Category: blogging

  • Avoiding Comments Encourages Criticism

    This is the year of the corporate blog. The thought leaders are already out in the blogosphere, yamming it up with their clients and customers. 2009 marks the year of widespread blog adoption, as thousands of companies play catch up to those who were willing to take risks before someone else had paved the way.

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  • Avoiding Comments Encourages Criticism

    This is the year of the corporate blog. The thought leaders are already out in the blogosphere, yamming it up with their clients and customers. 2009 marks the year of widespread blog adoption, as thousands of companies play catch up to those who were willing to take risks before someone else had paved the way.

    But despite the widespread adoption of this most popular method of communication, lingering doubts and fears remain. What if someone has a complaint? What if they were hurt or sick because of our product? What if one of our representatives cussed them out? What if their replacement part never arrived?

    These are the questions of a traditional marketing-minded person. Sorry to offend your pride, but it’s true. A person afraid of these types of user response doesn’t yet understand what it means to thrive and succeed in the 2.0 Age.

    Yes, people will complain. It is a mathematical certainty that some customers will have negative experiences. People actually realize that. If a website allowed comments and all comments were constantly ONLY positive and encouraging, the site would look fake. Visitors paying attention would recognize that something seems fishy there. It would appear that the owner is removing all negative comments and offering the world a sugar-coated view of their website or company.

    That’s inauthentic. And inauthentic has no place on the “Social Web”. Gen Y, the representative of the “Social Web”, don’t often want to connect with brands on their Facebook or Twitter accounts. But when they do enter the social domain of a brand, they expect authentic interaction with a REAL person. If they can’t express their frustrations without censorship, they’ll move on until they find a company that understands their need to express the truth about how they feel.

    I rarely read anything published by a website that has closed commenting functionality. If they don’t want to hear from me, I don’t want to hear from them. By insisting on being a one-sided conversation, these companies have informed me that my voice is unimportant, while theirs is all important. And my response? Screw that. Find some other chump to sit silently while you brainwash them with your particularly aged and wrinkly version of marketing.

    Want to be relevant? Learn to respect the people you sell to. Have a come-to-Jesus moment where you finally get that PEOPLE ACTUALLY DON’T LIKE BEING TREATED LIKE NUMBERS OR TRANSACTIONS. And your adherence to a dated model of one-sided advertising only tells us that we are dollars and cents only. And you’ve just lost on the Social Web.


  • How Do I Write for a Non-MySpace Blog?

    While a lot of people are MySpace savvy, many MySpacers still don't understand the difference between a MySpace blog and a professional, public blog. MySpace is typically the place for random half-thoughts and copies of email spam and pics from one's latest night on the town or baby photo shoot. It's a place to share stuff with friends, hence the tagline: "A place for friends." But MySpace doesn't challenge people to fully develop their thoughts or share information in sensible stages. In fact, I'd say that the majority of MySpace bloggers are lazy, only posting anything when they have an inspirational blip, which typically disappears mid-post. 

    Brian Clark shared another valuable post on strategic content development from his Innovative Content series recently. This is stuff that every aspiring blogger should read and every established blogger should revisit. Because regardless of our background and experience, it's easy to get busy and lazy and let the content of your blogging suffer. And let's face it, everyone loses when your blogging suffers. 

    Rather than plagiarize Brian's content, go read the post for yourself. When you are taking on a new blogging project, it's good to begin by asking yourselves the right kind of questions. It can be difficult to break out of the generic mental vomitting style of MySpace, but just asking yourself these questions and following these three steps will prepare you to write a more informed, adult sounding piece. 

    Always make sure you have fun with blogging, but part of the fun lies in doing something well. Nobody would pay Kobe Bryant if his shots were all air balls.  


  • Bloggers Beware: You CAN Spread Yourself Too Thin

    I've found through personal experience that you definitely CAN spread yourself too thin. You know all those professional bloggers who make five figures a month? They don't own as many blogs as I do. They know what they're doing. They focused on 1-3 niche topics where they would be able to blog and blog and blog without quick and easy burnout. Not me. Oh no. 

    You see, I'm the type of guy who buys a domain name and feels compelled to host it with blog software as soon as possible. Some of these domains I thought I would sell, and eventually I will. But in the meantime, I have put this huge burden on my shoulders to maintain too many blogs on too many topics. Despite what my parents think, I simply do not have that much to say on a daily basis.  

