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Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

Who Owns Blogs?

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Thought I could avoid this controversial topic of ownership, but why not further stick out the neck after blogging here that “Public Relations Drives Marketing?”

The hackles most raised by that post were those of Mr. Mark W. Schaefer, blogger extraordinaire at {grow}. Yesterday, Mark returned the favor while leading a Webinar on B2B blogging I attended.

To the question posed by the audience “Who owns blogs, public relations or marketing?” Mark prefaced his answer with “My PR friends are going to kill me…marketing owns blogs!” He suggested public relations can draft content all it wants, but marketing owns the strategy.

Because I tweeted the Webinar (can’t sit idle during those things) at #b2bblog, others weighed in. @NEMultimedia said “I see PR and Marketing as two sides of the same brain.” @X_youarehere said,” No 1 owns communications, but there are many…change own to coordinate.”

I concur with that statement Mr./Ms. X with a change from “coordinate” to “lead or direct.” We’re at a crossroads, and this ownership question continues to rear its ugly head. I report to a client’s brand marketing team, and I direct strategy and content for landing pages, blogs, social media, and more.  While I don’t own it, I certainly collaborate with marketing.

I vow, as of today, never to claim ownership of blogs, social media or other; rather, I’ll claim partnership. In Mr. Schaefer’s defense, he did respond to my tweet questioning his marketing-owns-blogs statement saying “we can agree to disagree only if he’s right.” (No way, dude, we both are! There, how’s that for starters?)

What’s your contribution to this discussion?  Let’s establish future guidelines for all of us.

New Bloggers’ Q & A

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Now that I have three full weeks of straight blogging under my belt, it means nothing. Seriously! There is so much to learn and do, it’s daunting. Along the path, I’d like to bring you with to share in my experience with questions I’m posing and that are being posed to me.

Here we go:

1. Why don’t I have a link to Soulati–‘TUDE! from my home page at ?

Exactly; long story. Simply, I have branding issues. The recent importation of a blog into an antiquatedly built site has created challenges (which are opportunities) to modernize. It’s an evolution and one that requires some IT dinking. There will soon be a link to the blog from the home page of Soulati.com; promise. (I needed to state that in a public forum to be my own leading edge…it carries some weight!)

2. Can I design an entire Web site in WordPress?

Yes, one can. offers the best of DIY for anyone interested in a simple, easy-to-edit content management approach. As I switched from Headway to Thesis, someone made a remark saying my blog resembled the look of others designed in Thesis. I suggested kindly in reply, it wasn’t the look that mattered, it was the content. (I still concur with myself.)

3. Is there a bloggers’ association at which I can review guide rules, etiquette?

What a surprise; nope. I found the , an association in Singapore, and niche bloggers’ associations for outdoor, theater, Iranian Muslim, and Afrosphere. Didn’t find a plain old weblog association on which I want to see copyright rules, etiquette, trademarks, how to link, sources for content, tutorials on SEM, blogging platforms and a social networking site.

4. Do you think question 3 and its answer just gave someone really innovative an idea to launch a business?

Resoundingly, yes, and please put me on the inaugural board of directors as a charter pioneer of a new bloggers’ association.

5. Do you think three-week-old bloggers should be so arrogant?

No, but since there are no guide rules on tonality, etiquette, or braggadocio to be found at a bloggers’ peer group, ignorance is bliss, as they say.

6. What is a blog roll?

A blog roll is just like a roll call in school (why was it called that anyway?). You can add links to blogs you wish to feature in a list as a side widget on your blog. Nice way to gift your peers. (Widgets, incidentally, are pretty important to a blog; they’ve come a long way from “company X that makes widgets” in academic examples found in college text books.”

7. How does one find topics of interest to write about?

There are endless opportunities for topics, and I find them this way:

  • Listening differently. Most conversations provide some topic for consideration. I jot down a buzz word in a rolling topical list in a manual spiral notebook on my desk. I’ve also taken to carrying paper with me to ensure I can capture a thought while driving, or standing in a line somewhere. (I’m sure there’s some fancy mobile app for my i-Pod 3G instead of paper.)
  • Reading newsprint and tearing stories. I pull from periodicals and do the same, keeping these in a manual folder. (Can’t tell you I’m reviewing the folder daily; I need to locate it on my desk.)
  • Watching current events and common themes on Twitter.
  • Asking Twitter friends about a topic they’d like to see or their opinion on what’s resonated thus far on the blog. Inviting experts for interviews, and asking pals to make comments on a blog post which can lead to a new post topic.
  • Reading others’ blogs, and reviewing shared links pertaining to my field of expertise.  When posting comments on others’ blogs, I consider that topic for later.

