When Blogging Goes Bad

One of my close friends has just gotten into deep trouble at work. The reason? His MySpace blog, in which he shared information that was a LITTLE too personal, and a LITTLE too not-happy-with-work. One of his colleagues apparently forwarded a not-so-complementary post to one of his bosses, and well - you know how it goes.

As more folks take up the torch and start documenting their lives online, employers are starting to take notice, and more people are getting into trouble at work over things that they say or do in their online lives. As far back as 2005, ABC News posted a story about just this type of thing.

It sucks, yes, but it can be prevented, with a bit of foresight.

For one thing, it's really not a good idea to insult your clients, coworkers or company in a blog post - especially if you're in a high-profile position. Even if you don't name names, it's just not a good idea. In a world that gets smaller by the minute, you never know who you know who knows the person you're talking about.

Also, it's a good idea to monitor who gets to read your writing. In the case of a blogging software like MySpace or LiveJournal, you can actually set blog posts so that only specific people can read them. This isn't foolproof (I believe they can still come up in Google searches), but it helps make sure that some of the saucier (or less professional) bits of you don't get through to folks that you don't want reading it.

Lastly, ask yourself before you write: who am I writing this for? How would I feel if my boss/mother/person I'm talking about read this? If it's not something you'd want someone that close to you to read, don't put it online. Personally, I suggest having both an online and a paper journal, or just sticking to the paper journal.

While these notes are definitely more geared towards personal blogs, a lot of it holds true in business blogging as well - if you're afraid of person X coming across a post you made in your business blog, it's a good idea not to post it. This is another reason why I recommend having an informal "blog content plan" when you start your business blog - if you have an idea of what types of things that you want to share with people, it's not only easier to write, it's easier to figure out things that won't be a good fit for the blog.

Want to get noticed in the blogosphere? Keep it simple and relevant.

I just read a great post by my buddy Jess Sand over at Roughstock Studios (whose recent post on hormone-free milk labeling just got picked up by superblogger Seth Godin. In the post, she talks about how she serendipitously managed to get Godin to link to her post in his own blog, sending ridiculous amounts of traffic to her blog.

How did she do it? She kept it simple, kept it real, and kept it relevant.

Simple.
My email was short and sweet: I briefly introduced myself and explained my reason for writing. I didn't reference my own blog post until the end of the email, and then I signed off. The entire email was less than 200 words.

Honest.
My intention was never to get Seth to link to me. My intention was to get eyeballs on the issue of the Pennsylvania ban on "rBST-free" labeling, and I told him as much. I included a link to my post so he could read my own take if he so chose. Happily for me, he did.

Relevant.
My email to Seth was right after he posted his "Conceal vs. Reveal" entry, and it referenced a story that was a direct illustration of his point. More importantly, because I'm a regular reader of his blog, I know that he values fairness and consumer respect—values that played a big part in this particular story. I come across things every day that would probably interest this guy, but I knew that this one in particular was exactly suited to what was just on his mind.

This is great advice, and has definitely worked for me in the past - not to the exact level that Jess just experienced, to be sure, but some of the most valuable networking relationships and publicity moments I've gathered in my time operating the zen kitchen came from a short, honest and relevant e-mail to someone I admired - and often those e-mails were more notes of appreciation than requests for a plug.

So today's lesson? It pays to take notice.

And by the way, if you didn't catch the link above, you can read the post here.

Keys to Blogging Success: Keep it Real

As you probably have guessed by now, I love blogging. And, if I dare say, I'm pretty darn good at it. But not everyone is a great writer, or even enjoys writing. So, should they hire a ghostwriter to blog for them?

It depends. Some folks, like my fellow HOWie Jess Sand from Roughstock Studios, have had success blogging on behalf of clients. Others, like Walmart, have been found out, and thus ostracized from the community they so needed to tap into. The difference? Jess, and others like her, keep it real.

Among other various opinions that have been blogged about the subject, Joan D'Amico's recent post on the Walmart debacle speaks very eloquently about why the Walmart blog failed: a liberal dose of insanely obvious marketing messages.

Nobody wants to read marketing messages in a blog. Nobody. That's not the point of a blog. It's. Just. Not.

The problem with marketers trying to get their hands into the blog space is that they're marketers - this is what they know. They aren't comfortable with just talking about stuff that interests them - they have to turn it into something that will hopefully generate a sale. And this doesn't work with blogs.

Bloggers (and their readers) are looking for some honest, down-to-earth insight from the real people - got something you love to do? Blog about it. Have a rant about some political issue, celebrity mishap, or just want to share some stories from your life? Blog about it. That's what people want to read - real people, dealing with real stuff, and - perhaps - sharing some real life.

This is the new age of marketing - the age of dealing with people as people, and not as demographics, or points on a sales graph. Get used to it.

Getting into the Marketing Flow

One of my biggest challenges since starting the zen kitchen almost a year and a half ago has been fitting in time to do all the marketing necessary to keep the business afloat (and, frankly, keep the workday a bit more interesting). While I actually managed to achieve all the goals I had set forth in my initial marketing plan (and in about the timeframe I had set forth too - without even looking at it again!), it's still a weekly challenge to get myself motivated to do all the things I've decided to do to market myself, evaluate what's working and what needs a shift, and do all that lovely strategic thinking that I'm just so GOOD at doing for the zen kitchen's clients.

