Internet Marketing X's & O's

Blog Metrics, Anyone?

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:05:00 +0000

Ask a marketer about social media and they will sing praises, especially with the attention blogs, micro-blogs, and user-generated content apps are getting in mainstream media. But ask a marketer what’s the one thing that they will make them pause about going forward with social media and they will probably say “There are no credible metrics readily available.”

Well, that type of reply is not unfounded. I’ve talked to a lot of marketing folks and they say that they would be more comfortable if there was a data source on the metrics of social media sites like blogs. This is perhaps borne from the orientation of the senior marketing executives’ reliance on Nielsen for media data on traditional media.

Why are these metrics important? These numbers are needed to justify the effectiveness of the campaign and determine the Return on Investment (ROI) of marketing activities. Of course, when it comes to ROI, the higher the better.

So, how do we answer the age old question of where to obtain readily available metrics for blogs?
These days, it’s not that hard because most blogs install analytics tools like Google Analytics to collect data on basic stats about the blog. If these analytics tools are not installed, it’s easy to install them. Things get iffy when it comes to industry-wide data because there’s still no universally accepted source of data. (Well, maybe Google will make something like this in the future.)

Just remember, metrics are important to measure performance with quantitative goals. But If you ask me, you can be a successful blogger without wrapping yourself around the numbers.

Mozilla Firefox: The Blogger’s Browser

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:21:00 +0000

I’m going out on a limb to say that if there’s a browser bloggers should be using, it should be Mozilla Firefox.
Apart from the inherent speed and good JavaScript handling for the AJAX-powered websites, Firefox simply has the available add-ons to make blogging an easier activity. Here are a few of my favorite blogger-friendly add-ons that are currently installed in my computer:

Word Count Plus – Not blogging platforms have a word counter, nor all bloggers work with a word processor, so Word Count Plus makes sense. This add on counts the number of words from a selection, which is very useful for bloggers who need to meet a certain word count per post.
Add This – This add-on makes it easier to share blog posts you’ve just finished writing on various Web 2.0 and social media sites. Add This can help in generating traffic to blog posts via these sites.
SeoQuake - Very handy little tool for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), this may look daunting for newbies, but this tool may be a good stepping stone towards better SEO understanding and appreciation.
Web Developer – Good way to test your blogger’s templates with the CSS editor and CSS disabling.
Fotofox – A pretty spiffy add-on for managing your images and hosting your photos to web apps for images and multimedia.

There are more extensions out there (Mashable already made a feature) for Mozilla Firefox, and it could only pick up from here. And with these customizations that benefit bloggers in different platforms, Firefox stands tall as the bet browser for bloggers.

X2G3JGPRRSSS

4 Blogging Topic Trends for 2010

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:33:00 +0000

The topics I’m recommending are ones that have shown a healthy rise in the last few months that is likely to carry over on to the next year. Here are four topics that may rise in 2010:

Television – Several new shows launched this year have definitely caught the viewing public’s attention. These shows include “Glee,” “V,” and “The Vampire Diaries” and these shows could gather more steam by next year and blogging about these shows with reviews could be beneficial in getting good traffic and possibly earnings.
Social Network Privacy – If we are to believe the online social networks’ data, more and more people are signing up and establishing their own online presences. This could also mean more compromised accounts and stolen identities. This topic could focus on a younger demographic that may need some resources on privacy and online reputation handling.
Social Games – We all know that games are big business but niche topics on social games like the ones from Zynga and Playfish are booming. Blogs on tips and tricks on FarmVille and Mafia Wars will definitely have an audience in my opinion.
Finance – The global financial sector is recovering and people may be interested in recovering their financial positions. If you have the know how and have the passion for writing, your financial blog could be 2010’s sleeper hit.

There may be other topics that will explode in December so this topics of 2010 blogging trends will be revisited. :)

Blogging for A Company? Makes Sense to Me.

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:19:00 +0000

Professional blogging comes in different sizes and shapes. For some, professional blogging is just getting some money for a paid review. And for others, its seeing the checks in gather in the mail from ad networks.

There’s one aspect of professional blogging I feel doesn’t get the cred it deserves: the Hired Blogger aspect.

Hired blogger are on a company’s payroll like regular employees or a consultants on a retainer. Depending on the arrangement, the hired blogger may be paid per per post or a fixed salary with specific goals and measured performance indicators. Responsibilities include writing blog posts on topics surrounding the company’s business and making sure that the blog posts are error-free and interesting enough to be shared around by the blog’s readers, and hopefully the company’s customers.

