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Blonde 2.0 (10 unread)

March 07, 2010
23:09
Interview with Saul Singer, Author of Start-Up Nation
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

Often time when I am traveling abroad, people ask me: “Why does Israel have so many startups? What is it about Israel that makes it so innovative and strong in the hi-tech industry?” Saul Singer together with Dan Senor have researched that question and have written a whole book about it. They believe the Israeli model can be copied elsewhere in less innovative regions and that other nations have much to learn from Start-Up Nation.

Here’s my interview with Saul at JVP’s Medialectica 2010 event:
February 24, 2010
18:52
Fotobabble Launches New iPhone App: Talking Photos Bring Memories to Life
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

(Guest post by Dorine Sinigaglia)

Fotobabble launched its new iPhone app today, allowing people to add voice to the photos they send and share with friends and family via Email, Twitter, Facebook or an iPhone. With the new Fotobabble iPhone app, users can easily create talking photos within seconds with a few clicks on a Web browser or their iPhone.

The possibilities of what one can do with talking photos are simply endless, since adding life to photos is a tool truly everyone can enjoy and benefit from. As if the experience of sharing photos is not fun enough, knowing I can add my voice to a photo I want to share really allows the viewer to share the memories with me. A few cool memories I look forward to capturing my voice & sharing with others: a friend’s live wedding engagement and sharing it with family; sending a picture to my roommate with my voice describing the perfect couch for our living room; recording my voice in a home-made greeting card or send a talking postcard from my vacation to Hawaii. Fotobabble gives a whole new meaning to the famous quote: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Creating and sharing a “Fotobabble” takes seconds, is free to use and is now available for users who are out and about with their iPhones. After downloading the free Fotobabble iPhone app, users just upload a photo and record their voice directly through their computer’s microphone to create a talking photo. They then have the option to select an existing photo or a snap a new one and then record their voice. Whether using a computer or an Phone, users can share talking photos via Email, Facebook, Twitter, or embed them into a blog or Website.

Kamal Shah, CEO of Fotobabble, noted that there are tens of billions of static photos on the Web without voice or sound – three billion photos of which are uploaded to Facebook each month alone! “Using Fotobabble, people and businesses can greatly enhance these images with the energy and emotion of voice” – says Shah.

Fotobabble for Fun & Communication:
The Fotobabble app can be used for fun and also for business. The app lets users capture moments and attach their signature voice while on the move. Imagine how exciting it would be to snap a photo of that roaring lion at the zoo, capture their voice and then upload the Fotobabble to Twitter and Facebook as a talking photo status update! Fotobabble is ideal for adding life and a personal touch to the photos you take and wish to share with everyone on Facebook or Twitter while traveling on the road.
Fotobabble also allows you to become that aspired journalist, Fotobabbling a car accident you witnessed and sharing live footage with all your friends online. Imagine a broadcast network asking people to Fotobabble the situation in an emergency zone such as Haiti, or providing instant scoop on local news or sporting events.

Fotobabble for Business:

Businesses can also utilize Fotobabbles to promote their product, engage with customers online more effectively or to increase the number of visitors to their Website, blog or Facebook page. Fotobabbles are easily embedded anywhere on the Web and greatly improve how images are presented and experienced online for your customers.

Brand and ad agencies may use Fotobabble as a social media marketing platform. Fotobabble’s flexibility makes it easy to build customized viral marketing campaigns that are more engaging than text or static photos and are much simpler than video to create and share. Brands can build truly unique campaigns using Fotobabble in contests, Facebook, Twitter and blogs – to name a few.

Companies and celebrities can leverage the power of Fotobabble by creating talking photos to raise awareness for their brand and better engage with their customers and fans.

Fotobabble takes photo sharing to a whole new level. No software is needed to download the app, since Fotobabble supports PCs, Macs and the Apple iPhone, making it easy for people to create talking photos and share them with friends, family, their business – or with the whole world. You may download the free Fotobabble iPhone App here to start adding life to your static photos.

