a... well, blogger among other things (speaker, consultant, e-newsletter publisher). Even so, I've been shaking my head about this new hall of mirrors. Am I a blogger to be courted by...  journalists? Am I a journalist... to be courted by corporate PR execs? Both? Neither??

The hall of

I was a journalist, reporter and editor, for a decade plus (for The Atlanta Constitution, Roll Call and other publications). Yeah, there was life pre-Web. Now I'm a... well, blogger among other things (speaker, consultant, e-newsletter publisher). Even so, I've been shaking my head about this new hall of mirrors. Am I a blogger to be courted by...  journalists? Am I a journalist... to be courted by corporate PR execs? Both? Neither??

The hall of mirrors thing has happened to me twice now.

Last week Heather Green of BusinessWeek, co-author of Blogspotting.net, called me for a quote for the BW article about Microsoft (Troubling Exits, Sept. 26, 2005 cover story). She asked what I knew about the Mini Microsoft blog. Not much, I confessed. (I didn't get quoted.)

We hung up.

Five minutes later, she called back to…

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More QuickBooks blogs

Posted in the Category of Case Studies

Just ran across this page with links to a handful of QuickBooks blogs, including the QB Online Edition blog which has been well publicized. My case study of the QB Online blog is here. Another profile by Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing is here.

Just ran across this page with links to a handful of QuickBooks blogs, including the QB Online Edition blog which has been well publicized. My case study of the QB Online blog is here. Another profile by Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing is here.

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Inside DaimlerChrysler’s Firehouse blog for the media

Posted in the Category of Fortune 500 Blogs and In the News

Firehouse_blog_1I signed up to enter DaimlerChrysler's new Firehouse.biz blog set up for the media. Not sure why, but they let me right in. Well, guess what... it looks like a blog inside. And acts pretty much like one. [Peek here - PDF]

Blog editorial director Ed Garsten explains below that they deliberately set up the blog as a "safe haven" for journalists and as an informal place for give and take. DaimlerChrysler is also planning a public blog but he

Firehouse_blog_1I signed up to enter DaimlerChrysler's new Firehouse.biz blog set up for the media. Not sure why, but they let me right in. Well, guess what... it looks like a blog inside. And acts pretty much like one. [Peek here - PDF]

Blog editorial director Ed Garsten explains below that they deliberately set up the blog as a "safe haven" for journalists and as an informal place for give and take. DaimlerChrysler is also planning a public blog but he doesn't know the launch date.

As for why the blog is "closed" to the public, Garsten says:

"We realize the idea of a 'closed' blog is counter to prevailing thought in the blogosphere regarding openess.

But blogging is still an evolving medium that different…

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