If you ask me, this kind of professional arrangement makes sense to the company and the blogger.

It really boils down to stability and consistency in the professional relationship– the company has a steady hand behind the blog and the company can give direct feedback about the posts with little fear that the blogger will just jump ship. The blogger, on the other hand, will have a predictable stream of income.

The only caveat here is the motivation factor. Money will never be the full motivator for the blogger to come up with good posts, so the company has to keep an eye on the hiring process to really see the candidates who really has the passion.

As I’ve said, blogging is marked by passion and but when a company tries to leverage on this passion, is there really anything amiss? From the professional side of things, it just makes sense if you ask me.

Why It's Good to Test Your Blog on Different Browsers

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:37:00 +0000

From the web design perspective, the relationship most bloggers have with their blog's design is quite limited. More often than not, bloggingfolk use web design templates designed and developed by another person so the determination of the blog's look and feel aspect becomes more like a shopping task.

But once the template has been selected, one big assumption oftentimes arises: This template works in all browsers.

Blog templates are never 100% working, especially with some broken browsers (*cough*IE6*cough*) still out there.

It's good practice to test the browser yourself with the common browsers. You can start with Internet Explorer (version 7 and 8 if possible) and Mozilla Firefox. These two browsers would already comprise almost 80% of browsers out there. For good measure, you can also check on Google Chrome and Opera Browser. To be sure, you can refer to your blog's stats (if available) to see which browser the majority of your readers are using and test your blog's template.

If you don't want to install extra browsers in your machine, there's always BrowserShots, a web site that will take a snapshot of your sites using different browsers.

Just remember not all browsers are created equal and a blog template not working could spell the difference between a successful blog and a lemon.

How Concerned Should Bloggers Be About SEO?

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:49:00 +0000

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was such a buzzword in the early 2000's because most web folks noticed a change in behavior in the internet users. What's that behavior? People used search engines as their primary starting point in their web usage.

By now, tips are all over the web on how to make your blog search engine optimized and how to get to the top SERP (search engine result page) for keywords related to your niche. But while it is generally accepted to be aware and avail of the basic SEO techniques, most bloggers are concerned that they are not concerned about SEO enough.

But really, how concerned should bloggers be about SEO?

If you ask me, not as much as before.

These days, the entry point to the web just got wider because there's social media. Content discovery is the primary function of search, but social media (in the form of blogs and microblogs) may give users what they need. Thus, instead of being concerned about being "findable," bloggers should now strive to be "shareable."

Making Money Through Blogging: A Review

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:29:00 +0000

Blogging for profit has been around since the early part of this decade but for some bloggers, blog monetization is often taken for granted. Especially when the global financial markets started crashing one by one last year, the diversification of how blogs can earn money became a must.
Here's a review of the different methods bloggers can earn money through their blogs:

Banner Advertising - The granddaddy of online business model still works today, despite the ad spend slowdown. Of course, advertisers are attracted to popular, high-traffic blogs.
Pay Per Click Advertising - A democratized method since this requires more focused niches, this is perhaps the most common way bloggers earn. Ad networks like Google AdSense, BlogAds, and AdBrite provide relatively easy way to monetize blogs.
Paid posts/reviews - An ethical grey area for most bloggers, this will surely be affected by the recent FTC announcement about blog reviews and testimonials. This type of regulation is not new, but may blaze the trail for other governments to implement their own version.
Getting hired as a Blogger - Bloggers can also take the "Professional Blogger" route by getting hired to blog or join a blog publishing network. This is most stable ways of making money but the most restrictive if you ask me.

For some people, this is obvious but new bloggers who have just entered into the fold must be reminded that there's more to earning online than just Google AdSense.