Dorine Sinigaglia is the Account & Content Manager at Blonde 2.0.
February 16, 2010
20:38
JVP’s Erel Margalit Tells Startups: “We Do Early Stage Now!”
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

Last month I had the honor of organizing Medialectica 2010 event together with JVP (Jerusalem Venture Partners). The concept of the event was a simple one: Allow entrepreneurs to network and also set up one on one meetings with any of the event’s sponsors: IBM, france telecom, Publicis [Incubator] and of course JVP. At the event entrepreneurs had the chance to pitch their companies to the mentioned sponsors and get their feedback and advice. The first speech of the event was given by Erel Margalit, Founder and Managing Partner of JVP who told startups: “We Do Early Stage Now”.
In this speech, Erel discusses how he sees the future of startups, innovation and opens the door for early stage startups to approach JVP even at a time when other VCs may be closing their doors.

See the full speech in the video below:
February 09, 2010
18:39
The Top Five Reasons Brands Fear Social Media
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

I’ve been in the social media space now for quite a few years and I meet with at least 5 companies each week who have understood the importance of utilizing social media for their businesses but are still afraid of entering their brands into the new media age.

What are they worried about? Here are the top five concerns that I’ve heard from executives and my response to them:

1) They’re afraid they’ll lose control of their brand and open themselves up to negative feedback – When you open a business and start marketing your services and exposing your brand to others, people will start talking about your brand. And this is what you wanted right? This is why you exposed them to your brand in the first place. People are going to be talking about your brand no matter what. The question is: Do you want to be a part of the dialogue or do you want to just play ostrich and ignore what people are saying? If a person is dissatisfied with your services, do you prefer he opens up this discussion in a “I hate <your brand>” group opened up by another hater or do you prefer that he come to your page and post the complaint there allowing you to respond appropriately and even perhaps win him back as a client?
Social media didn’t create the dissatisfied customer – it only allowed him a platform to express his frustration. If you don’t give him the stage to speak, he will do it elsewhere and believe me, it will cause a great deal more damage to your brand if you’re not there to respond and open to criticism.
When we speak of social media, we speak of conversational marketing – listening before selling, opening a dialogue with the user and not just throwing a blinking banner in his face. Brands need to make that switch in their heads and understand that social media is SOCIAL. Many conversations will be positive and you will have these nice messages recorded for everyone to see publicly – your bosses, your investors, your customers and potential customers:

Some conversations may be negative but these conversations should be seen as welcomed opportunities to gain back customers. If you utilize social media effectively and are alert to what people are saying about you online, then you can also respond in a timely and intelligent manner. When you’re dazed and confused and too afraid to see what people may be saying about you, that’s when the conversation can get out of control and your branding and positioning can go out the window. Companies who understand social media know that by using social media they are increasing the number of positive responses to their brand and making sure to control and decrease the negative responses by showing people that they actually care about what they have to say.

2) They don’t understand it – Companies fear social media because they don’t understand what to do with it, what to talk about, who to turn to. They often time try to do it in-house without the appropriate guidance, fail miserably and then say that social media doesn’t work. Don’t hire your friend’s son who is very active on Facebook to do your marketing strategy for you. Just like you wouldn’t fix your car in-house or do your PR in-house, neither should you start doing social media on your own without having a social media guru at your side. And when I say guru, I mean someone who has had a good track record in creating successful social media campaigns for other companies in the past. Once you have such a guide at your side and you begin to understand what social media is all about, then you will not be afraid of it anymore and you will start to recognize the infinite number of amazing opportunities that social media will open your brand to.

3) The effectiveness of social media is hard to measure - Since social media is still in it’s diapers, it took a little while for tools tracking the ROI on social media campaigns to emerge, however today we have a suite of different tools that allow companies to track even the most minute details in the effectiveness of their social media campaigns. Tools like Google Analytics which allow us to track the traffic coming into our site as well as where it’s coming from has existed for years. Google alerts which allow us to see the blog posts and other sites linking back to our site have also existed for a long time. And we are now seeing an influx of services that not only allow you to easily monitor what people are saying about your brand but also see who are the top influencers, opinion leaders in your industry and more. There are numerous services that allow you to see the top influencers on twitter such as: Twitter grader and twitter analytics services such as Twitalyzer . Facebook also provides its own insights to page admins and enables admins to view information regarding the demographics of their fans and also how many interactions, comments, wall posts, etc. were found on the page. The more we learn about social media, the more tools we get to measure it. Not only are our efforts in the social media realm measurable but social media campaigns also allow us to target specific campaigns to specific niches like no other media today.

