About 25 people gathered around Charlene to discuss the use of blogs in a business context. Few real-time tidbits:
- Started with a discussion on linking and discovery behavior, and how to “surface in the index”. Charlene explained that in a business context, the key metric is one’s ranking on Google. She recommended to study MarketingSherpa’s reports on the topic.
- There was then a discussion on personal vs. business topics to cover on a business blog. Someone makes a reference to David Hornik and the fact that he writes on VentureBlog for venture-related “stuff”, and SaysMe for personal items. The consensus is to draw a line in the sand as to how personal one wants/can become in her/his writing.
My comment (I know I shouldn’t comment, but heck) is that it really depends on the personal. VB is a group blog, and it is natural to leave personal things aside. I pointed to Brad Feld and Fred Wilson’s blogs that contain a mix of personal, technology, VC stuff. The value of getting more personal is that your readers tend to get a better picture of your personality. And getting personal does not necessarily mean to talk about family-related stuff, opinions, experiences, thoughts are just as good.
It was agreed that service-related businesses seem to be more appropriate for a mix, because the individual is “sold” as much as the firm (VCs, lawfirms, consultants, …). 
Blogging in business, and how it changes the internal dynamics ? Mary from Sun’s PR talked about Jonathan Schwartz’s blog, and the fact that he does not get a review from Sun’s PR or Legal (just spell checking). I asked her why he does not turn on comments or trackbacks on his blog. The answer is that “opening” his blog would create a responsibility (burden ?) to follow up on the dialogue, and it would become a time issue for him. The solution is to email him (provided that you know/guess his email in a first place, since it is not listed on his blog).- Drifting on expectations regarding women senior executives and how challenging it is for them to be seen as performant in a very male context.
- Networking is the next topic: Renee Blodgett states that women tend to be perceived as lesser networkers than men, and generates respect for her 1000+ contacts on LinkedIn (with people she has met).
- Moving to networking vs. blogging, and the fact blogs are great for personal expression, but not creating networks. A lawyer blogger points to the fact that BlogHer attendees might gather a lot of blogs to add to their blogrolls today, but may not have met/discussed with the people sitting on their table. Someone points to a counter example (that I have lived many times): meeting someone that you have been reading/engaging with on the blogosphere first and have this sense of “proximity” with.
- Marketing: need for better tools, such as group blogs, and the need for a shift in the marketing approach. Blogs are not a "fire and forget" thing anymore, and need to be integrated in the whole marketing plan.
Tags: blogher, bloghercon
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