According to Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere, blogs receive 77.7 million unique visits a month. Technorati also states that 184 million people worldwide have started a blog. It is no secret that businesses have the opportunity to connect with a lot of potential customers via blogging.

One question that I hear a lot, goes a little like this: I want to get our company blogging, but how can I convince the c-suite that this is a valuable source of their time and money during these tough economic times?

First, I would try to sell them with successful blogging case studies from similar size businesses. Second, I would refer to this list of benefits that blogging can provide to your company.

1. Increased Exposure: Reach millions for no pay-for-play cost.
2. Sales Leads: Connect with buyers searching for your keywords online.
3. Make Yourself an Expert: Let the world know that you are an authority on your category. Become a resource for the media and consumers hungry for information.
4. Build Business Connections: You never know what connection could lead to a new business partnership or referral.
5. Build Search Engine Ranking: Google loves content and links, blogs let you develop a lot of both in a quick and easy way.
6. Beta Test Marketing Strategies or New Offers: find out if consumers like your new marketing or price offer before you pay to advertise it.
7. Respond to Controversy on Your Own Turf: Respond to online criticism in the safe and controllable environment of your own blog.
8. Recruitment: Publish a lot of positive information on the work/life balance at your company. The best candidates will be do online research into your company before they accept a position.
9. Media Relations: The media use the blogosphere as a source of story ideas, expert information and contacts. Take advantage of this opportunity to promote your business.

I hope that this short list of blogging benefits will help you convince your company to get out there. Remember the golden rule though: blogs are a conversation tool, not a publication tool.

Best of Luck,

Bill Flavell

I have nothing really amazing or brilliant to say about these products. The design speaks for itself. The fact that we all might be frustrated at the current situation of our world was reason enough for me to pass on these nuggets of love. Enter the room: Zuny! If a product was ever designed to feel like it was giving you instant smiles and hugs, this is the one.

“Zuny” – a simple, genial and creative design of leather-made home accessories, which is made out of the designers’ creativity and imagination. Zuny enriches the peoples’ life and provides a perfect gateway for releasing annoyances and pressures from work and frustration. This motivates Zuny to achieve its goal – “Make your life funny and easy“.   http://www.zuny.info/

There we have it. Just more proof that good design can make you happy and more optimistic. Which is something that all of us should carry with us each and every day.

As a firm believer of recycling and being as green as possible in every aspect of living, I loved this posting on one of my favorite package design websites:http://lovelypackage.com/ . Cleveland College of Art & Design Surface Design department created mini portfolios out of existing screen printing materials.

“Robert Page has had the pleasure of working alongside Cleveland College of Art & Design’s prestigious Surface Design department, to create a promotional document which would enable the department to promote 36 students and two course, and create a ‘wow’ factor amongst its recipients.

The process involved a number of complex sourcing and research methods which led to a unique and tactile product to distribute to selected key industry figures at at the high profile Indigo event in Paris.”

The final result consisted of 420 different designs on the outer folders, due to an inclusive process where all 36 students actively took part to form a large production line creating the final folders, recycling and using the existing studios screens that had been created throughout the courses final year.

I love how they used existing screens and variations on the patterns to create truly original work for all 36 portfolios. YUMMY!

http://lovelypackage.com/cleveland-college-of-art-design/

IDEO, a global design consultancy creating impact through design, took their experiment known as Free Time to the streets in San Francisco. They created a “free time” ticket dispenser that hands out 10-minute increments of free time in the form of printed tickets. This is a study of basic prototyping and why it is so important to test out products or services on the real world before taking them out into the market, if at all possible. An interesting viral characteristic of the Free Time study, was that once a few passengers on the train witnessed other’s taking free time tickets, they couldn’t resist the opportunity to play. In some cases, those who initially snubbed their noses to it and did not want to be involved, changed their minds after seeing others warm up to it.

Here is what happened when they took the dispenser onto the Caltrain ride back to San Francisco.

http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=175#content

In this challenging economic environment, some corporations will struggle to survive and others will grow to be even stronger. In the recent Wall Street Journal, Accenture did a magnificent job on their Tiger Wood’s ad campaign. This print ad is very relevant to the feeling and emotions that a lot of us are currently going through during economic hardship. Accenture used a very visible, trustworthy celebrity to convey their message in a tactful and unique way. I have to agree with Darren Rovell’s recent Blog post in SportsBiz. He said “They made the most of Tiger’s struggles by calling attention to it and drawing the correlation to the struggles of the country and Accenture’s potential clients in this economic environment. Real ads like this, that are both sensitive and relevant, are the only ones that are going to draw the eyes of the consumer these days.”

