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A One By One Media Client Makes The Wall Street Journal

August 27, 2007 By 1 Comment

It’s not often we get to toot our horn around here, but when we can, I like to play it loud and play it often.  I was reading through the comments section of the blog and noticed that Alex has given us a link to a Wall Street Journal article by Sarah Needleman entitled Blog It and They May Come. The article discusses small businesses and their blogging campaigns.  It was a nicely written article and it does point our some of the problems we see from small businesses, this blogging thing is work.

To my pleasant surprise, about half way through the article I saw a familiar name.  I was looking at a past client that used our services and is now being interviewed and quoted in the Wall Street Journal!

Making the Link

Ty’s Toy Box Inc., an online retailer based in Erlanger, Ky., has lured people to its blog about trends in the toy-licensing industry by having other blogs and Web sites link to it. The company arranged a link-exchange agreement in April with TheToyGuy.com, a Web site from toy-industry expert Chris Byrne that features news and product reviews.

“We coordinated it so that occasionally our blog and Chris’s blog are about the same issue, but from different perspectives,” says George Stolpe, vice president of business development and media relations for Ty’s Toy Box. The two blogs link to each other in each post, he says.

Ms. Melberg says the links help boost a company’s search-engines ranking because blogs recommended by external sources rank higher than ones without link referrals.

According to Mr. Stolpe, Ty’s Toy Box pays a free-lance writer to maintain its blog and says the total cost for it is “a very minimal amount.” He says while he can’t quantify the blog’s role in the near-triple-digit average growth in sales every year since its start, he has no doubt it has played an important part.

After seeing that I was proud of Ty Simpson and George Stolpe for sticking it out and seeing the power of blogging.  They paid one of our bloggers for a while and decided on a different path but finally stuck to it in the long run and now they are a feature in the Wall Street Journal.  I’m not saying all of our client’s will be this much of a success, but if I have anything to do with it you can bet I’ll try!

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Blog Consulting, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Media, Services, Social Media

Join One By One Media in Chicago at the Blog Business Summit 07

August 21, 2007 By 1 Comment

BBSChicagoSponsor One By One Media is once again a proud sponsor of the Blog Business Summit in Chicago, September 17-19, 2007.  We were a sponsor last year in Seattle and it proved to be some of the best marketing money I have ever spent.  Money is tight in every small company, but if you plan to attend any social media type conference this year, this one is the one you should choose to attend.  If you are a large company, you better attend so as to compete with the smaller businesses wanting a piece of your social media pie.

This conference is the premiere event for all things business blogging.  Each time I have attended I have learned new things about business blogging, have met new friends, and have made important contacts that were important to my business.  The parties are fun, the hallway discussions are invaluable and they usually have some great food and provide excellent facilities.  This year is their first year in the middle of the country and not on the West coast so I know it will open up some opportunities for the east coasters and southern attendees to get a taste of the fun. 

If you want to attend, and would like to get a discount, of course who wouldn’t want a discount, then all you need to do is enter in a simple code when signing up for the event.  One By One Media has been given a special discount code you can use.  When registering just use P65CHI and you get an immediate savings of $100.00.  Can’t beat it!  If you decide to use this code to sign up for the conference, I will personally give you a free gift!  In order to find out how cool that gift is, you need to sign up and use the code!

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Blog Consulting, Blog Tips, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Conferences/Trade Shows, Marketing, Social Media

One By One Media at Gnomedex

August 9, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Tris Hussey has had a busy week with The Mediasphere Radio Show on Tuesday with me, Dave Taylor and Rick Calvert, the taping of the television show with Leo Laporte on Wednesday and now driving to Seattle to be at the Gnomedex Conference 2007. 