    So how do like me find a way to overcome overwhelmingly random interests? Pick three domains to be blogs. Make one your personal blog. You can take full credit for this personal blog if you want, or you can keep it anonymous. Use this blog to vomit all your randomness into. Who knows? Maybe you'll build a following over time. Beyond your personal blog, pick two topics max and dedicate yourself to covering them. Give yourself a full year of blogging on these three topics before adding another, and add only one new blog per year IF ANY. 

    This may seem like it will take forever to establish yourself online, but you'll do far better than I started out if you limit the number of blogs you own and operate. It's okay to cover every topic under the sun as long as you isolate that blog from your niche blogs. There's really no reason to own and operate 7-11 blogs unless you miraculously build a staff of bloggers to do the heavy lifting for you. 

    You'll do well to learn how to moderate yourself from the beginning. You'll save yourself a lot of stress and frustration if you do. Best of luck, and happy blogging! 


  • Professional Blog Advice May Not Work for Artists

    Artists bloggingI'm going to use a lot of generalizations here, so if that is your only comment at the end, save it. 

    After a profoundly enjoyable evening with a local writer's group, I walked away with a newfound sense of appreciation for artists. I am an artist, though you couldn't tell by my daily production. Duty calls for marketing messages that compel readers to act. But at my center, I am a poet and creative writer. 

    And while the tips from Copyblogger, Problogger and dozens of blogging, branding, and marketing experts are invaluable for corporate blogs, the same principles are stifling and unnatural for many strictly creative types. I call all creative types "artists", because anything creative can be art: words, paint, dance, sculpture, song, design, etc. 

    I've spent the lion's share of this site's existence on marketing principles recommended by the experts. The danger there is missing the forest for the trees. CultureFeast will be two years old in November. Prior to this, the only writing I showed anyone outside the office was poetry, prose, or journal entries that I felt were worth sharing. 

    You have to be careful not to suffocate your art with marketing. It happens all the time. You have something worth sharing, but in order to get the public's attention, you have to walk a fine line balancing marketing and artistic sincerity. 

    My advice: read the tips and study effective marketing strategies, but realize that they must not overtake the art. Balance. It's not a fun word. It's not a sexy word. Balance is not a popular concept, because it's one of those responsibilities people don't want to take the time to mess with.

    Be true to your art. Look for ways to hone your craft that can make it more successful without losing power. Whether you post words, photos, or video, there are sure-fire ways to improve your presentation without sacrificing content. There are also plenty of opportunities to focus on results rather than the message.

    There are enough self-improvement gurus already. Guard your art with your life! If you don't, you'll discover that the purpose of your art has declined from the pleasure of creation to that of recognition. Recognition is wonderful, but it's fickle and fleeting. The first and foremost active ingredient in successful artistry is quality product. Preserve quality at all cost.  


  • An Interview With Penelope Trunk

    Penelope TrunkOver the weekend, I had the opportunity to interview Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules For Success, and columnist for Yahoo Finance and the Boston Globe. Her blog, Brazen Careerist, is also a well-established blog and a worthwhile read for aspiring professionals everywhere.

    I had the opportunity to interview her at length, so enjoy!

    Daniel Dessinger: First off, thanks for agreeing to take the time to talk with me. I know you’re busy with your columns, a new book, and speaking engagements. I recently read on Wendy Piersall’s blog, emomsathome.com, that you just spoke at the BlogHer Conference in Chicago just a few days ago. You spoke with Stephanie Cockerl and Nina Burokas about personal branding, correct? What were the top three takeaways from that session?

    Penelope Trunk: I am not sure what people actually took away from the session, since there was subsequent online hoop-la. But here are three things to think about when you want to create a brand out of yourself:
    1. What do you stand for?
    2. What do you not stand for?
    3. What do you give people that is unique to you?

    Daniel: Is this your first time at BlogHer? Can you describe the atmosphere of the conference and tell us how it differs from other conferences you attend?

    Penelope: Well, I can compare this recent BlogHer to BlogHer Business — I went to that. And, not surprisingly, it was much more business oriented. I went to SXSW earlier this year, which is also full of bloggers. SXSW had a lot more men.

    Daniel: Based on Wendy’s comments, I’m picturing a collection of professional work-from-home women who have the conversational floodgates burst open for this three day event. Is that a fair description?

    Penelope: Um. I don’t know very many of the work-from-home bloggers and I didn’t talk with many when I was at BlogHer, so I’m not really sure about the answer to your question. I do know Wendy. I have come across her blog before because she has such a successful business.

