As I was writing Professional Blogging For Dummies, it was clear that nearly every chapter in the book could be a book in itself. In fact, there are books that delve into many of  the topics in great depth. After you’ve read my book, if you decide you’d like to dig deeper, I highly recommend you invest in a few.

The For Dummies series has titles that cover just about everything, including Google AdSense for Dummies, Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, Web Marketing for Dummies, Public Relations for Dummies  and Social Media for Dummies.

A book about your chosen blogging platform can also be a handy reference. For Dummies can help you here as well, but I’d suggest you also look at more advanced guides, particularly if you want to get into deeper customization of your blog.

Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger website (problogger.net), one of the 10 sites you can learn from simply by reading featured in the book, is an excellent resource for keeping up-to-date on the latest developments in professional blogging. You might also want to invest in Rowse’s book, co-authored with Chris Garrett, ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (2010, 2d edition,Wiley)

About Audio and Video

If you decide to add a video or a podcast to your blog, you should definitely get some help, whether a book or professional consultant, to get you going.

When I started doing a podcast for a client a few years ago I turned to two books:

• Podcasting: The Do-It-Yourself Guide by Todd Cochrane (Wiley, 2005)
• How to Do Everything with Podcasting by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson (McGraw Hill, 2007)

I also bought a  book to help me use my sound editing software more effectively. I only use about 4-5 pages of it on a regular basis, but I use those pages EVERY TIME I edit a sound file for the Internet, making it worth every penny I spent. I use Sound Forge 8 Power! (Sony, 2005), which of course is only good if you are using Sound Forge 8. I’m certain there’s a book for your software, whatever you are using.

I don’t do much personally with video on my sites. I’m still working on my photo skills. That’s enough of a challenge for now, so when I use video for a client, I leave it to the pros. However, the equipment and software available to amateurs has gotten so good, there’s no reason to not experiment if you have the interest in learning the skill.  I crowdsourced a book recommendation for you:

• Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business by Steve Garfield (Wiley, 2010)

I haven’t read it yet (although I plan to), but Garfield has an excellent reputation. You can check out his website at  stevegarfield.com

TIP: Don’t buy too many platform or software specific books. Features are constantly changing, and if the book is too tied to a particular version, it may not be as useful when the next version of software is released. Buy books that offer advice on strategy or technique, like Professional Blogging For Dummies and the ones referenced above. They have a longer shelf life because they help you understand the underlying principles.  If you do feel you need version-specific help, stick to one or two titles at most, and use online resources like support forums and wikis to fill in what the books don’t offer.

Other Books You Might Enjoy

If you get hooked on social media, here are my top three reads for you. I consider them business classics.

First, if  you haven’t already, read The Cluetrain Manifesto by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger (10th anniversary edition, 2009, Basic Books). It’s the book often credited with starting the social media revolution, and it’s a good read to boot.

Next, pick up Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel (2006, Wiley). Social media has changed quite a bit since this book was published. Facebook didn’t open up to the general public until September 2006 and Twitter wouldn’t burst onto the scene until the South by Southwest conference in March 2007. But, the book is very well written, and the underlying principles about engaging with customers and building trust haven’t changed.

Finally, if you really want to dig into to the topic of integrating social media with a business strategy, you can’t go wrong with Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff (2008, Harvard Business Press).

Reference Books that should be on your Bookshelf

Blogging is about writing, and every writer should have the following on her desk:

• A dictionary, and if you haven’t replaced yours in more than five  years, get a new one. Language changes all the time, no more so than in the last few years.
• A thesaurus
• A book of quotations. I have two, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations and The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations.
• The AP Style Guide

All are available online as well as in print versions. I prefer using the real books, although I do look up quotations online if the reference I need is very recent.  Somehow, the act of physically looking something up inspires me. You may find it easier to use electronic tools. It doesn’t matter. What’s important is using them to give your writing some variety.

Disclosure: Links in this post to books on Amazon.com include my Amazon affiliate link. If you buy a book after following an affiliate link, I’ll earn a few cents. If you’d like to buy my book, there are links to it on Amazon, Borders and Barnes&Noble in my sidebar.

My research for Professional Blogging For Dummies included a blogger survey. The publisher was kind enough to create a bonus chapter PDF of the survey results, exclusively for Marketing Roadmaps readers. There were also three open ended questions, and I’ve created PDFs of those responses for you as well.

I suggest you start with the overall survey results, and then dig into the detail PDFs.

Enjoy!

• Overall survey results
• Why did you start a blog? (referred to in the overall survey results)
• The most rewarding thing about blogging?
• Your one tip for new bloggers

When I’m not here, I’m over here –

BlogHer: Disclosing Sponsorship on Twitter: It’s Not That Hard! Really!