8. What part of a new blog is a bigger bite than chewable?

IT!! I’ve stated before, having some IT knowledge is hugely beneficial. As things unfold and there’s more to incorporate on the blog, IT expertise is a must. Of course, there are levels of expertise. I’m in the “I’ll-try-anything-eight-times-cry- then-try-again-and-get-it-done” category. If you’re in the “I’m-never-touching-IT-ever-and-I’ll-pay-someone” category, then you’re going to have problems. Try to find a happy medium.

9. Who is the founding father of the blogosphere?

From Dave Winer pioneered the development of weblogs, syndication (RSS), podcasting, outlining, and web content management software; former contributing editor at Wired Magazine, research fellow at Harvard Law School, entrepreneur, and investor in web media companies. A native New Yorker, he received a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from Tulane University and currently lives in Berkeley, California.

10. Does it take time to blog?

Eh? What’d you say? You think thinking, researching, interviewing, writing, editing, writing, posting, tagging, previewing, fact-checking, linking, editing, marketing, responding, engaging and strategizing take time? Why, goodness, no.

That Blogging Quest

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Today’s post ought to be short and sweet. When it comes to the blogging quest (read nightmare), that’s not a guarantee.

Thought of titling this as “Along came a spider…” but then would SEO put my blog in touch with arachnophobics (I coin words)? The spider in this case is Gregg Morris. My dear Tweep @greggvm yesterday took my blog effort and turned it upside down.

I no longer am using Headway on WordPress, I’m now on Thesis, and what a relief. I see light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to Gregg (I must remember to use 3 Gs). He took his valuable time and spent it with me yesterday to re-launch the blog theme into something without the kinked-up sutures in which Headway had captured me.

I trusted him although we had never spoken prior to yesterday. How? We tweet. Why? We tweet. (More on that later.)

Another blogger I respect, too, is Nicky Jameson. She is also a Thesis user, and she has a boatload of WordPress tutorials on her Web site which I purchased for a more-than-reasonable fee and downloaded (took an hour). Watched the first one on Feedburner and tinkered as I watched…it worked!

So, thanks, thanks to my extraordinary new/old friend Gregg, who without concern for his valued time, inserted himself into mine to come to the aid of a damsel in distress (who didn’t, is that “wouldn’t?” ask for help).

Koodles!

Blogging 101– More Perspire to Inspire

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I’ve thought long and hard about whether to share my pain getting to this point. No matter. If I can inspire and perspire and help someone else lessen that experience, that’s the goal.

The blogging quest has been arduous. Is it me? As @GrantGriffiths points out “@Soulati, you’re making this too hard.” Grant is the maker of the WordPress Headway theme; of course, he’s wayyyy beyond any 101 of installation and design. Tutorials on Lynda.com were fabulous, especially for the how-to-self-install WordPress on your own Web site, which I did. The WordPress documentation (instructions), when read in tandem with the Lynda tutorial, were helpful, but still daunting.

Once the WordPress foundation went live, the Headway install took two minutes, exactly as was suggested by the gurus.

Then the design fun began. It’s been cool using the visual editor and seeing colors and fonts immediately; it’s so simple. Where I failed is how to get those darn widgets and sidebars to work; it is NOT intuitive, I don’t care what you say. They’re all here now, although you scroll to infinity to get there. I’m working on it!

What about these bold colors, I asked my colleague yesterday? And, she so politely said, “when I see these colors, I see you, Jayme.” Uh-huh. Probably need to think about the overall design one more time, then the content layout, then the header logo (not there yet).

I’m pretty excited I designed a Favicon using a JohnHaydon YouTube tutorial in about the same time he did. Would be remiss not mentioning the fab resources in @remarkablogger and Headway Hacks, along with Grant Griffiths and Clay Griffiths. And, then there are those other moral supporters i.e. @MarkWSchaefer who blogs at {grow}. Mark provided my inspiration to get here from there; he also kindly posted a first comment about inspiring and perspiring which was so fitting, I’m borrowing it.

It takes a village, you know. Koodles!