5 Things to Try When Nobody's Visiting Your Blog

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:01:00 +0000

This may sound familiar to some bloggers: You've been blogging for almost a year now in a pretty uncrowded niche. You've been thinking of nice topics to blog about and your writing is pretty OK. But when you look at your web traffic stats, you see something that doesn't even reach 300. So what do you do?
Maybe you haven't tried these five things to help your blog traffic:

Invest some cash on advertising - You don't have to spend an arm and a leg to get some advertising on the web. Pay Per Click advertising is pretty flexible when it comes to budgets. Or try to put banner ads on a popular blog. (Ideally, that blogger is a friend of yours. :P)
Promote via micro-blogs - There's a school of thought that micro-blogging (read: Twitter) is killing blogging. While it's arguable, but if you have a healthy number of followers, try to tweet about your latest blog post.
Tell your friends - Don't underestimate the power of the offline social network. The common irony is that bloggers often tell the online world about their blog but not their offline friends.
Alter your writing style - You don't have to take writing classes, simple alterations to your writing to make it easy to absorb. Focusing more on web usability can also help your new writing style.
Change your blog theme - Blog themes are not expected to blow anyone away, but it should facilitate the reading of blog posts. Maybe your blog template is as cluttered as your closet-- better change it ASAP.

Your blog may not be the Boing Boing's or the Huffington Posts of the world, but trying other things to get people to notice it can help your voice be heard.

Blogger as a CMS: Will it Work?

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:30:00 +0000

A blogging platform used as a content management system (CMS) is not really new. This blog has outline several reasons why WordPress as a CMS is feasible. Open source systems like WordPress are ideal for such an application because of the inherent "hackability" of the app to be shaped into other uses. But what about closed systems like Google's Blogger?
Here are two situations wherein Blogger may be a possible CMS for you:

When you're pressed for time - You can purchase a domain name and use it on a Blogger blog very quickly. Themes for Blogger is also available and easy to implement.
When user management is not crucial - The thing with Blogger is that, as of now, there are only two levels of users: Authors and Administrators. If you're the one who will be managing the content, then Blogger is OK.

Undoubtedly, making Blogger as a CMS is a challenge. Unlike WordPress, there is no "Page" content type, only generic blog posts. Also, the URL's of Blogger posts are automatically generated. This feature makes it hard to create pages with specific titles reflect on the URL.
To make Blogger into your CMS, a few simple steps are needed:

Remove all gadgets, expecially the archive and label
Download a Blogger template with a navigation menu and removes the post date.
To manually remove the date header in the post, go to "Edit HTML" in the Layout editing section. Make sure that "Expand Template Widgets" is checked and look for "" and remove it
After writing the site's content, take note of the URL. Edit the template's navigation bar to direct to the post's URL.

Blogger may not be the most elegant of CMS solutions, but there are select situations that it might work.

What “Conversation”? – How to Deal with Spam Comments

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:41:00 +0000

One of the things social media promised is the proverbial “conversation”– an authentic feedback mechanism where the publisher and reader become participants in a discussion. The way it goes is that the blogger/writer will post something and the readers who are compelled enough will respond with a comment and the blogger respond to it correspondingly.

But what if the reader who comments is a spammer?

I’m sure at some point, a blogger will receive seemingly authentic comments that actually are spam. This sophistication means that spammers are staying away from “Buy XXX drug” and moving to intelligent responses.

So how do you deal with it? Here’s a couple of suggestions:

User better comment moderation tools – There’s Disqus and Intense Debate to help you moderate the comments. The interfaces and features of the two tools are much better the default WordPress or Blogger moderation tools.
Turn off blog comments completely – While this is the ultimate “last resort,” this may be the feasible option for bloggers that don’t have the time to mark or moderate comments or when the volume of the spam comments have become unmanageable. In my experience, I turned commenting off for a few weeks, then turned it on again and the spam attacks subsided considerably.

Responding to relevant and authentic comments is one of the joys of blogging. But when the conversations become fake, it’s becomes the blogger’s worst nightmare.

3 Ways to Make Your Blog More Usable

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:26:00 +0000

Blog Usability is something taken for granted because most bloggers don’t design the template of their own blogs. But that shouldn’t be reason for bloggers to ignore usability completely.

If you’re a web designer, there are some easy to implement practical usability methods, such as basic heuristic review, user research, and prototyping. Bloggers who are more into the writing can do other little things that can go a long way to improving the blog’s usability:

Write in short paragraphs – The principle behind is that research found that people who use the web scan pages rather than reading them outright. Meaning good spacing between paragraph blocks is a must. This also means that you have to alter your writing if you’re used to long and meandering paragraphs.
Place elements consistently – One thing about usability is setting the expectations of your users. What this means for you as a blogger is that it may be better to lay-out images, block quotes, and even headings. This will help your readers “learn” how your blog is laid out and avoid getting confused with other elements.
Avoid overriding your template’s styles – While most blog software like WordPress and Blogger do have a mature WYSIWYG editor, overriding the default styles defined in the template can do more harm than good.

