Social Media Month Bonus: “The Corporate Blogging Book” by Debbie Weil

We’ve got an extra special bonus for you this month – 5 free (signed) copies of Debbie Weil’s “The Corporate Blogging Book”. Although Debbie’s book was written in 2006 (it was one of the first 2 books written on what we now call “social media”), it has a TON of great content for you to chew on. In fact, as I was saying to Debbie in my interview with her, if you cross out the word “blog” and replace it with “social media”, it answers all of the same questions I get about social media to this day. That’s no small feat considering the pace of change within the social media space.

Lesson Learned: don’t judge a book by the date it was published.

My favourite part of the book is Chapter 4, because it covers the question I invariably get when I talk to CEOs about this stuff – what can we possibly use social media for? As it turns out, there are at least a baker’s dozen.

(1) As a marketing strategy; (2) Thought leadership; (3) Community building; (4) Customer relations; (5) Status alerts; (6) Conferences and events; (7) Advocacy; (8) Adjunct to PR; (9) Branding; (10) Ecommerce; (11) Customer evangelists; (12) Viral marketing; and (13) Blogs as the new websites.

A lot of what Debbie wrote way back in 2006 (note: please detect sarcasm) we have seen come to life over the past few years. If you want to get back down to the basics of what all this “social media” stuff means, Debbie’s book is an excellent starting point.

My interview with Debbie:

Ok, so it’s not free beer. But it’s the next best thing: win your very own copy of “Corporate Blogging”. Here’s how:

1. Listen to the interview above.

2. Leave a comment about how you’ve seen an organization succeed using one of the 13 ways Debbie describes above.

3. For the next 5 days I will pick the best comment from that day and then send the winner the book. I’ll be in touch via email, so be sure to leave me a way to contact you.

Lastly, if you aren’t already signed up, PLEASE go over to Debbie’s site at www.debbieweil.com and learn (among other things) how you can use blogging to turbo charge your business growth. You can thank me later.

Chris Brogan

Debbie's book is alive and well. It still needs purchasing, and people still need to read through it before considering what they're going to do on the web. Sure, a few words change here and there, but don't ever throw out a book without paying attention to the core of it. Debbie's pretty solid here.
stevecunningham

Chris - completely agree - a few words may change, but solid advice throughout.
Debbie Weil

Chris, your "trust" in my book hugely appreciated. It is amazing how little has changed in 3 - 4 years since I wrote the book and it was published. We have some new platforms (like Twitter) but HOW you use them credibly and effectively hasn't changed at all.
ernohannink

Hope this is just still in time.
Some examples that I see in the Netherlands:
http://www.getclientstips.nl
http://www.brigittevantuijl.nl
http://www.streamconsult.nl

They really are getting fans from using their blog and Twitter.

A larger Dutch organisation is a the cable company UPC that listens to blogs and Twitter and tries to solve the problems that people are writing about. They have made the company more human.
Mickey Nolen

I like Debbie's simplistic approach to all the social media choices. I have trouble deciding a social media strategy for my company and who to do all the tweeting, blogging and updating websites and other social media sites. I also have trouble reading all the books that I have downloaded to my kindle. Who has the time to blog, tweet, etc these days? By the way, can I get the corporate blogging book on CD?
Debbie Weil

Mickey, my book is not available on CD. But we are working on getting an updated edition on Kindle - ! (Not there yet, however.)
stevecunningham

Mickey - lots of people have time to blog and tweet - but mostly those people have to eliminate other things from their lives, like watching TV. I'm not sure if Debbie's book is available by CD, but I'll ask her to get back to you on this.
Debbie Weil

Thanks for the great comments so far. A key question these days is: do we need a blog if we can Twitter? It's faster and easier, right?! The answer is a resounding YES: blogging is not dead. In fact, a blog is the hub of a social media program. A couple of reasons: it's your home base online and still your most potent tool to drive search engine traffic. You can embed your YouTube videos and Flickr photos on your blog. You can link to and expand on your Tweets. You own your blog content if the blog is hosted on your site. By contrast, the content you're publishing on Twitter and Facebook could disappear overnight (horrible thought, but worth considering).
ernohannink

Debie, agree a blog is still very important, it is your home base. Where you try to get your followers to read your articles and subscribe to your newsletter.
What do you think of the lifestreaming done by Steve Rubel at this moment via Posterous http://www.steverubel.com/
stevecunningham

Debbie - I would add one thing to your list - it's one step closer to the information about your business if it's on your site. And with ROI becoming a big deal in social media (and rightfully so), having your presence be "close to home" is critical.
Colin Parker

A have noticed a number of small business have moved away from blogging and on to twitter or another tool. As Debbie points out a well written blog can have lots of benefits for your business. Not a tool that should be ignored or tossed away by the entrepreneur. Use your blog to build your business. Thanks for the interview Steve it is nice to see that you are not looking at just new releases. I shared your blog with a colleague the other day and he told me what a great idea he could now read less -didn't have the heart to tell him that this blog has me reading even more books. Now I have to go find Debbie Weil "The Corporate Blogging Book".
stevecunningham

Colin - I think that Debbie also points out that everybody still needs a home base with valuable content. There's only so much you can do with 140 characters, and whether it's a video blog, written blog or a podcast, we still need a "hook" to engage with the people we want to connect with.

I'm VERY HAPPY that you are now reading more rather than less - that's my goal. So thank you for that!
Tom Doig

We use the analogy of the "used car salesmen" whos flashy style and slick closing techniques are disigned to close the deal. Those days are over. WAY over! Debbie's idea of waiting until the customer is ready to buy vs you being ready to sell is a critical concept. Buyers are far to savy these days. There are simply too many options (competitors) out there and customers are too smart today with all the SM options literally available at their fingertips. Customers can also sense sincerity vs BS in your SM. Like our mothers use to say, "honesty is the best policy" and so it is with SM.
stevecunningham

Tom - bang on. Not only are those approaches annoying, they are not very effective. Up until now, however, there just wasn't another viable option. But now that there is...
Allyson Angus

Great interview with a ton of valuable information. Nicely summarized for us "newbie" social media people. How cool is it that we have all of these tools to connect with our customers! Time to take advantage of today's technology. Thanks for putting this together Steve!
stevecunningham

Allyson - no, thank YOU. It's pretty damn cool that we get to connect like this - both online and offline.
Bill Gemmell @simplifywithus

Steve - another interesting interview and another book I'll have to look up!

I thought Debbie's comments on the one-to-many-many-many interaction and the lurker syndrome of key interest and it reaffirms that we need to structure any feedback to everyone in the potential audience. Sort of like Walls have Ears campaign from 1939-45, only applied in a more positive style.

Social media month has been fantastic and if others like me have absorbed all of the advice so far - even more to come - then Debbie's book is a call to action to move from a sponge to a faucet!

Great post

Bill
stevecunningham

Bill - absolutely. I think you are right that we should all think about how we can elicit more interaction whenever possible. The lurker syndrome doesn't have to be accepted as an inevitable outcome like death and taxes. Do you have any advice for ME in that regard?