OnlineSpin: Blogging And Community IS 'Real' Work

Last week Max wrote "The Death Of Command-And-Control Marketing." Jacco de Bruijn wrote, "Thank you Max, a very insightful article that I can only agree with. It is true that we face 'increasingly dynamic marketplaces, with complex communications channels and growing customer choice' and while this seems to make things more complicated, it is actually a chance to engage directly with the right customers.... By opening up, listening and genuinely standing for something meaningful, companies can regain trust and create real relationships with customers. This is for a large part due to its empowered employees -- marketing people as much as the rest of the company -- who do something that they believe in instead of following a mandate. All together this shift is going to improve people's life, something that marketing was supposed to be about in the first place."

Friday, November 21, 2008 Blogging And Community IS 'Real' Work By Max Kalehoff Fred Wilson, managing partner at Union Square Ventures, says blogging is the "realest" work he does. He says: "Do You Ever Do Any Real Work? That's a question I used to get all of the time in the early days of this blog. I don't get it so much anymore. Because slowly but surely people are wising up to the fact that blogging is work and it's a very valuable use of my time... the time and energy I've put into this blog for the past five years has built a unique and very sophisticated audience. You are connectors and hubs of influence." Then he adds: "But in the world of social media, word of mouth and word of link marketing, it is connectors and influencers like all of you that make the difference. And that's one of the main reasons I keep writing, commenting, discussing, and participating in blogs, tumblr, twitter, disqus, and the social media world at large." I share Fred's sentiments. And as a marketer, I thank him and others for leading with progressive thinking on how businesses and individuals must interact and manage relationships in this age of open connections and online reputation. This is new territory, and he is pioneering by example. And what about you? Similarly, you, too, are connectors and hubs of influence. Many of you also are my virtual and physical neighbors, friends, colleagues and, often, harsh critics. You share your ideas, build on mine and help shape context in our industry and beyond. You're an important presence in my professional and personal life, which, for better or worse, blurs more everyday. You are why I keep writing, commenting, discussing and participating -- here in this column, on my personal blog, professional online communities and beyond. For those gifts, I thank you. I hope my attempt to participate delivers similar value in return. And I'm honored by any feedback you have to help me improve. (Disclosure: It also happened to be Fred's blogging that brought me together with him, and then brought me together with his early-stage portfolio company, Clickable.)   Post your response to the public Online SPIN blog. See what others are saying on the Online SPIN blog. Max Kalehoff is vice president of marketing for Clickable, a search-marketing solution for small and mid-size businesses. He also writes AttentionMax.com Online Spin for Friday, November 21, 2008: http://blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1435

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