Just remember, the guiding principle of blog usability is to make it easy for your readers to use your blog and read your content. You don’t really have to invest much to achieve improvements in your blog’s usability.

3 Unlikely Places to Find Blogging Inspiration

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:56:00 +0000

If you ask me, any professional who is required to do a great deal of writing is bound to stumble on a “writer’s block” (Or in this case, “blogger’s block.” ) So how does a blogger beat the block? Well, inspiration is the key.

Finding inspiration is an iffy thing because it’s not automatic. Sometimes that spark happens so easily, but there are times when you have to put yourself through a wringer to extract it. But nonetheless, inspiration does happen. Here are three places to I think are the last place people will look for blogging inspiration:

The Mall – People often go though lengths to find a quiet place and wait for that spark. Well, a busy place like the mall can give you a rich place of people to observe, watch trends, and find something interesting to blog about. Just sit in one spot and just try observing people.
Talk Radio – Radio may be considered the granddaddy of media, but there’s still some interesting talk happening over there. Talk radio may be a great place to get a feel of what a specific segment is in to these days, like politics and entertainment.
Online Forums – Yeah, online forums have been out of the radar for sometime now, with blogs and microblogs hogging the limelight. But some of the more intense debates still happen on forums. Try lurking on some forums and you might find a controversial topic worth writing about.

Just remember, blogging inspiration doesn’t have to come from other people’s blogs.

Improving Your Blog's Traffic

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:58:00 +0000

I recently contributed an article at BloggingPro.com about extra tactics to help bloggers improve blog traffic. In a nutshell, the tips are about the things most bloggers overlook in promoting their respective blogs. Here three of the the tips

Invest some cash on advertising – You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to get some advertising on the web. Pay Per Click advertising is pretty flexible when it comes to budgets. Or try to put banner ads on a popular blog. (Ideally, that blogger is a friend of yours. )
Promote via micro-blogs – There’s a school of thought that micro-blogging (read: Twitter) is killing blogging. While it’s arguable, but if you have a healthy number of followers, try to tweet about your latest blog post.
Tell your friends – Don’t underestimate the power of the offline social network. The common irony is that bloggers often tell the online world about their blog but not their offline friends.

I wrote five blogging tips for improving web traffic so if you're interested in the other two, feel free to check the article at BloggingPro out. :)

One Blogging Nation by Gang Badoy

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:24:00 +0000

(Note: This is Gang Badoy's keynote speech during the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards. Thanks to Jayvee Fernandez for posting this as a Facebook note.)

ONE BLOGGING NATION
Keynote Speech for the 2009 Phil Blog Awards
by Ms. Gang Badoy of Rock Ed Philippines

What an honor and a frustration to be given ten minutes to address, perhaps (arguably) the most eloquent group of people ever gathered in 2009. But here I am, so here I go.

I cannot discuss any other 'angle on blogging' tonight except my gratitude to bloggers. During a crisis- you have kept many of us informed, during darker times - you, blogger have inspired, during births - you spread the joy and during death - many of you have rendered those who have gone before us immortal. There is no single phenomenon that has done all those in such a level. Ang diin ng saad ng blogger sa sugat at balat ng Inang Bayan.

Your personal thoughts, observations, factual research even urgent yet seemingly trivial emotions have contributed greatly to us who read you. Imagine how wide the understanding of the next generation will be of us who have gone before them -because of your blogs. Mas maiintindihan nila kung saan tayo nanggaling. For me the best description of one who loves his country is someone who is interested in where we came from, where we are today - and where we want the country to go. Imagine the advantage the next generation has because they have our blogs to refer to.

Bloggers may have shook mainstream journalism out of its seeming (not apparent) complacency. It has pressured people to decide faster and smarter during emergencies because bloggers, for the most part, cover the many angles of truth. From the ground. I am aware that it is not all positive - lies, panic, confusion, anger, negativity have also stemmed from blogs. Blogs have given us headaches, I know one or two that have - but one thing is for sure - I have never encountered a blog that made me more complacent. And wow- what a gift. What a gift to the country - a country that desperately needs participation, incisive thinking, swift reason, informed suggestions and countless other values.

----

Whenever the subject of press freedom comes up we always used to hear 'better an abusive press than a suppressed one.' I think bloggers took that one step further. Which is why my contention is this: there may be very few networks as powerful and as influential and as crucial as a responsible, articulate, prolific blogger.

