Buzz and Viral Marketing with Blogs

Full audio of our call with Susie Gardner (53.1 MB, MP3).
00:00 Introductions

• Susannah Gardner, web designer for Hop Studios and author of Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies.
• How you discovered the web?
• How you found blogs?

06:00 Your Definition of a Blog

• Websites designed for constant updates of smallpieces of information. Like journals, but extended with interactivity.
• “You want to interact.” Don’t ever hesitate to link (open attitude of blogs).

10:40 Open Linking and Blogrolls

• If you’re going to be useful – you need to link to outside resources.
• Karma and collaboration.
• Different blogrolls for different topics.

15:00 How do you know what you’re reading on a blog is accurate? (You don’t!)
15:30 Pitching to Bloggers

• Targeting the right blogger.
• Don’t waste their time. Get to the point.
• Formal programs: BzzAgent, Marqui, Silicon Valley 100 – matchmaker for marketers and bloggers.

20:15 Ads on Blogs, Revenue, Promotion

• Ads can be successful if they are correctly targeted (i.e. BlogAds).
• Example: PVR Blog (a blog about Tivos etc).
• Can confuse the message of your marketing.

24:05 Using ‘Tasteful’ Banner Ads (referencing Seth Godin’s linking to his own books at the bottom of his blog)

• Blogs as understated sales (references the new Easy Bake frontpage with the 3 option menu – above the blog content).
• Usability versus marketability.
• Reducing internal page content to guide prospect.
• Blogging is so easy to start – sometimes folks don’t define what they want out of it – how they are going  to measure success.
• Some companies don’t link their blogs on their homepages.
• Susie uses this between her book’s blog and her web design company‘s sites.
• Father Son Adventures – Dovid Grossman – reduce weight of some elements to guide people towards the ezine sign-up.

33:50 Faux Blogs/Fake Blogs (fictional character/mascot branding)

• Reminds Andy of that CK One email campaign.
• Diverts from the history of blogs as being rooted in honesty, straightfoward. Fake blogs bend this.
• Is it an actual intent to deceive?
• Blog veterans disagree with this (obligatory Raging Cow mention along with ‘What About the Children’ panic). Also: Mazda
  fake blog, Lance
  Armstrong’s bike.
• Fake commenters. Hollywood studio commenters praising panned films.

42:20 Anonymous blogging

• How can you be totally anonymous? (IP address, email, billing always trackable)
• See also: Legal findings in Apple vs bloggers case: Bloggers do not have freedom of press protection.
• Also: Invisiblog.

47:15 How will the popularity of blogs change the blogosphere?

• Ideas of Information Wants to Be Free, Democracy in Action…
• Less focus on technology (Andy mentions endless September) might mean less innovation, but more mainstream.

52:00 Ezine versus Blog

• Andy says both! So does Susie!