Sinnmacherblog

In short, social media are clearly changing the way we think about media and influence, but even as more companies adopt social media, they are still struggling to find effective metrics for deciding who are the most influential players. These findings reflect an ongoing debate over the applicability of conventional metrics to new media, and the lack of clearly defined best practices for measuring social media. The question of metrics will probably remain fluid until the industry settles on some broadly agreed-upon standards. It is our hope that this study helps to move this debate and discussion forward as we work together as an industry to determine the most relevant criteria for determining influence and measuring success in this new mediasphere.

• Dell - Though Dell’s corporate blog rarely strays from Dell-centric news, the company posts with a great conversational voice, often breaks news on their blog (which keeps people coming back), and listens and responds to customers. Dell also posts regularly (1-2 posts per day at least) which keeps content fresh and encourages repeat visits.
• Lenovo - The great collection of blogs from computer maker Lenovo demonstrate that the company really understands blogging. Lenovo intersperses posts about its product line with musings about business, design, life, and technology. Definitely don’t miss the Design Matters blog, which should be a must-read for any designer.
• 37signals - 37signals is kind of the poster child for corporate blogging. Their “Signal vs. Noise” blog has almost 100,000 RSS subscribers and there’s a good reason: 37signals rarely blogs about their products anymore (they split off a separate product-only blog for that), but instead shares advice and insights about business, design, editorial, and other topics.
• Adobe - Adobe offers a huge collection of employee blogs, many of which are great reads. By allowing employees to blog, Adobe has empowered them to evangelize their products for them — many post tutorials, advice, reviews, and other great tid-bits promoting Adobe products — while not pigeon holing them into talking only about Adobe.
• BBC - In addition to their news blogs, the BBC publishes a series of behind-the-scenes blogs. They’re tremendously interesting, especially The Editors blog, in which BBC News editorial staff dissect the broadcaster’s news coverage and the media industry in general.
• Southwest Airlines - Southwest Airlines’ “Nuts About Southwest” blog doesn’t take itself too seriously — and that’s a good thing. The company blogs about itself and the airline industry with a personal touch and has been producing a series of fun, behind-the-scenes videos that are both interesting and engaging.
• Sun Microsystems - Like Adobe, Sun allows their employees to blog. They’ve been doing it for a long time, and their blog portal has over 4,500 bloggers covering over 110,000 posts. Some of their blogs, such as that of Web 2.0 and Web Services Evangelist Arun Gupta, have become quite popular on their own. That’s 110,000 posts of promotional gold for Sun and they know it.
• Freshbooks - Taking a page from 37signals, the team at Freshbooks uses their corporate blog to share advice and insights into their way of doing things. Slowly, and in large part due to their blog, Freshbooks is turning their users into true fans.
• Marriott International - Marriott on the Move is the official blog of Marriott Hotels, Resorts, and Suites Chairman and CEO Bill Marriott. Though a self-described technophobe, Marriott uses the blog to talk about his thoughts and opinions on all sorts of things related to being a hotelier. Marriott, who was recently featured on NBC Nightly News for a story on corporate blogging, says he blogs because it is “a great way to communicate with [your] customers and stakeholders in this day and age.” We agree.
• Seagate - Penned by Seagate Global Marketing Manager Pete Steege, Storage Effect is a must-read blog for anyone in the computer storage industry. Beyond first looks at upcoming Seagate products, Steege mixes it up with musings about the industry and fun posts like a recent one about Batman’s storage requirements.
• General Motors - The GM Fastlane Blog is a great example of corporate blogging because GM has clearly realized that regurgitating press releases is not what blogs are made for. GM talks a lot on their blog about their cars and trucks and the design choices they make while creating them, but they also throw in interesting treatises on current hot-button issues, such as alternative energy.
• Quicken Loans - Quicken Loans publishes a handful of unique blogs — unique among corporate blogs in that they’re not overly self-referential. Their What’s the Diff? blog, for example, publishes stories about “things that make the difference in business and in life.” The Quizzle blog, on the other hand, posts advice about how to understand the home loan market. It is all subtle marketing for Quicken Loans, but it is done in an informative and useful manner that will win points among customers.
• FiveRuns - FiveRuns, who create products aimed at Ruby on Rails developers, also publish an excellent blog. Along with regular tutorials about how to do things with Rails and use their products, the FiveRuns team also posts weekly five question interviews with prominent members of the Rails community. Brilliant stuff.
• Accenture - Consulting firm Accenture publishes 8 blogs that are definitely worth checking out. Rather than just blog about what Accenture can do for your business, the company has tapped some of its smartest employees to share insights on business, communications, technology, consulting, and hiring. A sample of recent posts: how to balance work and life, thoughts about Twitter’s downtime, and musings on GTD theories.
• Amazon Web Services - Amazon’s Web Services blog is truly one of the great corporate blogs because it reads like a fan blog. You’d never know that Jeff Barr, the scribe behind the AWS blog, is a Web Services Evangelist at Amazon just by reading his posts. That’s because Barr doesn’t write like a corporate flak. Instead he writes with the voice of someone who is truly amazed each day by the stuff that people build on Amazon’s suite of web services, and that makes reading the blog a pleasure.

• 74% erhalten nur selten Kommentare
• 56% republizieren Medienmitteilungen
• Sodann sind 56% der bloggenden Firmen der Meinung, ihr Blog habe eine marginale bis gar keine Signifikanz für ihre Strategie

• 61% der Befragten gaben an, die Homepage der Firma zu besuchen, nachdem sie den Viral Spot geschaut haben (extrem hoher Anteil finde ich; persönlich mache ich das selten bis nie). Übrigens machen diesen Schritt auf die Firmenseite 25% bewusst, und 26,4 unbewusst oder zufällig.
• 62% der Befragten sind trotz des grossen Angebots bereit, die Filme per E-Mail weiterzuleiten. Was die Studie wohl nicht untersucht hat, sind die weiteren Verbreitungskanäle der digitalen Mundpropaganda wie Weblogs, Social Bookmarking, Social Networks, Twitter oder Foren.
• Über E-Mail werden Filme weitergeleitet, wenn...

1. Blogger sind nur in seltenen Ausnahmefällen Journalisten. Sie haben kein berufliches Interesse an einer Kontaktaufnahme durch Unternehmen und verfügen im Allgemeinen über eine mehr oder minder stark ausgeprägte Abneigung gegenüber Public Relations. Behalten Sie das im Hinterkopf, bei allem was Sie tun.
   
2. Unterscheiden Sie zwischen privaten und kommerziellen Blogs. Was bei letzteren, also beispielsweise bei Corporate Blogs und den meisten Fachblogs okay ist, das ist bei privaten Blogs nicht mehr opportun.
   
3. Erstellen Sie zu Beginn im Rahmen einer gründlichen Recherche beispielsweise bei Technorati und der Blog-Suche von Google eine Liste von Blogs, die über Ihr Themengebiet schreiben. Lesen Sie in diesen Blogs um genauer die Interessenlage des Bloggers kennen zu lernen. Nur wenn sich Ihr Anliegen mit dieser Interessenlage deckt, sollten Sie über weitere Schritte nachdenken.
   
4. Der Wegbereiter für einen fruchtbaren Kontakt können Kommentare zu Beiträgen des Bloggers sein. Blogger verfolgen in der Regel die Kommentare auf Ihre Beiträge recht genau und werden somit schon einmal in einem positiven Kontext mit Ihrem Namen in Berührung kommen. Sofern Sie über ein Corporate-Blog verfügen, können Sie auch in eigenen Beiträgen gezielt Trackbacks auf passende Beiträge der Blogger setzen, mit denen Sie eine Beziehung aufbauen möchten. Nehmen Sie sich für diese Aufwärmphase ruhig einige Wochen Zeit.
   
5. Die erste persönliche Kontaktaufnahme nehmen Sie bitte nur bei kommerziellen Blogs per Telefon vor. Private Blogger empfinden bereits per E-Mail versendete Pressemitteilungen als Spam - Ihr Anruf würde schlichtweg als Belästigung empfunden - wie ein Hausiererbesuch am Wochenende.
   
6. Schreiben Sie eine persönliche und authentische Mail, die schnell zum Punkt kommt und sich PR-Phrasen verkneift. Wenn Sie informieren wollen, tun Sie das mit Fakten. Wenn Sie etwas anbieten wollen, stellen Sie sachlich den Nutzwert für den Blogger und seine Leser heraus. Überschätzen Sie allerdings den Faktor "Leser" nicht, denn viele Blogger bloggen in erster Linie für sich und haben nicht die an den Interessen der Leser ausgerichtete journalistische Denkweise.
   
7. Berücksichtigen Sie die Besonderheiten des Mediums und geben Sie Bloggern multimediale Inhalte an die Hand. Neben der reinen textlichen Information also auch gutes Bildmateial und vielleicht auch Audio und/oder Video. Aber nicht einfach ungefragt. Vermeiden Sie alles, was den Anschein von Massenabfertigung erwecken könnte.
   
8. Haken Sie bitte nicht nach. Selbst Journalisten empfinden das übliche Nachhaken schon als äußerst lästig. Wenn Sie das Interesse eines Bloggers geweckt haben, wird er mit etwas Glück einen Beitrag schreiben. Erzwingen lässt sich nichts.
   
9. Nicht nur auf Redakteure klassischer Medien üben Exklusive News und Geschichten einen großen Reiz aus. Bieten Sie doch auch einmal Ihrem wichtigsten Blogger ein Exclusive an. Schöne Angebote sind auch (Video-)Interviews mit wichtigen Persönlichkeiten des Unternehmens, Designstudien etc.
   
10. Aber vergessen Sie die aus dem Umgang mit Journalisten gewohnten Gepflogenheiten wie die Einhaltung von Sperrfristen oder die Autorisierung von Interviews oder Zitaten. Hier geht es um Authentizität - und Blogger verfügen über keinen Berufskodex, der zu Fairness verpflichten würde.
    
11. Laden Sie "ihre" Blogger gleichberechtigt mit Journalisten zu Pressekonferenzen, Messen und Events ein. Die Wertschätzung, die Sie damit ausdrücken kann noch bestehendes Eis zum schmelzen bringen und positive Kontakte intensivieren.
    
12. Ist der Kontakt erst einmal etabliert, lässt er sich möglicherweise ökonomischer gestalten: Darauf angesprochen, signalisiert der Blogger vielleicht Interesse, in den Presseverteiler aufgenommen zu werden. Was ohne vorherige Einwilligung böse Folgen haben kann, ist nun der Lohn einer dem Medium angepassten Vorgehensweise.
    
13. Wiederholen Sie regelmäßig Schritt drei. Die Blogosphäre wächst täglich um einige tausend Blogs, bestimmt ist dann und wann auch ein neues für Ihre Liste dabei.

Finance

If you want to get in the financial spotlight, be sure to build a presence on these sites.

1. Value Investing News: Share and learn from this stock market news site that has grown 7% in the last 3 months.
2. Real Estate Voices: This steadily growing site offers an active real estate community of realtors, sellers, and more.
3. Feed the Bull: Financial investors and stock market traders gather here to discuss and rate market news. Alexa reports that in the last 3 months, this site has experienced a 16% improvement.

Shopping & Style

Whether you’re offering coupon updates or product highlights, these shopping sites are a great place to be.

4. iliketotallyloveit: On this rapidly growing site, you can discover new products and share your favorites.
5. Dealigg: Dealigg regularly features coupons, rebates and freebies online. This site’s traffic rank has grown 110 points in the last 3 months.
6. Stylehive: Stylehive is a quickly becoming a popular shopping site, with 28% growth over the last 3 months. The site features loads of visual bookmarks for fashion and more.
7. Chictini: This steady-growing website allows users to discover, share, and buy chic designs.
8. ThisNext: ThisNext offers a way for users to recommend, share, and find the next cool product they should buy. In the past few months the site has jumped 149 points in traffic rankings.
9. Kaboodle: On Kaboodle, users can discover new items from similar shoppers, recommend products, and create shopping lists. Kaboodle has enjoyed a 38% growth recently.

Sports

Use these sites to appeal to armchair quarterbacks.

10. ArmchairGM: On ArmchairGM, you’ll find an active social community and voting system. The site has experienced a slowdown in the past 3 months, but shows a consistent level of growth for the future.
11. BallHype: This site, which has jumped by more than 2,000 points in traffic rankings, features cutting edge sports news, allowing users to assign "hype" to them for popularity.

Causes Relate to readers who care on these sites.

12. Care2: Care2 has shown a consistent level of growth throughout the year. This network allows users to vote and get the word out about campaigns, petitions, and more.
13. Gaia: Gaia’s community is full of supportive, environmentally friendly, and socially conscious people. In the past 3 months, the site has enjoyed a growth of 14%.
14. Fivelimes: For all things green living, be sure to check out Fivelimes, a site that’s experienced an amazing traffic rank jump of more than 5,000 points.
15. Hugg: Hugg has expanded its reach by 38% in recent months. The site is full of user-generated environmental news.

Art & Design

Within these sites, you’ll find plenty of ways to appeal to creative types.

16. Design Float: Check out Design Float, a site that’s grown by 28% in the last 3 months. You can use it to discover and submit stories aimed at freelance designers.
17. Design Sites Up: On Design Sites Up, you’ll be able to find design news and share your own. This site has experienced huge growth in recent months, with a 49,395 point jump in Alexa traffic rankings.
18. Ravelry: Ravelry is an invitation-only site that caters to the knit and crochet community. Exclusivity seems to work for the site, as it has recently expanded its reach by 28%.
19. PhotographyVoter: Check out photography news, and images, and submit your own work on PhotographyVoter. The site’s viewers tend to visit a lot of pages within the network, reflecting a 9% increase in page views.
20. Pixel Groovy: This steadily-growing user controlled directory offers the best of the web’s tutorials.

Internet Technology

Share your knowledge on these sites that focus on web development, blogging, and beyond.

21. DNHour: DNHour’s solidly growing site is all about domain strategy, sales, and more.
22. Hacker News: Hacker News is full of all things hacking and web development. It seems to be growing in popularity, with a jump in traffic rankings of more than 16,000 points.
23. Slashdot: Traffic has dropped within recent weeks, however this favorite shows a consistently high level of growth as shares the latest in tech and offbeat news.
24. tweako: On tweako, you’ll find "collaborative computing" resources, including guides and tutorials. tweako’s visitors tend to stick around, which has contributed to the site’s 37% growth in page views.
25. BloggingZoom: As blogging gets hotter, so does this consistently growing site. BloggingZoom is a great place for any blogger to promote their work.
26. DZone: The word is getting out about DZone, which has, according to Alexa, enjoyed a 29% growth in the past 3 months. Web developers should check out this site, which is full of useful news and links.

Business

Appeal to business-savvy readers on these sites.

27. KillerStartups: This site reviews 30 or more internet startups every day, and encourages members to vote on which one they think will succeed. As interest in new ventures grows, so does the site.
28. PlugIM: PlugIM, a site that has expanded its reach by 42% recently, allows users to share news, projects, and stories about internet marketing.
29. HubSpot: On HubSpot, you’ll find marketing posts to submit and share. The site has jumped a respectable 922 points in traffic rankings recently.
30. Gooruze: Gooruze is an online marketing community, offering news, advice, and more. According to Alexa, the site has expanded its reach by 13% in the past few months.<