4) They’re afraid that employees will be on Facebook and twitter chatting all day – Facebook today has around 350 million users. If Facebook was a nation, it would be the world’s third most populous after China and India. Your employees are there anyway. Why not utilize the fact that they are there to help your cause? When you need to spread the word on Facebook, why not enable your employees to help you or when you finally open that fan page on Facebook, why not allow your employees to become fans and encourage them to take part in your social media activities. Dell for example, who is well known for their great twitter strategy (a strategy which has earned them $6.5 million to date), has around 200 employees working its twitter account, responding to people.

In addition, not allowing your employees to have access to the vast amount of information that can be found on social networks as well as not enabling them to use these networks as research tools nor to network with people in the industry also puts your company at a great disadvantage to your competitors who do allow their employees (and even encourage them) to use social media tools.

5) Social media is costly – This last fear is not only something that companies should not fear but it is also not true. If you consider the millions of people that you can reach using social media as opposed to the cost of buying an ad on TV or buying a banner, you’ll see that social media is one of the most cost efficient ways of reaching your target audience today.

To anyone who still thinks social media is a fad, WAKE UP. It’s not. Social media is here and it’s here to stay. If you took a look at the latest report that came out of Davos regarding social networks, you’ll see that Facebook is now the second most popular site on the internet after Google and that according to Nielsen since February 2009 people have been spending more time on social-networking sites than on e-mail, and the lead is getting bigger. The question for your brand is no longer whether to be there or not to be there. The question is WHEN will you be there and the longer you keep your head in the ground, the more you’ll lose touch with what’s happening out there in the real world.

Great Ostrich pic credit: [blog.karmona.com]
February 01, 2010
18:54
HP Israel’s PSG Group Gains Momentum in the Social Media World
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

When Blonde 2.0 began to assist HP Israel’s Personal Systems Group with their social media marketing efforts, we found they had no representation in the social media world. A community had not yet been built for the group and their customer base did not have a proper network to turn to for questions and answers. Over the course of a few months’ time, Blonde 2.0 and HP quickly exposed HP Israel’s PSG group to the social media world and began engaging with customers and potential customers in order to increase the group’s brand awareness in the community.
When you build a community from scratch, the target audience you primarily want to attract are community leaders, early adapters and other “movers & shakers” in your industry in order to gain some momentum. Blonde 2.0 launched HP Israel’s Facebook Fan Page in September and started with 0 lonely fans. Since close to a third of Israel’s population has a Facebook profile – 2.5 Million Israelis and the demographic groups we wanted to target were found on Facebook, this social network was a great place to start building a community around HP. We also turned to twitter to reach out to HP’s community, as no other network allows for real-time message updates nor engagement with Israeli industry leaders from the high-tech and digital marketing worlds as Twitter does.
By the end of first month, HP’s fan base on Facebook grew to 150 fans and we noticed an exponential growth each week. By the end of October, HP had 619 fans and by November we reached 810 fans. This quick growth was based on the interesting content we uploaded and our engagement with the fans on the page. We discussed computers, laptops and provided assistance with HP products. We also created all types of interesting activities and contests for the fans to take part in.