Tris will be live blogging the event from the trenches and I think he has some cool stuff in store.  What I am not sure of is where that live blogging will be taking place.  It seems that companies love to have Tris live blog events for them, and he posts on the company’s own website or blog.  When I send him to a conference to live blog, he posts on his own personal blog.  I think I messed up somewhere or we need to have a priorities alignment! I’m still confused.  No matter where you get to read all of the cool action and presenters and sessions, pay attention, Tris does a great job of making you feel like you are sitting right next to him and listening in on all the fun.  This is the first Gnomedex with Twitter being available, and I think there will also be a bunch of people live streaming and podcasting from the conference as well.  I hope I can keep up with all the action.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Conferences/Trade Shows, Marketing, Mediasphere Radio, Services

Reinventing the Social Media Wheel

August 5, 2007 By 5 Comments

Some of the A-List has been talking about social media overload, and I for one have to join in the same complaint.  As part of what we offer as social media consultants, we provide information about the latest and greatest technology available for a company to use in their marketing, advertising and PR campaigns.  I have been wanting to write this post for quite some time, but it wasn’t until a post by Digital Alex entitled “My Friends Hate Pownce”, that I realized he was channeling my frustration.

Like Alex, I grow tired of the same but different applications, like Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce.  The next company that thinks they have the next big thing in this type of application, please ask yourself will anyone say to you that this application we are making is going to be compared to any of the three above, scrap the project.  If you are changing the colors and making the same application better, chances are it won’t be adopted unless it really knocks the socks off users.  I have all three, but because Twitter was first, I have the largest number of users there.  Why?  because I started building my network there first.  If I have to rebuild my network of friends for each application, it causes me to reinvent my social media wheel.

I like Alex’s solutions to the problem.  I think Facebook is coming close to what Alex describes as a social aggregator, but it still has a way to go before it completes what he intends in his mind.  My reinvention of the social media wheel also follows what he tells us is his solution to the networking.  Migrate all of my friends for me from one application to another.

At this point there is really no need for a money back guarantee, as all of these applications are free, unless of course you have a pro account with Pownce, but I would be willing to pay for a service if it was the be all and end all application that did it all.

Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Blog Tools, Blogs and PR, Marketing, Media, Services, Social Media

Tris Hussey Interviewed By Inc. Magazine

August 1, 2007 By Leave a Comment

It’s not often we get to toot our own horn here so whenever possible I like to be the first to give us a shout.  In this particular instance, Tris and I have been so busy with work, we forgot about the cool news!

incmag A couple of months back, Tris was interviewed by Michael Fitzgerald of Inc. Magazine.  That interview finally made its way into print (page 51) in the magazine, and on their online version as well.  I then remembered that I too had an appearance in the magazine a while back in the October 2005 issue,  but I was only in the letter to the editor type section when talking about blogging.  This is way cooler!  They have a great opening paragraph for some good publicity for Tris and for our firm:

Tris Hussey couldn’t wait to get his hands on Vista when the new Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) operating system launched at the end of January. Hussey, a self-described geek and the chief technology partner at the blogging agency One By One Media, had to have it.

The article goes on and Tris gives some sage advice to those not already in a Vista system:

Hussey, for his part, had some regrets that he hurried out to get Vista, but he’s happy with it now. He says it downloads software faster. He likes the new interface and a search tool that can find text in e-mail messages as well as documents. Still, he advises entrepreneurs to wait until later this year, when Microsoft releases Service Pack 1 for Vista, a significant patch designed to fix vulnerabilities and bugs most people don’t even know about.

Thanks for all the hard work and being recognized as an expert in the technology field Tris.  We can always use a gold star such as this!

 

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Findability, Marketing, Media, Services

Google Is The Number 1 Lead Generator

July 23, 2007 By Leave a Comment

logo-Google At least in our company, we get most of our client’s through Google searches done by companies looking for a blogging consultant or looking to hire a blogger for their company.  I ran through our client list to see the number of companies that have contacted us to provide a professional blogger or to consult them on a social media campaign.  One of the things that struck me was that a large number of them that had reached us or found us as a result of a Google search.

The conversation that prompted me to look at this in this light was a phone call from a prospective client.  We had discussed our services and he was happy with our business model and thought that we would probably do business in the future.  He then told that he had a difficult time finding a service such as ours, but eventually had found it through search.  He explained the roundabout way he happened upon our site, and I recognized a common theme to his search.  Everyone of the other clients had a similar story.

As a small business without a corps of sale people and without a huge marketing budget and a advertising team providing our message, we rely solely upon word of mouth, and being findable.  I preach the same to each of our clients.  In order for your business to be successful, it has to be findable.  It’s nice to see the sermon actually works for me as well.