A report released this week by Forrester Research talking up sponsored conversations (i.e. paid blog posts) set off a firestorm of online debate.

Forrester’s report states that it makes sense for some marketers to pay bloggers to write about their experience with the brand. It lumps sponsored conversations as a subset of general marketing practices like advertising and PR activities. The author of the report, Sean Corcoran, said in his blog post explaining the report, “For these low buzz brands sponsored conversation is another way to increase discussion about your products.”

Corcoran said as a matter of market forces, there was no turning back with paid posts: there’s a demand and there’s a supply. Bloggers want to be paid and marketers want to pay them. Indeed, the paid blogging market is real and vibrant. Many major brands already engage in the practice. And given that the number of people reading blogs has grown 50% in the past year and continues to grow – one in three Americans online read a blog at least once a month, more marketers are considering the tactic.

Whether you agree or disagree with the concept (I admit I’m waffling on the issue because I know how hard it is for some “non sexy” type of companies to get anyone to even give them the time of day, but also worry about credibility), the release of the report sparked a quick reaction from Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam team. Cutts reminds everyone that paid posts with sponsors behind them not only need to be disclosed as such but also must also bear “no follow” tags so as to not fool the Google spider that crawls the Web for ranking purposes. Google is pretty religious about its guidelines and has and will penalize violators because, as Cutts puts it, they “pollute the ecology of the web.”

The premise behind “no follow” tags is to tell the spider that a post shouldn’t count toward a site’s search ranking on Google, because that would constitute buying links as a way to try to increase ranking — something not tolerated by Google.

According to a story on AdAge.com, “Forrester’s Sean Corcoran, who authored the report that set off Mr. Cutts’ finger-wagging, said he would follow up with a blog post that deals with Google’s demands, including spelling out the need to include no-follow tags in paid blog entries.”

Here’s some advice for marketers who may be considering this approach as part of their blogger outreach programs:

• Follow the “no follow” guidelines to the letter and understand the paid post won’t help your search rankings
• Be completely transparent and disclose all financial relationships and understand that any blogger worth his/her salt will follow guidelines to the letter
• Just because you pay doesn’t mean you control. It’s not like advertising. Bloggers need to speak in their own genuine voice, not yours. They are not your mouthpiece and they are free to say something unflattering about you if that’s what they think or feel
• Learn about the blogger first and make sure his voice and audience is relevant to your company/product. Just because a blogger has a big audience doesn’t make him/her a good fit for your company. It needs to be a good fit for both parties.
• Listen before you act

Photo: voxeros on Flickr.

A lot of attention gets paid around here to web/interactive design. It’s a different beast than print design. It’s got to be usable. It can be dynamic. It has to be programmed, coded, laid out, and implemented in some way that displays properly in a bunch of different web browsers and even mobile devices. And let’s not even get started on keeping up with the latest rendering engines, CSS techniques, and all the other things that end up making the web design job a lot more than making pretty pictures.

Now I am by NO MEANS implying that any designer simply makes pretty pictures! I’m simply talking about what goes into good web design in addition to a great concept and aesthetics. That’s why it feels great to get recognized for doing some good design from time to time.

The January/February issue of Layers Magazine features a website redesign concept by our own Ryan Sorensen. Ryan’s concept, along with two others, were selected to appear in the magazine’s Design Makeover column. If you are trying to design your website then you need to get one of the UK servers.

The “client” is Mikee, a specialty-sauce maker that has a line of award-winning kosher specialty sauces. We were excited to be able to participate in the project, and even more excited to see our concept be selected and featured first in the design makeover lineup.

Since this was just a concept that would appear in a magazine, we took a few liberties with the design that we may have skipped if we were going to implement it for an actual online store. The basic principles are the same, though – give the visitor an easy-to-navigate site that showcases the product and gets them to buy.

Website redesigns are also an interesting thing. You’re presented with reinventing something while maintaining some sort of coherent consistency with a brand at the same time. There’s other considerations as well, like the status of the current site’s placement in the search engines. Nobody wants to lose any good ranking. It’s like conducting an orchestra when executing a successful website redesign. Get a good conductor and some great musicians and you’ll hear beautiful music. Just don’t let that piccolo on the third row screw it up for everybody.

It would have been great to be able to see the project all the way through. The business owner actually contacted me to see if we would be able to work something out for a full site redesign, but their current budget restrictions have changed their ability to move forward right now.