Providing incentives for fans and followers to take part in the community is a must when brands take a part in the social media world. A brand should be ready to compensate fans who promote its name both by social incentives as discussed in this post and also by giving fans prizes. In the end of November, early December, we unleashed HP Israel’s first giveaway campaign, asking our fan base to participate in a creative contest that would offer them a chance to win a new HP Mini laptop (the Mini 110c). We wanted to emphasize the product’s easiness of mobility and asked our fans to tell us where they would take their laptop if they won it. We encouraged fans to be as creative as possible, giving them the option to upload videos, sound clips, photos and graphic materials to the fan wall as their contest submission. The response rate was overwhelming and we were amazed at how much fans invested in their creations in order to win. We received over 630 entries within 3 weeks time. The winner of our competition was a creative song writer Nadav Harel who wrote an enthusiastic song about HP: HP song: Cute Little Computer. Nadav received recognition and praise from the community (social incentive) and a new laptop. The HP laptop contest did wonders for our activity and growth of the HP Facebook Fan Page. Our community grew to over 2,580 fans.

Campaigns held on twitter also encouraged HP fans to become more involved in our community. We asked our followers to tweet us a personal experience they had with an HP product. The creators of the three most creative tweets of personal experiences they had with HP products were awarded a bluetooth mouse known as “The Dragon.” During the two weeks of our twitter campaign, HP Israel’s twitter community grew by more than 140 followers.
With twitter, we continually monitor what people say about HP PSG’s products and provide assistance in real time. Below, a user complained that he had not received his computer from the service lab on time. HP Israel quickly intervened to fix the problem and everyone came out of this story happy.

It is always exciting to build a brand’s community from the ground up and watch our marketing efforts and activity grow within the social sphere.

We have learned a few lessons along the way and continue to learn daily from our valued community members.

A few tips for the newbies who haven’t yet led any social media campaigns:

1) Listen to what people have to say about your brand and be responsive to their needs. Don’t be defensive. Be attentive.

2) Always remember to be transparent and honest with the members of your community. Make sure that if you promise something, you make it happen. Don’t be afraid to admit when you’re wrong – people appreciate that from a brand.

3) When creating contests, make sure the rules are loud and clear. There’s nothing worse than bitter fans angry after a contest’s rules weren’t made clear in advance.

4) Remember that building a community takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is an online community. Enjoy each one of the phases you go through when building your community and learn from them.

We live in a wonderful age today where brands can interact and have an open communication channel with customers and potential customers. I am happy to share our experiences with the building of one such community. An online community just like an offline community needs to be nurtured with delicate care and fed with content, activity and live discussion at all times in order to keep it buzzing and this is what we aim to achieve above all.
January 25, 2010
19:23
Social Media – Give It Some Time!
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

(Guest post by Dorine Sinigaglia)

When talking to clients about social media and its effects on increasing sales of their products and increasing traffic to their site, the most asked, common question is: “That’s great – but what will social media do for us? Show me the money!” – and their point is rightfully valid. For those who still don’t quite understand the long-term effects that social media has on their company, it is rather difficult for them to understand the true purpose for setting aside a budget directly for social media, as they don’t see the monetary effects and gains that social media has on their organization. Even for those few who do understand the purpose for utilizing social media tools, tracking monetary gains and effectiveness of social media it is still not an easy concept to grasp.

If you found yourself questioning the immediate monetary effects social media efforts have on your company’s growth after reading the above and you too exclaimed in your head “Show me the money!” – I highly suggest you check out Olivier Blanchard’s clever and entertaining presentation on the Basics of Social Media ROI. In short, Blanchard notes an important point to remember about social media: “Social Media is not free: it takes people, it takes technology and it takes time – all of which are limited resources.” Read on.

We already know that social media takes people (often a whole department) to manage a successful community. We also know there are a number of resources available for ways to reach out to a community using social media tools – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube – the list goes on and on. And then there’s the major factor of time. Most people think and practice the popular phrase “time is money.” Yes, time is definitely money, but it is important to remember that most social media campaigns take some time to develop and spread virally. Managers in corporations often feel the need to “pass” on social media campaigns and jump the gun too soon because they don’t see immediate gains or increase in product sales. They think that the campaigns must obviously not be working. This way of thinking goes against every aspect of social media marketing. Embarrassingly enough – 84% of respondents in a survey taken said that they don’t currently measure the ROI of their social media programs (survey taken in August 2009 – noted in a Mashable article). How can one be so certain that social media doesn’t bring in a return on investment if they don’t even measure it?

