Blogger Stories

Blogger Story: Ilise Benun

Inspiration to launch a blog is different for each person. For Ilise Benun it was at the encouragement of a client that caused her to step into social media. Now her blog provides a publishing outlet for her small business clients who have yet to find their way into conversational marketing.

Blogger Story Teller: Ilise Benun, The Marketing Mix Blog

It was at the urging of The Communicatrix, a Marketing Mentor client, that, in October 2006, we launched The Marketing Mix, the official blog of Marketing Mentor and the community that's sprung up around it.

Our intention was to create a place online where Marketing Mentor clients could help each other. Our first attempt was a rather feeble one; we tried creating a "forum," but it was too complicated to use -- even we couldn't figure it out -- plus it seemed to open the virtual
door to viruses on our web site, so we quickly trashed that. Soon, the idea of a blog came up and, after some prodding, we were convinced that creating and maintaining a blog would be simple enough to do.  So we jumped in.

At the time, I didn't consider myself the "blogging type" and, frankly, I still don't. There are a couple blogs I like but I forget to go to them. I even forget to go to ours more often than not. Where do people find the time to surf the web for reading material? I've got too much to read as it is. But lately, in spite of myself, I've gotten into the groove of creating fresh content and posting it a couple times a week.

Blogger Stories: BL Ochman

One of the pioneers of internet marketing, in 1999, BL Ochman saw the business potential of blogs. However, it would take the technology a few years to catch up with her vision. BL's patience and persistence paid off. She must know what she's doing .. What's Next Blog is one of the top 20 marketing blogs in the world. 

Blogger Story Teller: BL Ochman, What’s Next Blog and Ethics Crisis

I’ve published newsletters about marketing and PR since 1985, first in print and then online through my website whatsnextonline.com where I had about 4,500 subscribers to a bi-weekly newsletter.

I first saw blogs in 1999 and thought the software would be much too techie for me. I totally lack the technical gene. I also wanted my blog to share a graphic identity with my website, but I couldn’t find a designer who knew how to design a professional looking blog for my business. And guess what? That’s still hard to find.

In 2001 I was asked to edit I-PR, a discussion group that had about 15,000 subscribers. We soon switched to Moveable Type software and I was instantly a daily blogger. It took me another two years to find a designer who could do what I wanted done. Once I did, What’s Next Blog was born and I finally had my interactive online platform.

The beauty of blogging is that it offers instant publishing, and allows me to write at 3 a.m. if I choose, without an IT person to post for me. What freedom! What joy. I blog sheerly out of the love of writing, sharing information and listening to my readers, so for me, blogging is big fun.

I’ve have done several blog-based experiential marketing campaigns, including the first Up Your Budget, which was an online treasure hunt that generated a million uniques and 10 million page views in four weeks. I also did an online contest called Wife in the Fast Lane for author Karen Quinn and Simon & Schuster that generated remarkably well-written essays, one-liners and videos.

Blogger Stories: Patricia Skinner

You are a professional writer. Why would you want to launch a blog where you write even more? Patricia Skinner, who writes for a living, found that blogging is a form of self-expression .. with the extra benefit of no client censorship. Patricia also believes that blogs are a superb resource for historians. Blogs provide a glimpse into our culture, our hopes and our dreams.

Blogger Story Teller: Patricia Skinner, Marketmou—the Blog!

How did I get into blogging? Hmm, interesting question. Like most bloggers nowadays, for some time before I actually started blogging I had been thinking about how it might be a good way of spreading the word about my business. Then I was offered a job blogging for someone else.

My journey into blogging wasn’t the catalytic event that it seems to have been for so many others. I’m a writer, and all my life I’ve been an avid communicator. I tend to talk a lot (if I have something to talk about), so when I discovered blogging it was a wonderful outlet for all these words that were in me anyway.

I blogged commercially for a while even though I knew they were ripping me off, mainly because I wanted to learn everything they had to teach me. It wasn’t much, in hindsight, but it was crucial stuff, like how important images are in your blog posts (I don’t always use this, but there’s a tip for readers), and how blogging regularly is essential to your overall blog rank with Technorati.

My knowledge of the blogging world together with my knowledge of SEO, enabled me to get Google pageranks of 4 for all my blogs--out-of-the-gate, even though I’m somewhat sporadic in my blogging due to time constraints (when I have ten projects going all  at once, like I do right now, it’s difficult to fit in the time to blog). I still have a lot to learn, but it’s one of those things I enjoy. I spend so much of my life writing words for someone else that it’s refreshing to be able to say what I feel, whatever comes into my head, with no censorship.

Blogger Stories: Ted Demopoulos

Although Ted Demopoulos didn't really like to write, he thought blogging might be a way to help his one-guy consulting shop. That was an understatment. Within weeks of launching his blog he secured a keynote speaking engagement. Why? Because the client got to know him and liked him through his posts. Oh and the guy who didn't like to write? He's written two books on social media!

Blogger Story Teller: Ted Demopoulos, Blogging For Business

Although I've been using email and the Internet forever –my freshman math professor was sending me homework assignments via email in '79, I missed all the big Internet moves. In the very early 1990s, most of my consulting and speaking gigs were booked online, but I never imagined the world as a whole using the Internet. I missed the commercialization of the Internet – until after it was already happening.

I didn't even get my first lame Web site for my business up until 2004. I feel like I just didn't get anything until after it was already happening, and since I'd been involved forever I should have!