2009 made me realize that a nation is not its government. Thank God. Blogging has relieved me with the fact that the history of the Philippines is no longer solely in the hands of the textbook writer. (Thank God) A history of a nation is really the collection of stories of individual lives. Our individual lives. Yours.

You know, during this recent crisis -one typhoon then the next - I observed that politicians will be 'press-conning A" - networks will be reporting B - and bloggers will be saying C. How lucky we are to have all those views, may we have the resources and smarts to sift through all that. If we do, then we're on our way.

Though divided in opinion I am still grateful to all who blog. Unity was never my premise for us to move and to make great a nation - but unity certainly is the goal. Not the premise -- but the goal.

In my wobbly logic I will say that a country is a shared geographic space. It is the assigned square area where people live together. But a nation - wow, a nation is different; a nation is a frame of mind, a general direction, a common rhythm that a group of people share. That's a nation.

-----
I like the title of this year's awards. Three words that I hope to someday re-arrange. Maybe some day we can be just ONE NATION - and we just all happen to blog.

Last thought - blogging is not the ultimate verb here tonight. I know you have caught a lot of flack in the past about the seeming non-active motion bloggers take. For those who think that blogging is a minor verb, I have something to share: One cannot blog unless one goes out there. If you never got your hands dirty or walked streets, helped out, experienced heartbreak, death, birth, victory, defeat, betrayal, pain, sweat- then really- you have nothing to blog. I think it is because you live and you live well -- this is why you can blog. Someday it will be said that blogging is merely the record of 'lives well-lived.' Again, for that I am grateful.

Keep on doing what you do, living the lives that you lead. If the country is lucky, you will still continue to blog and (quoting Plato) - your storytelling will be the education of our future's heroes.

Welcome to the Philippines, One Blogging Nation.

Mabuhay tayong lahat.

Jacque Bermejo: A Lesson on Personal Online Reputation Management

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:36:00 +0000

Metro Manila was slammed by Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana internationally) last weekend and the damage has been massive. Floods all over the city and nearby suburbs had people stranded on roofs as the water reached unheard-of levels. Here's a video of cars floating because of the floods:

And now that the storm has passed, a lot of people all over Manila have been extending support to the Typhoon Ondoy victims in relief operations. People have been volunteering, donating, and praying for the success of the relief and rescue efforts. In short, people are trying to be useful.

However, there are also people who seem to be doing the opposite. And people perceived to be like that often draws the ire of Filipinos.

One such person is now the infamous Jacque Bermejo. An overseas Filipino worker based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Ms. Bermejo has become an overnight internet sensation for the all the wrong reasons. Her sin? She allegedly said something that struck a collective nerve among Filipinos affected by Typhoon Ondoy:

Translated, the broken English/Filipino statement

buti n lng am hir in dubai! maybe so many sinners bak der! so yeah deserving wat hapend!

means "Good thing I'm here in Dubai! Maybe many sinners back there! So yeah, deserving what happened!" While there may be more vicious statements out there, I believe this one angered Filipinos because of the judgmental tone and insensitivity of the statement.

This statement started a wave of hate comments in Facebook and blogs. A Facebook group specifically targeted against her has been created and now as almost 8,000 members. Clearly, Jacque Bermejo's online reputation is in ruins, much like the effect of Typhoon Ondoy on Metro Manila.

So how does Jacque Bermejo get out of this mess? I have a few tips:

Confess and come clean - If Ms. Bermejo did say those things, apologize publicly, even in social networks. Show remorse over the statement and show support to the relief efforts. The most important thing here is authenticity in here statement.
Act fast - In the span of a few hours, the internet hate has spread like wildfire. Any minute not spent in apologizing/giving clarity to the situations is a minute where the hate just grows.
Get supporters - The idea is to control the negative spin, so at best, she could slow things down. Supporters who can vouch for Ms. Bermejo's character should come out.
Join the cause - To show sincerity, Ms. Bermejo, guilty or not, should help in the relief operations to reduce the "holier than thou" stance.

These are just some basic online reputation management tips, but for everyone, remember that not only companies and organizations have to be careful in making statements online. Like in the case of Jacque Bermejo, a storm of negative emotions was stirred up with a single statement.