As Blanchard notes in his presentation, there are many types of non-financial impacts that when glancing from a distance, one can’t see the immediate effects of in terms of money. Types of non-financial impacts include website visitors, impressions and blog comments, customer complaints, positive press & negative press, Facebook friends and Twitter followers, social mention and retweets, positive WOM and negative WOM, employment applications and coupons distributed. All of these impacts have a direct impact on the financial gains of the company – but they do take time to occur and is not something that can be rushed.

According to Christina Warren in her post HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI, “finding trends and tracking them back to their point of origin is the key to measuring ROI.” It is important to know where you started before you know where you are headed in social media. One cannot state that social media tools aren’t “working” for their company if they didn’t even know whether they had a community before they started. It is important to make clearly defined goals and then track progress along the way. There are numerous helpful tools used to track quantitative results and analytics including Google Analytics, PostRank Analytics and eWebAnalytics (check out more ways to track website traffic here). It is not enough to measure solely quantitative results, as qualitative results are also important measurements of tracking success of social media efforts. Before tracking these, it is crucial to determine what it is you want to measure – is it conversations about your products? If relationships were built with your customers? If customers are happy with your product or are they providing complaints? All of this is important to track but one must first understand their organization’s social media objectives in order to know what results should be expected.

According to Aaron Uhrmacher from Mashable,”statistic-based metrics seems to be the primary way communicators feel they can secure approval and budget for these programs from their management teams” in his post How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business. Measuring solely statistics can be problematic, as social media ROI is based on several factors that lead to an organization’s sales’ bottom line (as mentioned above). Aside from the numerous social networking sites available, there are also insights that come from an organization’s company blog, their participation in other blogging sites, their PR in the blogosphere and any other viral way of virtually mentioning the company’s brand — and all of these come into play when measuring the effectiveness of social media. This is why it is almost dangerous to assume that immediate returns will show up from your investment in social media.

Measuring ROI is key to assessing the true impact your social media efforts have on your business and your gross margin. However, measuring it is one thing – knowing what to do with those results in another story. Look for specific trends and user behaviors before and after posting status updates, blog posts and promoting discounts and coupons for the holiday season. Every move counts and its success (or lack thereof) can be tracked with numerous sites and analytical devices. Remember the time factor also. Don’t assume your social media efforts are worthless if you’ve only spent 2 weeks promoting a new product. Large-scale marketing campaigns in social media can take up to 6 months for them to come into full-effect and start driving profit to the company’s bottom line. So take a look at your current community and track what has been done and make attainable goals of what needs to get done in order to grow. Continue to engage with your community, track progress along the way and have patience – as this process will take some time – but is definitely worth the wait.

Dorine Sinigaglia is the Account & Content Manager at Blonde 2.0.

(Flickr image courtesy of Arisey)
January 18, 2010
14:03
ICQ Launches ICQ 7 – Introduces Social Messaging Across Networks
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

If we look back in history , we will find that much before Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, there was ICQ. For anyone who doesn’t know, ICQ was created in 1996 and is now wholly owned by AOL. ICQ was THE pioneer of social media and real time updates. It introduced us to instant messaging and a revolutionary new way to communicate with people instantly in real time. ICQ could have been Facebook or Twitter a long time ago. It’s taken ICQ quite a long time to get back to its status as a social pioneer but now with it’s new client, ICQ is getting back to what it was about all the way from the beginning – a place to interact with your friends everywhere. Everybody Everywhere is after all ICQ’s slogan and being an ICQ veteran myself, I am very excited to announce the launch of the new ICQ 7.

ICQ 7 is a client that brings together all your social interactions from across the Web. Instead of having to open a few different pages and applications to get my friends’ status updates on Facebook, to read tweets of my favorite people and to follow what’s happening on other sites as well such as Youtube, Flickr, Digg and Delicious. ICQ 7 allows me to use one personal communication tool to integrate all my online social activities. I am able to syndicate my updates to all of my social networks with a single click and get status updates & tweets from all my friends in my networks in one single platform.