Snapshot Chronicles: The evolution of community: BlogHer at 5.

Professional Blogging For Dummies will be in your local bookstore by the end of the month! Hard to believe it’s only been a year since I first met Dummies Acquisitions Editor Amy Fandrei at BlogHer.

Speaking of which, I will be signing copies at the BlogHer bookstore in New York next month, but I’m not sure of the day/time yet. I’ll also be speaking at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Conference for Women (Pittsburgh, 10/14), the Texas Conference for Women (Houston, 11/10) and the Massachusetts Conference for Women (Boston 12/9), and I think they will be organizing a book signing at those venues as well.

Professional Blogging For Dummies was written to help individuals and small business owners develop a blog  to generate revenue directly or support their small business. There’s a whole section just on monetization.  That said, I think anyone with a blog or considering starting one — even if they aren’t focused on revenue generation — would benefit from the chapters on strategy, planning, development and design. Plus, the book is chock full of case studies and interviews with successful bloggers.

It’s the silly season for bad pitches

Last week, I told you about a marketing agency that sent me a press release offering expert commentary on celebrity use of social media. Because that’s what I write about, right? Clearly they aren’t reading my blog, or they would not have sent me this week’s release offering their services as a source on “how social media monitoring tools can be used to track weather patterns.”

I kid you not. Here’s the money quote:

“Everyone is talking about how hot it has been lately, especially on Twitter,” [name redacted], chief optimism officer and founder of [name redacted] said. “By analyzing keywords like ‘hot’ and ‘heat,’ our social media monitoring tools, in addition to our social media team of experts, have found a correlation between what people are saying on social networks, and actual weather patterns.”

Really? It’s actually hot in those places that people are talking about how hot it is? I never would have thought of that without your press release. One more of these silly releases crosses my desk and I will invoke the Bad Pitch Blog‘s “three strikes and you’re out-ed” rule.

Other gems from my inbox this week included a request to post a video link of some chef making ceviche and a press release about a self-published book of nude photographs by (not of) some dude who created a series for Playboy TV.

And then there was the social network that offers to let me share my dreams with the people I care about. I cannot make this stuff up:

Have you ever wondered if anyone had a similar dream to one that you had, or which celebrity is most dreamed about? Did you know that global news events impact dreams in a tangible way, and that millions of people are already sharing their dreams with others? There is a good chance that your readers at Marketing Roadmaps are thinking about it as well.

So readers, tell me. Are you interested in this? I’m thinking not, but… Maybe this social network has mined your dreams and this is what you want from a blog about marketing, social media and best practices. Please advise.

Now I know I’m not the only one getting ridiculous pitches this summer. I’m actually lucky. Mine are funny, not offensive.

Alas, that was not the experience of my friend Allison Blass. Allison has type 1 diabetes and often writes about the disease on her personal blog  Lemonade Life. Professionally, she’s a PR person and regularly reaches out to bloggers on behalf of her clients, so she’s not opposed to getting pitches to her personal blog.  But she wants them to be relevant. If the pitch angle is about diabetes, the product had really better be for diabetics. Not simply a diabetic “gloss” on a consumer product intended to make it seem relevant to her blog. For example, the pitch she recently received for  a water filter.

Allison mentioned the pitch on Facebook and at my request, forwarded it to me. There were two basic problems with the pitch. First, as noted above, the product is a water filter. It isn’t something special for diabetics. Linking it to diabetes was just a hook. Worse, the basis the company used to link the product to diabetes didn’t sit well with Allison, who was diagnosed as a child and is very active in the diabetes community. When Allison called the rep on her facts, the PR rep got defensive and then a bit offensive. And that’s problem number two.

When the blogger or reporter says “this isn’t for me and you have all your facts wrong,” think twice about engaging. Most of the time, it’s better to apologize and move on to someone more receptive. Hard to do, especially if it’s a writer you really want to reach, but probably a better tactic than getting into a pissing contest with the person.

And pay attention to the objections. It doesn’t matter what YOU the company know. Success is in the customer’s perceptions. Reach out to them on their terms, not yours. If they think your pitch is a bit dodgy, it is. Period.

News from Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project

I first learned of Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project last year when its PR Agency reached out to me because of Blog With Integrity. I’ve since written about the project, attended a teleconference interview with Chuck star Zachary Levi about a short film he directed for the Project as part of a partnership with NBC, and will be attending a pretty cool (private) event next month the day before BlogHer. That’s the disclosure.

Here’s the opinion.

I’m not a customer of Liberty Mutual’s insurance products so I can’t offer an opinion about them. However, I am a customer of its message about responsibility, and they have done some admirable work.  The new TV commercial is excellent and makes a strong point about the need to “do the right thing.” A message that has value no matter who you are or how you are insured.

