Are you hearing more about blogs and social media? Do you want to learn more? Perhaps the interview I did last week with Kemp Harr on FloorDaily.net will answer some of your questions. You see, Kemp asked that I help his listeners understand what social media is about - a subject I'm only too happy to discuss! Not only did he ask about blogs in general, but he gave me an opportunity to discuss the CRI Blog -- remember CRI and Simple Marketing Now launch Carpet and Rug Institute Blog? -- more specifically.The interview is 9 minutes long.
I discuss what are blogs: self-publishing web-based platforms that allow individuals and organizations to post articles and stories that are relevant to a reader base on a regular basis.
The value of blogs: blogs allow you to take part in the conversations happening around your brand, company, industry or hot topics. If you take part in the conversation [remember, markets are conversations], you can learn from the interaction and help shape the discussion. If you don't, you abdicate participation in both the talk and any kind of resulting action.
For the CRI - and chief blog contributors Bethany Richmond and James Beach - the CRI blog means being able to highlight carpet related research and resources [i.e., that combat myths around carpet and allergies or explain how carpet improves learning in schools] that are otherwise difficult to find, and also to translate the information into something meaningful and relevant to readers.
Bethany posted a terrific writeup [see CRI Blog Consultant Christine Whittemore Interviewed on Floor Daily and says nice things about me, too. Thank you, Bethany!] with links to the Health Magazine example I refer to in the interview.
Kemp asked how to find blogs: start with Google blog search and consider looking at Technorati, a blog search engine which identifies a blog's authority or credibility [a result of regular posting or publishing, relevance and links from other sources]. Another is Alltop which organizes blogs into related topics - it's a very cool site.
If you'd like more information, you might check out a previous post, "Blogs are now mainstream media.", which includes the slides from a recent social media 101 presentation.
Jim Gould from the Floor Covering Institute emailed me saying that he "thought [the interview with Kemp] was outstanding. Not only did I learn a lot but I think I am starting to understand this stuff." Yeah and thank you, Jim!
As it relates to the CRI blog, I'm very pleased with its progress. The first post went live on April 7th, 2009. Since then, Bethany and James, who have done a terrific job embracing the medium, have published 19 blogposts. All help tell the Carpet and Rug Institute story and increase its visibility and relevance to anyone in the marketplace interested in learning more about carpet and the environment, carpet and allergies, carpet and learning environments, and generally how carpet truly enhances the living environment.
To highlight the blog's progress, here is the status report I presented on June 1st on the CRI Blog's first two months.
As of yesterday, the blog had 106 subscribers! Very cool.
It's still very early in this blog's life, but I'm looking forward to witnessing how it develops, discovering which stories particularly resonate with readers, and hearing the resulting conversation.
If you haven't already, you might visit the Carpet and Rug Institute Blog. If you like what you see, or have ideas for topics you don't see, do let Bethany and James know. They'd love to hear from you.
Congratulations to the CRI Blog and Bethany and James! And, thank you Kemp Harr at FloorDaily for the opportunity to discuss a subject I greatly enjoy!
If you have more questions, please don't hesitate to ask...
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Reminder: Please, no self-promotional or SPAM comments. Don't bother if you're simply trying to build inauthentic link juice. Finally, don't be anonymous: it's too hard to have a conversation. Thanks, CB