ICQ 7 enables real-time updates from content sharing sites and top social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Digg and Delicious and will soon announce the integration of local social networks. Found side by side with the ICQ Contact List, users can find a separate tab of real time feeds and updates from their friends from their various social networks. Users will no longer need to open up a new browser and log in to separate networks that they’re members of each time they want to comment on their friend’s updates. From now on, consider ICQ to be your social networks’ one-stop-shop no longer will I need to search for content on different platforms – the content finds me. ICQ 7’s interface is also improved with software that is fully compatible with all versions of Microsoft Windows, including Windows 7.

A few cool features to note in the new ICQ 7:
My Status: Status updates I make on ICQ can be automatically posted in my other supported networks as well. I can also easily share pictures and links.

Feeds from Friends: Updates made by user’s friends on leading social networks and content sharing sites appear in real time in the “Feeds from Friends” tab on the contact list. The user can comment on these updates directly from his/her ICQ and the comment will appear also in the relevant social network/site. ICQ users can see updates from all their friends in the various social networks – not just from friends that have ICQ.

My Box: The “My Box” tab on the ICQ Contact List is the place where ICQ users get all notifications of their personal online activity – who commented on my status and in which site, who liked the photos I uploaded, etc.

New User Profile: ICQ 7 presents a more enhanced user profile – both within the client and on the Website. The user profile is the place where users can display who they are by sharing pictures and personal updates on their page. The new user profile is now offered in color schemes that are fully customizable to suit the user’s mood. Additionally, the new user profile allows ICQ users to view their friends’ contact lists and add new people to their own contact list, thereby increasing their circle of friends.

Picture-Sharing Tool: A new, quick and fun application for sharing pictures with friends:

Faster, Lighter: ICQ 7 performance has been vastly improved with installation time reduced by nearly 50% and requested space for installation reduced approximately by 30%.

ICQ 7 offers a Social Messaging client that enables quick and easy communication friends from across networks, ability to view real-time updates from: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Digg and Delicious. ICQ’s Managing Director, Eliav Moshe, says:

“ICQ 7 brings Social Messaging into play, integrating users’ online social world with their personal communication tool. The new version answers users’ needs for a quick and easy communication tool that also helps you be up to date with everything that’s going on in multiple social networks and content sharing sites. With a loyal community of over 42 million users worldwide, we are working on the upcoming integration of local social networks into ICQ 7 as well.”

It is only fitting that the company that was the pioneer of the Web 2.0 era has now integrated this Web 2.0 world into one manageable space in the best possible manner. Try it out for yourself and let me know what you think. In my opinion it offers the best solution we have today for one platform which integrates all my social interactions into one convenient platform.

Become an ICQ fan on Facebook

Check out their Twitter

(Disclosure: Blonde 2.0 is ICQ’s social media firm)
January 11, 2010
17:52
Starbucks’ Formula to Social Media Success
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

Starbucks has over 705,000 followers on twitter and over 5,428,000 fans on Facebook. I guess you could say that they’re doing something right on the Web. What is it about Starbucks’s social media strategy that makes it so successful?

Let’s analyze Starbucks social behavior across the Web:

1) Starbucks on twitter – Starbucks engages with customers on twitter, answer questions, retweets what people are saying about the brand and creates an open communication channel to speak with the public.

2) Starbucks on Facebook – Starbucks uploads content to their Facebook page such as: Videos, blog posts, photos. The company also invites people to events. Fans have a place to open discussions and comment as many of them do.

3) Starbucks on YouTube -Over 4800 people subscribe to Starbucks YouTube Channel. They upload videos of commercials as well as informational videos explaning the origins of the different coffee blends and some of their charity work videos. They also upload videos showing their history thus enabling people to relate more to the brand. This video showing the beginnings of Starbucks received over 11, 800 views:

Starbucks is also allowing people to embed its videos anywhere they like on the Web. Many companies don’t allow this because they’re afraid that their videos might be places on sites that they don’t want to be associated with. However, from Starbucks’ experience as well as the experience of other brands (such as Dell), this strategy has proven to only increase the positive exposure of brands that allow embedding and not the opposite.

