Archive for September, 2005
September 26, 2005
The Times, They Are A-Changin’
Posted by Kevin | (2) Comments | Print This Article
True, but more to the point, this blog is going to be a-changin’. You’ll have noticed that the posts have become a lot less frequent lately, but that’s primarily because I’ve been incredibly swamped at work. (I know, aren’t we all.)
More importantly, I’ve been using this blog primarily as 1) a way to explore ideas I think are important to associations in general, 2) a way to occasionally vent (maybe more than occasionally), and 3) a testing ground for certain concepts in blogging and communications that, selfishly speaking, I can then later apply in my own organization.
Regarding that latter point, here’s some of what I think I’ve learned:
September 26, 2005
Is It a Blog? Does It Matter?
Posted by Kevin | (3) Comments | Print This Article
Debbie Weil gains entree to DaimlerChrysler’s “closed” blog for the press and offers a fascinating report, including a brief interview with the blog’s editorial director, Ed Garsten, wherein he responds to the questions many have raised about the concept of a blog for a select public:
“We realize the idea of a ‘closed’ blog is counter to prevailing thought in the blogosphere regarding openness … But blogging is still an evolving medium that different constituencies will begin to use in ways that make sense to them. We’re not about exclusivity or secretness. We are about communicating with a certain subset of people and aiming our content towards them.”
Amen. Lots of folks took umbrage at the notion of a “closed” blog and took DaimlerChrysler to task for it. Which just goes to prove that the old adage is true — “how quickly the rulebreakers become the rulemakers.”
September 16, 2005
When Marketing Doesn’t Work
Posted by Kevin | (1) Comments | Print This Article
On Tuesday afternoon, I received an email marketing piece (unsolicited, by the way) from a vendor in the association community. The email caught my eye with its message. As soon as I got it I followed the link (which led simply to the organization’s homepage). I clicked through their site. I was interested and wanted more information. I clicked on the contact page where there was a generic contact email address. I clicked on it and sent them an email asking for more information.
It’s Friday morning. I still haven’t received a response.
I’ll let you know when (if) I get one.
September 13, 2005
Tail Winds
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(I’m baaaack…)
Are we so niched out that we’re becoming a world of isolated groups? This article says maybe (and Steve Rubel, from whom I got the pointer, connects this fear to the reigning business buzzword by subjecting his post “The Short Tail.“)
A couple of thoughts.
September 1, 2005
Give Money
Posted by Kevin | (3) Comments | Print This Article
My CEO tells us a story about serving on the board of a national charitable organization that managed the distribution of donated goods to needy regions, and how, following Hurricane Andrew, he saw truckloads of donated clothing and other goods go straight from the delivery dock to the dump. Why? Because people were donating what they thought people needed — with the best of intentions — but it wasn’t what they really needed.
The people in Katrina’s path need our help. The best way to help is to give money. The Red Cross, the Salvation Army — the people on the ground know how to get what’s needed to people in the best way. Contribute.
Paul Chaney has much more. Those of us who aren’t there can’t even imagine what’s going on. As someone who absolutely loves New Orleans more than any other city in America, the whole situation has me torn up, and my thoughts and hopes are with everyone down there. It’s not much to offer, I know. But I can offer money to help. And so should you.