 

Filed Under: Advertising, Blog Consulting, Blog Metrics, Blog Mining, Blog Revenue, Blog Tips, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Bloggers For Hire, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Companies Needing Blogs, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Search Engine Optimization, Services, Social Media

The Death and Perhaps Destruction of a Social Network: A Sad But True Story

July 20, 2007 By 3 Comments

soflowlogo In the early part of 2005, I became a member of a social network called Soflow.  This social network was an early vision of its founders.  They could see the future and power of growing one’s profile and gathering contacts for business, and other benefits.  I thought that it was such a good idea, I also invested some of my own time and energy to become a moderator of a group within the network called “Blog Buzz”. 

We would discuss everything doing with the blogosphere and itsblogbuzz_small affect on  business, including advertising, marketing and PR.  The group became 220 members strong and this was before the time of mass invitations we see now with social networks.  There were over 150 forums started and some great conversations took place as a result.  Many advertisers, marketers and PR people were able to enter into the forum and ask simple questions, difficult questions, and ask for suggestions on growing a blog readership, what platforms were available and what blogs could do and what they were capable of accomplishing.  I decided it was important enough of a group to migrate it over and make it a Facebook Group.

Adrants was also a group located in the Soflow network and it had over 4000+ members according to Steve Hall.  It was probably the largest group in the network, but nonetheless, following what people are saying now about the networks’ demise, it’s like losing your favorite pet.  People love to have a place to go and talk with like minded people.  This is what makes social networks so popular.  It’s like a 24/7 cocktail hour. 

 So what are they going to do with all of the data, and all of the information and the gathering of people that have joined in Soflow? At this point it is unclear.  Perhaps the back end will throw a switch and all of that information and wonderful and informative content will be lost.  It this point I know that that principals appear to be moving on to a new application and have asked all of the members to migrate to anwisdmlogo application called Wis.dm.  My feeling is that the people at Soflow could not compete with the likes of Facebook or Myspace, and decided that they could not keep a hold on the people that they had nor could they garner more subscribers.   Wis.dm is obviously not the same type of network as Soflow, but perhaps it was the business model that they wanted to change.  It makes me wonder why there was no purchase of the network or perhaps a merging with Facebook or another network.  The doors close on Soflow on July 31, 2007.  I hope I can resurrect the group to continue the conversation.

 

Filed Under: Advertising, Announcements, Blog Consulting, Blog Metrics, Blog Platforms, Blog Revenue, Blog Tips, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Marketing, Media, Social Media

A Product Problem is Great Blog Fodder

July 18, 2007 By Leave a Comment

One of our clients have a great communication tool in their hands with a contact page on their blog.  Many people that have purchased their product can come and get information about the products they sell and the industry news and information about the company.  In this particular case, a customer-service consumer had a problem with their product after purchase.  They found the blog on the company website or through a search engine, and used the contact page on the blog.  They could have also used the comment section of the blog as well, but chose to use the contact form.  They explained their problem in the contact page and the blogger was able to immediately help them connect with the proper person to correct their problem or to allow an exchange of the product if necessary.  This all seems very common in many cases, but it also provides a great opportunity to show other consumers that you are on top of customer concerns and work hard to resolve their problems if needed. This scenario offered a chance to post an article about the product problem, the reporting of the problem, and any resolution that has occurred as a result.  This allows other customers to find perhaps the same problem and use the same process for resolution.  A blog can also serve as a great customer service tool, and the resulting service can be used for some very important blog fodder.

[photo by Customers Rock]

 

Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Blog Mining, Blog Tips, Blog Tools, Bloggers For Hire, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Client Sites, Corporate Blogs, Findability, Marketing, Media, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media

Truth Can Lead To Involuntary Transparency

July 12, 2007 By 1 Comment

Transparency always comes at a price.  Normally the price is honesty and integrity, but sometimes it can come in the form of justice and wrath.  While following along with Twitter today, Anil Dash of Six Apart provided a link to a post by Adam Kuban at the Serious Eats blog that comments on an article in the Wall Street Journal by David Kesmodel and John R. Wilke about comments in forums by “Rahobed”. Now that all the attribution is out of the way let’s discuss the story.