4) My Starbucks Idea – Starbucks’ own version of a social network where customers are asked to share their ideas on anything related to Starbucks. The site gives users the ability to see what others are suggesting, vote on ideas and check out the results. This site is a brilliant and important aspect of Starbucks social media strategy. Users who are part of this network feel that they have some role in the decision making process of the company and it makes them feel a part of it.

5) Starbucks Blog entitled “Ideas in Action” – This blog is written by various Starbucks employees and talks about what Starbucks is doing with the ideas given by users on the My Starbucks Idea site. The blog keeps customers in the loop and in the know regarding what’s happening with their ideas and increases their sense of loyalty to the brand.

Overall Starbucks’s social media strategy integrates many different elements into the mix and combined together, these elements create a social media plan that works beautifully to create millions of fans for the brand and keep them involved in the brand’s doings. The brand has created a digital dialogue with its customers, enabling people to give their feedback and receive a response back from Starbucks addressing their concerns/comments. Starbucks is showing its customers and potential customers – “hey, we care about what YOU have to say.”

I am certain that if each one of these elements was done alone then the strategy would not have been as successful and complete as it is when done like this in integration with the rest of the elements on board. Many brands can learn a great deal from the way that Starbucks conquered the social web. It is really all a matter of priorities. Starbucks put communicating with their customers and potential customers as a top priority. Do you?
December 30, 2009
16:21
Blonde 2.0’s Top 10 Wishes for the Web in 2010
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

10. May Google Wave turns out to be a lot more convincing than what I’ve seen so far

9. May people stop giving relevance to terms like Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 and start giving relevance to what those terms mean

8. May advertisers finally admit the fact that that they cannot do without social media playing an integral part in their campaigns

7. May Web entrepreneurs start thinking more about the type of Web tools that people have a need for rather than being so concerned about replicating what’s already a huge success

6. May information on the Web really lives up to the dream and starts finding us instead of us needing to search for it

5. May people begin to understand that conversational marketing is about having a dialogue with people and not about who had the best monologue

4. May data portability between various platforms become more simple and efficient

3. May bloggers finally get the respect they deserve from the community

2. May email turn to twitter – each mail cannot be longer than 140 characters (that’s including attachments)

1. May more tools focusing on citizen journalism and real time updating services enable us all to be more aware of what’s happening in the world around us and bring us all closer together

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy 2010. I hope that at least a few wishes in each of our lists come true in the upcoming year.

Image credit: Oliver Widder
December 28, 2009
17:57
How to Create a Successful Business Blog
» ‎ Blonde 2.0

(guest post by Dorine Sinigaglia)

When done correctly, a successful business blog can be extremely rewarding for businesses of any industry. Creating a blog from scratch is in no way easy; it requires hard work on the writer’s end and the ability to think creatively about the benefits its business has to offer the community. In addition, building a community in general around the brand name takes some time.

A successful blog has its investments and definitely its returns, as the content in the blog drives attention and recognition of your business or brand, attracts new customers and may ultimately “turn your current customer base into the type of fans that companies like Apple, Netflix, and Ben and Jerry’s have: people who will not only buy your product or service, but evangelize it to their peers” – says Josh Catone in his Mashable article, Top 5 Business Blogging Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.(The latter point is key here). We’ve all done it: purchased a cup of coffee from the new coffee shop in our neighborhood and ranted and raved to our friends all day because the service we received was horrible and the coffee wasn’t drinkable. Evangelists can work in your company’s best interest and also be your brand’s worst nightmare.

So, how can one really be sure their latest post is being read and readers are thinking positively about your brand or product? Since most readers do not offer their feedback or comment on your work after they read a blog post, it is imperative to make sure that your company’s blog is constructed well and is being written right. There are a few simple but critical key factors that one must take into consideration to ensure their company blog has potential for success.

Make it personal.