2009 Philippine Blogging Awards Finalists Announced

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:53:00 +0000

The finalists to the 2009 Philippine Blog Awards have been announced and list is pretty long. Here are the finalists for the different regular and special categories:

Best Technology Blog

Best Travel Blog

Best Entertainment Blog

Best Personal Blog

Best Food & Beverage Blog

Best Family & Living Blog

Best News & Media Blog

Best Business Blog

Best Sports Blog

Best Hobby & Recreation Blog

Best Fashion Blog

Best Photo Blog

Best Culture & Arts Blog

Best Commentary Blog

Best Videocast

Best Podcast

Best Humor Blog

Best Gaming Blog

Best Advocacy Blog

Best Beauty Blog

Special Award: Best Blog Design

Special Award: Best Foreign Blog

Special Award: Best Filipino Abroad Blog

Special Award: Best Filipiniana Blog

Whew! That was a pretty looong list. But nonetheless, congratulations to everyone for reaching the finals of the most prestigious blog awards in the country. :)

7 Filipino Blogs at the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:08:00 +0000

I just learned from Jezlau that there are seven Filipino-run blogs in Nuffnang's Asia-Pacific Blog Awards. The seven Pinoy blogs that reached the finals are:

Octwelve - Best Original Blog Design (She’s the Filipino in Singapore)
Wifely Steps - Best Parenting Blog
Kitchen Cow - Best Food Blog
En Route - Best Travel Blog
Jim Paredes - Best Celebrity Blog
Bryan Boy - Best Fashion Blog
Jehzlau Concepts - Most Influential Blog

You can support the blogs by voting for them in Nuffnang's voting page.

Good luck to the Filipino blogs that reached the finals and make us proud! :D

3 Reasons Why your Company Should be Blogging

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:38:00 +0000

Corporate communications has always been about maintaining the company's reputation and, to a certain degree, shaping public opinion about the company. This reputation management aspect is enabled by technologies that surfaced a few years ago-- Web 2.0 technologies to be more specific.

One way companies who would like to manage its corporate communications and reputation management is by maintaining a company/corporate blog. I've outlined three good reasons why your company should start its own blog:

True Company/Customer exchange of ideas - you probably heard of "The Conversation" concept-- a very honest communication exchange between the company and its customers. This can happen in the corporate blog. You customers can post comments and get the word straight from your company's heads representatives, like Sun Microsystems' Jonathan Schwartz to set the record straight.
Fight your battles in your own turf - The company website is good in presenting the nice, shiny things about the company, but I think a corporate blog can deal with the bad news better.When a company is under a crisis, the corporate blog can be a safe have for issuing statements and addressing comments. When the comments are to profane, you can moderate them-- at least you can answer the criticisms in your terms.
"Official" information release in Overdrive- Traditional press releases are quite inadequate these days. Corporate blogs, and blogs in general, provide information that can easily be shared and remixed. You company's official statements and releases can be picked up by your loyal followers and pass it around social networks and other platforms.

One final note: Ideally, the company should be configured to handle corporate blogging to reap the benefits of the platform.So that means companies should treat the corporate blog as another channel, but a strategic presence for corporate communications and have the resources allocated for it.

Philippine Blogging Awards Jingle

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:33:00 +0000

Coy Caballes and Markku Seguerra appear in this music video featuring a nice ditty written by Coy himself. Find out all the blogs that were mentioned in the song! :D

The song is the jingle of the Philippine Blog Awards.

Making LinkWithin Appear Only in Blog Posts in Blogger

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:47:00 +0000

I really like LinkWithin, the script you install in your blog to show related blog posts for every post. This is a great widget for Blogger user because there is no Google-developed "Related Post" gadget. For WordPress users, there's already a plugin for that and that has been around for a while.

However, my only beef with LinkWithin is that when you install it in Blogger with the default options, the related posts show on the blog's main page. Ideally, you'd like the related posts to be shown on the individual blog post's page. (Sort of like an appendix).

So, how do you make the LinkWithin related posts appear on the specific blog post's page? It's a simple 4-step process:

First, go to the LinkWithin homepage and enter your details and your preferences.
After successfully entering the details, you will be prompted to a page called "Install Widget on Blogger." Click the "Install Widget" found on the first list item.
You will then be brought to the Blogger Element configuration page. This is where you will edit the default settings to make the related posts appear on the blog post's page:

Click the "Edit Template" link and change the default contents to:

<b:includable id="main">
<b:if cond="data:blog.pageType == "item"">
<data:content>
</data:content></b:if>
</b:includable>
After changing the contents, click "Add Widget" and proceed to place it in your blog's layout

As you can see, it's not too hard. :) Good luck in placing the LinkWithin script and making the related posts appear on the blog posts' individual pages.

