Tricks of the Trade
All for the cost of dinner
Steve Rubel pointed this story out:
Last Night Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms, Products and Services Division met with a small group of bloggers and technologists here in San Francisco for dinner. The purpose of the dinner was to have an open and broad general discussion about Microsoft, their products and strategies, and general issues [...]
Putting the Search in Job Search
I was chatting with Jackie Huba on the phone today and she asked an extremely interesting question:
“How do you search for people to fill community roles”
We chatted a bit about the types of people that make up good community people. Is there a profile? A certain skillset? A college degree that would say “I’m going [...]
Become an Evanglist
Ben posted this great entry on how to become an evangelist:
1. Become an evangelism expert.
Gather evidence such as case studies, how-tos and books on the subject. (There’s a growing body of work on the subject.) Put a stake in the ground that will define the edges of your platform of evangelism knowledge. For instance, if [...]
Rule: Say who you are
Penny Arcade, the well-known webcomic, has posted a great strip today about fake forum content posting by companies trying to pump their products. Here’s the post in question:
Black is probably the most stunning EA game ever. The visuals are so stunning for the Xbox. Although I love playing online, Black should definitely be focused on [...]
Ghostwriting Blogs
Everyone seem to have a different opinion on the issue of whether ghost written executive blogs are kosher or not. This discussion shows a number of opinions on the subject.
I don’t think there’s one answer to this question because it’s so dependent on the actual implementation. If by “Ghost Writer” we’re really saying “Marketing Schomo [...]
Rule: See It Through
Being a community advocate/evanglist/supporter at this point in business means that you’re going to constantly be running into brick walls. Colleagues, community members, you name it; someone is always telling you that your ideas are crazy.
That means it’s that much more important to stick to your guns - See It Through. There’s two components [...]
What being honest is all about
Imagine saying this to your colleagues. Publicly.
But, the behavior of my company in this instance is not right.
Guys over at MSN: sorry, I don’t agree with your being used as a state-run thug.
These are quotes from Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s best known blogger.
Old school thinking was that this type of thing is damaging to [...]
Open and Honest Relationship
One of the many mantras I talk about is "maintain an open and honest relationship". This goes for everyone involved in community work:
Community Members
This may seem obvious, but unfortunately, it’s usually the first thing marketing folks forget when talking to community members - don’t lie, don’t spin. It’s really easy to take the easy way [...]
Slate and Podcast Ads
I’ve become hooked on the Slate.com daily podcast. They are wonderful little 5-7 minute chunks of interestirng content off of the Slate.com site, read by their editor. Andy has the perfect voice for the podcasts, and the content is always silly, pointless, and fun.
Additionally, Slate was one of the first podcasts to integrate real [...]
How to speak at conferences
Just a quick linksharing - How to speak at a tech conference. After having done so several times, I can agree with this article fully.