So what's a gal to do? For me, the answer involved hiding out for a while and taking lots of long baths and meditating. It ALSO, however, involved revisiting my marketing plan and setting new goals for the next two quarters, as well as finally making good use of my paper planner (yes, I know, paper - but what can I say, I'm a journaler!) to keep me on track and note progress in the areas I've defined as my focus.

Some things you're likely to see from me over the next six months:

• More frequent blog posts (goal: 2-3 per week), and likely shorter ones;
• A more consistent schedule for my e-newsletter (which you can sign up for at the tzk website). I'm going for the 3rd Wednesday of the month, and might move to the 2nd Wednesday if that turns out to work better.
• A new, shorter format to the e-newsletter (right now it feels unmanageable, so I think I'm going to scale back on some of the more extraneous bits)
• A new website (finally), scaled-back on initial launch to include some basic info on why you should work with the zen kitchen (because you should, really!), but adding more features over the course of the next six months, including links to articles I've written and (eventually) some e-books.
• A new focus on ethically-driven businesses, and an unapologetic incorporation of food metaphors (after all, it is a kitchen, right?)

So hopefully, that'll take some of the overwhelm out of the whole marketing thang, and I'll be able to get this down. I'd love to hear about how you get into your own marketing flow. Drop me a comment and let me know what you're up to in your business (and I mean any kind of business).

Should you blog for your business?

Over the last week or so, I've started to get lots of questions from folks in my network about blogs - should I blog? What should I blog about? Can a blog really help me grow my business? The answer, of course, differs from person to person. Blogging works for me because a) I was a personal blogger and journaler for years before I ever started a business blog, so I knew how to use the technology fairly well and was used to writing, and b) I talk. A Lot. About my business. A. Lot.

So, blogging works pretty well for me. I log on, try to keep things updated fairly often (although not as often as I should sometimes), and I have links to my blog everywhere - from comments left in other blogs and in forums, to my e-mail signature and the zen kitchen's website.

Now, given this, should YOU blog? Ask yourself these questions first:

• Do you have time to write daily or weekly, on a topic you're passionate about that relates to your area of expertise?A good blog is updated pretty frequently, at least once a week (if your posts tend to be longer) or at best daily (if the posts are shorter). I'm in the process of transitioning to mostly shorter entries updated daily. It's a challenge, but I'm managing it.


• Do you like to write, and are you good at it? The best blogs are conversational, the posts aren't outrageously long (even some of my longer posts push the limit sometimes, although I've seen some that are longer), and they're updated pretty frequently with information relevant to the topic of the blog.


• Do you know what you want to write about, and who you want to write for? Blogs tend to work when they're focused - you have 1-3 things that you talk about, and you're speaking to a very specific audience. I tend to cover the issues I face both as a green designer, and as an independent designer and business owner, and my audience tends to be not only other designers, but other socially responsible business owners. Once you have that target audience and subject matter identified, finding things to write about becomes much easier.

If done well, blogs can be a terrific marketing tool. They are completely paperless (always good for a greenie), and they give you a unique chance to create conversations with your target market. At the same time, however, a blog should never feel like a chore - it should be something you enjoy doing and can really put the effort into. One thing you realize quickly is that any discontent you feel with the blogging process will show in the final product - and that reduces the effectiveness of your blog.

Blogging for your Business

Over the last few days I've been spending some time reading Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Your Business by DL Byron and Steve Broback. Now that the year is coming to a close and I finally have some breathing room (whew!), it seems appropriate to start looking at all the different ways I promote myself and the studio online, and blogging has inadvertantly become a huge part of that.

I started blogging in about 2000-2001; it was mostly a personal blog on LiveJournal, more a collection of daily rants and musings than anything else; I didn't really think much of it other than the fact that I enjoyed being able to put my thoughts "out there" and not only be able to connect with real-life friends I don't get to see often, but potentially make new friends from all over the place. But I never really thought about who I was writing for or what I was writing about; it was all what I was thinking at the time.

When I first started thinking about starting a blog for the zen kitchen, a whole new set of considerations opened up for me. With this blog, I have so much more to consider—who I'm writing for, who I want to be writing for, what I'm writing and why, and where the blog should be hosted—Blogger or WordPress, etc. It's been an interesting challenge, and I'm still working to perfect the process. If you're looking to start a blog for your business, Publish & Prosper gives a good basic rundown of your options and a very common-sense how-to, from how often you should post (3-6 times a day if you want really intense traffic—yikes!) to how to choose the right tool for your needs. It's a quick read as well — just 185 pages or so, and packed with good information.

Over the next month or so, in between finishing up a couple of projects, heading down to Florida with my boyfriend for the holidays, and dealing with the whole Christmas thing, I'm going to be taking a serious look at revamping the tzk site as well as this and my other blog, A Woman's Issues, and I'll be transforming the recipe section of the tzk site (because yes, part of the reason I called my studio the zen kitchen is because I love to cook more than is perhaps reasonable) into a full-fledged food blog, which will not only showcase the recipes I come up with in my cooking adventures, but also talk a bit about my favorite ingredients, the things I love about food, and other foodie-geek trivia. 2007 is going to be a VERY interesting year.