Conclusive evidence that my peak memory years have passed.
I gave a presentation at the Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce today (wait, it's 12:10 in the morning, so it was yesterday) on using the web to build your business and your career. A good chunk of my presentation was focused on the value of blogs and the potential of podcasts.
Speaking to people after the presentation, I realized that by mostly ignoring my notes I had left out out two things I wanted to cover.
First, do blogs replace newsletters, especially e-newsletters? Right now, my answer is no. If you're doing a newsletter, you should probably keep doing it. But expect your blog to eventually replace it. And I think it will be a better tool immediately. Spam filters and people with multiple email addresses are killing the e-newsletter. Here are thoughts from some people who probably have more credibility on this issue than I do. This article also points out just how much work I have to do to make my own blog as powerful and effective as it should be.
Second, at the start of my presentation, I said I wanted to learn five new things myself. Then I never took the time to give my audience a forum that would have allowed this to happen. I did leave time for questions, but towards the end I was rushing to make the presentation fit into its alloted hour. Maybe people who were at today's session can post comments and help me with those five new things I wanted to learn.
Thanks to everyone who attended and to the Chamber and Pat Guenther for the invitation. Hopefully, you enjoyed listening as much as I enjoyed talking.
— Dean Gemmell
Speaking to people after the presentation, I realized that by mostly ignoring my notes I had left out out two things I wanted to cover.
First, do blogs replace newsletters, especially e-newsletters? Right now, my answer is no. If you're doing a newsletter, you should probably keep doing it. But expect your blog to eventually replace it. And I think it will be a better tool immediately. Spam filters and people with multiple email addresses are killing the e-newsletter. Here are thoughts from some people who probably have more credibility on this issue than I do. This article also points out just how much work I have to do to make my own blog as powerful and effective as it should be.
Second, at the start of my presentation, I said I wanted to learn five new things myself. Then I never took the time to give my audience a forum that would have allowed this to happen. I did leave time for questions, but towards the end I was rushing to make the presentation fit into its alloted hour. Maybe people who were at today's session can post comments and help me with those five new things I wanted to learn.
Thanks to everyone who attended and to the Chamber and Pat Guenther for the invitation. Hopefully, you enjoyed listening as much as I enjoyed talking.
— Dean Gemmell
posted by Dean Gemmell at 9:04 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for the comment. You're right about reaching only those "most interested." The new paradigm will demand content that people seek out -- they'll refuse to suffer through dull, clumsy sales pitches and marketing-speak because they won't have to.
Still not sure how the new model will work for everyone, but I do think the people who win will be the people with the best content.
Hope you keep coming back to the content on this blog.
Oops. Meant to publish that last comment with me as the author. Sent it as anonymous by mistake.
Dean Gemmell
I think you're absolutely right about newsletters. Getting something physical is why I keep getting The New Yorker delivered to my home instead of finding a way to read it online. If you have a newsletter that works, don't stop doing it. But a blog is a great way to add more value and relevancy to your communications.
I too work in advertising/marketing and blogging is new to me. I really wanted to attend your presentation but was unable due to time constraints.
I've been reading your blogs since nearly the beginning. I always seem to find something useful in your posts. Your common sense really cuts through the clutter.
Anyway, I've put off commenting, hoping that maybe in time you'd eventually address one nagging blogging/marketing question I have. I decided not to wait.
Here goes:
Should the content of your blog always reinforce your brand?
By that I mean, if you manufacturer dog food shouldn't your blogs be closely related to the different facets of dog food. ie. nutrition, pet health etc?
To me that just seems like common sense. I'm not going to check out a dog food blog for financial information or mountain biking tips.
Conversely I've heard clients expressing they want to include blogs completely unrelated to their product in an attempts to market through the back door. The only relation to their brand would be a logo in the corner of their blog somewhere.
Granted, I don't understand why people would want to get their movies from Netflix and music by subscription to Napster.
These are my knee jerk reactions to paradigm shifts. But these trends are flying in the face of my common sense. So am I missing something?
I'd love to know your thoughts on the subject. (perhaps in a future blog).
Forgive me if you discussed this during your presentation. If so, I hope to catch your next presentation.
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