Hasn’t it always been about Trust?

The BusinessWeek article "The Great Trust Offensive" is worth a read. We consumers are skeptical of advertising, jaded by bailouts, huge executive bonuses..and let's not get into the rash of bad customer service experiences. This video (go to link above) summarizes the article....and there is hope!! =)

There are many examples of trusted companies. Companies that have figured out how to focus more on people and less on profit. Companies that are strong, sustainable and financially successful. Companies that view their people as the key ingredient to their success..not a "cost center" or a "human resource". Companies like John Deere and Chapmans Ice Cream come to mind.

In the B2B world, trust and credibility matter today more then ever. Why? Because trust is what makes or breaks a relationship and builds a solid reputation.

A value proposition means nothing if we can't deliver on it. And, today, even if we do deliver on it we must be able to prove that we did! Ideally through word of mouth. This is where I think social media and networking can play a role. (Future post planned on this!)

Lets not jump on the "trust" bandwagon and start peppering our copy and conversations with hollow promises and taglines like "trusted advisor" or "you can trust us". A great book that has really opened my eyes about earning trust is Chris Brogan and Julien Smith's book Trust Agents. I highly recommend it.

Linkroll (other links of interest):
Building your b2b brand
Importance of strategic references
Trust in the Online Retail World

If you'd like me to link to an article of interest let me know and I'll add it to this link roll.

IBM and Green I.T.

Another installment in my fun and funny advertisements. Here are the things that I like about this ad.

• Realism - businesses want to go green but they also are pragmatic and need to cut costs. They need a business case. This ad, uses humour to get that point across.


• Youth and Experience - it shows a young business analyst presenting the business case to the wiser exec. New thinking introducing new ideas to practical (yet open to learn) and experienced thinking.


• Humour - if someone is going to interrupt me with an ad...making it funny makes it worthwhile to me.


• YouTube - this ad is available through YouTube. This allows me and others to virally spread and share this content freely. This is a smart move by IBM.

How long should a blog post be?

This post is dedicated to those that blog and those thinking about blogging.

How long should a blog post be?
This is a question that may be on your mind. It's been on mine recently. I've conducted some research and there are varying opinions. Some folks say posts should average 500 words . But, there are some other folks who think otherwise too.

Jon Morrow from Copyblogger talks about tight writing and how some of their most popular posts are longer then 1000 words. Douglas Karr has an interesting article with some analysis on this topic as well.

I think varying opinions is a good thing. Why? Well, there should be no magic bullet when it comes to "average" blog post length. In fact, blogs in general should be unique and reflect the personal preferences of the blogger as well as their current and prospective audience.

But wait a minute, is there more to this question?

This one question leads to a whack load of others! Including:

• If I was just starting out blogging where would I start? Where could I learn about how to blog?
  
• If I want to get better at blogging where should I go?


• What innovative things are people doing with their blogs?


• Is brevity important when it comes to blog posts like it is with Twitter?


• How long should it take to write a blog post?


• Should you balance blog posts based on length to accommodate those that like to read short bursts of content and longer essay types of posts?


• What happens if you're not that great a writer, but want to blog? Should your posts be shorter to start? You may have interesting things to say while getting your blogging chops figured out, so why not start writing?


• Is it arrogant for a blogger to think that his/her posts length don't matter?


• There are "A" lister bloggers who have a devoted group of followers already but what about those just starting out?

Time to explore this in more depth through conversation and a blog post series.

The blog post length question for me leads to a broader conversation about a blogging publishing framework, examples, best practices etc . Things like (to name a few):

• Blog posts - how often, length and types of posts.


• Writing styles - first person, third person, serious, fun, corporate, personal.


• Categories and tags - how to define, use, manage and classify posts.


• Blog types - single author, multi-author.

Long live and love the blog.

The blog, in my own personal opinion, is one of the most promising channels to express yourself, educate, inform, engage and create conversation. Whether you're a company, an artist, a hobbyist or just someone who has something to say…you now have an outlet!

I think we are just scratching the surface when it comes to blogging. There are so many things we can and are doing with blogs, it makes sense to share how we are using blogs to benefit our readers and ourselves.