    Write regularly, write on a focused topic, and write great posts. – Penelope Trunk

    Daniel: Gotcha. Okay, changing subjects a bit, I’d like to talk about your blog. I’ve kept with Brazen Careerist for a little while now. My coworker is infatuated with you and, sadly, he is passively wishing you were single. I guess you’ve found a professional way to turn on the charm!

    Penelope: Not a question, right? But tell your co-worker thanks 🙂

    Daniel: Ha! I will. I really like the balance you bring to your own brand with your tagline:  Advice at the intersection of work and life. How would you say you’ve done at balancing “work and life?”

    Penelope: I don’t believe in balance because it implies that the two things are competing. I try to create a life where things are working together, and I feel whole and integrated. That said, I’d have to say I’m not doing the greatest job. It’s very hard to do. One of the reasons I blog is to be with a community of people who are trying to improve things at the intersection of work and life and we’re all doing it together.

    Daniel: The reason I ask is because, for all your interesting perspectives on work culture and Generation Y, you manage to throw everyone off with a few posts on your marriage and the difficulties that arise in your personal life. Do you ever regret exposing your issues to the world? Does the transparency adversely or positively affect your life at home?

    Penelope: I never regret talking about myself in an authentic way. I don’t really know another way to connect with people. I’m sure that one of the things that my husband likes about me is that I’m authentic, no matter what. He is that way, too. So doing it on the blog seems inevitable.

    Daniel: One more personal question I have to ask: How does your husband feel about having your marriage issues made public knowledge? This is a tender subject for me, since I guard my relationship with my wife very closely. I don’t pretend that we don’t have our problems, because we have plenty. But until something is dealt with, I feel that to expose her faults to anyone other than a trusted adviser is disrespectful.

    Since I’m willing to accept that everyone can and does feel differently about how to approach these types of issues, I’d just like to hear your thoughts on the subject.

    Penelope: Newsflash: Your wife talks about your sex life with her friends. Every woman does. Men have a skewed idea of how private their marriage is because men don’t talk about marriage with men. How do you think women learn to give blow jobs? Not from men.

    That said, my husband doesn’t care about what I write. I know it’s hard to imagine. But try to imagine being married to me at all. A handful, right? In that sense, blogging about the marriage is nothing.

    Daniel: My instinct is to apologize for mentioning your personal life, but I remind myself that you intentionally made it public, so there you go. I read a bio about you somewhere, and it mentioned how you went from professional volleyball player to writer. Could you tell us what it was that opened the door for you to transition into being a writer? If you could, highlight a circumstance that you might call an open door or an unexpected turn of events in your favor.

    Penelope: I think the most important thing was that when I was playing volleyball, I was great at getting sponsors to pay to put their name across my chest. So I inadvertently discovered that I was really good at marketing. I have used that knowledge each time I changed careers. I’ve said to myself, how can I leverage the marketing talent to make a smooth transition?

    Daniel: You have a book out there for sale entitled: The Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. I’ve read that another book is in the works. Can you give us a hint as to the title or subject matter of this one?

    Penelope: No.

    Daniel: Sigh. Fair enough. When can we expect release?

    Penelope: 2008

    Daniel: While the feedback on your blog is mostly positive, I’ve read some overwhelmingly negative feedback from readers of your article at Yahoo Finance. Did you make some enemies early on, or what? I get the automatic feeling that you’re rocking the boat too much for comfort in some reader’s minds.

    Penelope: Yeah, I think you’re right.

    Daniel: Do you think the feedback on Yahoo Finance is just the natural result of a wider audience, or is it the specific readership demographic that seems to be a bit more old fashioned and stuck inside-the-box?

    Penelope: Both. I think when you get a wider audience you inevitably get more people who are not thinking along the same lines you are. It happens with everyone, I’m sure.

    Daniel: Agreed. You mentioned to me recently that you’re already living my fantasy of blogging and writing for a living, and that this isn’t the end of the line for you. Given the ability to choose, what is the next step in your career? And maybe also five years down the road?

    Penelope: I am actually in the middle of figuring that out right now. I’m thinking it’s getting time for a next step. Stay tuned….

    To get a special career you need to specialize. People get nervous specializing because it narrows the types of jobs you can take. But being an expert instead of a generalist actually makes you more employable as long as you shift your expertise as the markets shift. – Penelop Trunk

    Daniel: Does being a woman help to propel you in your career? I ask this because my wife is very attractive and intelligent and doors just open for her that wouldn’t budge for me. I think you’re the total package if you can pull off the intelligent, witty, fashionable, attractive, and confident woman image. I’m not calling women eye candy, but it seems that these days, the world (beyond redneck borders) opens its doors to attractive and intelligent women. Thoughts?

