Debbie Weil is a corporate blogging and social media expert, online marketing consultant, speaker and author of The Corporate Blogging Book (Portfolio). She consults with large companies, CEOs and senior executives on how to create blogs that connect with customers and attract media attention.

Had a blast this week moderating IABC’s blog panel here in D.C.

It was wonderful to meet several corporate bloggers face to face that I’ve been emailing and speaking with by phone: Paul Rosenfeld, Intuit’s blogging evangelist and the force behind the QuickBooks Online Edition blog; GM’s Bill Betts representing the Fastlane blog (Bill is Web Services Manager for GM’s global corporate communications office in Detroit); and Kevin Holland (VP in charge of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America’s ACCABuzz blog).

Paul flew in from Calif. for less than 24 hours (as did Bill) in order to participate. A huge thanks from me and from a filled-to-capacity and attentive audience. I’m sorry we couldn’t get to every one of your questions.

After offering a brief overview of corporate blogging, I posed some (vaguely) provocative questions and then let the three panelists do most of the talking. I framed our discussion around "fear of blogging" and asked each panelist in turn: "Why aren’t you afraid of blogging, why are you doing this and what results are you seeing?"

Interestingly, Steve Broback, creator of the Blog Business Summit, is thinking of using the same theme ("getting past the fear of blogging") for his Blog Business Summit Aug. 17 - 19, 2005 in San Francisco. (This is a  great event if you’re looking for a useful business blogging conference. I’ll be there as a speaker.)

Some of my questions for the panelists:

Thanks to IABC conference blogger Jeremy Popper for his write up of our session.

I’m delighted to report that Gary Grates, VP Corporate Communications, North America for General Motors has accepted my invite to be the third panelist on IABC’s corporate blogging panel on June 27, 2005. (Here is the description of the session, part of IABC’s international annual conference in Washington DC.) Gary, who is known as a "thought leader" on change management and effective employee-management relations, is a regular contributor to GM’s Fastlane blog. The other two panelists are Paul Rosenfeld, GM of Intuit’s QuickBooks Online Edition and Kevin Holland, VP Communications of the Air Conditioning Contractors of America and the force behind ACCABuzz.

Cool news. I’ve been asked to moderate a panel on corporate blogging for IABC’s annual conference in Washington D.C. on June 27, 2005. I’ve invited Paul Rosenfeld, GM of Intuit’s QuickBooks Online Edition and the force behind QuickBooks Online blog, along with Kevin Holland, VP Communications of Air Conditioning Contractors of America and creator of the ACCABuzz blog to join me. To round out the panel I’ve invited one of the top-dog bloggers for GM’s Fastlane blog (not Bob Lutz but someone who should be even better because of his inside perspective). Waiting to hear back.

Here’s what IABC chairman Warren Bickford says  about our event in his new blog. He mentions it in the same breath as the announcement that Mark Hurd,  HP’s new CEO, will be the plenary speaker. Hey, business blogging is going big time! More TK…

If you’re looking for a quick immersion in business blogging (and RSS) basics, here are two upcoming events that fit the bill. Blogging & RSS Jumpstart is a half-day seminar I’m running on Thursday Feb. 17, 2005 in Washington DC. To be exact, at the nifty Tower Club in Tysons Corner, VA. This one’s really a bargain. It’s $249 but you get two printed reports on blogging (combined value $226) with your registration. Get the details and register for the D.C. blogging event.

The second is the last in a series of blogging events put on by the AMA -  Blogs: Marketing Beyond the Website. This is a day-long workshop on Friday Feb. 18 in Chicago. It’s part of the AMA’s Hot Topic series. The event is chaired by Toby Bloomberg (author of the Diva Marketing blog) and has a good line up of speakers. More info here. ($695 or $645 if you’re an AMA member).

Heck, go to both events and you’ll really be up to speed! 

Small business marketing consultant John Jantsch is hosting a series of FREE teleconferences on topics of interest to… yes, small business owners. You can register for the session on blogging (I’m the speaker) on Feb. 9, 2005 12 Noon Central by clicking here.

John is a very clever marketer himself. Poke around his site and you’ll find his Weblog publication. Yes, it’s his blog. But he’s given it a different name to make it sound more user friendly to his target audience. He also publishes an e-newsletter, Duct Tape News. And offers an RSS feed for that as well. This should be a great event and I’m looking forward to it. John, thanks for inviting me!

I couldn’t make it because I was attending Blog Business Summit 2005 in Seattle (an excellent event). But it sounds from attendee write-ups as if the New Communications Forum 2005 in Napa, CA Jan. 26 - 27 was also very useful. (Wish they’d kill that awful music that pops up on the event’s home page… argh!) Here’s a cogent comment from Neville Hobson on Opportunity knocks for corporate communicators. He made a looong trip from Amsterdam to attend but says it was worth it. And a great round-up of blogged comments on Day 2 of the Napa event by Guillaume de Gardier.

I decided to cover the Jan 24 - 25 conference in Seattle in my other blog, BlogWrite. You can read about it here and here and here. It was a great event. And a kick to get to meet and chat with Microsoft’s “chief blogger” Robert Scoble. In addition, visit Blog Business Summit and look at the blogs listed in the right-hand column. Lots of good reporting summarizing the speakers’ presentations. You can also download the speaker slides & PDFs here. (Scroll down to Session Topics.)

I was traveling when the story on corporate blogging aired on public television’s Nightly Business Report (Jan. 14, 2005) so I haven’t seen it yet. I appeared on camera “blogging” — i.e. typing. According to a few friends who happened to catch it live, I didn’t make a complete fool of myself. I’m trying to order a copy of the segment on video cassette. In the meantime, should you care about my 5 seconds of fame, here is the transcript…
Continue reading “Transcript of Nightly Business Report segment on corporate blogging”

I’m headed to Atlanta Thursday afternoon (Jan. 20) to give a workshop on "The ROI of Business Blogging" to the Atlanta Business Marketing Association. Location: Maggiano’s at the Perimeter. The event is open to the public. Then… Monday and Tuesday (Jan. 24 and Jan. 25) I’ll be in Seattle at the Blog Business Summit. Microsoft’s Robert Scoble (aka Scobleizer) is one of the featured speakers. Should be interesting to see if he’s as good a speaker as he is a blogger (i.e. writer). I’m looking to get practical & provocative tidbits about blogging & RSS as business tools out of this event. It’s at the spiffy sounding Bell Harbor Conference enter where attendees get to sit in those cool Aeron chairs. Be sure to look me up if you’re there! I’ll be wandering around with my new Mac laptop, tuning into all the Wi-Fi hotspots. (I *love* my new Powerbook!)

I’m running a half-day public workshop on Blogging & RSS for Business: What, Why & How. Date: Thursday February 17, 2005. Location: The Tower Club in Tysons Corner, VA. Time: 8:30 - 11:30 AM. Registrants will each get print copies of ROI of Business Blogging and Beginner’s Guide to Business Blogging (value  $226). Seating is limited to 20 so don’t wait if you’re interested. Register here. P.S. This event is NOT cool! This is a jumpstart session aimed at corporate and non-profit executives as well as communications, marketing and PR managers. Plain language, practical tips, useful case studies. A quick, hands-on introduction to blogs & RSS as the new, cost-effective online marketing tactic. Leave with a clear understanding of what this new communications tool can do for your business or your client. Questions? Email me at wordbiz @ gmail DOT com or call direct +1 202.364.5705. MORE INFO HERE