August 10th, 2007

BlogHer07: A 2.0 human community

Posted by Maurene Caplan Grey @ 8:27 am

Categories: BlogHer07, Blogs, Social communities, Social media, Web 2.0

Tags: Web, Women, Blog, Maurene Caplan Grey

About a year ago, I was a neophyte blogger. My first few posts were force-fed into my blog. They were a “should” chore — I should be blogging. I approached “the blog” as unfamiliar technology. I didn’t yet realize that blog posts are born from passion, and that ”should blog” is an oxymoron.

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In late July, I attended BlogHer07. I was sipping my morning coffee, waiting for the keynote, when I experienced an epiphany: My “should blog” baggage was long gone. A collective passion and energy permeated the room. It wasn’t just me; others said that they felt it as well. BlogHer was an educational and networking event focused on the human effect of blogging — a viral revival meeting.

The conference included sessions on self-branding, storytelling, advocacy, politics, fundraising and the momosphere. At the same time, BlogHer was being held in Second Life. (A panelist shares her BlogHer Second Life experience.)

Many of the trade floor vendors left their tchotchkes at home. I got a laptop bag from AOL and an Essentials Renew kit from General Motors. Why such nice take-aways? Women generate revenue.

Women are the primary decision makers for the majority of household spend. According to BlogHer research:

• Women spend $5 trillion a year (U.S.) and control 83% of household spending.

• Women who blog are 30% more likely than average female Internet users to shop online–and spend more when they buy.  

Bloggers are influencers. Read the rest of this entry »

June 27th, 2007

Web 2.0: Where "low-fi is the next high-fi"

Posted by Maurene Caplan Grey @ 7:57 am

Categories: Blogs, Digital media, E-communications, Social media, Web 2.0, Wiki

Tags: Web, Web 2.0, IP, Maurene Caplan Grey

My audience [will] live a happier, easier life here on the web!

Well, you’re gonna be a rock star with this!

Simple, entertaining, funny, and informative!

… and my personal favorite

You made it so simple, even my parents could understand it.

These are a sampling of comments received by the folk at CommonCraft.

CommonCraft has mastered the art of simplifying the complicated. They call it paperworks, and “believe lo-fi is the new hi-fi.”

Let’s say that tomorrow you need to give a presentation to your non-technical boss on the value of wikis. You could start with the Wikipedia definition of “wiki” — or you could start your presentation with this video.

Human communication fails when people speak different languages and do not have a translator or a common goal — for example, when the IT system engineer talks about IP (Internet Protocol) with the marketing design team responsible for IP (intellectual property).

I rarely gush over vendor products or services… but gosh darn it, this type of “2.0″ tutorial was just so easy to understand.

June 5th, 2007

Word of mouth marketing: It's all about love

Posted by Maurene Caplan Grey @ 9:07 am

Categories: Blogs, Customer Service, E-communications, Web 2.0, Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM)

Tags: Marketing, Microsoft Word, Social Bookmarking, Blog, Maurene Caplan Grey

I do my food shopping at Stop & Shop (a East Coast chain) — mainly because I can flip through the online weekly sales flyer. I click on the items that I want and they are added to my shopping list, which I then print. Now that you know, you may do your marketing at Stop & Shop also.

The really smart companies give people a reason to talk about their stuff, and they make it easy for that conversation to take place, said Andy Sernovitz in his June 1 INBOX keynote.  Andy is the author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking and the founder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. 

As Andy pointed out, word of mouth marketing (WOMM) is all about love. Love makes the world (and business) go ’round, because it’s viral. Did I mention that I get coupons for free Bath and Body Works products, merely because I shop there?

I’ve plugged two retailers and Andy’s book in this blog post, the record of which will live forever in the Blogosphere. Piggyback onto this post by adding a Comment with the names of your favorite retailers. Add this blog post to your favorite social bookmarking service, e.g., del.cio.us, and share your bookmarks with others.

To really spread the love, start or contribute to a blog meme. One of my favorite bloggers, Chris Garrett, promotes the Charity Link Meme.

Did you love (or at least like) this blog post? If so, tell others.

March 20th, 2007

Phishing for Bloggers

Posted by Maurene Caplan Grey @ 10:53 am

Categories: Blogs, Phishing, Security, Social communities, Social media

Tags:

The proverbial "big fish that got away" has been found on Google's Blogger. Last week, Fortinet reported that cyber-criminals are using blogs for phishing expeditions — users that access such blogs are redirected to fraudulent sites. Phishing is the cyber-version of the classic "bait and switch." 

The word “phishing” comes from the analogy that Internet scammers are using e-mail bait to fish for passwords and financial data from the sea of Internet users. The term was coined in 1996 by hackers who were stealing America Online (AOL) accounts by scamming passwords from unsuspecting AOL users. Since hackers have a tendency to replacing “f” with “ph,” the term phishing was derived. The term has evolved over the years to include not only obtaining user account details but access to all personal and financial data.