I would highly recommend any PR, marketing or business professional to read Naked Conversations, a fairly new book by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. This book should help those professionals that are totally out of the loop on the blogosphere and the blogging phenomenon since it covers a brief history on blogging and introduces hundreds of blogging examples. The book examines cultural obstacles, business blogging strategies and a number of other topics. The book’s various examples might help you to come up with a blogging strategy for your business. Basically, if after reading this book you still don't get it, blogging, you probably never will.
Additionally, I wanted to highlight “Five Success Tips” for blogging as found on pages 78 – 80 of the book. I think they are important to understand and should be examined by any business or individual looking to jump into the blogosphere. The main success tips are in bold and I have added my own commentary to explain each:
Talk, don’t sell – You lose credibility if you are trying to sell on your blog.
Post often and be interesting – Easier said than done I know, but if you post once a day at the minimum you will have nearly 365 post in a year. Being interesting is the tougher of the two mentioned in this success tip. Be creative and interest should follow.
Write on issues you know and care about – Be the authority on something you love and are passionate about.
Blogging saves money but costs time – You can save advertising dollars by blogging…but you will pay for it in time spent generating compelling content so be ready for the time investment.
You get smarter by listening to what people tell you – Blogging is not a one way communication but a many to many communication. So allow your readers to respond and listen to what they have to say. You will be rewarded while opening your mind to new thought streams.
With the TechCrunch Naked Conversations Launch Party tonight (February 17, 2006) hosted by TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington, I thought it was a great time to highlight the book in a blog post. I must admit, I am somewhat envious of those able to make it out to Arrington’s place tonight. Robert Scoble, co-author of the book, will be there as he has taken a travel day today. Enjoy the party and have a martini for me!
*Martini image thanks to MLHS via Flickr
