Blogging and Your Brand, Part I

Blake Cahill of Visible Technologies and Clint Schaff of M-80 facilitated a "Panel 2.0" on Blogging and Your Brand at BlogWorld this afternoon. This was an excellent interactive discussion that took a look at social media and its influence in business and brand. The discussion addressed questions like what's social media's role today in business? How do businesses "control" the integrity of their brand where consumer-generated content now is a viable and prolific source of information.

A great quote provided in the presentation hit the bullseye:
"Selling and telling is defunct and gone forever. With the increase of consumer-generated media…consumers are showing a greater need for making connections with other people and brands."
- James R. Stengel, Global Marketing Officer for P&G

A keypoint to the discussion was the basic premise that "Opinions Impact Your Brand."

Consumer opinions are the most valued consumer tools in a crowded marketplace.

Brands need:
- Insight into what consumers are saying
- Awareness in social media networks
- Excitement for products
- Engagement with audiences

You can run but you can’t hide
Whether or not we choose to be part of the dialogue, the dialogue is going to happen,” … “I believe the challenges is to make it happen with us.” Coca Cola – Tim Kopp

In the end, the critical steps Cahill notes about social media is this chain of events:

• Join
• Listen
• Learn
• Participate
• Share
• Evaluate

Bottom Line: You Have Two Choices
Join the conversation or procrastinate and then join the conversation later on anyway…

Join In
It’s no longer an option not to.

Side Note - This is the quick notes from today's session. This session was very good and gave me a lot of additional side notes I will want to blog on when I can sit back and focus more. More to come...

Comments

[Clinton Schaff]

Thanks for sharing remarks on the panel. Blake and I were happy that folks in attendance engaged with the content as a group and that we could all learn from one another.

[Blake Cahill]

Thanks for attending and summarizing the essence of the session.

Blake

[Clayton]

Hi Viaspire,
I enjoyed checking out your blog. I'm a recent grad in Silicon Valley, and I've just started a company that is mapping the blogosphere to our world. Here is an example of a blogger in Georgia who's plugged in: http://www.verveearth.com/landing/#type=user&id=772. It can be fun to explore different localities.

It's an easy process to get on board, and I can be reached at clayton@verveearth.com for questions or feedback. If you resonate with the vision of painting a global canvas of voices, please give VerveEarth a mention.

Cheers! -Clayton