Buzz and Viral Marketing with Blogs

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

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?

52:00 Ezine versus Blog

  • Andy says both! So does Susie!

Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

4 responses to “Buzz and Viral Marketing with Blogs”

  1. Darren Avatar

    Great interview – thanks for the mention Susie! Can’t wait to see the book.

  2. Buzz Marketing with Blogs Avatar

    Easy Bake Weblogs Interview
    Hey folks, if you're interested in hearing the interview Andy Wibbels of Easy Bake Weblogs conducted with me earlier this month, he's put the audio up. Here's the outline of what we talked about: 00:00 Introductions Susannah Gardner, web…

  3. Free SEO, Online Marketing Avatar

    Nice SIte!!Check out our FREE SEO offer for new clients. Try out our Online Marketing services for free.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *