Month: October 2010

The Blogosphere in 2010

I just found the State of the Blogosphere in 2010 report over at BlogHerald. It’s chock full of lots of data about blogs and the bloggers who blog them, taken from the BlogPulse survey that includes over 150,000,000 blogs.

In the infographic below, you’ll discover the following:

  • Top 10 blogs by traffic
  • The spread of pro, part-time, hobbyist and self-employed bloggers
  • Breakdown of their age and demographic data
  • How often they post
  • What languages are most prominent (hint: English is now ranked #2 as the most prominent language of blogs. See if you can guess what #1 is.)
  • Revenue earned by bloggers
  • Geographic distribution of blogs within the U.S.

Typically, this is a function that was handled by Technorati. It would seem that their report is still a few weeks away. You can check out the archived posts for the State of the Blogsophere in 2009, 2008, 2007 and earlier. But it leads to the question: whatever happened to the prominence of Technorati? It’s a question that’s been asked before.

In the meantime, enjoy the eye candy. Other great infographics are available from BlogHerald here. If you have any observations or insights, I’d be glad to hear about them below.

Scott Monty

Image credit: InfoGraphicsLab.com

Another study proves the obvious: real world WOM rules

A new Keller Fay study has just corroborated one of the most obvious insights in WOM: the majority of word of mouth still happens offline.

The study found that 93% of the general public use face-to-face communication as their primary mode of WOM, and that even 85% of social media-obsessed teens spread most of their opinions and recommendations offline.

Wow. Who’d have thought it? Um, pretty much anyone who’s a human being?

1000heads’ Robin and Katie stimulate some offline WOM in Soho via our tenth birthday cupcakes

Now, we’ve posted about this a few times before: here and here and here, for example. Or check out our dedicated offline/online blog category, which has lots of examples of how to spread real world conversation. It’s a no-brainer to us: social media is a wonderful amplifier and accelerator of WOM, but most conversation stems from physical, emotional experiences away from the keyboard (or touchpad).

Read more

The Rise of Collaborative Consumption

A few weeks ago, I got a copy of Rachel Botsman’s new book, What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption.

The general theme of the book is that we’re shifting away from a society of hyper-consumption and equating personal self-worth with amount of material good accumulated, and instead to a world where our ability to access and exchange resources, develop a reputation, and build community and social capital takes precedence in how we choose to express who we are and what we choose to define us.

Read more

Connect with @GlenGilmore the @Trendtracker on #MMchat

On Monday October 25th @GlenGilmore the @Trendtracker will be on #MMchat to engage and enlighten all of you #MMchat tweeps with his wit, charm and of course advanced trendtracking abilities!

Come meet and interact with one of the Twitter originals still going strong and learn the origins of this legend in finding, exposing and defining the trends which continue to emerge in this rapidly evolving world of social media!

This is definitely one #MMchat NOT to be missed so join us with your questions for @GlenGilmore the @Trendtracker because it’s you the #MMchat tweeps who make #MarketerMonday Chat matter! Remember #MMchat makes Mondays MARVELOUS!!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO

Engaging the Business Elite with Mobile

A week or so ago, I wrote an article for www.B2Bbloggers.com called ‘Want to Engage Senior Executives? Think Mobile“. Since this post, I have been speaking with some of my customers about advancing this notion.

Here is what we have come up with:

•The problem with direct engagement of Business Elite is that it is only possible once –
•You have successfully engaged gate keepers and influencers; or
•You already have existing relationships with them, i.e existing customers.
•It must be integrated with strategic sales and account executives, in fact, these folks are the best at leading the charge to engage senior execs
•It must be integrated with other marketing tactics such as executive events-seminars-round tables, blogs/newsletters, and sales material.
•All mobile content must be targeted at senior executives, which means really being brutal in terms of brevity, message and alignment to customer need.

The big thing we all agreed to was that it all had to be strategically planned and integrated into a long term demand generation program starting at first contact with potential influencers to working in support of sales.

The approaches and tactics we use to develop and maintain customer relationships are converging as quickly as technology is converging, but it doesn’t seem to be on the radar for most B2B marketing organizations.

The approach requires us to build programs that are horizontal in nature engaging mobile, experiential, social channels as well as seamlessly integrating sales teams and specialists; and ensuring that it meets the requirements of their busy lifestyle in and out of the office.

I’d be interested to understand what you think of this and how your organization is currently engaging senior executives.

Cheers and thanks!

Jeff – Sensei

#MMchat with Cd Vann…LIVE and unGEEKED!

For our tenth MarketerMonday Chat #MMchat our SPECIAL guest was Cd Vann, @ThatWoman_Is. As Founder of unGEEKED retreats, Cd has established a series of intimate events across the continent allowing small groups to meet and interact in close quarters with the movers and shakers in social media today. Our topic for #MMchat this evening was Issues Surrounding Brand Authenticity vs Personal Integrity!

This is only the tenth #MMchat we’ve held and see #MMchat for more details on MarketerMonday Chat our previous SPECIAL guests, transcripts and our upcoming schedule.

Thanks again to Cd as well as all of you AWESOME #MMchat tweeps who joined us and participated in getting down and unGEEKED in this very interactive chat!

Check out the full transcript of the chat at http://bit.ly/CdVann and please join us next week as Bill Boorman, @BillBoorman beams in October 11th at 8:00 pm EST to discuss the Marketing Benefits of Employee Engagement! See you all then!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO

Grace Beyond the Pew

Is grace a word we hear outside of worship? Its meanings include: elegance, politeness, generosity of spirit, or a pleasing quality. A topic of Pastor Jim’s sermon today, I began thinking on the way home from church about how I’ve seen grace in action outside the church.

  1. ABC’s Dancing with the Stars explained on Tuesday evening that what may have been perceived as the audience booing Sarah Palin (whose daughter Bristol is a contestant) the previous night, was actually the audience expressing its extreme displeasure with scores given by the judges on another performance. (Grace, as an expression of politeness)
  2. The effervescent Jennifer Delaye (JDK Catering; “cover girl” of the September issue of Business Woman and the August issue of Harrisburg Magazine) shared her perspective on innovation and shared slides showing examples of her fantastic event food and room decor design in my class on Tuesday. One of my students, Veronica, held her hand up in the middle of her presentation, and shared a high five with Jennifer, telling her, “You’ve got it going on!” (Grace, as a pleasing quality)
  3. One of my colleagues from Harrisburg Area Community College, Judy, was setting up our Artisan’s Marketplace in Gettysburg this week. One of the artists missed the gallery submission deadline; she offered (with my permission) to have the artist drop their work off at my home so I could transport it to Harrisburg the day following, so Judy could take it to Gettysburg to include it in the show. Judy was beaming ear-to-ear at her opening night on Friday, partly because she knew the experience wouldn’t have been as successful if this artist’s work hadn’t been there. (Grace, as generosity of spirit)
  4. I’m having the privilege of working with some terrific people I met in Memphis last May, thanks to folks like @HowellMarketing and @AnneDGallaher. One of the by-products of this meeting is the publication of a book on social media, with contributions from some of the people at this event. While I feel like I’m a relative newbie with this medium, @TheSocialCMO (who is coordinating all this talent) and fellow contributor @markwschaefer have been kind enough to allow to me contribute in some small way to this book. (Grace, as in elegance)
@markwschaefer and I at #BroganMemphis

While still recognizing that grace is easier to bestow on a thankful recipient, couldn’t we all use just a little more grace beyond the pew?

Kathy Snavely

(This post was written by a grateful recipient of grace in its many forms.)

The Struggle for Existence in Social Media Environments

The more I read Darwin’s Origin of the Species, the more I am amazed at how his work opens the mind to so many different perspectives on human nature, human society, human evolution and the environments we use to develop relationships. This is a man who had and still has a singularly unique perspective on the design of nature.

One of the more fascinating pieces of his work was how he viewed what he deems the struggle for existence, including “the dependence of one being on another, and including not only the life of the individual, but the success in leaving progeny”.

But how is this even remotely related to Social Media or farther still Large Enterprise in Social Media?

Well, try this out and see if you agree…

First, think of Social Media Environments like a living, breathing, ever changing ecosystem where millions of beings (of all shapes, sizes, and dispositions) co-exist and contribute to the ecosystem by consuming and creating food. Add to this another layer I’ll refer to as the food layer which is made of of ideas and conversations.

Second, let’s say that all beings within social media environments are dependent on one another; why else would we need followers? And that their progeny is their ideas and/or their brand; thus the need to attract followers who take on your idea and brand – metaphorically they become your offspring.

Here is where I’m going to throw a bit more Darwin at you.

Read more

Making the Most of LinkedIn Groups ~ #MMchat with Viveka von Rosen

For our ninth MarketerMonday Chat #MMchat our SPECIAL guest was Viveka von Rosen, The @LinkedInExpert. As CEO of Linked Into Business, Viveka enables business professionals to make personal connections in a professional manner and our topic for the evening was Making the Most of LinkedIn Groups. To get an idea of where Viveka is comng from, check out her first post on @TheSocialCMO Using LinkedIn Groups for Better Relationships and More Business!

This is only the ninth #MMchat we’ve held and see #MMchat for more details on MarketerMonday Chat our previous SPECIAL guests, transcripts and our upcoming schedule.

Thanks again to Viveka as well as all of you AWESOME #MMchat tweeps who joined us and participated in this vivacious and very interactive chat!

Check out the full transcript of the chat at http://bit.ly/VivekavonRosen and please join us next week as Cd Vann, @ThatWoman_Is joins us! Cd is the Founder of unGEEKED Retreats and a member of the @TheSocialCMO Crew and will be joining us October 4th at 8:00 pm EST to discuss Issues Surrounding Brand Authenticity vs Personal Integrity!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO