Author: admin

There are various posts on the value of the first Australian Blogging Conference. The conversational style of broad topic areas, bounded and nutured by a chair works well.

Kudos to Peter Black for being persistent and organising this event.

Des Walsh and Joanne Jacobs are respected in this relatively new industry. I discovered heaps, and have put some of their ideas into action.

Partly sponsored by Microsoft (specifically the corporate and business blogging session, or in other words: we paid for lunch) – I missed the political blogging sessions.

Apart from the opening, where Duncan Riley lit a blow torch/flame underneath the Australian bloggers: to connect up. Obviously, coming from Australia yet having an international audience I grok where he is at. Thinking on this…

Michael Rees adds to my notes, especially on the Podcasting/Vidcasting side. Video content, if it is the next-big-thing is an artform that is rarely taught in schools. Not just the technical feeds/bits side – also the composition, interviewing, making a story.

The legal session demonstrated that there are minds thinking about the impact of this online world on a slow-to-adapt legal system. Also joining the conversation were the Australian Law Reform Commission. Privacy, defamation, bush lawyering. The thinking that people/companies "go after" those with the cash is scary. Online, a few simple words can easily destroy the intangible asset of goodwill.

A theme that I don’t think I answered fully, and certainly with too-little thought was the "personal + corporate" blogging mix. Bronwen reminds me brilliantly of on her blog; and it’s something that’s worthy of thought.

And don’t forget: the best Unconferences are followed by Barconferences.

So, my random thoughts from random notes and reading:

• Australian organisations should be online, in a read/write sense (blog, wiki, whatever) to hear from their customers. Markets are conversations.
• Content is king. Are you adding to the world?
• A blog without comments is merely a website.
• Australian organisations should remember being english speaking, relatively stable economically; that the world is flat – and customers are not restricted to the mainland and Tasmania. The world is your market, converse with it.
• Branding: what is your brand? Is it you personally?

(these are my rough notes from the discussion)

– Chair: Des Walsh (DW)
– with Joanne Jacobs (JJ)
– and Nick Hodge (NH)

– intro and slides
– Signs Never Sleep example

– Q: CEO to blog, if they are taking it seriously?
– then who should write it?
– recc: marketing + pr: no, slow and lack of immediacy
– doesn’t engage with comments
– blog without a comments is just a web site

– Blog plus Newsletter to industry people; to build brand credibility
– newsletter is formally generated, blog to incite comments
– 2-3 articles a week
– ROI: competitive advantage, first-mover. position on authority
– complex on blog, expertise in field with advanced customers
– 10 comments per article; comments get responded to with free flowing discussion

– security: blog spam, password security: need a person watching
– cf: wikipedia
– wordpress/ akismet
– large organisation: employ someone to be the blog post

– Is a blog personal or corporate
– self-censorship / internal censorship

– Hierarchy vs. Organic
– blogging policy
– policy and corporate effect
– the new pr: blogging policy wiki

– who should blog, in terms of companies
– PR; professional service firms accountants lawyers
– taxgirl: making accountancy interesting

– promoting a competitive product: delete or not delete
– comments policy
– comment deletion: good advice, send email when it deleted

– blogging a great tool to raise a profile
– blogging as tacit knowledge management
– posts to yourself; outside in the world

– RSS feeds much more effective
– Feedburner; out to the world; using the Feedburner RSS to email

– blog reconstruction when people can no longer edit

– blog as knowledge management: pitched to corporates, who does it work?
– JJ: blog, as engagement with the community; external facing
– IP held in a particular
– value addition: "inform the public", ongoing archive of information. difficult to measure first up

– "what are we going to write about today?" : business, giving away information. How to you ensure freshness
– creative writing, writing professionals: teaching bloggers to be creative
– writing as a skill
– finding your own voice, projecting the voice, developing voice
– writing in a creative fashion:
– 5 bloggers, <50 word posts. learning how to write, success stories
– SEO/ text creative writing
– titles are absolutely important
– writing/editing for SEO; subediting

– podcasts: 10 minutes, http://lipsync.com/ . US$5/m for hosting
– (cc) music license to middle http://freeplaymusic.com
– vodcasts, podcasts
– humor: know your audience (NH)

– know your audience: watch your traffic.

– video vs. text: text 10,000   vs. video 50,000 unique views

– ROI: tail-end of a marketing strategy
– blog to drive, sales, marketing
– driving profile
– measuring on Return on Blog
– JJ: measuring for NPV, expressing the ROI on a particular, based on tangible outcomes. Feedback, genuine market research with the consumer base and change
CGC media monitoring (huge growth area, as existing companies are doing to well enough)

– risk management: ensuring intangibles. Business Continuity planning (crisis management).
– risk is greater when doing nothing

– offsite blog, corporate reputation management — good in a risk situation

– example: blogging as a mechanism of a complex discussions: industry changing

– hired gun: good or not good? (NH says good because he is a hired gun(tm) )

– Windows LiveWriter is good (thanks, DW!)

Slides: Business and Corporate Blogging.ppt