As the parent of a 10-year old, I also appreciate the attention Liberty Mutual is paying to issues like texting, online safety and personal responsibility for teenagers. The latest initiative is “Responsibility Project For The Win,” an essay contest for teens to encourage them to contribute to their communities over the summer. The five winning essays will be featured on the Responsiblity Project website and the company will make $500 donations to non-profits selected by the winners.

It’s hot here in the Northeast. But you knew that. Because that’s all any of us are talking about on Twitter and Facebook.

Well not entirely, but almost.

To ward off crankiness, I thought I’d share some gems from my inbox this morning. They are just so silly they made me laugh out loud.

Let’s start with this glimpse of my spam folder:

I’ve got to believe than one of the four is spamming them multiple times within the same hour.

Then there was the press release offering me:

Media Source Available to Discuss Social Media Use of Lebron James, Lindsay Lohan and Other Celebrities

[Name Redacted], a leading social media firm, provides information on trends and statistics for how social media tools like Facebook and Twitter impact the way celebrities communicate with the public.

Seriously, the “expert commenter media alert” is a very tired PR strategy. Honestly, if you are really an expert, you’d be talking about this stuff ON Facebook and Twitter, media would be following you, and contacting you. Note:  it is particularly lame when you send the release to marketing people who specialize in social media. I’m pretty sure we can figure this out for ourselves.

And that was just this morning. This week, I’ve also gotten press releases about  something to do with Miranda Cosgrove, a big home improvement chain and a few social media marketing books by people I’ve never heard of.

It is the silly season, my friends. Could be the heat. But I’m guessing it’s partially a timing thing.   PR management software company Vocus holds its Users’ Conference in early June.

That’s about three weeks for new users to get the basics under their belt and they are ready to spam, spam, spam! It’s not the company’s fault, but man oh man, when will the “spray and pray” model of press release distribution die the death it richly deserves?

Happy Independence Day! And a belated Happy Canada Day to friends and family north of the border.

Here are my holiday wishes for you.

This past weekend, I was in New York for the Travel Blog Exchange conference (TBEX). The primary reason I attended the conference was to represent Blog With Integrity on a panel about blogging ethics, but I also got some great tips and ideas for my somewhat neglected travel blog, Snapshot Chronicles Roadtrip.

This year, I’ve spoken at a number of conferences about integrity, disclosure and the FTC endorsement guidelines. In most cases, the audience doesn’t know very much about the guidelines beyond whatever version of the urban myths are circulating within the community. This is of course why the conference organizers invite Blog With Integrity and usually someone from the FTC and/or a lawyer.

The travel community  was grappling with the ethical issue of sponsored trips  well before the guidelines were revised last year. Travel bloggers are very passionate about ethics and receptive to the approach of best practices — disclosure policies that go beyond what the FTC minimally requires. In fact, many travel blogs already have published policies.

During the Q&A on Sunday, it was clear that the attendees wanted to comply with the FTC requirements,  but they were struggling a bit with exactly what had to be disclosed and how.

And then I had an “Aha” moment. Hard to believe that after all I have written about this topic for more than a year, there would be something I hadn’t thought of, but lo and behold, there was.

I broke it down to a simple equation for disclosure, which seemed to clear things up for a lot of the bloggers at TBEX.

Endorsement + Compensation = Disclosure Required

How to disclose

The best way to disclose to meet the FTC guidelines is within the post that contains the endorsement: “I was privileged to be hosted by…” “I was thrilled at the opportunity to take a trip to (place) courtesy of (sponsor).” And so on. It is not sufficient to disclose in your disclosure policy or About page.

However, I recommend that you also have  a disclosure & editorial policy on your page:

• to let your readers know what they can expect on your blog, especially casual readers or folks that find you through a search engine, and
• to inform marketers and PR people about your interests so they contact you with relevant, appropriate offers.

Relationships and SWAG

Another key point Mary Engle from the FTC and I both stressed on Sunday was the relationship between the marketer and the blogger. If the marketer is reaching out to specific bloggers with sponsored trips and free products, there is a compensated relationship that must be disclosed. If 300 bloggers all get identical SWAG (stuff we all get) at a conference, the reason they received it was as a member of a group, not as an individual. There is no relationship between the marketer and a blogger who got the SWAG. This is still true if distribution of the SWAG is managed using a list of bloggers at the conference entitled to receive it. A list doesn’t create a relationship. Communication between people creates a relationship.

That said, of course, you know my mantra — disclose anyway. The company that provided an item relevant enough that you decide to write about it deserves the props for supporting the conference SWAG bag.