A friendly reminder: your company blog is not the place to copy and paste press releases about your product. Press releases are impersonal and often sound too “markety.” Bottom line, your customer base does not want to read content that sounds like a sales pitch. Your blog is a place to promote your product or related business announcements about your company, but do so with originality and a personal tone so readers feel the human touch behind the text. Additionally, make sure your business blog contains content that is not solely about your product or business. Your readers want to read quality content that is original and interesting to their industry – and not necessarily related to your brand. Since they’re already reading your blog, it is safe to assume they know your brand and even like it. Feel free to share your thoughts on the industry, provide vital tips your customers can utilize in their business and any personal stories from your experience in business that will be of added value for your readers.

Post regularly.

Recently wrote a post and think you’re set for the month? Think again. Most successful business blogs post new content at least a couple of times a week. Integrate writing time into your regular scheduled routine and keep your writing cap on at all times. Great blogging ideas are hard to come by, so jot down ideas for future posts as they come to you and to avoid writer’s block when it’s crunch time. Putting out quality content consistently will keep your readers returning for more and over time this will help your company build a community, which will turn your fans to customers. Planning ahead is key: brainstorm ideas with other members of your company and get them involved with writing for the blog so that one person isn’t carrying the entire writing load on their shoulders. Content sourcing can also come from your employees or even your customers, since they know best what they enjoy reading from a blog. Anything can provide you with food for thought for a good blog post – so pay close attention to what you read on other blogs, newspapers, magazines – and what your competitors are doing.

Spread the word.

With social media all around us, there is in no way a shortage of channels a business blog can take to spread the word about their latest post. From sharing posts on Facebook to tweeting – there are many ways to share your latest blog post within your business community. According to Ben Parr from Mashable, Twitter may be the fastest and most effective way to spread the word in social media. In his article Top 20 Ways To Share a Great Blog Post, Parr says it well: “sharing or retweeting a link in Twitter can spread like wildfire.” To post a link for your blog post without going over the 140-character limit, you may use simple URL shorteners such astinyurl or bit.ly to shorten links to fit. After Twitter, you may post it on your company’s Facebook group profile, Linkedin grouppage, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon - and the list goes on.

Open communication doors.

After spreading the word, your company blog must open all doors of communication to ensure feedback about the content of your post – both good and bad. In essence, blogging is like have a one-sided conversation with your reader; their feedback to your post is their response to your side of the conversation. Not allowing others to comment on your post is a mistake, for it cuts off two-way communication. As Josh Catone states in his post, “blogging is an unparalleled opportunity to connect with your customers.” Enabling your customers to respond to your writing efforts and encouraging them to comment and provide feedback with allow you and your company to get a lot more out of blogging. As readers begin to comment, engage with them and continue the two-way conversation. Responding to reader’s comments will enable your company to develop a community around your writing and ultimately your brand. As mentioned before, your goal is to turn your customers into fans, and these fans into evangelists of your brand who will promote it to all their friends. Participating in conversations and commenting on posts written in other blogs around the blogosphere is also expected from you as a business leader and will in turn help you promote your “blogging brand,” bringing new readers to your blog.

Wait patiently.

A wise man once said, patience is a virtue. One cannot expect to receive immediate results simply from posting a few interesting articles in their blog. Your company blog, as most marketing efforts within a company, won’t be an overnight success and will take some time before its well-known to your customer base and the general public, so expecting immediate returns will leave you quickly let down. As Catone mentions, “it can take time to build up your readership and have a regular community of people who participate on your blog.” Set attainable goals for your blog’s success and work on not only providing valuable content, but on building a community around your blog, as this takes some hard work within the first few months. Stay motivated to continue writing – even if some posts go without much feedback. Don’t cancel your blogging efforts too early — give your company blog at least one year to gain full momentum and post quality, original content regularly. It is crucial that your blog is easy to find and accessible on your website’s Home page and your other social networks so your readers are able to easily locate your blog, comment and share posts with others.

A successful business blog is not a difficult goal to accomplish. The recipe is simple: quality content, quality exposure and quality time. Remember, we all have to start somewhere – so start off your business blog the right way by putting in strong efforts in the beginning and watch as it gains publicity in the blogosphere for the rest of your company’s lifetime.

(Flickr image courtesy of dmangust)

Dorine Sinigaglia is the Account & Content Manager at Blonde 2.0.

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