My One Good Reason to Attend SemCon 2009

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:34:00 +0000

The 2009 Edition of the Search Engine Marketing Conference (SemCon) will be held on October 1 & 2, 2009 at the Grand Ballrom of the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati City.

Yes, the conference is rich with Search Engine Goodie-ness-- Who wouldn't want to hear Marc Macalua, Abe Olandres, Anton Diaz, Benj Arriola, and Alfredo Palconit, Jr. (just to mention a few) talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Link Building, Keyword Research, Micro-blogging (there's a talk titled "Twisted Twitter Tactics"), and Brand-building on the web?

But for me, one good reason to attend the SemCon 2009 is to provide moral support to friends and peers in the industry who are part of the event.

The good thing is you can attend the conference for free: Abe Olandres is running a blog contest and three bloggers will be given free passes (each worth PhP 9,500) to the event. Ain't that great? But you better hurry because the deadline for joining is tomorrow, Septermber 15, 2009.

The 2009 Search Engine Marketing Conference is organized by SEO Philippines, IMV Solutions, and Fiera De Manila.

IMMAP's Internet & Mobile Marketing Summit 2009

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:43:00 +0000

The Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) just held the 3rd Interactive Marketing Summit at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City and it was a very informative 2-day conference. Having the theme "Digital Delivers," the conference presented the audience of marketing and ad agency folks compelling cases for putting more attention on internet and mobile marketing.

Attending the conference had a PhP12,000 price tag, but thankfully, I got a free pass (Yey!) and that paved the way for my attendance. I was tweeting during the event, despite the spotty wifi at the venue. (You follow tweets at the event by looking for the #immap hashtag in twitter).

Day 1

The first day kicked-off with keynotes from Sandra Puno of Nestle, Charmaine Canillas of Petron, Bennett Porter of Yahoo. Morning sessions were more of a landscape snapshot of the digital marketing scene in the Philippines, with presentations on trends, figures and high level internet marketing. The afternoon session was led by Jim Lafferty of P&G and Kent Wertime of OgilvyOne Asia Pacific. The talks focused on the strength of digital marketing, and mindsets to be adopted when diving into digital marketing. The 2009 Boomerang Award winners were also presented in the evening.

The Good: The best talks of the day were by Jim Lafferty, Kent Wertime, and Bennet Porter.

Jim posited that digital marketing is still expensive and the industry should be "hypercompetitive" to breakthrough and get bigger allocations in ad budgets.
Kent Wertime shared several points on how companies should go about digital marketing, and one point that resonated was the concept of "branded utility," or giving your customers something actually usefull (as opposed to fluffed-up marketing messages), and just making sure they know you were the one who provided the service.
Bennet Porter gave a very comprehensive case study on Yahoo's Purple hunt campaign and my takeaway there is that the offer should be very compelling and integration with offline activities can help drive both online and offline success.

The Bad: Too many sales pitches pretending to be talks! A lot of the speakers will guilty of tooting their organization's horns. Also, I was grossly disappointed with the Nielsen talk-- the speaker promised a "fearless forecast" of the digital media landscape, but he only delivered was a massive "pfft."

Day 2

The second day talks were, over-all, more interactive as the afternoon sessions were more like mini-forums from bloggers and winners of the 2009 Boomerang Awards.

Speaking of the Boomerang Awards, here's the list of this year's winners:

Cyber Boomerang Category:

Gold Award: Palistuhan by Proximity Philippines
Silver Award: Marlboro Levels by Arc Worldwide Philippines, Co., Inc.
Bronze: Honda Jazz: The Fun Utility Vehicle by Honda Cars Inc.

Mobile Boomerang Category:

Gold Award: Quaker Oats Eat Well and Win Promo by Proximty Philippines/BBDO Guerrero
Silver Award: Pampers Hearts Club by Proximity Philippines/BBDO Guerrero

Integrated Boomerang Category:

Gold Award: Sandbox by: Smart Communications, Inc. and Wolfpac
Silver Award: Madonna Mania by EGG
Bronze Award: Pepsi 'Kada Can: Get Your Barkada on the Can by Proximity Philippines/BBDO Guerrero

Innovation Boomerang Category:

Winner: Awesome Philippines Second Life Press Conference by the Philippine Department of Tourism and Media Contacts Philippines

Takeaways & Moving Forward

The conference had presented a few themes that suggested the climate of the Philippine digital marketing industry:

The Philippines is still a "traditional" marketing country
There are still no convincing metric and measurements presented to advertisers
Digital marketing is still a risky proposition to a lot of companies
Customer engagement in the digital space is still done best with putting the customer's needs ahead
Customer co-creation was found to be a good way of making brand advocates
Kent Wertime put it best: "Serve, not Sell" when it comes to digital marketing.

