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

Thanks to my Web designer extraordinaire Sarah Lewis for sending this pic of The Corporate Blogging Book on the shelf in the Boise, Idaho library. Sarah confesses that she asked her local branch to buy the book. It appears to be stacked next to the Energy Efficiency Manual. Not sure what the connection is.

Jim Sinkinson of The Bulldog Reporter and Infocom Group kindly sent along this snapshot after spotting The Corporate Blogging Book at his local Borders bookstore in Emeryville, CA. Cool, huh?! Now if you’ll just rush out and buy a copy at your own Borders, the store will keep it on the “new books” table a while longer.

Bulldog Reporter’s PR University (Nov. 3, 2006)

Note: I’ll be speaking at Bulldog Reporters‘ PR University on Friday Nov. 3rd in New York City on the topic of Corporate Blogs 2.0. Details TK.

Pete Blackshaw, CMO of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, has written a thoughtful book review cum analysis of the current state of corporate blogging in his latest article for ClickZ: Corporate Blogging: Great Liberator of Oxymoron.

A bit of the backstory… he peppered me with questions via email last week before writing the column. Then went off and wrote his own thing. It’s the most substantive and useful review I’ve read to date. He really gets it — both my book (it was published last week) and blogging as it relates to business. For example, he writes:

There’s nothing terribly novel or catchy about the title, “The Corporate Blogging Book,” but this speaks volumes about the book’s straight-to-the-point practicality and usefulness. - Pete Blackshaw

Thanks Pete. Would you believe that Penguin Portfolio and I spent months coming up with that title? Ultimately it was my suggestion. I thought an obvious, clearly descriptive title would get picked up in Google searches; it has.

I also wanted a “corporate-friendly” title that wouldn’t scare off my intended readers. Much as I love Naked Conversations as a title, those (naked c’s) are about the last thing a corporate suit wants to have.

Pete also puts me in august blogging company by mentioning me in the same breath with Robert Scoble (who is, I gotta say from personal acquaintance, an awfully nice guy):

Like Robert Scoble, she projects both authenticity and humility. This comes across in her blog as well. She’s a great listener and reluctant to over-preach blog dogma or must-haves until she’s absorbed lots of content and conversations about the topic. - PB

Towards the end of his article, Pete picks a small nit by questioning whether I go deeply enough into how a blog fits with a company’s operational culture. He writes:

… though Weil gets it right about the power and importance of authenticity, she misses some key opportunities to discuss the conspicuous disconnects between a corporate blog’s “come talk to me” welcome mat and the typical customer service department’s unmistakably grim “don’t talk to me” sign. - PB

Good point. Pete is talking about the execution phase of corporate blogging, how it fits in not just with a company’s marketing efforts but with everything a company does in interacting with customers.

As yet this is an area too new and unformed to be written about decisively (at least it was by my Dec. 31, 2005 deadline for the book). Of course, it’s great fodder for the next edition of The Corporate Blogging Book… or for my next book should it be on a related topic!

Useful Links

Corporate Blogging: Great Liberator of Oxymoron (Pete Blackshaw’s ClickZ column - August 8, 2006)

Should Corporations or Brands Blog: Why and How? (on Pete’s ConsumerGeneratedMedia blog)

This is too cool. It’s 3 PM Eastern on the official release day. Right now The Corporate Blogging Book is at #6 on Amazon’s Business / Marketing & Sales list, right above Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Sales Answers and Michael Port’s Book Yourself Solid.

To continue the game (the rankings fluctuate hour by hour; there’s an algorithm behind them), TCBB is #59 in Amazon top Business books, right behind Tom Friedman’s The World Is Flat and Jack & Susie Welch’s Winning.

Will my book stay in such august company? Unlikely. But what the heck.

P.S. Yes this is fun

In case you wandered into the party a little late, today is publicaton day. Yes, my book is shipping now from Amazon. Got my notification that the copy I ordered for overnight delivery will be here tomorrow. (Just testing.) Now about that glass of wine… it sounds better than Diet Coke.

Friend and colleague Jim Kinlan of TemplateZone just emailed to tell me that the copy of The Corporate Blogging Book he ordered from Amazon has shipped! That’s his confirmation email at left, on his snazzy HTML stationery. One day early, it appears, as the official release date is tomorrow, August 3rd, 2006.