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(www.businessandblogging.com)
One of the reasons that both small and large businesses  cite for not wanting to start a blog is their concern over customer feedback. They worry that by opening up their blogs to comments, they will receive a preponderance of negative feedback from dissatisfied customers. They fear that the happy customers will remain silent. Their reputation will be damaged and they will lose potential new customers as well as existing neutral customers.
There are several flaws in that logic:
1)  If customers have constructive feedback for you – you need to hear it. As unpleasant as it may be, it is their perception …read more

Our guest blogger today, brand catalyst Nina Burokas, looks at the blogging question every business owner needs to be able to answer.
What’s your blogging ROI?
And does it really matter?
Biz Blogging…WORKS. It is of…MONUMENTAL IMPORTANCE. (Or can be.)
- Tom Peters, Foreword to Naked Conversations
Last year, ProBlogger picked up a conversation thread off Debbie Weil’s BlogWriteforCEOs and proclaimed “Blogger achieves 5000% ROI from Blogging”(!!), sparking a conversation – and controversy – that continues today. Calculation details aside (the data cited actually translate into a 500,000% return) ProBlogger’s conclusion that a compelling ROI is the best …read more

Guest blogger Brittney Gilbert offers some practical advice for companies wanting to guard against bad buzz from the blogosphere.
When widely read blogger Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine, AKA Internet Rockstar bought a Dell computer that bit the dust on him, he took to complaining about it on his website. He wrote several entries about “the lemon” he bought that basically exploded on him and the sucky customer service that came when he contacted the company about his dilemma. Jarvis’ posts quickly climbed their way up in Google’s rankings, one even topping Dell’s own website in the search results for “Dell”. A …read more

You could quote the old saying that imitation is the best form of flattery, but I feel neither flattered nor otherwise pleased when, as happened again a few days ago, I come across more of my blog posts reproduced in their entirety, without attribution, in another blog.
Gordon Finlayson at the Download Squad reports today on recent experience with this blog post piracy and observes that
…while linking and references may be the lifeblood of blogging, there’s a submerged undercurrent of blogs and Web sites looking to get something for nothing, sailing the high seas of the Blogosphere with a view to …read more

This is the first of two posts on the subject of managing our identities – and the identities of our companies – in a Web 2.0 world. This post looks at the challenge.
It is said that Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin Look-Alike competition in Monte Carlo, Monaco. He came third.
More recently, noted blogger Chris Pirillo had his identity “kidnapped” on social networking site Pownce.
As we welcome and delight in all the possibilities of the new world of online social networking, we need to recognize that for many people the sheer number and variety of social networking sites and …read more

This time next week I’ll be mingling with some top thought leaders, futurists, innovative thinkers, and technology experts from around the world and with staff of the AMP finance and investment company. The occasion is AMP’s week-long Innovation and Thought Leadership Festival 2007.
The Festival is for employees and decision-makers of AMP from all departments and is designed for teams and business units to co-operate across traditional working boundaries. For those who can’t get to the Sydney venue, there are online arrangements, including webcasts and podcasts.
With 3,500 employees, some 1,900 independent planners, AU$122 billion (say US$103 billion) in funds under …read more

The morning television here gave us the visual on the just-launched logo for the London 2012 Olympics.
The first site my online search brought up was the BBC, which displays the image, with the explanation
The jagged emblem, based on the date 2012, comes in a series of shades of pink, blue, green and orange and will evolve in the run-up to the Games.
and quotes the organising committee chairman “Seb Coe” as declaring:
“This is the vision at the very heart of our brand”.
I presume he knows what that means. I find it obscure.
Seth is less than complimentary about Lord Sebastian Coe’s commentary.
And …read more

I used to think succession planning in business was essentially or primarily about having a process and a plan to replace the CEO when he or she moved on – or was moved on.
That was a while ago and shows that in fact I wasn’t thinking a lot about succession planning.
My friend Stephen Sandor, an insurance expert and Principal of Complete Cover, has helped me understand the importance of a more comprehensive approach to succession planning, and by no means just for corporations. It’s just as essential for the smallest “mom and pop” business as for the multinational corporation.
Not just …read more

I noticed today that the Word of Mouth Marketing Association – WOMMA – is looking for “a few great full-time bloggers” to cover their Word Of Mouth Basic Training – WOMBAT – event in New Orleans, April 17-18. They are offering hotel accommodation but the bloggers have to make their own way to the venue.
That would be interesting, although New Orleans is too far for me to contemplate getting to right now, especially by the middle of next week.
But it led me to thinking about just what is involved in blogging a conference, on a basis similar to a …read more

Are you thinking a blog could be good for your business?
Are you perhaps in a line of business where not having a blog makes you the odd one out and you’re not sure what to do about it?
Would you like to start but your legal person says to be careful and you have so many other things to think about that here you are, six months or a year down the track, being careful, but with no blog?
Or are you confused by conflicting advice about blogging from well-meaning and expert or would-be expert friends and colleagues – do it/don’t do it, …read more