While the conference was far from perfect (too few sockets for notebooks, bad wi-fi connection from Smart, confusing seating arrangements, and ignoring micro-blogging), I imagine the conference opening the eyes of a great deal of people in the audience. To be honest, all of the material in the conference is covered in our Winning Internet Marketing Strategies & Tactics course at AIM, and I definitely would like to see more innovations and "things to come" talks in future IMMAP summits. :)

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Here are some good blog posts on the 3rd Interactive Marketing Summit:

3 Reasons to Attend the 3rd IMMAP Internet & Mobile Marketing Summit

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 03:31:00 +0000

The Internet & Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines (IMMAP) will be holding its third summit for internet & mobile marketing, and it's the biggest yet.

Entitled " Digital Delivers! The 3rd Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit 2009," the event aims to highlight how digital marketing can be a more effective channel in a time of a financial crunch, and have an even more positive, wide-scale impact in business. The 2-day summit will be on August 25-26, 2009 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City, Philippines.

The event is a must for marketing folks and I can think of three very good reasons to attend the internet marketing summit:

The Speakers - Talk about heavy-hitters! The collective experience of the speakers would be enough to span the earth's equator. Here are some of the speakers in the roster: Nandu Nandkishore, CEO of Nestlé Philippines, James Lafferty, General Manager of P&G Philippines, and Fernando Fernandez, CEO of Unilever Philippines. Whew!
Good Case Studies - The winners of the 2009 Boomerang Awards, IMMAP's recognition for digital marketing excellence, will be featured as case studies. Q&A sessions to a panel consisting of the winners will be held. I think this will be a good, practical way to learn from the industry's best.
Digital Marketing is the Present & Future - I say in my internet marketing classes that in 2008, ad spending went down-- TV, print (especially), and most other media got slashed except for one. That exception is the digital channel. The summit will give folks a better glimpse why this is so.

If you want to expand your network of internet & mobile marketing executives, learn a thing or two about social media, and pick the brains of the country's top CEO's and business leaders, attending Digital Delivers! The 3rd Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit 2009 would be a great move.

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Thanks to Janette for the heads up for this blog contest. :)

The Ronnie Puno Facebook Incident

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:17:00 +0000

A few days ago, I got an invite in Facebook from Ronnie Puno, a Filipino politician who, in all likelihood, will be running for Vice-President in the 2010 national elections here in the Philippines.

This invite is the very same Facebook invite fellow blogger Aileen Apolo got from Mr. Puno:

Political campaigns done in online social networks is not new-- in fact, many say Barack Obama won the presidency of the United States of America because of his smart use of the internet and online social networks. So why does Ronnie Puno's Facebook campaign pale in comparison?

Here's my answer: Authenticity.

Ronnie Puno's message was far from authentic. I even think it's an insult to the intelligence of the invited users in Facebook because the invitation tries to make it sound like Ronnie Puno knows you and is one of your friends who has known you for a long time. Sheesh, Mr. Puno just wants votes. End of story.

The problem is that people know Ronnie Puno's objectives, but he can't outwardly say that he's campaigning because it is not the election campaign period yet. This premature electioneering from Mr. Puno tries to circumvent the loopholes the election code so he can ask for your votes, perhaps not now but in the future.

So, remember this: Authenticity is key to a successful online political campaign.

Just ask at Barack Obama.

Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2009 Writing Project

regnard@raquedan.com (Regnard Raquedan) — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:37:00 +0000

The Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2009 Writing Project has been launched by Ms. Janette Toral. This writing project aims to highlight the new blogs that have been started since May 2008 up to the present.

I've decided to join the project and here are my Top 10 list:

Thanks to the good folks of Absolute Traders, My Brute Cheats, Business Summaries, Fitness Advantage Club, Events and Corporate Video, Events at Work, Dominguez Marketing Communications, Red Mobile, Budget hotel in Makati, Lucio C. Tan Group of Companies, and Blog4Reviews.com for sponsoring the writing project.