Look, I like Twitter. I am logged into Twitter right now. I love that it is mobile. I love that it is fast, free and open to freedom of expression. I love that it is open API and there are already hundreds, if not thousands, of supplementary Twitter tools. I love that it lets you be super snarky. What I don’t like about Twitter is how important everyone seems to think it is.

In these rough economic times, it is easy for marketers to put their faith in quick rising new tools (Twitter is currently the fastest growing social media tool according to Wired). But the truth is that it is no magic bullet. The truth is that great customer service, a good product offering and interesting content will lead to good word of mouth recognition. There are some great tools in the social space to spread your content. But unless you have good content based on strategic planning, you will not succeed with any of the social tools. A big part of that strategic planning is knowing your audience and addressing their relevant concerns online, providing them a wanted service.

But, you say there are some companies out there who have been very successful with their Twitter accounts:
Dunkin Donut, Dell, Comcast… Yes, but this is because they have embraced the tool and used it in a natural way. And all three use Twitter as one small part of the marketing presence or for one small part of their business. The big reason for their success is that they used Twitter to address an existing customer need/concern.

It seems like everyday there is another article published online feeding the belief that Twitter is the new cure all. Below are two very interesting articles on the pervasiveness of Twitter. Please use them for good, not as an excuse to sell the cure-all.

Twitter First Real Threat to Google

11% of Americans Read or Post Status Updates

Bozell, a creative marketing communications company, has added to its integrated management team in a move to further enhance senior bench strength and strengthen its leadership position in the ever-changing environment of the marketing profession. “We’ve realigned our structure and will continue to do so as needed to better deliver integrated marketing services in a meaningful, relevant way,” said Kim Mickelsen, Bozell owner and principal, Integrated Marketing.

“A couple years ago we recognized the need to make some significant strategic changes to be more competitive. So we first realigned the ownership group to reflect the necessary shift in business capabilities. By adding Corey Meyer, we were able to strengthen the ownership team and enhance the depth of our consulting practice,” said Robin Donovan, Bozell owner and principal, Administration and Business Services. Meyer has a 20-year track record of strategic, operational and marketing consulting working for companies such as Arthur Andersen and Gallup in the consumer products, retail, financial services and telecommunications sectors. The addition of Meyer completes the Bozell ownership team of Mickelsen, Donovan and Meyer.

“The ownership and management teams are leading the efforts at Bozell to place a greater emphasis on dialogue with and between key stakeholders, business partners and customers,” Mickelsen said. With Bozell’s recent acquisition of Orajan, a web design and development company, and the addition of the Dialogue Relations department, which includes social media, media relations, strategic planning and community relations, Bozell is continuing to evolve the way they do business. Bozell has also restructured its creative department into two divisions, advertising and design. In addition to traditional advertising, the company is expanding their design capabilities to better meet the needs of their customers.

With more than 20 years of experience in strategic planning, media relations and marketing communications, in California and Nebraska, Sylvia France recently joined Bozell as Partner in Charge, Dialogue Relations. Prior to joining Bozell, she worked at several marketing communications consulting firms, including Bailey Lauerman in Omaha and Regis McKenna in Palo Alto, Calif., as well as owning her own agency in Silicon Valley. She graduated from Florida State University, with bachelor’s degrees in finance and international marketing.

Joining Bozell as Partner in Charge, Brand Navigation, Kevin Hutchison brings to the agency more than 20 years of experience in account management, nonprofit marketing and financial communications. Hutchison previously served as an account director at KarshHagan Communications and also at Bozell as an account director on clients including First National Bank Kansas, MidAmerican Energy, CBSHOME Real Estate and Boy Scouts of America. He received a liberal arts degree from Asbury College.

Cort Irish joined Bozell in 2003 as Broadcast Manager, was promoted to Media Director in 2005 and was recently named Partner in Charge, Media. Currently, he supervises all of the media planning and buying for the agency’s clients. Prior to joining Bozell in 2003, Irish handled media for top agencies D’Arcy and Leo Burnett in New York. Irish graduated from Illinois Sate University, with a double-major in marketing and business administration.

As Managing Partner, Smartargeting, Steve Kuegler works closely with clients to develop their overall strategic database marketing programs. This includes a sophisticated analysis of clients’ customer’s data, evaluation of market factors and analysis of their internal systems. Previously he was vice-president of Database Marketing Services for Bernstein-Rein located in Kansas City, Missouri where he oversaw all aspects of the day-to-day operation of the department, as well as managed the database programs for all Bernstein’s clients, including Wal-Mart, Blockbuster Video, and Anheuser-Busch Entertainment. Kuegler also previously served as branch manager at Dun & Bradstreet Information Services and as the national marketing manager for a database-marketing subsidiary of SPS Payment Systems headquartered in Chicago, IL.

