It's tempting to say the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) has a
cool
blog. But it wouldn't be true...
What ACCA, the trade association for 4,000 heating, ventilating
and air conditioning companies, has created is a highly efficient way of communicating
with its members.
Since VP for Member Services & Communications Kevin
Holland launched ACCA's blog, dubbed ACCAbuzz,
in January 2004, he and his staff have posted hundreds of entries to the Weblog
or blog page on ACCA's site.
The postings range from quick notices about
local chapters' annual golf outings, bar-b-ques and horse races to dozens of entries
about ACCA's annual blow-out conference & expo in New Orleans. The conference
entries include photos and a cleverly written "conference journal" by
a first-time attendee.
Find out how Kevin maintains ACCA's blog in an
hour a day, what blogging software he uses, what his policy on "Comments"
is and what advice he offers to other associations or companies starting a blog.
Get
the full story...
Congrats
to
Tim Taylor, Environment, Health & Safety Communications
Leader, at Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan. Tim was one of nearly 175 readers
who entered our 1-minute blogging quiz. He wins a copy of
Jim Sterne's
430-page handbook:
Web Metrics: Proven Methods for Measuring Web Site Success.
Blogging survey results Responses
to the 1-minute blogging quiz were fascinating. A few highlights:
-
82% know what a blog is - 63.8% say blogging
is more than just a fad
- 33% say the word blog is silly
- 44.7%
call it descriptive
- 14% expressed concern over what to write about
- 11% ask how you can use a blog to boost profits
Here are three useful articles about business blogging. The first is about
a software company CEO who (egged on by his PR guy) started a blog to establish
himself as a thought leader.
The second is a short report from Jupiter's
recent Internet Planet conference on the importance of putting an individual
face and a human voice behind a corporate or business blog.
The third
is a provocative article in BusinessWeek about a 26-year-old software
engineer blogging from her cubicle at Microsoft... with Bill Gates' blessing.
Sherpa
article about using a blog for publicity and SEO (fre*e
till June 26, 2004)
Advice
for blogging newbies
Blogging
with The Boss's Blessing
Has Debbie
lost her mind?
Longtime WordBiz subscriber Tim Reilly,
who heads up Disaster Preparedness for North
Safety , wrote me:
"I have thought
for months that poor, poor Debbie has gone round the bend. All she does is talk
about these things called blogs. Well I have a (business) blog and I am
trying to augment my electronic newsletters for all the reasons that you have
been talking about. So I guess you have reached prophet status, for now."
Thanks, Tim! I was worried there for a minute. Oh, and Tim has signed up
for next week's audio/Web conference. Here's Tim's
new blog on DP (disaster preparedness).
If
you want to join Tim and the other lucky 49 who will participate next week (sorry,
we can only accommodate 50 registrants), use
this link to register immediately. Details in the box at right.
Live
seminar postponed
The half-day live seminar on business blogging scheduled
for June 30, 2004 has been postponed until October. Many folks told us the date
so close to the July 4th (U.S.) holiday weekend didn't work for them.
In addition, those traveling from places like New Zealand preferred a day-long
event that would get into more depth on the topic of business blogs and how to
profitably integrate them with your Web site.
Details including
date, speakers and exact location in Washington D.C. to be announced. If you're
interested in attending, by all means email me at debbie.weil@gmail.com. Put "Live
Seminar" in your Subject Line.
An email
apology
I've missed a few emails from subscribers lately due to email
& sp*m overload. I want to hear from you! If you don't get a reply from me
in a few days, please pick up the phone and call direct or email me again. Try
my yahoo account (wordbiz@yahoo.com).
Warm regards,