So, with that in mind, I'm creating a feature series of posts that explores blogging both personally and professionally. I'm going to share things like:

• What I'm learning about blogging through my own experiences and whatever else turns up in my travels.


• Interviews with bloggers asking why and how they blog.

I'm not sure what to name the series but I'd like to think that it becomes an ongoing and updating "how to" of blogging with real world examples. As the number of posts accumulate it may end up being a nice resource for you to refer to over time. (That's the beauty of tagging!).

Got questions, got answers, got ideas?
Leave a comment below with your question, your thoughts and ideas and links to sites and posts that you think will help us all learn more about blogging.

By the way, this post is 654 words in length and took an hour and forty seven minutes to draft, edit, cross link and publish.

A way to make twitter better

In an earlier post entitled: "To Follow or not to follow, that is the question", I describe how I decide when to follow someone on Twitter who has followed me. Follower updates are sent to me via email. I review each followers Twitter profile to decide if I want to follow back or not.

Over the past two days I've had quite a few people follow me. So, I headed over to learn a bit about who had followed me and I was very surprised at the number followers whose accounts had been suspended due to "suspicious activity".

I'm grateful that Twitter and the Twitter community police jerks and spammer accounts and that these accounts get shut down. Twitter must make sure that these types of people don't ruin the Twitter experience.

I do have a suggestion as to how Twitter can improve. It would be better if Twitter sent me a follower notification once the account as been deemed authentic. Instead of sending a notice immediately they should wait until the account is verified as real.

New book on Professional Services Marketing

I was asked to review Mike Schultz's book "Professional Services Marketing".

There have been numerous reviews already about this book so I'm not going to summarize what the book is about. Instead I'm going to make one recommendation: buy it!

This book is a manual on how to market your professional services organization. It's not a book you read on vacation and then add to your library collection. It's a book you use to market and sell your services.

Some reasons why I believe this book is worth your investment in time and money:

• Mike's firm, the Wellesley Hills Group, through years of practice and results has applied the concepts and tactics outlined in the book. This is not a book based on theory it is based on experience and results.
  
• There are few books out there that focus on the unique realities of B2B marketing and business development. This is the most current and it uses real world research from the field.
  
• The book focuses on the things that matter to the business owner. Increasing revenue and profit.
  
• It provides you with tools you can use in your business in the area of revenue projection and results measurement.
  
• And finally, at MI6 (my agency) we are implementing tactics from this book for our clients. The result? A listening tour that helped a client properly define their value proposition, generate additional sales & a whack load of testimonials.
  

Here are some reviews that may be of interest:

Ian Brodie, who helps professional service firms grow, has a good balanced review. I agree with his assessment of the sales portion of the book.

Chris Brown, a Strategic marketing consultant, reviews it from a business owner's perspective.

Ardath Albee, from Marketing Interactions, provides a detailed overview of what's in the book and what bonus' you get if you buy it.

Have you read the book? What did you think?

Make It Seven Groundswell

It is pretty awesome how Jim Balsillie and his crew are creating a groundswell of support in their efforts to bring the Phoenix Coyotes NHL hockey team to Hamilton. There are over 22,000 fans on their Facebook page, 3000+ folks following each breath on Twitter and I think over 150,000 folks who have registered on their site.

I wonder whether this support will have any impact on the judge who will be rendering a decision this week. I suspect it could. The legal team can point to the fact that there is pent up demand and support for another hockey team in Southern Ontario. The proof is the number of fans, followers and registrants! He can see the vigilant commitment of hockey fans, sponsors and Balsillie himself to the City of Hamilton. In fact, he can enjoy watching a music video too!

I'm sure social media is creating an impact on Balsillies' chances, err...our chances of having a team in Hamilton. By the way mark June 19th on your calendar because that's Make It Seven Day across Canada.

Are they serious?

Below is an embedded conversation from Friendfeed. I'm testing it out. The article is pretty provocative as well...I hope!

[Update: I don't really like the "You" title at the top. Also, to go to the source article you need to click on the picture]