Books, Blogs, and Beyond

Business Blogs: Build It and They Will Come

By Yvonne DiVita and George Kittredge

Roughly ten years ago, when businesses started to realize that they should have websites, and decided that they needed to hire professional website designers to build it - their thinking was, "Build it and they will come."

We are reminded of the 1989 movie, Field of Dreams, and that one great scene where James Earl Jones as Terrance Mann says, "People will come, Ray...And they'll pass over the money without even thinking about it."

Ah yes, being on the Internet held tremendous promise - all those millions of eyeballs gazing at your stuff. And they'll come and pass over the money. Many, many businesses jumped on the Internet band wagon and waited and...waited, and...waited, and some are still waiting.

"Find Your Passion and Stand for Something Before You Die!"

By Tom Collins

There's some good advice.

It was given by our dear friend, author, and client, Dr. Claudia Thomas — through tears — as she spoke to a crowd gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Africana Studies program at Vassar College.

Claudia spoke with authority. She risked her future, as a Vassar student back in 1969, leading 33 other young women in the takeover of the college's administative offices. Their purpose was to insist on a list of nine demands, including establishment of the experimental Black Studies program as a degree program with its own faculty and facilities. 

From today's perspective, it may be hard to appreciate how much Claudia and her classmates were putting on the line. After all, they won and their story is an accepted part of Vassar's history. 

Why Doesn't Anyone Comment on Your Blog? Maybe They're Hiding in the Honey Clusters.

By George Kittredge

This morning I read an excellent article on a website published by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). The title of the article was, "Why Doesn't Anyone Comment on Your Blog?" Although written last September and directed at non-profit organizations, the article is just as relevant today and applicable to the for-profit sector as well.

Apparently, association executives around the country are lamenting the fact that their association blogs attract very few comments. I have a feeling that a number of business executives and marketing gurus may have the same lament. Is this true of your blog? Maybe they're hiding in the honey clusters.

The authors of the ASAE article, Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant, focus in on this concern and offer what I think are five great tips to maximize potential blog comments. Here they are.

Amazing Fact # 10

Amazing Fact # 10: The dot over the letter "i" in the English language is called a "tittle."

Department of Defense Recommends: "Embrace" Social Media

By Tom Collins

In today's emails I received two contrasting reports: a BtoB Magazine article entitled 'Fortune' 500 slow to adopt blogs as communication tools and a KMgov-list message linking to a new DoD study, Social Software and National Security: An Initial Net Assessment.

It may seem hard to believe, but it looks like business has a lot to learn from our military thinkers. The DoD study comes from Drs. Mark Drapeau and Linton Wells II at the National Defense University.

Their executive summary offers the following rationale for why engaging in social media has become essential to national security:

The "i" is little, but It's Essential to ROi from Social Media

By Tom Collins

I keep wondering if we'll ever get to the point where social media will be understood as a communication tool. Will people who "demand" an ROI analysis for their business to use social media get strange "how-long-have-you-been-off-planet" looks from everyone, just like they would if they said it about having a phone or an email address for your business?

But I digress. Go read the Forbes article, Yes, I'm a CEO Who Really Uses Twitter, by Communispace CEO Diane Hessan. Read it again. Print it out and pass it around.

It's full of lessons for how to get started in social media. Don't think of it just as a Twitter piece. Much of it applies to any social/business networking endeavor — even offline.

My ROi point here relates to the one investment that must be made in any business use of social media: time and attention. Small, but essential.

Here's a taste of what Diane says she — and her company — got out of her first six months using Twitter:

How Big is the Blogosphere?

By George Kittredge

The answer to this question in one word - BIG - and its getting bigger. But to give you an idea as to the size of the blogosphere, here are some statistics that may interest you.

Both Blog World Expo and Technorati report that there are over 70 million blogs in existence today. But even as I write this, the number is rapidly increasing. Blog World also reports that an unbelievable 120,000 blogs are being created every day - so we are adding over 3 million new blogs every month.

As for business blogs, the same report noted that 89% of companies surveyed said they think blogs will be more important in the next five years - so it appears that, at least on the professional level, blogs still have quite a bit of room to grow. It would be interesting to find out what the other 11% plan to do - obviously not much on the world wide web.

Technorati also had some interesting stats to share in their 2008 State of the Blogosphere report. Here are some of their findings.

Amazing Fact # 9

Amazing Fact # 9: "Forty" is the only number in the English language that has its letters in alphabetical order, while "one" is the only number with its letters in reverse alphabetical order.

Can Data Be Cool? Only When Filtered Through a Brain

By Tom Collins

Got linked to Tim Berners-Lee's talk at TED this morning. His current big idea relates to getting the world's data online, accessible, and usable, i.e., linked.

The data itself is, IMHO, kind of useless stuff. The individual bits rarely mean what we think they mean, until we connect them and put some thought into what we've collected. But oh, what we could do with all that data, linked ...

Sidenote: My link came via the KMgov email list. I watched the video and then shared the link on Twitter. Now I'm sharing it again here.

A couple of years ago, Kevin Kelly asserted that the hyperlink was one of the two most important inventions in the last 50 years (the other being tags). Links may turn out to be the most important ever. Think about that, your social networks, and the trail that led us here, as you watch and learn:

What Is a Good Size For a Self-Published Book?

By George Kittredge

Over at Self-Help-Book-Reviews.com, a reader sent in this inquiry.

"Right now my story is 400 pages at size 12 arial. The page is 8 1/2 x 11 with 1 inch border. This is too big though. What is a good size for a self-published book?"

This is an interesting question with no clear, specific answer. Like most questions in the book publishing business, the answers usually begin with "It depends." However, there are several issues that a soon-to-be-author may want to consider when determining how big his or her book should be. Here are some ideas to think about.