    Penelope: I think men like to do business with women they would like to have sex with. It seems totally normal. The same is true in reverse. This is why good-looking men and women earn more money than ugly men and women.

    Daniel: I often wonder if our (yours and mine) motivations aren’t opposite.While we both blog for personal branding purposes, my motive in blogging and writing is self-expression. The writing is the joy… The proverbial cake, if you will. Positive feedback is the icing. Would you say that writing is a means to an end, or the end itself in your career?

    Penelope: Are you asking if I get joy from writing? The answer is yes. I could never write five posts a week if I didn’t truly love to write. In fact, I’ve written in lots of different formats, and there is nothing I have loved more than blogging.

    Daniel: With millions of blogs out there in the space, what are the Top 3 recommendations you can make to someone who wants to build a readership for one reason or another but has no additional claim to fame such as writing for the Boston Globe or Yahoo Finance or publishing a book? Without those tools in their belts, what can bloggers do to establish a name for themselves?

    Penelope: Write regularly, write on a focused topic, and write great posts.

    Daniel: And there you have it. Simple. Yet Profound. While we’re at it, would you take a stab at predicting 3 of the most radical shifts we have yet to see but can expect in the workplace as Generation Y takes center stage?

    Penelope: Decentralized leadership, unapologetic focus on family, and financial downshifting

    Daniel: What common beliefs does the average Joe or Jane need to revise in order to break through the “average career” barrier?

    Penelope: To get a special career you need to specialize. People get nervous specializing because it narrows the types of jobs you can take. But being an expert instead of a generalist actually makes you more employable as long as you shift your expertise as the markets shift.

    Daniel: Any parting words of wisdom to the less Web savvy readers out there?

    Penelope: Blogs do not require you to be web savvy. If you start reading them without worrying about whether you undertand them, you will start to understand them. Click a lot.

    Thanks for taking the time to respond, Penelope.


  • A Reprimand of Self: Don’t Be a Common Blogger

    I found myself enjoying (for lack of a better term) an existential crisis in terms of my CultureFeast identity. For so long, I focused on the Google Analytics, and constantly looked for blog topics that would draw in search visitors. But I don’t need to rank for Randy Galloway’s name or discuss the latest web 2.0 news to enjoy a fulfilling blog culture. CultureFeast has been anything but focused, and that means I have been anything but focused.

    I reprimanded myself this evening when I realized that I no longer enjoyed blogging. I contribute to four blogs and one article column, and I am sick and tired of fitting into the mold of SEO / copywriter / PR consultant. Each of those jobs can be rewarding to the right person, but that person is not me… at least, not right now.

    Yes, I will continue to offer those services to those in need. But there’s more to me than marketing. Way before I knew anything about marketing, I wanted to write books. I wanted to tell stories and I wanted to share life experiences. Ideally, I would find a market in young, curious adults who have more questions than answers. No, I don’t pretend to offer all the solutions to life’s problems, but perhaps I could share some wisdom that would make other people’s lives easier and less confusing.

    The problem with writing from the heart is that people read what you write. It’s much like journaling, only without the privacy. That means that in the midst of my professional pursuits, those snoopy clients, employers, etc. may very well track me down online and read these words and reconsider working with me based on my publicized opinions and views.

    Hence the spineless underpinnings of the blogosphere. Those intensely popular and utterly shallow industry blogs. Okay, I’m being a bit harsh, but only because I have no respect for an industry that promotes lives without political, ethical, spiritual, or moral beliefs. Everyone is so nice, they have no personality. We’re all a bunch of identity-less bloggers who have sold out to become well known.

    Well, you can have it. I’d rather be uncommon. I’d rather be true to myself than to make millions as the how-to guy.


  • Perhaps I Could Use Some Reputation Management

    I wonder, seeing how so many search results for my name have to do with SEO “experts” criticizing one of my older articles. Not to mention the fact that any visitor to this site has no idea what to make of me. I am the definition of Random Man. I experienced this problem last January when I was looking for a job. Everyone I sent a resume to visited this website. They got all kinds of random insights into who I am. I’m sure they decided to find someone whose online reputation appears to be more consistent.

    So be it. I’m no Seth Godin, but I understand the value of being true to self. A blog is a blessed and dangerous thing. It is my opportunity to leave behind a trace of my mental DNA. Perhaps something in it will make a difference to someone.