Bloggers, journalists

A touchy subject was the idea that travel bloggers are being held to a higher standard than travel writers for mainstream media who don’t have to disclose. I’ve written about why the FTC doesn’t require disclosure from mainstream journalists many times, and won’t rehash it all again. The brief version is that it’s about the consumer reading the item, not the person writing it. If the consumer would understand that the endorsement was compensated  – in the case of a journalist, by his salary and probably the subsidy of his paper for the trip,  no further disclosure is required.

The predominant sentiment at the conference was that mainstream journalists should be required to disclose as well. I agree. Disclosure is a best practice, full stop, regardless of your publishing channel.

However, I reject the opposite argument, which wasn’t offered by the TBEX audience, but I’ve read elsewhere — if mainstream journalists don’t have to do it, why should bloggers? That’s grabbing the stick from the very wrong end.

I also think it’s counter-productive to worry too much about others. Focus on what you need to do to connect with your readers, provide them good information and entertaining writing, and be honest about any business relationships you have. Compensation or free product may not change your opinion or writing one little bit, but you have to let the reader make that call for herself. You shouldn’t attempt to do it for her.

Twitter?

How to disclose on Twitter always comes up during ethics panels, and Sunday was no exception. It’s also a bit more complex for travel writers taking sponsored trips, as opposed to someone reviewing a single product. A trip occurs over a period of time, and there are only 140 characters. If part of every tweet has to have a disclosure, the tweetstream would get pretty dull.

Mary Engle made an important clarification for us. You have to disclose that the trip was compensated or the product was free in tweets containing the endorsement of the sponsor/advertiser. When you are tweeting about something unrelated to the sponsor — for example,  your experience at a local museum or farmers’ market, there’s no need to disclose because you are not endorsing the sponsor.

Here’s my advice.

• Start your trip with a tweet acknowledging the sponsor (and linking to a post on your blog with more details if you have one)
• Be sure to disclose in some fashion in any tweets endorsing the sponsor: “I love my room at the Aruba Marriott #sponsor” “The beach at host hotel Swanky Resort is pristine.”
• If the trip spans multiple days, make sure you have at least one tweet per day that discloses that your trip is sponsored and by whom. The easiest way to do this is to spread out your endorsements of the sponsor

Related articles by Zemanta

• Eleven Urban Myths about the FTC Guidelines for Endorsements & Testimonials (getgood.com)
• Thoughts on the FTC investigation of Ann Taylor LOFT blogger event (getgood.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Last week, I was privileged to be one of the facilitators at a small social media summit for public health professionals sponsored by the Immunization Action Coalition and an unrestricted educational grant from GlaxoSmithKline.  I led discussions on a number of topics including measurement, Facebook, blogger and media relations (with good friend Mir Kamin) and message development (links to PDFs of slides.)

One of the most interesting aspects of the conference was a “ninja team” of experts that developed a social media campaign in 24-hours. I was totally impressed with their efforts, and encourage you to take a look at Real Guys Immunize, the campaign they created and executed during the conference. It shows how much can be accomplished with focus and teamwork in a short timeframe.

A company that cares about customer service sends an apology when it inadvertently sends emails improperly addressed. For example, the JetBlue email I got this morning that apologized to customers for a systems SNAFU  yesterday:

A company that doesn’t care about customer service can’t fix an error in the database used by its email marketing vendor, even after multiple requests from the customer, as reported in this post about my listing in the Avis email database. I got so sick of getting emails addressed to: GETGOOD that I unsubscribed and now primarily rent from Hertz.

A company that cares about customer service looks at the lifetime value of the customer, does what it can to make the customer happy when there’s an issue and follows up afterward.  One that doesn’t won’t refund a $16.00 purchase of screen protectors that wouldn’t go on properly because you no longer have the original packaging.

In this case, it’s Verizon in both cases, but it’s the difference between Verizon customer service online (which has been GOOD whenever I call) and the local Verizon store. Customer service knows how much money we spend with Verizon for FIOS TV and Internet, a landline, a MiFi and three cell phones, two of which are smart phones with an Internet plan. The local store doesn’t give a tinker’s damn unless we are upgrading our phone.

How do you tell the difference between a company that cares about your business and one that doesn’t? And what do you do about it?

I’ll try to have a post up here sometime later this week. In the meantime, here’s where I was writing this past week.

Snapshot Chronicles: It’s all in how you ask - about a recent request to use one of my Flickr photos in a print magazine. For free. You can guess how well that went over.

Snapshot Chronicles Roadtrip: Paris with Kids: Tour Montparnasse, le Jardin du Luxembourg and Montmartre

BlogHer: Is Mainstream Media Scared of Social Media and information about the upcoming Boston Area Pre-Blogher BBQ on July 17th