wfimage It seems that John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, has been out in the web acting as the pseudonymous Rahobed, a backward spelling of his wife’s name Deborah, and posting in forums and other places about Whole Foods and its competitor Wild Oats.  I am always amazed at what can be found by using some backend tools to uncover the identity of commenters on blogs and those in forums.  This seems to be the gist of his comments:

“Would Whole Foods buy OATS?” Rahodeb asked, using Wild Oats’ stock symbol. “Almost surely not at current prices. What would they gain? OATS locations are too small.” Rahodeb speculated that Wild Oats eventually would be sold after sliding into bankruptcy or when its stock fell below $5. A month later, Rahodeb wrote that Wild Oats management “clearly doesn’t know what it is doing …. OATS has no value and no future.”

Should he have used his own name? Perhaps commenting and conversing in forums was not the best way to achieve the conversation about his industry.  I might suggest that instead of acting as a sock puppet and making comments and disparaging statements about rivals in forums, it may have been better for Mr. Mackey to have started a blog to discuss his thoughts on the industry, about his competitors or what he thought about his own haircut.

Yes, it is a fine line when dealing as a public company where any misstated item could come back to haunt a company.  Statements made to manipulate stock prices is obviously illegal, and of course any slanderous comments or libelous articles still come with criminal penalties as well as civil.  This can all be a difficult path, but a CEO of a corporation should not be out there on the Web doing this type of activity.  For the obvious reason of the possibility of getting caught.  The results now are for worse than if he had just started the John Mackey blog.

 

Filed Under: Blog Mining, Blog Tools, Blogging News, Blogs and Law, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Media

Too Many Social Networks Causes Headaches

July 2, 2007 By 8 Comments

I’ve been hearing of many people getting to the point of overload on the number of social networks they belong to and the number of networks they are following.  I have a handle on the feeling and have experienced the same headaches that many suffer from as a result.facebooklogo

I spent Sunday actually building my community of social networks.  I try to make sure that I always know how to use the tools available and to be knowledgeable about the use of the latest of the networks out there.  The first social network I tackled was Facebook.  This seems to be one of the largest growing social networks lately and I decided I better get on that  bandwagon.  I added friends I knew and some I actually didn’t know personally.  My apologies if I sent you an invite to be my twitterfriend as I ran the easy to ask application that spams all your email files. 

I have been an early adopter of the Twitter social network and have really enjoyed Twitter as a way to follow along with my friends, clients, and peers.  I have spent a long time growing the number of friends and the number of followers to my Twitter page.  This does cause problems when you ever want to switch to another social network that might be very similar or the next generation.  Such a thing happened when I decided to check out the Twitterish type of application in Jaiku.images

Jaiku was the next type of Twitter type social network that offered a different user interface and some other features.  I was not very enamored with the service and barely stayed long enough to see if it was worth my time.  It was not the most favorite of networks following the Twitter explosion, and was launched to close to the same time.  This was not the same with the latest of networks to launch.

pownce_logo The next network I decided to try was Pownce.  This network in my opinion launched at just the right time.  They took the best attributes or the other networks, expanded them somewhat and made it very nice to look at as well as operate.  I was able to grow this community much faster than I was when Twitter first came on and it could be because I promoted the building of my Pownce page and community through the use of Twitter, which in itself is an irony.

www.STADTAUS.com_btn3910742 Tomorrow is our scheduled radio show at Blog Talk Radio.   We will be discussing this new onslaught of social networks and we will talk about the headaches others are having as a result of trying to keep up with the the madness.  We are always going to be able to tell our clients about these applications and how best to keep up with them.  Our most beneficial service is actually providing a social media manager or community watcher for companies. 

UPDATE:  [7-3-07]  Thanks to BL Ochman through Twitter, she points us to an article by Mashable about Mini Blogging, where they compare 8 different applications.

 

Filed Under: Blog Consulting, Blog Platforms, Blog Tools, Bloggers and Blogs, Blogging News, Blogonomics, Blogs and PR, Business Blogging, Corporate Blogs, Marketing, Media, Mediasphere Radio, Professional Blogging, Services, Social Media
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