Jill Rizzo joined Bozell in 2006 as Associate Creative Director and was recently promoted to Partner in Charge, Design. Rizzo oversees the design teams for Alegent Health, Borsheims, VT and Tnemec. Prior to joining Bozell, she served as senior design director at David Day and Associates. She was also one of the creators of the Bemis Underground, an actively flourishing experimental gallery space sponsored by the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. She received her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Creighton University and has also studied at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and St. Olaf College.

Cliff Watson was recently named Partner in Charge, Advertising. Before coming to Bozell in 2002, Watson was a writer for premium outdoor recreation companies including Remington Arms, Perception Kayaks, and Mossy Oak camouflage. His experience also includes extensive work on a wide range of brands, from finance to food service and professional sports to local government. His advertising has been recognized by numerous creative organizations, including the One Club, Art Director’s Club, Clios, and OBIEs. Watson graduated from Rhodes College with a degree in fiction writing.

Scott Rowe was recently promoted to Partner in Charge, Interactive Planning and Strategy after previously serving as Interactive Services Director. Before joining Bozell, Scott co-owned and developed Seeit.com, a national Web site using streaming video to make apartment hunting easier. Previously he worked as a photojournalist for a CBS affiliate. Rowe graduated from the University of Nebraska at Kearney with a B.S. degree in broadcasting.

Brian Wetjen joins Bozell as Partner in Charge, Interactive Creative. He founded Orajen, a web design and development company in 2001, and served as co-owner until Bozell acquired the company in July 2008. He also previously served as webmaster for Bellevue Data Communications and was responsible for the design, programming and development of Web sites. An Omaha native, Wetjen graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and printmaking.

About Bozell
Bozell is an integrated marketing communications company with offices in Omaha and Kansas City. Bozell combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to get close to its clients’ customers. Bozell then uses advertising, digital marketing, dialogue relations, technology and innovative creative to provide targeted solutions for local, regional and national clients. For more information, visit www.bozell.com.

In the last 24 months we’ve received dozens of calls, had numerous meetings and heard the same things over and over…”What do I do now?  How do I get started? I need to be smarter about my marketing.  I need to get out there but don’t know what to do because the marketing game has changed.  I need help.”  So we’ve create a practical how-to seminar series on a variety of marketing topics because we’ve seen first hand the need for a “preventative medicine” type of approach when it comes to effective marketing techniques being used today.

There’s confusion, trepidation, and a general feeling of being overwhelmed.  Add to that the pressure to get more bang for your marketing buck in today’s economic climate and the anxiety increases.

More and more companies need or want to expand their visibility online.   To be found where people look.  That often means tapping the potential of social media, but they don’t know how to enter the conversation or are paralyzed because of a stumble.  We’ve heard tales of being banned from Digg, kicked off Facebook, deleted from Wikipedia, stumped by Twitter, slammed by bloggers or caught off guard by employee comments in cyberspace.  We hear the the same question over and over, “What do I do?” And the dozens of books, hundreds of articles and thousands of web pages dedicated to the subject only seem to make it feel more overwhelming.

So we’ve developed this series of seminars, starting with social media marketing, to go beyond theory and platitudes to practical applications to answer your questions and give you tips you can put to work immediately.  We also have sessions scheduled that will focus on increasing your visibility on search engines and on smart marketing tips to turn data into intelligence and insights. You’ll take away not only a better understanding, but also a little peace of mind  and some tools to get you started.

Why the Sausage Factory name?  Because it fits (and it sounded better than Bozell Seminars).  People once referred to marketing like a recipe for soup — a little of this, a little of that, add a little seasoning, simmer it for a while and you’ve got a meal.  Now it’s not nearly so neat or orderly and time to simmer…fat chance.  It’s all about now.  And piecemeal doesn’t cut it anymore.  It has to all be ground together to create something cohesive and tightly integrated.  It really is like making sausage. It’s messy.  But at the end of the day, it’s much tastier and more popular at parties because it’s centered on the consumer.  Could the name Sausage Factory raise a few eyebrows?  You bet.  But that itself is part of what the marketing game is about today.  To have a voice, a point of view, something that might be worth talking about.  Check it out:  www.sausagefactoryseminars.com or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SausageFactory.