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.

Here’s my write up of the presentation at this week’s IABC conference on how McDonald’s communications strategy helped transform press coverage of the company between 2003 and 2005. Nothing to do with blogging but a great story nonetheless.

The 2005 IABC conference was terrific and I met lots of great folks. The International Association of Business Communicators has a deservedly great reputation. Interestingly, many of the members focus on internal employee communications… which is relevant to internal corporate blogs. I’ve just joined the D.C. chapter and am looking forward to getting more involved.

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…

Dave Taylor, one of my favorite online thinkers, is running Blog Smart, a workshop on blogs in Boulder, CO on May 5, 2005. Wish I could attend. If you’re in the area, this one sounds like a no-brainer. Covers all the basics: how blogs are different from HTML Web sites; how blogs create loyalty; case studies including Microsoft’s Robert Scoble, Tom Peters, and big wig bloggers at GM, Boeing and Sun Microsystems. Check out the course outline online and note particularly one of the last topics: “The future of findability.” What gets you found?? Your content, of course. Ultimately, that’s what blogs are all about. Thanks to Amy Gahran of Contentious for the link.

First, because Seth is so damn smart. He talks like he blogs… in long coherent riffs that are sprinkled with lots of specific examples based on brand name companies. The guy really does his homework. Or he’s got a mind like a steal trap and remembers everything he’s read. Anyway, I had the good fortune to attend his all-day workshop last week in New York City as a guest of Conference Calls Unlimited. The event was run by Gazelles, an executive development program, and took place in a funky loft on Canal Street. About 30 folks attended, virtually all of them white male CEOs of off-line companies. Only three women. An interesting crowd because they don’t spend their days immersed in the Internet and they’re dealing with non-cool B2B customers. Still, a lot of the same concepts apply.

Seth talked about “being remarkable” and “digital augmentation” and “smooth ideas” and how “there is no truth but there IS authenticity and consistency.” But it’s his quirks I like best: 1.) You don’t get any handouts; no binder or even stapled sheets 2.) You’re not allowed to take notes 3.) He answers his cell (set to ring like a real phone) while he’s presenting, interrupting himself and scarcely missing a beat… “Yes, hi, yes. You can deliver lunch now. OK, here’s my credit card number…” 4.) He serves what many folks would consider weird food… Sushi and Indian. Platters and platters of it. 5.) He hands out weird prizes like a fez hat (from Archie McPhee) if you ask a question 6.) Finally, he ran out in the afternoon to scoop up a bunch of snacks for us from Canal Street. He knows what’s important… good cookies. Fun and provocative and new, even though I attended a similar workshop in his loft last June.

The Blog Business Summit in Seattle (Jan. 24 - 25, 2005) is heating up. Lots of great speakers, from Robert Scoble to Halley Suitt. I just emailed conference organizer Steve Broback and he assured me this is not just an event for the “cool” to hobnob with the “cognoscenti” of the blogosphere. Real corporate types with down-to-earth questions about “why blog” and “huh? what’s RSS??” will be there. Frankly, those are the folks I’m more interested in speaking with. I’m within an inch of hopping on a plane to attend. Hey, Tom Peters just announced he’s going. P.S. If you’re going, please let me know. Reach me at wordbiz @ gmail dot com.

A wrap-up of this week’s B2B Lead Gen Summit in Washington DC from MarketingSherpa: Why You Should Never Classify Leads As Hot. Includes lots of tips from speaker Mac McIntosh. Along with a link to his nifty Marketing Lead Calculator. (It’s a downloadable spreadsheet.)

Here are 13 more gems from Sherpa’s B2B Lead Gen Summit held in DC this week. Read the first eight gems here.

#9 Revising or re-launching your site anytime soon? According to Future Now’s Jeff Eisenberg, you should write EVERY WORD of copy for your new site before you design it. Read it over. Prioritize your information, offers, calls to action: #1, #2, #3, etc. Only then should you talk to a designer. Makes sense although difficult to do. It’s so tempting to start with what you think the various categories of your site should be… About Us, What We Do and so on… Ditch those.
Continue reading “The rest of the B2B Lead Generation gems”

Wow… I’m jazzed up after two days at MarketingSherpa’s B2B Lead Gen Summit here in Washington DC. It’s one of those conferences where you can’t take notes fast enough to get down the nuggets you want to remember. Great speakers. I’m gonna share a couple dozen of them with you. If you’re in marketing or sales for technology or complex sales of any kind, these will appeal to you. If you’re interested, the West Coast version of this conference is in San Francisco on Nov. 18 - 19. OK, here goes… #1 is from Sherpa’s Anne Holland. She cites Don Crowther’s search marketing tip: capitalize your URL in your Google AdWords text box. So, www.WordBiz.com, not www.wordbiz.com. Yup, that’s the same Don Crowther who’s presenting BlogWrite with me today at 1:00 PM Eastern…
Continue reading “21 gems from Sherpa’s B2B Lead Gen Summit”