The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil (Penguin Portfolio); available on Amazon

Follow this link to download an excerpt from the book.

Chapter 1: Top Twenty Questions About Corporate Blogging.

I wrote this with Qumana’s free desktop blogging tool. Very cool.

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In the April 17, 2006 issue of Fortune Magazine I’m quoted in a 100-word sidebar on page 36 (lower left-hand corner) about corporate blogging. Fortune reporter Telis Demos, author of the sidebar, writes:

“Yesterday your grandmother started blogging. So why aren’t more FORTUNE 500 companies joining the sphere? Some blognosticators predict that blogs are the future of corporate PR and that all 500-level companies will have them by 2010. But socialtext.net/bizblogs, which indexes FORTUNE 500 blogs open to the public, has found just 24, mostly operated inside tech companies…

Debbie Weil of blogwriteforCEOs.com chalks it up to uncertainty. “What’s the ROI on blogging?” she asks. “Nobody knows yet.” Blogging may still prove to be a great PR tool, but the 500 aren’t on the blandwagon just yet.“

Not sure those were exactly my words but what the heck… fun to get a tiny moment of exposure in Fortune.

Oh, and as for the validity of Telis’s sidebar, we’ll see. I think the corporate blogging phenomenon will unfold more rapidly than we might expect. It’s my prediction that blogs (or something like them - live, interactive, user-friendly) will become a standard feature of any corporate Web site. (I’ve emailed Telis to tell him that and suggest that Fortune do a longer article on the topic… )

Amusing Typo

Just noticed this today. In the last sentence of the sidebar above it says “blandwagon” instead of “bandwagon.” Let’s hope that corporate blogs aren’t already making the wagon bland.

Oops… lame joke

I didn’t get the joke. Telis just emailed me to say:

Hi Debbie. Actually, it’s not a typo-it’s a lame joke. Lots of bloggers have bloggerized words, like “bleg” for “beg” (when they’re raising money). More than a few of the copyeditors noticed it too, so you’re not the first to ask about it. Sorry for any confusion!

I’m horribly late in getting this second podcast up. As soon as I finished the first one (an interview with the inestimable Elizabeth Albrycht), I succumbed once again to podcast-production-phobia. Well, it’s kinda silly because it really isn’t that hard. (That’s my cute photo of Phil, BTW.)

Phil Gomes is Edelman PR’s Senior Counsel for Online Communications. He’s based in L.A. I caught up with him in Palo Alto on March 2, 2006 at the NewComm Forum.

In this edition of the Corporate Blogging Podcast, Phil and I chat about the “self-regulation” of the blogosphere. Phil talks about credibility, responsibility, being intellectually honest and how having a conversation means that you’re not lecturing. Robert Scoble and DL Byron stop by to say hi while Phil and I are talking. You’ll hear all their voices.

Download the show here (MP3, 12.9 MB, 14 mins) or sign up for the RSS feed to get it (and future editions of the CBP) automatically.

Subscribe and listen to Earshot, Phil’s Edelman podcast.
[Blog page on libsyn]

Michael McLaughlin, author of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants, offers great tips on the new must-have for authors - a companion book blog. Looks like he updates his companion Guerrilla Consulting blog frequently (sometimes several times a week). A key tip for new authors: blogging a lot may improve your book's Amazon sales rankings.  

From an interview with another blogging book author, Ted Demopoulos.

OK, this is happening live. Sarah Lewis, my Web designer, and I are doing a live demo of WordPress to fool with this blog!

This blog is looking a bit higgledy-piggledy (is that a word?) these days. But we’ll be spiffing it up soon. I’m going to move the Corporate Blogging Podcast to its own (small) blog and keep this one for the book. Stay tuned and thanks for your patience…