Blogging was different. Although I'd been reading blogs since 1999, I didn't try blogging until late 2004. I thought blogging might be something that would help my one-person business. Even though I didn't particularly enjoy writing or write well, I've found I love blogging. I've always had lots of opinions, and now I have somehow to express them.

Blogger Stories: Connie Reece

The first thing you must know about Connie Reece is that her blogging story is a tribute to her dad who never blogged. However, his legacy to his daughter was to embrace the new and take a chance on innovation. Writing blogs that range from business topics to southern humor, Connie went from content to connections, then conversations as she explored the possibilites of social media. Bet her pop is smiling as he dances with the Little People .

Blogger Story Teller: Connie Reece, Blog@bilities, CONnieVERSATIONS, Blogabillies

Seems I must have inherited the early-adopter gene from my dad. He always loved being the first to own some new gadget or appliance. Long before microwaves were available for home use, we had a huge restaurant-model "electronic oven" installed in our kitchen. That was in 1964. A few years later Dad shelled out $99 when Texas Instruments debuted their first pocket calculator.

Like father, like daughter. When I became a freelance writer, in the early 1980s, personal computers had just hit the market, and I could hardly wait to ditch my IBM Selectric. I saved for a year to be able to buy a computer, and quickly fell in love with my shiny blue-and-silver Kaypro II, a boxy aluminum suitcase-style computer with a detachable keyboard and a whopping 9-inch monitor. I lugged that 30-pounder around to clients' offices, and made quite the impression. Or at least I thought so.

Before long I had added a Hayes Smartmodem and was dialing up the early BBS providers and doing research online. With the advent of the Internet, my trips to the library dwindled to nothing; content was available at my fingertips.

Blogger Stories: Lewis Green

What happens when you launch a blog and no one comes to your party? That was one of the concerns that Lewis Green had when he launched Business Solutions. For after all, is not the success of a business tool/blog is if people 'buy it?" (Note: my words not Lewis'). After reaching out to bloggers Lewis found the magic secret of blogging .. sharing. And that leads to community which leads to friendships .. which leads to many amazing parties!

Blogger Story Teller: Lewis Green, Business Solutions

Another writer once told me "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story." He was right, well, sort of.

When I started my blog, I did so for business reasons. My website includes lots of content offering original articles about brand, sales, marketing, PR, and so on. Each month it draws hundreds of readers. But the writing just sits there. It isn't interactive, and I felt that made the content one-dimensional and not nearly as engaging as it could be.

So in July 2006 I launched my blog to spread my ideas and perhaps garner a few clients. Although I am extremely outgoing, confident and extroverted, the new blog scared the hell out of me. What if I built it and nobody came? And what if they came but never left any trace of themselves--not a comment, not a trackback? In some circles, a lack of response means the show sucks.

Weeks passed, then a few months. And to my relief, a few comments were being left. Meanwhile, I began reading other blogs. At first for ideas, but before long I found myself dropping comments all over the place. And then something magical happened. Through blogging I met other professionals and practitioners, and we were becoming blog buddies.

Even Businesses Love A Good Story

On the iaocblog Jeanine Zeitvogel, Director, Communications, at Lockheed Martin Systems Management tells how even in a business setting, Everyone Loves A Story. Jeanine tells the story of how Lockheed Martin is incorporating stories.

We are starting to approach knowledge management as a storytelling process in my business. By creating a culture of storytelling, we can enable our employees to feel more connected to the workplace.

It is a bonding experience (think back to Scouts or just hanging out with friends and family). It's these experiences we hold on to for life. Why not bring that sense of belonging and fun to work where we spend a good deal of our time anyway?

David Pollard, How To Save The World, believes that stories should be, ".. an essential tool for every organizational and social change agent."

Sidebar: Thanks for the use of the graphic David.

Blogger Stories: Nettie Hartsock

Nettie Hartsock has been in the business of telling stories for most of her life. She went from reporting stories for a major television network to reading stories to her children. When her little ones went off to school she began to tell stories (interviews with authors) on blogs. Nettie quickly learned what all good bloggers, personal or business, discover .. that blog writing allows you to reveal a piece of your heart.

Blogger Story Teller: Nettie Hartsock,Allbusiness ProfessionalPR blog, Business Books Blog, NettieHartsock.com
 

On Being the Mom who Typed Late At Night To Becoming the Mom who Blogs Late at Night OR You Can Teach an Old Mom New Tricks

Twelve years ago at 29, I had my daughter Emma and left my job at the NBC – affiliate station in Austin. I went from interviewing Willie Nelson and the glitterati, to sitting Indian style, in a storytime semi-circle trying to get the words to Itsy Bitsy Spider right and keep up with the latest Brighton jewelry the other moms in the circle said I must “just have.” 

All the while, late at night and early in the morning, before my family arose, I typed fervent queries to online and offline editors in the hopes of still being an employed writer. I went from the Mom in the Blue Suit, to the Mom in Pajamas interviewing CEO’s around the world in short phoners, with Emma and then later, our son Gibson, on the floor with a plate of bananas, dried Cheerios and a jumble of Legos™.

Between storytime, naptime, dinner time and twilight, I sent off my stories and interviews of notable tech CEOs and the occasional fiction author like Salman Rushdie or Michael Chabon.

In May, my son six year old Gibson graduated from Pre-K. That also meant for the first time in my amazing life as a Mom, both my kids would be at school full-time.