    Random thought: I just remembered that I promised Karen I would post a list of tips on how to become a copywriter and I never finished. That’s what finding out you’re going to be a dad will do to a guy… everything else fades from memory.

    Back to the point, the day will come when this blog (assuming it survives the years to come) stands alone as a rich source of interesting opinions, prose, and ramblings. This site already drives anywhere from 120 to 170 visitors per day, and that’s after having lost all search results for more than a month after I switched the blog platform from Blogger to WordPress.

    I don’t really care what potential clients or employers think about this blog. At some point, you have to draw the line and say, “This is my area and no one else’s. This is my personal space – even if it’s public.” I’m having a blast with it. Who knows? I may even land a client for my current agency with it through this experiment I’m conducting for Papaya Clothing. If they notice how much I am promoting their site and collecting valuable information and recommendations from their customer base, perhaps they will hire us to complete their site (so their loyal customers can shop online).

    With experiments ongoing and fatherhood approaching, I’m really looking forward to this blog. Maybe I’ll start getting traffic for baby related terms. You just never know.


  • Your View of MySpace Proves Your Age

    In a blog last month about Generation Y and Blogging, Des Walsh shows his age when he writes about MySpace. First off, in an ad:tech session led by a panel of teenagers, he writes, “one of the most striking pieces of information was that these young people spend a lot of time on MySpace and that is kind of their default ‘location’ online.”

    This is surprising? Seriously? I mean, I’m no teenager, but this is still common knowledge. Walsh is showing that despite his finger on the pulse of the professional blogging community, he really has no clue about who is leading the future of technology. The question is ultimately, “what sells?” The answer is based on teenagers. Teenagers are the top consumers in today’s absent-parent culture.

    What good does it do to be a professional blogger if you have to go to a conference to learn that teenagers use MySpace? It is the most popular site for teenagers without exception. It is their homepage, their email, their blog, their calendar, their photo book, their chat room, their forum, their mp3 player, their games system, their video player…

    Joke all you want about MySpace being for kids. I know plenty of adults who are too proud to join because of their misguided judgments. Not that everyone should join MySpace. No way. I can barely stand it due to the inappropriate advertising by True.com. I’ve already canceled my MySpace account once, only to return despite the advertising because it’s still simply the best way to connect with other people. I don’t care what purposeweb says, Facebook is not the future of social media and could never be unless it receives a total faceLIFT.

    Sure, the older you are, the less you may find a reason to use MySpace. I can give you that without laughing at you. Something about being young gives you endless amounts of things to say and the burning desire to communicate all of them with the world. There’s just something appealing to teenagers about having 300+ friends (most of whom you cannot possibly communicate with and still have time to sleep) whom you can flaunt like popularity badges.

    I get it. A reasonable adult may look at MySpace and think, this is a waste of my time. I can respect that. Were I not addicted to my own computer and Internet access, I would wholeheartedly agree. There are plenty of things to do with your life that do not revolve around MySpace. If you are content living apart from MySpace, however, I will ask one special resquest of you: don’t show your age by talking about it. 😉


  • Blogs are Security Risks

    For anyone out there with even an ounce of conspiracy theory in their blood, the idea of blogging should terrify you. We live in the age of Homeland Security, legal wire tapping, library card monitoring, internet and email monitoring…. you name it, it’s happening. You don’t even have to believe in the Illuminati or stress out about the World Bank. You’ve got bigger problems. You are intentionally divulging your personal preferences, attitudes, quirks, and traits. If they ever want you, they’ve got you.

    Think about it. If you are a blogger and mention anything not completely divorced from who you are, you have just posted yourself out there for the world to see. This could make for a sensational tv series, but a horrifying reality.

    What if someone wanted to frame you for a crime you didn’t commit? What if “they” wanted to plan a crime and pin it on a scapegoat? Or what if you belong to any type of racial, religious, or socioeconomic group that someone wants to remove?

    If you’re a blogger, you’ve shown them how you think, what you like, what you dislike, what you believe, where you shop, what you eat… the list goes on. Every post is another sample of who you are. And you are willingly making yourself public. Sure, you wouldn’t mind making a little money from it, or getting a little fame. But what if your words can be used against you? I’m not just talking about lawsuits, I’m talking about psychological profiling. Write enough blogs and any psychologist or keen observer could begin to predict your behavior based on the information you have provided.

    I think about Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory, or Taye Diggs in Day Break. In any conspiratorial situation, public information is used against the victim. If you haven’t seen Day Break, I recommend you visit ABC today and watch the full season, half of which didn’t even make it on television.